Sandy's Thoughts

Different Point of View

2011-01-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

I got this blog title from something that happened today. I got an email from a friend that spoke of having one view of something that was said, and I had heard it totally different than what she was saying.

It reminded me of another friend that went to see a new doctor. She has some serious problems with her neck. When first telling the story to me, it was more like the surgeon didn't want to operate on her because of the danger of the surgery (which I believe is what the doctor meant). She was later talking to a person at my church who said the doctor had an attitude. When repeating the story to her, the same line now was more like he was arrogant and that was the reason he wouldn't operate. She said the very same lines-just a different tone of voice.

The assistant pastor at my church talked about this in a sermon. He said some friends asked to use his house one time while he was gone to have some friends over. He had bought some Mt. Dew's because they were on sale. Well, the friends ran out of drinks and used his without him knowing it. He wanted some later, and there wasn't any. He emailed the friends and had meant it nicely when he asked if they would let him know the next time if they had to use his drinks. The friends took it that he was angry and using an angry tone for them to let him know if he needed to buy drinks to restock his supply.

Today just reminded me to make sure I use the right tone in what I say, and to remember that the written text might be misunderstood by someone just like it happened with my asst. pastor. I want to have God's view on life, and not my own!

Helping Dawn

2011-01-14T13:19:00.001-08:00

The lady that writes a blog I started reading a few years is really going through some struggles financially right now. She became well known through a pokemon ebay auction a few years ago. I have a widget on my sidebar if you can help her out financially. Thanks!

New Year's Eve Goal Setting

2011-01-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

Something that I try to do every year is pray in the new year. Through this time of prayer, I seek the face of God on things I need to change in my life. NYE 2010, I read a post on facebook about a conference they were going to have at their church. The 3 subjects that ladies were going to speak on were 1. the home 2. our spirits 3. finances. Bam, the Lord let me know that was the direction that I needed to go this year during my prayer time.

I have been working real hard on these areas-still got a ways to go. I think my next few posts will be outlining things I am doing to complete that goal.

Oh, my weight loss is still going ok. I has kind of stopped so I need to jumpstart it again.

Facebook games

2011-01-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

I have been having trouble with my internet the last couple of days. I hope it's just the weather so we don't have call technical support. We did a few months ago and that was an experience!! Anyway, regular facebook pulls up ok, but the apps are not working for me right now.

Maybe this is the way that the Lord is reminding me of my New Year's goals (that is going to be my next post). I have got too wrapped up sometimes in those apps! My plans are to scale back on them from here on out. They just get too time consuming, especially Farmville and Zoo World that has you collecting stuff all the time. I want facebook to be a way to share my faith and to keep up with family and friends.

Checking in

2011-01-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Here I am again! I need to get more diligent with this if I am actually going to have a blog. Too sleepy tonight to really get into a post so I will do a quicky. My lab work was much better in Dec. Total cholesteral was 179 and my average blood sugar was 129 so I am happy. Hope it continues that way!

Ok, better post another another day. Think I am going to turn in early today!

Blood test results

2010-10-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

I got the call from my doctor's office today on the blood work done Wed. The numbers were better, but due to me being high risk, they still need to be lower. The total cholesterol was 194-it hasn't been that low in a LONG time! Matter of fact, below 200 is considered normal, but for me she wants it lower. So she upped my med and I have to go back at the end of the month to be retested. I'm praying they will be much lower by then!

Here I am again-updating

2010-09-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Once again I am cranking up blogging again. Due to some events at the first of the month, I plan to stay with it this time. August 20th, I had a yearly appt. with my cardiologist, Dr. M. Thought I was going to give him my little spill and get new scripts. They did an echocardiogram and when Dr. M came in, he asked what was going on because my heart function was way down. We did a heart cath August 23rd, and it showed I needed a stent in my LAD artery. We did that Sept. 2nd.

Everything seemed to be going good after the stent till the following Tuesday night. I started having chest tightness when I got up to do anything so after an evening of taking nitro tablets, I went on the ER. We did another heart cath the following day and stented the RCA artery that I have had spasms in for a couple of years.

