Part of the reason i'm so worried about my disability benefits review is that the company got taken over this year. I worry that the new company will have different policies. I'll have some news by Wednesday at the latest as that is payday. If they don't pay me i'll know something is wrong. So that's just Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to get thru.

I did two loads of laundry, all my bedding and it went well for once. I think it's because i didn't try and do any other tasks while it cycled. Not a multi-tasker, that's for sure.

It was cold enough for my parka today. Glad it still fits. It would have been expensive to replace it.

Bored.

Hugs to all who suffer!

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by Nammu

I concluded last night the weakness was from not getting enough water. Lack of fluids was exactly the problem. But still my body can’t handle 0 sleep any more. I think my body is older than my actual age. I think the years without sleep aged me.

I fully agree that my life long insomnia has aged my body more also. It's always something isn't it

((( Nammu )))

[Moose72]

I had some excitement this evening. Id gone grocery shopping and gotten fluffy blueberry waffles. They are frozen so the box said you could cook them in the oven or microwve them and then toast them. I set a timer for the 10 minutes listed on the box but when I took them out of the oven they were burnt! And of course the smoke alarm started going off and I had to get my step ladder out to reach the smoke detector. However, I pressed the only thing I could think of to press on it and it wouldn't shut off! So I blew on the sensor and it shut off. Whew!

Apartment is still clean. Got my ballot filled out after my first one was rejected.

I'm tired tonight so I think I'll go to sleep while Im good and sleepy. I put hot water in my mini hot water bottle and its keeping me warm in bed with myvflannel sheets and my big squishy comforter.

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by Soupe du jour

It's great to read of people voting. I sent mine through the mail a while ago. I'm pretty sure it should be fine within my state.

I'm sorry to read of your fall. I've become a bit scared of stairs, too. I had a bad fall a little over a month ago during my vacation (and went for an xray). I had a bad fall down my stairs at home, a few days ago (and went for an xray).

It sounds like you didn't get that badly hurt. I'm glad to read that. Stairs certainly hold the potential of causing severe injury. My right foot is just horrible looking. It is not as swollen today, but the bruising appearance worsens, and new bruises show up. My foot looks like one that would be in a medical student's textbook. I won't gross anyone out by posting pictures. I overdid it today. Tomorrow I'll be better. I bought a special medical boot for it. Part of my problem is that I have a high pain threshold. If Hubby hurt his foot as I have, he'd probably be in bed 24/7. Plus, I've been on the manic end, lately. That seems to increase my pain threshold even more.

Oh Wow ! I am sorry you have gotten hurt again since on vacation trip.. Im glad nothing is broken but you took a huge hit... Yes most women have a higher threshold for pain.. Here us Roar!!!!!!

I know you have a zillion things that need doing and your running out of time, But remember to breathe

Stay safe

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by Jennifer 1967

I’m so glad you didn’t break anything. I’ve noticed over the past year that my balance is off and I’ve almost fallen several times. I wonder if it’s an age thing.

Sending gentle hugs.

I use to have great balance .....Now? I dunno its just awful.. My Brain MRI came no change in the adnoma so I cant really say thats the problem..

Well all I know is that the ground is alot harder than it use to be

[*Beth*]

At long last, we are having autumn weather. The 70's during the afternoon, mornings and nights are chilly. I can leave all of my windows open, no need for a/c or fans. Yay!

I've been working on my weaving. I'm keeping my current project pretty basic, but am using some great textures with wools and sari silk. I'm weaving a tapestry to hang on my wall. Shades of grey and cream, and the sari silk is a gorgeous, deep golden-apricot.

[Soupe du jour]

bpcyclist, I did ice my foot/ankle the day my injury happened, but haven't since. I've been more relying on special creams meant for such injuries and a foot wrap. I'll look and see if there is still swelling beneath the wrap. If so, today would be a good day for icing again. I think the icing is more just for the swelling, right?

Moose72, from my experience, oven temps and their other features, vary. My oven seems to be slow requiring extra baking time, while it sounds like yours is fast. You might want to experiment with slightly lower temperatures and shorter times (than indicated on boxes/recipes) to figure out how your new one operates. I think there are even slight differences between gas and electric ovens.

whatever2013, I hope there is no hassle with your disability. I understand your anxiety about it, though.

Christina, I'm glad your tests show no abnormality. I think that as we get older balance changes, and maybe other factors contribute, as well.

Daonnachd, I wish you could teach me that shoulder roll technique! I'm glad it spared you injury. I imagine if your dog saw it, he was quite impressed

[Soupe du jour]

Originally Posted by Daonnachd

Don't blame yourself. His having a bad dream is not in any way caused by you.

@Fuzzybear, I'm with Daonnachd on this. You are blaming yourself far too much for other people's feelings/stress. Plus, everyone has nightmares from time to time. Even perfectly content people. Nightmares don't have to have causes.

FuzzyBear, I hope you don't mind me sharing a story from my youth. I thought of it after reading your and Daonnachd's posts. It is a true story. Here it is:

“When I was a child, my siblings passed blame on me for almost EVERYTHING. Sometimes (or occasionally often times) I was the culprit. Then one particular day, my mother came to me with an angry look and said “Did you do ‘such and such?!?!'”

To that I sighed, exasperated by the hundreds of accusations, and said “Mom…Ya know, if I did even HALF the number of things I’ve been accused of over the years, I must really be quite AMAAAAAAZING!” I think I was only 8 years old at that time.

I guess that exclamation rang true enough, and my mom began to laugh. And I began to laugh."


I think something quite similar applies in your case, except you seem to be the one often blaming yourself, versus others blaming you. Or if others also blame you for things, the exact same situation applies. Either way, FuzzyBear my friend, such extreme amounts of blame are just not warranted.

[Soupe du jour]

Speaking of dreaming, last night I had a really funny one that I had to jot down notes about. I also shared it with my husband.

In my dream, I received a copy of a completed doctor's form meant to be sent to Social Security, in regards to my disability. I read through the doctor's responses, and they were glowing reports of how well I'm doing. When I reached the end, I was perplexed that my usual beloved psychiatrist wasn't the one to complete the form. Instead, some doctor I didn't know signed it. The name was "Dr. Ketuchentuchen".

Whoa, that was a strange name! Who in the heck is that!?!?

The form included the doctor's office phone number, so I called it to inquire. When the office staff member answered, I asked "Can I speak to Dr. Ketuchentuchen?" In response, she replied:

"No, he's not here, but I can connect you with Dr. Fluffamuffin."

I confess that I was quite amused, not only by the rhyming names and general absurdity of them, but that we used to call one of our old parrots "Mr. Fluffamuffin". After telling my husband about the above dream, I said "And we always wanted one of our kids to become a doctor."

[Our "kids" have only ever been parrots.]

[bpcyclist]

Albert let me sleep until 5. Pretty good. Pretty good.

On a crazy run of near-flawless brain functioning. Wonderful sleep. Kooky. Crazy new medicine is really working.

Hugs! Love!

[yellow_fleurs]

Originally Posted by bpcyclist

Albert let me sleep until 5. Pretty good. Pretty good.

On a crazy run of near-flawless brain functioning. Wonderful sleep. Kooky. Crazy new medicine is really working.

Hugs! Love!

Woohoo! I am happy to hear that it's working!

I am so, so glad it is now oficially the end of british summertime

it means 2 things:

1. I got through summertime 2020 without any alergic reactions

2. I can put away my fan (or fans). I actually have 3 now.

clocks went back okay this morning, thankfully they all do it by themselves (computer, tv, alexa)

autumn is here. yay

and closer to my fave season, winter

[Mountaindewed]

I feel a lot better mental health wise today. I was able to use my weighted blanket this morning for a couple hours and it helped my anxiety tremendously. My depression is still bad but the anxiety was what was getting to me. My pain still sucks and I still don’t know if I’m healing right. I keep getting these sharp shooting pains and it hurts to touch it. It’s tough not knowing if you’re going to end up in the psych hospital or in surgery. But I think I’m ok mental health wise I can deal with the depression. The physical stuff is concerning though.

Originally Posted by Mountaindewed

I feel a lot better mental health wise today. I was able to use my weighted blanket this morning for a couple hours and it helped my anxiety tremendously. My depression is still bad but the anxiety was what was getting to me. My pain still sucks and I still don’t know if I’m healing right. I keep getting these sharp shooting pains and it hurts to touch it. It’s tough not knowing if you’re going to end up in the psych hospital or in surgery. But I think I’m ok mental health wise I can deal with the depression. The physical stuff is concerning though.

I've been their, got the teashirt

been to hospital because I thought my heart was going, but it was only my anxiety

feel so bad afterwards and so embarrasssed

I remember one particular time I went and my anxiety was really intense (so much so I started to be sick), but by the afternoon I was feeling better- a whole lot better, without any tests being done on me. I basically sat on the ward and had an intense pannic attack

but better safe than sorry, I guess. telling the doctors I felt fine after a few hours didn't go down too well

[Moose72]

Good day, all. Eating beef jerky. I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought lots of stuff I don't often eat. Feels good. Having new choices. I even got a vegetable lasagna - it's family size but lasagna is good for leftovers. But now I just weighed myself and I've gained 2 1/2 pounds! UGH.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by raging vortex

I am so, so glad it is now oficially the end of british summertime

it means 2 things:

1. I got through summertime 2020 without any alergic reactions

2. I can put away my fan (or fans). I actually have 3 now.

clocks went back okay this morning, thankfully they all do it by themselves (computer, tv, alexa)

autumn is here. yay

and closer to my fave season, winter

Why is your favorite season winter?! It's freezing cold and snow builds up and you have to scrape your car!

