Happy Hump Day

[Barb]

Good morning Liz, Ron and maybe Willie if you can get to your computer.  I have a busy day today, taking my mom to 3 appointments, one after the other.  Also would like to get out in the yard and do some work, the recent rain the other day has made more weeds pop up.  I will have to take a pic to show you all of my compost pile.  You should see all the volunteers in it, huge elephant ears, zinnias, caladiums, marigolds, none of it planted by me, all just came up on their own from things I threw onto the pile last summer/fall and early winter.  Everything is huge, with dark green foliage.  I put all my food scraps, soil, even deceased fish into the pile.  Wish my whole yard was this healthy!  Hope you all have a good day;
Barb

[LizStreithorst]

Good afternoon Barb, Ron later and Willie, perhaps.

I'm back from the pain doctor where he did a numbing thing on my nerves which Medicare insists I have twice before he burns the nerves.  The doctor answered all my questions including one weird one when I asked if the way the spine was designed didn't make it innately unsound.  He said yes, but it is what we were given.

He said that my TENS unit was not a waste of money and that I was putting it in the right spot.  My biggest question was whether some people's brains interpret pain differently.  I for example feel some pain, but it's the exhaustion that is my main thing.  He said absolutely.  It made feel feel better about lying to him saying that my pain level was 6 during the exam.  When it comes down to it I guess I prefer to be exhausted in the late afternoon to being in pain all day. 

A funny thing happened when he was injecting the anesthetic into the nerve.  I asked if that was what he was doing and he said it was and asked how I was doing.  It certainly didn't hurt, but it did feel weird like something was going in.  He said, "Most people are ready to jump out of their skin at this point, but you might fall asleep."  lol  I like a doctor with a sense of humor.

All my dogs just got back from having one of their huge barks.  They thought that there was a critter lurking outside.  I know there's a fox on the prowl.  It took the hen I gave to April.  She saw it.  I saw a coyote snag one of my hens this past spring so I know the predictors are there.  They did take off down in the woods, so I guess they really know.  Pip has an excellent nose she is the one who started barking first.

Barb, when your compost pile elephant ears are ready for sending to someone who needs them can I have some this winter?  I have 2 places where nothing else will do well due to the heavy shade there.  Elephant Ears do well in the shade, right?



I go back in 2 weeks for him to do the same silly thing before Medicare will let him burn the nerves.  The place I really need to go is to my neurosurgeon.  I have more faith in stenosis surgery helping me that I have in this pain doctor having his way with my back.  But he says that he should do his stuff beforehand.

[Barb]

Will do Liz.  They do ok in deep shade but a few hrs of sun is best.  What they really need is constantly moist, even wet soil.  Some people have them growing at the edges of their ponds in water.  They can do fine in a large pot if you water them a lot.  Glad you got your pain treatment.

[Ron Sower]

Another really busy day for me...a lot of walking this morning...then Stan picked me up in the afternoon and we went to one of our favorite LFS ....where I bought 3. Dry small Sterbai cowries and a couple plants... funny thing about this was we were going to get some nice guppies for Stan but they weren't out of quarantine yet!...so he went away with nothing and I wasn't going to buy anything!...
Anyway, I'm sore tonight and hope I sleep well tonight!...

The second place we went was to a club members house so I could buy her CO2 setup...5G tank and all!!!

I had the same thing done, Liz, before they burned my nerves.... It was to make sure they are hitting the right nerve...it felt so good for several hours...I told them that's what I wanted permanently...but alas, they didn't have a way to do it...I had one doc that actually got the rfa done right...eventually the nerves grew back like they said might happen....   ...I hope you have great success with it, Liz!...

One of the things I've learned about chronic pain is that it brings on fatigue...days when I'm mostly pain free are wonderful, and I'm not grump or tired...living with constant pain is physically debilitating...

I guess I better go acclimate my little Sterbais...

Happy aquariuming, all!...