In FarmVegas, the price of gas has dropped 40 cents a gallon in the past two weeks.

Did anyone ever think $3.57/gallon gas would ever feel "cheap"????

So, the funny part of it is... I told my boss on July 14 that EnduringCrap was setting me up to not be able to return to work. They cited several times that my work description stipulates that I be able to lift 100# and they don't accommodate restrictions. That's one of the reasons I talked to LawDog right away. The long and the short of it is that Virginia is a right-to-work state. That basically means that EnduringCrap doesn't have to have a reason to fire me. They can just tell me not to come to work anymore. The only recourse I would have at this point is if they terminated my job now, I could sue them stipulating that they were attempting to prevent me from being able to collect the short term disability benefit that I have paid for and am potentially in need of using.

And then there's what I'm planning. Well, clearly I can't disclose everything right now, but trust me, peeps, it's going to turn out okay. I have mad skillz, you see... and I have an education with a license, and that becomes invaluable at this point. So worry not, I won't be living in a van down by the river, having Pooh King, Oz and Otis doing tricks for tips ('cause you know they ain't doin' nothin' fancy anyway).

This weekend PB and I went to Virginia Beach. The EVP volleyball tournament was in town so we were excited to combine sand, surf and volleyball. We would have liked to play in the amateur co-ed tournament, but as I'm on restriction, it was a no-go. PB and PaulSquared played together in the men's doubles tournament and had lots of fun, though no trophies came home. Despite my best arsenal of sun protection (including hats, sunblock and an umbrella) I am sporting some pretty pink skin and burn-lines. Hopefully I'll be calling them tanlines some time soon.

For now, though, I'm getting cleaned up and going to bed. This weekend-at-the-beach thing is exhausting!

"Speaking as your friend and coworker, not as your boss, have you considered what you will do if they don't let you come back to work if you have surgery?"

WTF?!?!

Where's my helmet?

When the King Family Circus was at the Grand Canyon, I forgot my digital camera battery charger. We were able to find a regular battery for it ('cause of course it doesn't take regular AA batteries) and 300+ pictures later (including new apartment pictures), that trusty little battery gave out. Fast forward to the helmet-needing moment...

I can't find the rechargeable battery. I have the charger. I can't find the battery. I look high, I look low. I look in the suitcase, I look in the backpack I took. Nothing. I search the junk drawer. Nada. In a stroke of delayed genius, I look in the charger. Oh yeah. There it is.

And there you have it.

My beautiful new rug (which replaces a rust colored one). Not to worry... in real life the chair casts more blue-green (and is not ugly, no matter what CL says).

My lovely new celery colored curtain. It has a gold vein and leaf pattern embroidered on the valence and the ties. I heart it. And it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the one I initially picked out. Not that it was a bad curtain, it just wasn't right for this space.

And now, my new porch. The bamboo throw is perfect to keep my precious peds off of the concrete, and it will do great with the strong morning sun. My flowers are also much more organized and attractive on the stand and not filling the floor space. Plus, now there's actually room on the table for plates and stuff! The bonus? The cats love it, too. Oh, and there's my new hummingbird feeder. The cats and the hummingbirds don't like to share the porch at the same time. Actually, the cats think it would be great, but the birds can't be convinced.

Despite much wailing, moaning and nashing of teeth, da Mama is gone. She's headed back to the home front to relieve my Poppy of full farm duty. I'm sure Dad had a good time riding tractors, visiting Lowes, and watching NASCAR on his own, but there's no denying that everything is easier when da Mama is around. It sure was for me!

But da Mama did not leave without first doing some shopping with me! We spent a few hours running around downtown FarmVegas and found some new things for the newly remodeled kitchen at the farm. (Okay, it may still be a work in progress, but it's coming along.) Today she helped me pick a new rug for my living room (pics to be posted soon). I saw one I really loved but wasn't sure it would work with my delicious "gramma" chair... the one CL's never allowed to sit in if he comes here. Mom convinced me to give it a try, and boy was she right! It's perfect! And I purchased a shelf tower to put some of my porch plants on so I'll have more room for my new bamboo rug. I'm very excited about it (pics of that will come, too).

