Category: Uncategorized

Sacral Off-loader

I have been dealing with my latest significant disease progression since I woke up in pain on October 28. I immediately thought to ‘ask the experts’ and pose the question in one of my MS groups.

When I did not receive an immediate answer, I started racking my brain and it was then that I remembered that Jen, the nurse practitioner gave us wedges while I was being seen at the infectious disease clinic when I had my pressure sores. I remember telling her that I didn’t need them, but she very calmly and knowingly said, “You will.”

I looked through my MyChart and noted that I saw her on July 11, 2022. Well, and October 28, 2023 I needed them. Now I sleep with a sacral off-loader:


My Mom and I call it the ‘ninja turtle’ because that’s what it looks like. When my Mom helps me into bed, she puts a wedge under my right hip. When she gets up with Leia in the morning, she moves the wedge from my right hip to my left.

She will put the wedge under my right hip while I am awake, because that is my twice broken, surgically repaired knee. We have to be careful there! I am asleep when she puts the right side in. I don’t wake up; but when I wake up for the day, my hips do not hurt.

I originally thought that my hips would be made to feel better after seeing Dr. Clark but my nutrition is fine, now waiting to talk to the orthopedist. My appointment is for January 3. I’m really not looking forward to that. It’s in the back of my mind but historically, this time of year is pretty heavy with medical diagnoses…

*Oh, don’t mind my windows because I need new ones and it’s cold outside! 😂😂😂😂😂

7 Tubes

I finished my Salted Caramel ‘bag-o-chapstick’ today. I only have 7 tubes left to finish before I will switch over to exclusively Vanilla Maple during the fall. That probably will happen in a couple years. I don’t have any more ‘bags-o-chapstick’ left (except for one Pomegranate that I will finish just before Spring), so I’m just working out of the box:


I know that this fact does not matter at all, but it keeps my mind busy, and since I have been homebound, I have not not finished an entire tube of Chapstick! I know that this fact does not matter at all, but it keeps my mind busy, and since I have been homebound, I have NOT not finished an entire tube of chapstick!

#SimplePleasures!!!

3 Bags

Last week, when we went to the Cider mill, I used my Vanilla Maple chapstick. I actually broke the seal on the Vanilla Maple chapstick tube, that was in my box-o’-chapstick, because I didn’t want to mess with my bag-o-chapstick.

That was a complete fluke by the way, and that’s just how it worked out because I change my Chapstick each day. Vanilla Maple just fell on that day. I think it was a fortuitous fluke, though! I think that Vanilla Maple is my favorite fall flavor.

I have one more box of the variety 4 pack for Fall but then I think I will just get a four pack of Vanilla Maple. I think that I will do that in a couple years because I will just start my new tubes of Fall chapstick this year.

Last night, I finished my Pumpkin Spice tube:

So, as of right now, I am just rockin’ three bags of chapstick. Chai, Vanilla Maple, and Salted Caramel. Salted Caramel is my VERY LEAST favorite, but I have one more tube to finish before I never get it again!!! The other day, I had a sweet taste on my lips just before I reapplied, because my lips were feeling dry. But that’s not enough for me to get it again!

I think that it is absolutely amazing that I am even thinking about this, but now that I am homebound, and we know that I am homebound because my Mom read it to me in the Medicare booklet, I think of finishing a complete tube of chips stick as an accomplishment now.

#MyGirlL: Four

Leia is 4 today. That is not her actual birthday because the rescue we got her from cannot give an actual birthday. When she went to the vet for the first time. they guesstimated that her birthday was today and we go with it!:

This is the most recent picture I have taken of Leia and her skin is still having problems which we keep in check with steroids and subsequently, she is a little bit tubby because of it. But, I am a VERY FIRM believer in, and I can attest to the fact that BIG GIRLS NEED LOVE TOO!!!

And we love her so much! The fact that she is four now makes me want to entertain the fact that I could put my Christmas ornaments up on my tree but it will be terrible if she ruins any one of them, so maybe David lights and beads again this year…

A B+

Today is Saturday and that is my Pillage day:

I discovered today, that all of this red tape that we are dealing with has taken it’s toll on me! I forgot to take my lunchtime vitamins yesterday! What?! I have NEVER forgotten to take my vitamins! Or, at least, when I do, I take it at night before I go to bed. I shake the individual day’s vitamins to see if there’s anything in it but I guess I didn’t do that last night.

We have been on the phone for two weeks regarding all of the stuff! But I have a wheelchair coming. I should have gotten a new chair on July 18 but I did not. I am beyond frustrated. But Monday thinks might be different…

Discovering that I forgot to take my vitamins yesterday kind of reminded me when I got a B+ in grad school. That was absolutely devastating to me!!! That was the first time I had gotten a B+ my ENTIRE time at the University of Michigan-Dearborn!!!

The only solace I got from that B+ was the fact that I got an A+ in a class the semester before, so I rationalized it to myself that if I average it out, it’s an A-, NOT a B+!!! Not that that matters at all in the grand scheme of things!!!