Tetany - The Position

The Position

This morning I awoke in what I have come to call, ‘The Position’. I was on my left side, my neck and head ‘curled’ back towards my heels, my hands curled shut, my arms curled tight against my chest; a semi Tetany if you will. It occurs when your blood calcium level falls too low. Once you have experienced Tetany, your body ‘learns’ this muscular reaction, and it can and does happen when your blood calcium level comes down ‘rapidly’ (and that is a matter of your body’s choosing!), and your actual calcium levels do not have to be ‘low’, just lowered!
It has not happened often the past couple of years, due to whatever is producing parathyroid hormone in my body, but it happens...

Of course, if my calcium levels are really low, this can happen when I am wide awake! Fun stuff!

Stash Building!

A person I just recently met, stopped by today and dropped off white plastic BAGS & BAGS of yarn! All kinds of yarn, Red Heart, Caron, Bulky, and Specialty! "An early Christmas Present,” she said.

I have not even really gone though it all yet!

I just could not believe it! Here I have been NOT crocheting, as I was literally out of yarn! It is very difficult to make anything when you only have one or two skeins of yarn available at a time! Well I have enough yarn to keep my hook going for months now, if not longer.

In fact, I have so much yarn now (thank goodness), I am going to have to invest in a couple of storage bins! Oh joy...

Off My Hook - Poncho

Finally finished my first poncho. It's two matching rectangles, assembled and edging put at neck. Worked with 2 strands (black & off white) of Caron's 'one pounders' and an N hook.

Sjogren’s Flare

Two weeks ago, doc lowered Plaquenil dose from 200mg in AM + 100mg at bedtime (because of side effects) to just 200mg in AM.

The first week I did just fine. On about the 9th day after the dose change, it hit, hard, and fast. So here I am, very sick again!

-constant headache
-so dry at night, tongue sticks to my mouth (Had to start using a mask at night again, no humidifier. Going through a LOT of Numoisyn Lozenges!)
-joint pain – only the movable joints (wrists/ankles the worst)
-fatigue – not enough energy to do anything
-swelling of my feet (top & bottom) at toe joints
-muscle aches/sensitive skin
-sudden, VERY high Blood Glucose on same foods/insulin (and all THAT entails)
-Feeling of being very ill
-increased anxiety
-fingers white and cold at slightest provocation
-do not think I’m thinking straight

Today spoke w/doc on phone. She upped prednisone again, (took an extra dose of it as soon as I spoke to her) Increased the Plaquenil back to 300mg, but at 150mg twice a day. (It will mean cutting pills in FOURS, but they are not tiny.).

Hopefully, I’ll start feeling better again, SOON, and without the Plaquenil side effects that were causing probs. Ff the Plaquenil side effects start again, I’ll know what to look for, and contact doc immediately, also now have a med for the ‘side effects’. Titration, titration, titration!

It is also time for me to make an appointment with my Ophthalmologist, to make sure the Plaquenil (worst side effect!), is not affecting my eyes. But first there was ‘the flood’ in my apartment, then the reconstruction, the fight with AIMCO to get reimbursed, and now I am sick.

Maybe I will get that appointment made tomorrow. In fact, am behind on several doc appointments. Sigh...

But right now, tonight, am going to get ready for bed, turn the sound down on the TV, (nothing good on tonight) listen to Ham Radio (SWL) from the other room, and just sit and crochet for awhile.

AIMCO Reimbursement - Round 3

THE INDUSTRIAL PLASTIC THAT KEPT ME SEPARATED FROM MY KITCHEN, DINING ROOM, CLOSET FROM 11.13.2007 THROUGH 10.31. 2007. (15 days)

Apparently, yesterday, Monday, in the middle of the afternoon while I was busy with something else, I received an email from Mariner's Coves Management.

Then at 9:30 this morning, I received a phone call, "had I gotten the email?" Well, I had seen it there in my inbox, but had not really read it. So, I read the email.

It would seem that the AIMCO people had 'talked it over' and agreed to 'cut me a check for $500; Please let them know as soon as possible...”