In two weeks I'll be headed back for my second epidural shot. This time I'm wearing my Wonder Woman shirt and Supergirl underpants. There will be no crying.

Today's diagnosis? I'm exactly the same as I was before the shot yesterday. No more pain at the injection site, just some pretty purple bruising.

The funny story of yesterday? My Mama had to go through a police check point... 4 TIMES!!!! That's right, the FarmVegas po-po were on high alert for some reason yesterday, and they set up shop on my road between my apartment and town. Mom went to get us dinner at Ruby Tuesday (which was not worth the $$) and had to brave the check point both directions. When she got home and opened it up, both dinners were wrong. So we called the restaurant, they said keep the food and they'll make up the right stuff, and Mom had to go through the checkpoints again. The Police were dumbfounded, thinking maybe the little white lady really was running drugs, but shook their heads in understanding when she said Ruby Tuesday had screwed up our orders. It seems we're not the ony ones it's happened to! Mom's on a first-name basis with 4 of Virginia's finest since she asked if they wanted some of the extras. I'm seriously contemplating speeding through town just to see if being her offspring would get me off the hook.

6 hours later and I'm back to my pre-injection baseline. Thank goodness! And just think, I get to do it all over again in 2 weeks. I'm really hoping that over the next few days the pain symptoms I already had will decrease, indicating the disk herniation is indeed decreasing. I hope, I hope, I hope.

All you people who said it doesn't hurt are filthy bed-wetting liars. Seriously. The right sided injection made me yell "HOLY SHIT!" and the left sided injection made me cry. The increase in pressure in my back is pretty outstanding and my left leg is still tingling. The sharpness of the increased pain has worn off a little, but I still have everything that was there before. We'll see how it goes over the next few days. Keep your fingers crossed, okay?

The Mama stopped for a Rita's gelati... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Rita's. That has helped immensely. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go lie down with an ice pack on my butt.

The Mama has arrived! We've even made a WallyWorld run for last minute provisions. That chick's all about preparation... and not having to face WallyWorld alone.

We'll head to the Spine Clinic in the morning. My procedure will be at 11, so send out some happy thoughts right around then, okay?

Despite half of the world having an uncle, brother, mother or dog who's had this procedure and had full recovery, the other half of the world has an aunt, sister, father, or cat that's had the procedure and it ruined their life. Frankly, neither story helps.

The risk of injury is low, but personally, I'm terrified I'll cough or sneeze during the procedure, the needle will slip, and I'll lose sensation in part of my ass. Seriously, I run into enough stuff with full feeling as it is. I don't want to imagine the destruction this badonkadonk could cause if I can't keep track of it.

My first epidural is Friday at 11am. The second is Aug 1 at 10:30. My Mom will be taking me to the first, and PB's mom will take me to the second. Today on of the other PTs told me that her husband (who's a local family practice MD) doesn't recommend my doctor. Thanks for sharing. Like that's helpful?!?! I don't have much regard for her husband, so I guess his lack of confidence in the head of a major medical university's neurosurgery spine clinic doesn't really bother me much.

Clarifications...

Okay, let's get a few things squared up here...

1. Yes, LawDog and Jackass are one in the same. That is my trusty brother and giver of all legal advice.
2. I was not hurt on the job. I hurt my back playing volleyball. The company (EnduringCrap) is attempting to push me into short-term disability. I have no worker's comp claim.
3. Today EnduringCrap agreed to let me change to carrying an outpatient caseload where I can pick and choose the "easy" patients and not have to lift/transfer anyone. We'll see how it goes after the injection.
4. The neurosurgeon is not optimistic that the injections will work, but he is also of the mind that you begin the attack on the conservative side. If no effect with one, or minimal effect with two, we plan a surgery.
5. In some ways I am glad that I didn't rush, but in others I'm pissed that since it has come to this anyway, that I didn't cave in and do the MRI much earlier.
6. This is all a pain in my badonkadonk.

It looks like my little Mombo will be joining me for a few days. I'm not supposed to drive myself home from the injection (in case of reaction or pain), and since the rest of the world works on Thursdays, I'll be flying solo. PB has The Force for the weekend starting Friday afternoon, so he won't be able to help me (if I even need help) and it's not fair to bring down The Force's weekend with Daddy to the pace of a newly injected spine. That's more a case for Mama-Management! She's an excellent care provider and it will be nice to have some Mama TLC for a few days.

