I Just Won 8 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

I Just Won 8 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com

Long day, but good news- I think!

I had a new doctor's appointment with one of Houghston Clinic's shoulder specialist that Dr. Pahl referred me to. I had know idea what he was going to say. After 26 years of chronic pain and no real answers, I expect to still go in and get no answers! Well today I was wrong. I am loving Houghston Clinic more and more! Dr. Gerringer informed me that I had bursitis in my right shoulder, and he thinks that is what's causing the muscle spasms and keeping my right side so tight all of the time, and in so much pain. There is a fine line between shoulder and neck pain. It all begins to blend together after awhile. The muscle pain spreads and it becomes hard to distinguish the actual area/focal point that the pain is actually coming from. My confusion about whether the whole problem had actually been coming from my neck or was possibly in my shoulder all along was a little more clarified by the doctors today. It put me more at peace to know that many patients have a problem with both areas and only realize it after they take care of one area and are then still in pain and have to move on to the next area. It pretty much confirmed my suspicions of what I thought may be going on with myself. What do you know, I'm not such an unusual case after all. There are many people out there with the same problems as me. The Dr. said my x-rays looked good, and afterwards he put a big shot of cortisone under my shoulder blade. I don't want to get to excited yet, but I SO pray that it will help! Good nite, everyone!

Here I Go Again

I am exhausted! I spent today in the Dr.'s office with my 6 yr old, Alex. He has "viral croup", whatever that is. The Dr. just gave him some cortisone for inflamation around his vocal cords, and said he would be fine. Yesterday was MY day in the Dr.'s office. For those of you that don't know, I had a cervical fusion done on my neck 3 months ago. The pain hasn't got any better since the surgery, and the Dr. thinks it's a different disc giving me trouble other than the one that he operated on. Great!! So now I'm headed back to get ANOTHER MRI. Then he is talking about putting me through some painful test that is supposed to help distinguish the correct area of the problem.  I don't know the name of it, but he says I will hate him afterwards. Not looking foward to that or to the thought of going through spine surgery again! I have spent the last 26 or so years with constant non stop muscle spasms, and in DAILY, EXCRUCIATING, PAIN!! I was only taken to a chiropractor by my dad when I was a kid so I spent the first 8 or 9 years in the chiroprator's office, sometimes 2 and 3 times a week, EVERY week. When I hit my 20's I started seeing medical Doctors. I bounced from one doctor to the next trying to find some kind of relief. They would look at me, without even listening to what I had to say or doing any x-rays, and tell me nothing was wrong with me, that I was stressed, or better yet just act like they didn't even believe me. I would go home and cry and start doubting myself, thinking maybe there isn't anything wrong with me, maybe it is stress. Then the excruciating pain would kick in again, and I would realize there IS something terribly wrong! Some days I would wake up and not even be able to turn my head from side to side. The doctors blamed it on me going school, on me having kids, etc, etc, etc. They would tell me to exercise or take alieve. What a joke!! I have had many steroid injections, botox injections for the muscle spasms, facet injections, massages, injections in my occipital nerves in the back of my neck in order to stop the cooling, searing (as I call it) pain in my right temple and above my right eye, spent money on therapy, and medicines. When I'm not at work, I spend most of the time with either ice or heat on neck and shoulder, along with creams, like "capsacin" -which will make your skin feel like it is on fire. I have spent many, many years having to self medicate just to make it through the day. None of these things have helped a whole lot, they just kept me from killing myself. Although the pain has caused me to have some seriously crazy thoughts, like stabbing the back of my shoulder with an ice pick over and over, or taking a knife and cutting off the right side of my neck and right shoulder (of course I know better). Even after an MRI was finally done about 2 years ago, the doctors still acted like they didn't even have a clue, regardless of the fact I had been describing the exact symtoms of a pinched nerve all along, and that the MRI showed a bulging disc, bone spurs, degenerative disc disease, foraminal stenosis, and constant spasms. Work is a whole other ball game. At this point I can barely get through two or three shifts a week at work. The entire time I'm there, I am in pain. The longer I'm there, the tighter and more painful my neck and shoulder get. This isn't good considering I have three children to support and rarely receive any child support for my two oldest. On top of having to push through the pain at work, SOME of my co-workers have been less than kind to me to say the least. They have made fun of me, called me a hypocondriac, criticized me for not doing more work, and even laughed at me! This abuse and unempathetic attitude from my co-workers has not only been hurtful but also made it that much harder for me to deal with work. All the while, I have worked, put myself through college, and raised 3 boys, basically on my own.  Now I finally have a doctor who will listen to me, and believes me. I just hope he can help me. My two oldest sons will be grown soon, and my oldest will probably be going off to college soon if he gets his wish. I just want to be without all of this horrible chronic pain so that I can enjoy my children more, and so I can enjoy life a little more. Please say a prayer for us, and I will update as soon as I know more.