I gave the offer serious thought, a 'bird in the hand' and all that. BUT this is about HALF of what I spent out of pocket and what the damaged furniture will cost to replace. (Not to mention any consideration for what I went through.) AND, the money is not only already gone from my pocket, but it seems AIMCO is not willing to stand up and do the right thing, which would be to reimburse me immediately, especially as I have supplied all documentation and receipts.

Not to mention that after ALL I have been through, (without even a SLAM, BANG, THANK YOU MAAM from AIMCO or Mariner’s Coves management!) I may now be suffering with the “I am mad as hell and I am not gonna take it anymore" syndrome!

But I really did think it through, what it would take for me to file a claim against AIMCO in Small Claims Court, the time, energy, the costs.

I emailed them back that I would take no less than 991.00, which are my actual costs. Other than that, I would be filing in California Small Claims Court in December. Though they were HURRY, HURRY yesterday, I have not yet had a reply. And I don’t really expect one...

If I do not hear from them by the end of this week, I will (again), track down still one more (higher up) AIMCO executive, and email copies of all.

Otherwise, it looks like, at age 61, I am going to experience the California Small Claims Court-San Diego, for the first time in my life. (I am sooo very glad I documented, got receipts, took many pictures, had lots of ‘witnesses’, etc) But, even if I don't 'win' anything, at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that AIMCO management, will actually have to experience some 'real life' for themselves!

BTW, what would I have done differently if I had it to do over again? I would not have spent one penny of what little I have. I would have called Red Cross and seen if The Girls and I qualified for Emergency Housing! (Mariner’s Coves offered a hotel ROOM – no kitchenette for my insulin/diabetes! No up front expense funds for $9.00 round trip disabled transit to/from any hotel as I needed it, no food chits, no boarding for the Sisters – nadda, just a paid for hotel room. Boy would I have been in a MESS if I had gone THAT route!)

Stop smoking then kill yourself, or someone else?

Chantix - I have been 'told' about this drug for about the past year, by two of my own docs, and by folks all over the net on various forums and boards who find out I am a smoker (and unlike so many others, I do not lie or hide my smoking).

When I first heard about Chantix, I did my net research. Right off the bat, with my first reading of the drug's literature, I knew it probably was not for me because it mentioned sleep and/or dreaming changes as one of the side effects.

I have bi-polar disorder, narrowed more specifically, Seasonal Affective Disorder (Severe). In fact, I took Lithium for many years, until solid research was done on ‘Light Therapy’. I tried it and found that light/dark therapy worked just as well for me as a means of mood control as medications had. I was then slowly weaned off Lithium.

The correlation: Sleep (how many hours per night), and the types of dreams I have are my earliest ‘clues’ to mood changes, and therefore treatment needs with either light or dark.

It has taken me a LOT of years to be able to self-manage SAD; I do not need a drug that would mess with that, perhaps throwing me into a depression or hypomania (during which, I would probably start smoking again anyway!).

So, I find the newest FDA info on Chantix interesting. “The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has informed healthcare professionals about reports of suicidal thoughts as well as some aggressive and erratic behavior in patients who have taken varenicline (Chantix, Pfizer), a smoking-cessation product.”

I cannot help but wonder if they are looking in the ‘wrong’ direction regarding this new drug and mood and/or behavior changes. I have personally known two males who committed suicide within two years of smoking cessation, years before Chantix was developed. Both were on long term anti-depressants, and seemed ‘stable’.

Perhaps these new Chantix findings is as simple as Nicotine somehow ‘helps’ those with depression (including anger and aggression), and suicidal tendencies? Perhaps these people are ‘self-medicating’ with Nicotine, and the ‘lack’ of it allows ‘mood disorders’ to emerge full force...

Remember, you heard it HERE first!

Door Stops

Out at my trash bin today, I found two matching square plastic boxes. They were pinkish, with a smooth 'fake' marble finish.

I could find no way to 'open' them. So I decided they were 'decorative' in nature. They make great door stops. As luck would have it, I have needed two door stops for years!