Now to one reason I think will keep me blogging. Had my 3 month appt. with the family doc. Dr. R busted my chops after finding out about the stents. She is really going to crack down on stuff. Here is what she wanted me to do:

1. Drink at least 100 oz. of water.
2. Eat 1200 calories a day.
3. Eat 100 carbs a day.
4. Exercise at least 30 minutes day.
5. Lose 2 lbs. a week
6. Keep a food diary and bring it to my next appt. at the end of Oct.

I plan to use the blog to help keep me on track. The exercise one may be the one I don't have done by the appt. due to my back but I have walked both days since the appt.

365 days of grace

2009-01-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

1. Electricity and wood heat again. We lost power for about 4 hrs last night. Thank goodness, we are on a trunk line of about 1000 customers so we usually get our power back pretty quickly.

2. Rain stopped and it got a bit warmer.

Big A

2008-06-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I mentioned my dog in previous posts, so I decided it was time to talk a bit more about her. Big A is how I got my url for my blog-sheltiefan. She is a Shetland Sheepdog, or Sheltie for the shortened version. Most people call them miniature Collies.

Big A is a hoot-most of the time anyway. Since I had the surgery and not driving yet, she has become my shadow. I sit at the table or computer desk, there she is. I go to the bathroom, she thinks I need an escort! One time I shut the door to take a shower. She was whining to beat the band outside the door till I opened it! I lay down to take a nap-she's at the foot of my bed.

She is an excellent watchdog! When I am expecting company, I will put her outside so that she will let me know they have arrived.

I had another Sheltie-Maggie Mae.If you are looking for a dog, I highly recommend this breed!!

Checking in

2008-04-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

Thought it was time to update everybody. The back surgery and recovery this time has been interesting to say the least! It was supposed to be a 3-4 day stay. Ended up being 7 days the first time, and then 3 more days a week later.

First trouble I had was they had drains on the incision areas. One drain came out and the drainage ended up coming out the incision area. Very tight dressing got that stopped. Then my heart rate shot up-I have had problems with that before. After a CT scan, they decided it was ok and bumped up the morphine in my drip. Then I started running a high fever-103.6 which is very high for me. While that was going on, I had to have a blood transfusion-2 pints, which one was mine that I had donated before surgery. After getting things under control and going home, I went the following week for my staple removal. I was still running a low grade fever plus having some digestive problems, so back in the hospital I went for 3 days.

But God is good! I had testified a few weeks before the surgery about how God was my friend, my healer, etc. When everything started happening, He> reminded me of that testimony and it was a real encouragement. It's been a slow recovery so I would appreciate your prayers. Guess I will close this book with a line from a song I heard this weekend. "Jesus> I want to thank you for being so good to me"

All Systems Go

2008-02-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

I had to be at the hospital Wed. for my pre-op work-up. First stop-the bathroom for the little sample. I had sat in the waiting room needing to go to the bathroom, but hand me a cup-there goes the need for the restroom! Finally got that little matter taken care of.

Up next, the EKG. Should be no problem right. Wrong!! It took FOREVER for the tech to finally get one that they could keep. I have never seen such trouble with an EKG before!

Of course, the next deal is the blood draw. Same tech that did the EKG. I have been told by every tech that the vein in my left arm is great. Want to venture who had to stick me in the other arm to get the blood sample! She also left a bruise with the second stick. Hopefully she only works in the pre-op area.

I should post at least one more time before surgery, but if not, well it will be a few weeks before I get by here again.

I (Heart) My Roomba

2008-02-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

One of the newest addition to our electronic family is the Roomba robotic vacuum. It was a Christmas gift this past Christmas-my idea. I got more practical in my gift ideas this year. For anyone with health problems, I really recommend this vac! Since having back surgery 3 years ago, I have been unable to vacuum and I felt bad about it. Now Ms. Roomba to the rescue!

I use grabbers to get her unplugged from the charger (they do have self-charging bases also) and let her go. Now, I do use it different than they advice. I will let it do a room on its own for a bit, then I use my remote that I purchased to direct the little lady to go.

Here is a pic of her in action!

Vampire Day!