Another Challanging weekend

I am trying to take a couple of steps back and regroup this morning after a very strenuous weekend. I had surgery done on my neck about 3 months ago by Dr. Paul at Houghston Clinic, after enduring years and years of horrible and chronic pain. I think I am some what better, but needless to say, I am still having a lot of trouble with muscle pain in my neck and right shoulder. I wait tables at a mexican restaurant, and barely made it through my Friday night shift this past weekend because of the pain, which is nothing new. Saturday was a blur. I don't remember much of it. I think I was trying to sleep my pain away. Did I mention that my  GMC Envoy needs the brakes fixed?! You can hear it squealing a mile away! I just bought it a year ago. It's wasn't new, but still! Every time I pull out of somewhere and turn the wheel, I just have to pretend no one can see me sitting in the driver's seat because it's so embarrassing! Anyway, I laid down for a few minutes Sunday and when I got up, I was in incredible pain in my left side. It felt like I had pulled a muscle, but how does someone pull a muscle while they're sleeping?? By Monday morning I realized this was a pain I had experienced on several other occasions, and it usually ends up being a kidney infection. Except for one other time when the hospital did a CAT scan on me and then told me it was just spasms. My son stayed home from school because I promised him we would go get his driver's permit. So I drove him, in agonizing pain, to the DMV to test for his permit. I hope one day my kids realize what all I've done for them. He passed his test, ya, good job, Cory! Next we headed to the Dr.'s office where I find out that my co-pay has miraculously gone up. I thought surely they were misinformed so I decided to go ahead and pick up my youngest son from school and and take the kids home. I then went up to the Dr.'s office that I normally go to, and yes, the other place was right, my co-pay had gone up. Since it was later in the afternoon by that point, I sat in there FOREVER! As I sat in there waiting, all I could think about was how late it was getting and I needed to go home and help my kids with their homework. I thought about how nice it would be to get home and get a bath, and just relax. When I finally saw the Dr., he couldn't give me a definite answer as to whether I had a kidney infection or not. He prescribed me antibiotics, and took some blood work to send off to the lab. He then said something about diverticulitis, and another CAT scan. Ha!! That won't be happening, doc! I've been bouncing checks all weekend, I have medical bills coming out of my ears, and I don't see another CAT scan anywhere in my near future! Besides I would be willing to bet my life that isn't what's wrong anyway!! Now it's Tuesday, I said a little prayer this morning, got all my kids off to school, ON TIME, and here I am- blogging. So thanks for reading, but right now I need a time out!

Birthday Weekend

It was one CRAZY weekend! Saturday was my oldest son's 15th birthday. I can not believe he is 15!! We had planned to get up Saturday morning and take him to Applebees after we picked up his cake. Then take him shopping to pick out a couple of gifts from his brother's. We all got showers, got dressed and headed out. We didn't get five minutes down the road, and my car completely quits! So there we were, stuck on the side of the highway in the smoldering heat with three kids and on Cory's birthday. Of all the luck! Thankfully I was able to get in touch with my dad to come pick us up, which he then took us to Applebees and dropped us off so Cory could still have his birthday lunch and cake. My car problem ended up being the water pump. Wonderful!! I'll let you know later how I'm going to pay for that, when I figure it out that is.
The next day, on Sunday, the boys' aunt Julie was in town and came to visit. The kids have not seen her in about three years so it was a nice surprise for them. She took us to lunch at Logan's Roadhouse where Cory was deemed as somewhat of a king because it was his birthday, BIRTHDAY WEEKEND, that is. He stood up in the booth as instructed by the server, and seemed to quite enjoy his moment of fame as he smiled and waved at everyone in the resturaunt.  Although we never did receive a birthday dessert of any kind. Obviously everyone's cutting back in these financially hard times. Afterwards their aunt took them shopping for new school clothes, which they really needed. I am thankful to know my kids have what they need because that is one less burden off my shoulder's for now. Cory also got serval birthday gifts over the course of the weekend such as cash from his grandfather, a gift card from his dad, a wallet (to put his lerner's permit in, lol) and money from his aunt, contact lenses from me (he's becoming very aware of his appearance these days), and a book he wanted from his brothers. Overall I think he had a pretty good birthday considering how it started out. I have posted a couple of pictures of my boys at Applebees enjoying Cory's birthday. Happy Birthday, Cory! We Love you!!

BIG CRUMBS

If you do any shopping online, why not earn money each time you shop? I have been with Big Crumbs for several months now and have made about $25 so far just off of a few small purchases of my own, such as Dell ink cartridges from cheaper priced retailers (although I believe Dell is also a listed retailer of Big Crumbs if you want to pay a higher price). You recieve cash back on purchases that you make online. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kmart, and Ebay are just a few of the over 911 retailers that you can shop at and recieve cash back. Payment is deposited into your Paypal account. If you don't have or don't want to open a Paypal account, Big Crumbs now offers a Cedit/Debit card that your payments can be loaded onto for $1 a month. You can also recieve cash back when people sign up under you and shop. Some members have made four and five digit figures off of referral commissions and their own personal shopping. There is NO LIMIT to how much you can make!!  Membership is 100% FREE. There are no hidden costs and you don't pay extra when shopping at featured retailers. It's really that simple. So check it out! 

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Cory Wants To Win!!

My 14 year old son Cory , is entering the Wiregrass Orthodontics T-Shirt contest this time around. He had his braces put on about six months ago, and has entered one other t-shirt contest that they offered a couple of months ago. They must wear their wiregrass orthodontics t-shirt they were given, and submit a picture of themselves. They are offering three prizes to the winners (all of which are pretty nice), and there is 56 total entrants so far. The first prize is a choice between an Apple i-pad or a Dell laptop, the second prize is a $50 Best Buy gift card, and the third one is a $25 gift card to Best Buy. Cory would really love it if you would vote for him! All you have to do is go to Contest.wiregrassortho.com and register your email. They will send you an email confirmation and you just click on the link and then you can vote. This is his photo that he has submitted. It is titled "Cory having fun". Thanks so much for your support!