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I’m getting sick of these four walls

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I think I’m starting to go a little stir crazy! I’ve mostly been stuck inside the house for the last couple of weeks and I’m tired of the view! LOL

As my regular readers know I have Crohn’s disease and I’ve been on medical leave from my job as an ER nurse for five years now. Unfortunately I can add a bad back into my list of woes now too. I found out about a year ago that I have a herniated disc in my lower back so the last year I’ve had a lot of back pain and a numb left thigh.

My back got really bad on Christmas evening. I’d spent the previous two or three days cleaning the house from top to bottom in order to prepare for three rounds of house guests during the holiday season and then standing cooking all day on Christmas day must have just been the last straw for my back.

Sitting during Christmas dinner was excruciating. You see when I stand too long it seems to make my tailbone go out and sitting or moving around becomes extremely painful. To top everything off, the next day I got new symptoms – my numb left thigh got even number and then my left thigh started burning – as if I was standing with my leg pressed against a radiator or something extremely hot.

So now if I stand for as little as 15 minutes my thigh starts burning! It’s an awful feeling! Luckily if I go and lie down on my side with my legs bent (sort of like a fetal position) the burning subsides.

Now … two weeks or more later I haven’t done a lot of sitting. I’m stuck inside the house because can’t stand or walk for long without everything getting worse … but, thanks to lying down a lot my back, tailbone and leg seem to be quite a bit better.

I did go out on Sunday … we bought a new front loading high efficiency washer and dryer set at a local furniture store. While we were there we looked at the new HDTV sets and some contemporary sofas. I know our TV is going to die sometime this year so we thought it would be a good idea to figure out which models we like … as for the sofas … well … if we ever do get around to renovating the basement I think I’ll bring our living room couch, sofa and chair set downstairs and get a new sofa for the living room.

We have NO money … but hey .. I can dream … and that little outing to the store- while it was hard on my back – was nice. It alleviated some of the boredom I’d been feeling by having to be stuck at home lying down all the time because of my bad back.

Have you ever been stuck at home for a few weeks (or months) due to illness or something like a bad back? I know for some people being stuck at home in bed for even a day or so can drive them nuts – so imagine weeks!





Recovering from the holidays

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I don’t know about you guys, but I’m in holiday recovery mode right now!

I spent most of last week cleaning the house, shopping, cooking and having two rounds of family visits! I’ve spent the weekend resting. Tomorrow I’ll begin to prepare for the last round of house guests and my nieces wedding on the 30th.

Don’t even ask me what we’re doing for New Years. So far we don’t have any plans, but after almost two weeks straight of holiday prep and festivities I think we’ll be having a quiet evening at home. LOL

With all the cleaning, cooking and standing I did last week I managed to make my back worse. I have a slipped disc and it’s caused me a lot of pain over the last year. I also have a numb left leg to go with it. Yesterday and Christmas day my back was so bad the pain was going into the tail bone, so when I finally got a chance to sit down and enjoy Christmas dinner and spend some time with guests (sister and her boyfriend on Christmas day) I was in too much pain to sit for long. Ow!

Last night my leg had strange sensations that I’d never felt before. I was standing in the kitchen heating up leftovers from Christmas dinner and my lower left thigh suddenly felt like it had a heating pad set on high on it! My leg even felt warmer to the touch in that area.

I actually got a little bit scared because it was so weird. I was just hoping that the very disturbing hot sensation would go away and that other worse symptoms (like leg weakness etc) wouldn’t start up.

I rested my back last night and used the heating pad on it and the hot sensation went away. In fact my back feels a lot better today … but oddly enough my right shoulder hurts a lot. My stomach (I have Crohn’s) is also bad today … maybe I’m just fighting something and that’s why my bad back and shoulder are acting up?

Did you survive the holiday season? I hope that you did! A belated Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

I wish we had a dishwasher

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OMG the dishes are piling up. I haven’t been feeling well all weekend (ok since Thursday really) and as a result the kitchen is a mess and dirty dishes are covering one side of the counter and filling up one of our double sinks.

The rest of the house isn’t too bad. My husband and I did a really big clean up on Monday, but for me, it’s been a downhill ride since then. LOL

One thing I hate is a messy kitchen and the sight of dirty dishes. I wish we had a dishwasher. Of course our kitchen is really tiny … I have no idea where we’d put one, but still, it would be nice to have one. I think we’d only have to run it once a week or so, but in the meantime the dirty dishes could be hidden away. Hey … isn’t that what dish washers are for?

I hate being stuck at home on medical leave

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I’ve been off work due to Crohn’s for going on five years now. It’s tough being on medical leave from a job you love for so long. I’m sick of feeling sick all of the time and frankly I’m more than a little bored.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’ll be returning to work any time soon. I’m just not getting better. I tried a new medication this month that was supposed to help lower my pain levels and of course I ended up getting hives and having other reactions to it … so, so much for that. Too bad too, because I think it was helping a bit!

So now my doctor wants me to put in a new disability appeal. I did that the first year I was off work but they turned me down, but now that I’ve been off for so long my doctor thinks I might have a chance at getting disability coverage from work … so I might give it a try.

It was so disappointing last time when I was turned down though. That’s one reason why I put off trying again. So wish me luck!

So much for going out on long walks!

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Now that the weather is getting cooler I was thinking of taking the dog out for long walks more often.

I have Crohn’s and my health isn’t all that good and walking in warm weather only seems to make me feel worse. However, we just found out some scary news about our new renter neighbors so I don’t feel good about leaving the house empty on a regular basis.

I’ve gained a little bit of weight while I’ve been off work due to my illness. Mainly because I feel so crappy most of the time that I’m just not active enough … but it’s only a little extra weight … I’m certain that if I could just get more active I’d be back in shape in no time. Certainly I don’t need a weight loss product just more exercise.

The trouble is that we learned the new neighbor has a history of breaking into houses! So uhm … it’s a good thing that I’m home almost all the time!

I guess if I do start going out for walks more often I’ll alter the times I go out so there’s no regularity to what I’m doing – just in case their keeping track. Doesn’t that suck that we have neighbors we can’t trust?

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