Terrorist training camp discovered!

When Goblin moved the broken dryer out from the wall to see if he could assess the problem, he revealed the secret training camp for The Boose Army.

Caboose is our highly entertaining three year old cat. Nearly every Saturday for the last two years, Goblin has gifted Boose with a toy Hartz catnip mouse. Typically, within a couple of hours, the fresh mouse is nowhere to be found. After about a year of this, we started joking around about Boose's mouse army training camp, aka 'Boose Camp'.

Then, last summer, a few of the older mice started showing up in piles of dirty laundry or on the steps. Whenever one would show up, we would capture it and put it on one of two shelves in our house (for future potential recycled playtime). These lone mice were either commando terrrorists or deserters from The Boose Army. The shelves were much like our own domestic version of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

But finally, the war on terror can claim a huge victory today upon the discovery of their training base and the capture of the terrorists.

When questioned about the discovery, General Boose denied any knowledge of the terrorist base or their activities.

Needles and pins

For the last couple of weeks, I have been trying acupuncture as a means of dealing with my chronic back pain. I think it may finally be helping somewhat. It's not a miracle cure, that's for sure. But, there does seem to be some small improvement today after the fourth treatment. I don't know if it will be worthwhile to continue unless the rate of improvement increases.

I did have my pain-status check-up on Thursday. As I expected, my doctor did not have any new tricks up his sleeve. He just wanted to lay eyes on me, since he's still giving me drugs (even though the drugs only take the edge off of the really bad days). I did get him to talk a bit about the possibility that I could have a systemic issue going on (Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Lyme Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, blah blah blah). He said that Fibromyalgia is a catch-all diagnosis when you have a group of symptoms, and they can't find anything concrete wrong with you. (Gee ... um, that sounds about right.) We also talked about how most of these systemic diseases do not have good records for effective treatments. (I am shocked.)

All the same, he agreed that it might be worthwhile for me to have an A NA blood test which can be useful in diagnosing several autoimmune diseases. So, I happily put out my arm at the lab for the blood test. (This is saying something, since I absolutely despise having blood drawn.)

And the struggle continues!

Beyond negative stimulation

Our unexpected economic stimulus check was followed by two automobile expenses that ate up over half of the windfall. Our central AC had a major hiccup this week, to the tune of about $250. Today, our less-than-two-year old dryer decided to crap out. And, it appears to be the one appliance that we purchased in the last two years that we can't find the paperwork for. When it's all added up, all these unexpected expenses will cost more than the stupid check.

I guess its a good thing that we got the check. However, I was really looking forward to having a little money for vacation (which we really didn't have set aside at this point). The Fates are being particularly mean. This has happened before. Unexpected money always ends up vaporizing in my house.

Mother's Little Helper - time for a reassessment

For chronic pain sufferers, medical 'science' is an utter crap shoot. The efficacy of many treatments are short lived, if effective at all.

Over the years, I have built up quite the tolerance to most muscle relaxants and OTC pain medications. My internist specializes in chronic pain. However, he is not big into pharmaceuticals (to most, this may seem like an oxymoron, of sorts). When I first started seeing him, he gave me mail-refillable (3 months at a time) prescriptions on most of my drugs, but month-by-month on one of them (Soma). Over the last six months, he has changed over all my prescriptions to month-by-month. Last week, his office called and told me that they had filled my request for Soma, but that the doctor would like me to come in for an office visit.

If I were purely drug-seeking, this turn of events would bother me. However, I have known for quite some time that the drugs really aren't helping me that much. For the most part, they take the edge off an intolerable situation, but are nearly ineffectual in relieving my pain. I really would LOVE a new answer. Perhaps some treatment has evolved over the last two years that we haven't tried yet?

I really want the doctor to give me a new treatment. If he tells me to go to physical therapy again, I'm going to introduce him to some of my ruder vocabulary. I have done P.T., off and on, for the last five years. I exercise to some degree nearly every day. I doubt that surgery is really the answer for me, at this point. I do not have a disc problem, and my spinal stenosis is minor in comparison to most people who end up under the knife. I do have some stability issues, but surgery probably would not address the bulk of my issues. Also, NSAIDs really do not provide much relief for me at this point (and bring their own complications that my lower digestive system does not deal well with ... there just isn't enough fiber in the universe to compensate.)

Do I do things that I shouldn't do? YES! (Example: Over the last year and a half, I have resorted to drinking alcohol to get to sleep six nights out of seven.... which has put about twenty pounds back on my ever-widening butt. Plus, I KNOW that it's not good for my overall health.)

This weekend has been particularly painful because my left knee has decided to flare up in a big way. I have sciatica down my right leg right now. My left knee is so painful that I am walking with a slow painful limp. My lower back is inflamed nearly to its full-on peak. My upper right shoulder blade is starting to spasm. My hips (the frontal protrusions of my pelvic bones) are a bit tender as well. So, basically, if it can go wrong ... it's going wrong.

I've looked into a number of diagnoses myself. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Fibromyalgia. Rheumatoid Arthritis. Lyme disease. Nothing is spot on. Besides, my chronic back problems are directly traceable to an injury sustained just over fifteen years ago. Most of these diseases have no injury-based relationship.

So, I'm guessing that my wide-spread system chronic pain is psychosomatic. Right? [ Though part of me sees a strong potential with Fibromyalgia since I have IBS and insomnia, big time, in addition to having over half the tender points that usually categorize the disease. Sadly, the medical profession says you need to have eleven tender points to be diagnosed, and I miss that by one. OTOH, being diagnoses with Fibromyalgia doesn't REALLY get one anywhere since there is no cure and the treatments are usually marignally effective for most sufferers.]

I have an appointment with my M.D. on Thursday afternoon. I fully expect to walk out of the appointment with either fewer prescriptions or new, useless, prescriptions. (Or, in handcuffs after punching the man out for suggesting some of the same pointless crap that I have been through already.)

Sorry gang, I truly hate to bitch and moan. I'll share with you the lyrics to my current favorite retro tune by the Rolling Stones

"Lifes just much too hard today,
I hear evry mother say
The pusuit of happiness just seems a bore
And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mothers little helper
They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day

Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old"

The Way of the Warrior

We're having a lovely weekend. The weather has been particularly nice. In addition, Grendel took a trip this weekend with his friends from our church, so we had the house to ourselves.

Speaking of church, Hubby participated in today's service at church: "The Way of the Warrior". Each spring, the committee on ministry arranges a thematic service run completely by members of the congregation. This year, the theme was the martial arts. And, since Hubby is one of the more noted martial artists in the congregation, he was invited to participate.

He only had about fifteen minutes to speak. While public speaking is not something he enjoys, he loves to talk about Japanese martial arts. So, it was difficult for him to come up with an appropriate talk in the time allotted. Overall, he did a fine job. He also got to show off some of his precious swords after the service was over. While I was forbidden to take pictures of him during the service, I did get a shot of him studying his note cards before and then showing off his swords after the service.



Hubby is the entire building committee. (No that is not a typo.) As you can see from the above picture of our church, it is a lovely old stone building. He fell in love with the building long before he got comfortable with the idea of attending church (much less actually joining the congregation). I was quite proud of his willingness to participate in the service today. Then again, it was his chance to share a bit of his true religion with our very open-minded Unitarian Universalist friends.