2008-02-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today was the day for my blood donation appt. After having lunch with my friend, S, off I go to the Red Cross. I arrive, and you have to read a book about donating blood while waiting to be called. Right after I arrive, in walks this young lady. The elderly guy working the desk tells her to read the book too. She just flips through it, then jumps up and asks if they were ready for her to go back. The guy goes and asks, and then takes her back. I was a good girl, although I wanted to say something. She may have been late for her appt. After pushing ahead of the line (a little pet peeve of mine), her hematocrit wasn't high enough-or I don't think it was because I heard them talking about food to eat and she was out awfully fast to have given blood.

After waiting about 20 minutes, I am called back. I passed all their tests with flying colors! Including the hematocrit reading! When I had surgery 3 yrs. ago and donated blood for myself, my hematocrit was too low to donate for the public and barely high enough for me to donate for myself.

They find my vein on the first try (yea!) and and about 15 min. later, I'm one pint shorter on blood! My are hasn't bruised yet, and isn't too sore. My finger where he tested my hematocrit is sorer and has a slight bruise, not my arm! Go figure! I''ll just chalk it up to the fact that a man did the pre-testing!

Seriously, it's not a bad experience. Now that my hematocrit levels are better, I may start giving blood. Hey, you get a free tee-shirt out of the deal! Can't complain!

Update

2008-02-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

I had a doctor's appt. with Dr. C today to get the myelogram report. It is bulging at L3-4 and compressing the nerve. I'm not really sure why I had the visit today unless it was to make sure I did ok with the test. We already had the surgery planned.

They were short-handed and I thought I was going to need my sleeping bag folks! I was in the office 3 hours (I was a bit early for my appt.). I was getting a bit irritated at the end. Hope the doc didn't hear me quietly singing "Just any day now", a gospel song. They did apologize for the delay. Next up on my appt. book-donating blood for my surgery!

The Story Behind The Myelogram Adventure

2008-02-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

As stated in my first post, I am having back surgery again. This time around, Dr. C. wanted to do a myelogram before surgery. For those not familiar with this test, it is an invasive test where they inject dye into your spine and then afterwards, they do a CT scan. I knew of a few people that had this done that had trouble with spinal headaches which are extremely painful so I wasn't exactly jumping through loops with excitement on having this test.

We didn't have a certain time scheduled with my doctor-kind of a first come, first serve type of deal. Of course, I want to be as near to the front of this deal that I could be so off we go at the break of dawn! My husband drives while I half doze during the drive. Note to readers: I'm not a morning person in any sense of the word! Matter of fact, even though I knew we would be up early the next morning, I still didn't get into bed till around 1 a.m.

We get signed in, registered and wait for my turn. A little side note on the registration-I had to pay either part or all of my deductible. AWESOME! I have to pay up front for this torture! Anyway, as I was saying, we wait for my name to be called. In walks a inmate from the prison system-shackles on his hands and feet-just great! In the waiting room, he is quiet as a mouse, but that quickly changed when they got him in his room. We could hear him yelling all over the pre-op area. Just my luck, I tell you! He carried on so bad that they got three more guards to come there to help the two that had brought him there.

I had it all worked up in my mind about the myelogram, but it wasn't bad at all. He stuck a needle in with Novocaine that hurt for a bit, and I never felt the rest of the needle sticks. What turned out to be more painful was I had to turn over 3 times on a stretcher before doing the CT scan to make sure the dye was moving around correctly.

Lesson of the Day: Sometimes what we fret over isn't a problem, but those unseen circumstances can be what turns out to be the roadblocks in our life!

Hi Everyone!!

2008-02-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back to blogging! It's been a year and a half since I took my blogging break, and thought it was time to give it a whirl again. This is the first time to use blogger, so it will stay pretty basic till I get a chance to figure things out. One reason I went with blogger is the tag feature on the posts.

I am again facing major back surgery again. The fusion didn't take from the last surgery, so my doctor is going to remove the hardware in my back (rods, screws and internal bone growth stimulator) and check the fusion to make sure exactly how it is doing. He is almost positive that it didn't fuse, so he will do a new fusion called XLIF. They will go in through the side and put implants between the vertebrae. Everyone Doctor C (not going to list full name) has done this surgery on has seen improvement, so we are believing it will be the same for me.

Having dealt with chronic pain from that and fibromyalgia, I hope to use my blog as a place of encouragement to ones that may be facing the same problem. Of course, I have got to talk about my little bundle of fur, big A. She is totally a mess! So I hope you enjoy!