It’s been A Week. After two months in the hospital on IV antibiotics, Mom was discharged - HOME - two days ago, over both her and my protests. She lives alone, she has no support, seeing as how both I and my aunt are disabled and my son works full-time, all of which I told the hospital when they informed me they were…

Happy belated birthday! And go you for getting that appointment! Here’s hoping it helps - just remember that it DOES take a while for them to build up in your system, so when you first start taking them, keep at it and keep talking to your doctor about both side effects and how the drug’s working (give it about 30…

I haven’t, but I’m sure gonna ask my doctor about a referral for it at my next appointment! My feet/legs actually tend to roll outwards, which I would imagine might cause some problems. Most of the hip pain comes from sitting for periods longer than 1-2 hours at a stretch, but if any of that could be eased with…

Hey, another member of the Bad Back Club! (Sorry you had to join, especially since we don’t even have cool jackets or anything)

That was my first question, but the doctor said they can’t do much numbing - apparently it would interfere with me being able to give feedback about the injection. (Not sure how that works, since without numbing, my feedback would largely consist of AAAARRRRGGGHHHH)

Talk to your PCP about getting an antidepressant. Explain that you’re in therapy, you’re not trying to fix things with drugs, but you have some signs of depression that you think medication might help with. They might tell you to talk to your therapist about it, in which case ask them. I know a talk with my PCP was…

Congratulations! That’s so wonderful that you managed to get through all those frustrations without drinking. I know Mom’s always said it’s those little household things that were the hardest for her to deal with sober, and today you got through a whole cascade of them, so go you!

We survived the week! Monday was bad, but it was nothing compared to Tuesday and Wednesday. Thankfully, I convinced Kidlet to let me get a hotel room for the worst of it, so we had A/C to keep all of us cool.

Oh, I hear you there! PT is my doctor’s favorite go-to, along with ‘well, let’s get some new xrays/MRI/blood tests’ that never manage to show anything. At this point, I’ve stopped even looking up when the new idea trains pull in - at least if I stay at the station, I KNOW what the fuck I’m in for.

Pain management in this country is fucked the hell up. There’s a deeply Puritanical belief that pain is somehow ‘strengthening’ and that gritting your teeth and getting through pain will make you a better person. Anybody who takes more than aspirin/tylenol/ibuprofen for more than the most severe pain is viewed as a…

Chocolate-covered mint Oreos - put them in the freezer for a couple hours and if there’s a difference, you’ll hardly notice and you definitely won’t care! (Bonus - they’re available year-round and MUCH cheaper than Thin Mints)

I noticed the same thing about lack of any other influence on Archie’s name, but I chalked it up to the men of the family basically being shit, so there was nobody really to name Archie after. Doesn’t seem like Harry has a good relationship with really anyone in the royal family but Liz, so it makes sense that he’d…

I wonder if the age you were at the time of the wedding has anything to do with what you thought about the dress. I was 5, and remember thinking that she looked beautiful, but then again, to a 5-year-old, just about any bride is a bona fide princess. Hell, I thought both my aunts looked gorgeous, and their dresses are…

The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey. It’s the start of a series, so you could always try it and get the others if you like it. Kidlet likes The Long Earth series, by Terry Pratchett, and there’s always Discworld as well.  And if you like Novik, there’s Temeraire, although I haven’t heard that one on audiobook yet.

Check your health insurance. A lot of them have programs which will either pay your membership or reimburse you for it. My own insurance takes care of membership to a number of local gyms, which is awesome, since otherwise I’d absolutely never go. I’m still in the yoga-at-home phase, trying to work up to going back…

I definitely agree with you about the extreme fixation creating boring and exhausting individuals. Both the Parentals have a great deal to be thankful for yet always seem to be unhappy with life in general. So far as childhood memories go, that’s a pretty big minefield to tread, seeing as there was rampant emotional…

Ohhhh, we’re planning on it! We’ll be having salads at lunch, then treating ourselves to greasy, amazing burgers on the way home. And Pupper will be getting a stop at Petco, as well - can’t forget him!

Thanks. They’re definitely a handful and a half, and while I can’t imagine, as a parent myself, going that long between visits, I also can’t say that I’m sorry about it. You’re right about getting used to the general non-listening and acceptance, but I think the hurt part of it never really goes away. But like you…

If you have access to any kind of streaming service (or download ability) I can HIGHLY recommend The Great British Bakeoff as a great show for surgical recovery. The stakes are low, the voices are soothing, and overall it just kind of washes over you, so you can fade in and out at will. I think I went through the…

The Parentals are moving to FL (yay!) and so have decided they want to have lunch with us (less yay) on Monday (FUCK) And since they know we just bought a car, we have no excuse not to go, since we’ll be able to meet them at the location they’ve chosen (not far, only about a 45 min drive) We haven’t seen them in five…