Well, an epidural it is! I saw MY neurosurgeon on Friday. He recommended an epidural injection to start with. We'll try no less than 2, no more than 4, to see if the steroid can "dry up" some of the bulge and decrease how much it's invading my spinal cord. This should (in theory) relieve the pressure on the nerves and reduce/eliminate the pain. He wrote that I am allowed to continue working with a lifting restriction of 25# and no repetetive lifting, bending, or twisting. I don't think this should be a problem at work, but management might try to make it since they assured me there was no "light duty" at this job. Now, I'll point out that they allowed another PT to work with a 10# lifting restriction lest her placenta rupture, she hemorrhage and her baby fall out. That, apparently, was okay. We'll see what they say about 25#. If not, I'm welcome to start short term disability tomorrow.

I say, if they don't accommodate my restrictions and force me onto short term disability, can I work somewhere that will accommodate the restrictions to supplement my income during that time? Me needs to ask the LawDog.

Let's see, where to start?

I'm home from work, by doctor's orders. I have "acute upper respiratory infection". If this is a cute one, I'd hate to see an ugly one! (Ba-da-bump! Seriously, is this thing on?) Today my voice is coming back and I'm coughing less... hooray! I'm still coughing up some of the nastiest stuff I've seen in a long time... boooo! PB has spent the last 2 nights doing a wonderful job of taking care of me. Of course, "taking care of me" has consisted of fixing cups of tea, walking the dog, taking out the trash, and making sure I don't fall over when hopped up on meds. When I go to lie on the couch because I'm coughing so much and don't want to wake him, he comes and brings me back to bed so he can rub my back. My well-meaning nurse practitioner gave me cough medicine with codeine in a vain attempt to help me sleep (finally). I quickly found out that I have an "adverse reaction" to codeine. This consists of itching, dizziness and nausea. Not so good. Fortunately that wore off around 2am. Unfortunately, it felt like I was withdrawaling from crack cocaine.

Now, on to my back issues... I saw the first neurosurgeon on Tuesday. I didn't like him much. His first suggestion was to try to live with it for 2-3 years to see if the nerves would acclimate to the pressure. Ummm, no thanks. So we moved on to discussion of epidurals and surgical options. He was all ready to sign me up for my epidural when I told him that I had another opinion coming before I did anything. I don't think he liked that much. Oh well. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the other guy is my first choice for any kind of intervention. The appointment with #1 neurosurgeon is Friday at 1pm.

So today I got a call from my company, EnduringCrap. It seems Boss'o'me, aka "The Tool" has informed them that the orthopedist told me not to lift anything. Now the company wants a written statement from my neurosurgeon saying I can come back to work with no restrictions, or I can start my short term disability on Monday. It doesn't matter that we've arranged to have help for lifting so I can work and the patients can be seen. The company is all about covering their own ass. I told the lady that I would get her a statement for whatever decision is made by Neuro#1. I may have even more time on my hands than I expected.

To add insult to injury, I have a cold. Seriously. I'm sitting on the couch with a tissue up my nose (a la the pic I won't post of Peggy). Yep, that's me. I'm bringing sexy back. Tonight I took medication for: asthma (2 kinds), back pain, allergies, chest congestion and sinus congestion. I'm afraid to ask what else can go wrong.

I've had a lovely 4th of July weekend. Fortunately, this year I didn't have to worry about the neighbors setting the apartment complex on fire. Here's how my weekend shook out:

• Thursday: Cookout and fireworks.


• Friday: work a little (boooooooooo!) cookout and fireworks


• Saturday: day at the lake, cook out and a good night of sleep!!!!

Tomorrow? I have some serious laundry to do! That stuff multiplies like tribbles when I'm not home!

I spent 7 hours today in a continuing education course that should have left me with new knowledge on cutting edge techniques for treating movement disorders.

Instead, I got a 71 year old woman teaching me everything I already knew. I learned one new technique. ONE!!!

On the plus side, I got my hair did afterward. On the minus side, George Jetson has a leak in a tire.

Pppppppppppbbbbbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllllllll!