September Ends

Hello Again!

As September draws to a close the days are definitely getting colder. Frost welcomes us in the morning and last Friday we had a very crazy hail storm, not to mention I can’t seem to get warm throughout the day. Time to pull out the warm leggings to wear under everything before I freeze! In all, it really has been a long month.

The highlight of the month had to be my daughter having her first Homecoming. It was so much fun helping her pick out a dress and get ready for the dance. She looked absolutely amazing! One of her friends hosted a dinner for a group of us, the moms and daughters, so we could all help the girls before they left for the dance. Of course we had a photo shoot once they were all ready. I heard one of her friends whisper, “she looks like a goddess,” when we were taking photos; her dress was white and with her dark complexion it really stood out. Such a beautiful young lady, I was the proud mama that day!

The toughest part of the month was when public assistance was way behind on their renewal process which left us without medical or food benefits for the first half of the month, (talk about anxiety). As a result I ended up close to a month of being without my thyroid medicine, I felt like a sloth! The whole thing was a real headache, after calling and leaving messages I finally had to go down to see them which took two days. The first day was so packed that they were turning people away and this was before noon! So I went back the next day early in the morning and was able to get an appointment the same day and three hours later I found out the reason why there was no renewal was that they were still processing papers from July!  

The whole thing reminded me of the scene from Zootopia, the sloths working at the DMV, the irony; I can laugh about it now, but I was getting really stressed out for a while, lol. Another big thing happened is that I finally received my disability packet forms to fill out which had a two week time frame, I was able to get an extra two week extension and got them finished with a week to spare, (woohoo!). If you know me, you would know certain paperwork causes me a lot of anxiety, and yup this packet was one of those kinds, so I feel pretty accomplished that I finished it up before the deadline. Though I will admit I could not even start on the packet until I got the whole public assistances worked out, basic needs always come first. Though my anxiety and mood was touch and go at points, God is right there. I am so grateful and thankful to my Lord Jesus, I know He is always ready to help hold me up when I need it. In Jesus name Amen! 

Phew! I am glad this month is almost at a close. My next hurdles are housing and getting back into physical therapy. Oh and I am looking forward to Halloween! Really I think I am just a big kid at heart, who doesn’t like dressing up and getting free candy? I also enjoy a good scary movie, not the gross gory kind or the ones that leave you with a bad feeling in the spirit, but the kind that can give you a good jump scare  and maybe a small case of heebie jeebies that you can laugh about later. Does anyone have any good scary or suspenseful movie recommendations or even any good books?

Okay so on that note I will say goodbye, 

Take care & God Bless!

~Ryan (RMM)

***Here is a nice clip for you to enjoy and if you have not watch the full movie I highly recomend it!

Be Strong

Hello Again!

So it looks like I am on the trend of one blog per month, ouch! No wonder there are no followers, can't follow something that is not there! 

I have no clue as to what to write, I did start a post on internet slang and decorum, or more so the lack of it in some areas. After reading I decided to hang that one up and safe to drafts, chalk it up as a good writing excercise as it was more of an essay read. Who knows I may go back and refine it a bit before posting at a different time. For now I will try to keep this post short as I can already tell without a set topic I am just going to keep rambling on. I suppose I can give an update on the status of my back.

Physical therapy is working great, I have not needed a cane in a few weeks, my leg is much stronger, I am able to go for small walks and use the stairs. I am still working on strengthing and endurance, I still can not do a squat or kneel without help or intense pain, but overall the general pain level has gone down and the daily excercises I am suppose to do at home (when I remember), really do help. In fact, tomorrow I get to see the Dr. about my leg again. I am sure he will say the same as he has for the last two visits, which is to keep up the physical therapy and see me in 2-3weeks, call the office if things get worse. Surgery is of course still recommended but they want to hold off to see how much I can improve with physical therapy alone. 

Now for this next stage in my physical therapy they are attempting to ween me off of traction (aka the Rack) and have me doing more of a workout in the gym area. I am not sure how well this will work out. The excercise part is all good and I don't mind it feels good to be back in the gym of sorts, but really it has been the traction that has helped soo much with the pinched nerve. I went for a whole 2 1/2 weeks with no traction and just regular physical therapy when I started having the pinched nerve pain again. It wasn't as bad as it was orginally but it was definetly the precursor pain I felt before it got really bad. I tried all the home excercises and nothing worked, cold and hot packs, not even the pain meds where helping. It got so I could not even do the home excercises and I almost pulled out my cane to help me. One of my PT appointments had gotten canceled because of some mix up so by the time I got into PT a whole week had gone by with the pain getting worse. So we will see how long I can go from needing traction again. For now I am just thankful for the progress I have made and will keep doing my best to keep my mind on God. I know all things are possible with Him.

In the mean time, the weather has been great and I need to remember to ALWAYS wear sunblock, I burn to easily and it truly drains me. I went for a small walk out in the sun just this last Friday and did not think of putting on sunblock, yes I got a small burn that made me exhausted. I pretty much fell asleep not long after I got home that day and then slept my whole Saturday away. The good news is that I finally made it to Sunday School this last Sunday but did not quite make it to the evening service. I will try again for next Sunday for both services.

Oh, this Wednesday is the last of school for my daughter then summer vacation starts, she also has a play comming up the last weekend of May and the first weekend of June. So she will still be busy as these last two weeks before the play are pretty hectic. The play is "Little Women," I have yet been able to attend any of the play practices so I am really looking forward to going to the show.

I will keep up with my walking, remembering to wear sunblock, my goal is to get a short walk in everyday and gradually make my walks longer. Right now I am good every 1 to 2 days for about a 10-15min walk, plus I do my daily exercises and go to PT 2-3x a week. It would be great to have a 20-30min daily walk even if I have to break the walk up to two 10's or two 15's that would be a huge progress! I have no clue the distance I walk, I am just focusing on time right now but will try to keep track of how far I can go, but for now my walking is slow to moderate so I do not get far in 10-15mins. The idea is the longer I can walk eventually the faster I will be able to go, especially the stronger I get.

Well that is all I will write this time round, I will try to break the one blog a month, thanks for reading!

God Bless and Take Care!

~Ryan (RMM)