My clocks automatically changed, too. I didn't even know it was time to change the clocks this Sunday.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by Mountaindewed

I feel a lot better mental health wise today. I was able to use my weighted blanket this morning for a couple hours and it helped my anxiety tremendously. My depression is still bad but the anxiety was what was getting to me. My pain still sucks and I still don’t know if I’m healing right. I keep getting these sharp shooting pains and it hurts to touch it. It’s tough not knowing if you’re going to end up in the psych hospital or in surgery. But I think I’m ok mental health wise I can deal with the depression. The physical stuff is concerning though.

Can you call the office of the doctor who did your surgery and ask about the pains? That doesn't sound normal to me.

[Blue_Bird]

My favorite season is winter too. I love the cold temps and all the snow we get here in upstate New York

[Mountaindewed]

Originally Posted by Moose72

Can you call the office of the doctor who did your surgery and ask about the pains? That doesn't sound normal to me.

Yeah I just took a shower and there’s like this grayish goop stuff coming out and it’s all red and looks weird. My temp is 98.7. One degree above normal but I’ve been like 97.2 for the past week. I think I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow.

[bizi]

[MuddyBoots]

Originally Posted by Mountaindewed

Yeah I just took a shower and there’s like this grayish goop stuff coming out and it’s all red and looks weird. My temp is 98.7. One degree above normal but I’ve been like 97.2 for the past week. I think I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow.

Just letting you know I had a benign tumor removed and after the surgery had grayish goop present too. Doc said the wound was healing great so at least that part is normal. I would be concerned about the redness however. Do go to the doctor though, if somethings wrong you caught him it early and if everything is good you have your worries eased.
I hope the rest of your recovery goes smoothly.

[bpcyclist]

Originally Posted by Mountaindewed

I feel a lot better mental health wise today. I was able to use my weighted blanket this morning for a couple hours and it helped my anxiety tremendously. My depression is still bad but the anxiety was what was getting to me. My pain still sucks and I still don’t know if I’m healing right. I keep getting these sharp shooting pains and it hurts to touch it. It’s tough not knowing if you’re going to end up in the psych hospital or in surgery. But I think I’m ok mental health wise I can deal with the depression. The physical stuff is concerning though.

Hang in there, MD. We are here for you!

[Soupe du jour]

I'm a bit stunned.

My psychiatrist emailed me yesterday increasing my base Seroquel XR dose to 700 mg, plus any needed PRN iR. Then a few minutes ago, I see an email from him at 4:30 pm today saying that he thought about my response yesterday, where I then told him about my second recent fall down the stairs, and subsequent injury. He told me to reduce my Tegretol XR by half, that my levels may be too high. Half is 600 mg (I took 1,200 mg). That's a huge quick reduction, I think!

I have blamed Tegretol (carbamazepine) for my past clumsiness a lot, but lived with it because of what it did for me years back. Namely, stopped a long bout of musical hallucinations and disconcerting symptoms that seemed seizure-like. I sure hope they don't return!

I'm obviously a little nervous about the reduction.

I meet with my psychiatrist this Wednesday via video appointment.

I have read that often as Seroquel doses go up, Tegretol levels can go up, too. Oddly, as Tegretol doses go down, the therapeutic worth of Seroquel as a moodstabilizer/antipsychotic often goes up (not down) . The two are not often prescribed together for those reasons, though some, like me, do take them together.

It is possible that my Tegretol level is too high, but I haven't suspected that because I haven't had double vision (diplopia). In the past, I usually experienced that when my Tegretol level was high.

[*Beth*]

Soupe du jour

I would feel anxious about such a sudden, large med decrease, too. In my experience, falls really scare pdocs into taking quick action.

Hopefully, what yours is going for is the Tegretol decrease = increased Seroquel potency. I'm taking a wild guess that that is his plan, rather than just raising your Seroquel dose and causing more side-effects.

Nevertheless, it's a dramatic drop in Tegratol. I'm sure you'll know within a couple of days if the new dose works for you. Fingers crossed!

[Soupe du jour]

Originally Posted by BethRags

Soupe du jour

I would feel anxious about such a sudden, large med decrease, too. In my experience, falls really scare pdocs into taking quick action.

Hopefully, what yours is going for is the Tegretol decrease = increased Seroquel potency. I'm taking a wild guess that that is his plan, rather than just raising your Seroquel dose and causing more side-effects.

Nevertheless, it's a dramatic drop in Tegratol. I'm sure you'll know within a couple of days if the new dose works for you. Fingers crossed!

Thanks, BethRags! I think you are right on the money. We'll see what happens. It's just a little crazy everything that is happening in my life right now.

I will say that if I could get better potency from less Seroquel XR, this new super hunger that's been developing may ease. I know that you fully understand that bugger of a side effect.