Saturday, April 25

scoliosis

So, the new word on what's wrong with my back is.... scoliosis.

Not sure if it's congenital or functional (muscular) or what, but found out I definitely have a short right leg that's causing about a 3/4 inch drop in height on my right compared to my left leg, which is causing my low back (lumbar) to sway to the right and throw off my mid-/upper-/neck regions.

I'm on my fourth back doctor...and finally the first thing he did was take x-rays.  These aren't mine, but mine looked pretty darn similar:


The good news is all my discs look pretty healthy (with the exception of the one being pinched in my iliosacral joint, between my S1 & L5).  



Apparently this is what is happening, biomechanically:


My new doctor gave me a heel lift to wear under my right foot (instead of the heel lift my last doctor gave me to wear under my left foot - what a mess).  And he said that surgery is far from even necessary for me at this point, so at least that's good news. 

I'm hoping that over a year of chronic pain, lop-sided clumsiness, and downing ibuprofen like candy that THIS doctor will finally get to the bottom of what's wrong with me.  He says he can.  (And if he can't I want a referral to an awesome specialist - this is getting ridiculous & expensive!)

I'll keep you posted.

Sunday, April 19

rickity old ladder

I'm home alone, watching a really scary movie, at 2:00 am (never sleeping now).  Decided during the commercial break I should get some bread for tomorrow out of the freezer in the garage, shutting the door behind me so my kitties wouldn't follow me.  

At this point I realized the handle didn't feel right.  I tried it again...yep, it's locked.

!@#$.

The folks aren't due back until late Sunday night; all my neighbors are asleep; I'm barefoot & coatless in my pjs; I don't have a key to the house or to my car; and I don't even have my cell phone with me.  And all I hear is the super creepy music from the scary movie and the screams of people being attacked by zombies.



I figure I have three options:  
(1) wake the neighbors (and then what??), 
(2) crawl into mom's car and try to get comfortable in the backseat until morning (like I could sleep in there, esp. with all the scary background noise), or 
(3) try to get through the only unlocked window in the house...the open kitchen window, two stories up.

I decided to try option 3, figuring it would either lead to option 1 or would have to try option 2 if I failed.  

I paused as I looked at the rickity old wood ladder in the garage: it's been around longer than the house - would it hold me?  I prayed the adventure wouldn't result in an option 4:  a night in the ER.

I started around the house to check out the window...and realized the night was pitch black and I had turned off all the house lights.  I couldn't see a thing.  But I could hear gun fire blasting from the living room.

Totally creeped out I hurried back to the garage to look for a flashlight.  Nothing.  How could we not have a flashlight in the garage??  Probably the same reason we don't have a spare key hidden outside the house.

So I found a portable construction light...but it would need to be plugged in to work.  Which means I would still need to walk around to the back of the house in complete darkness and fumble for the plug-in on the back deck.  Which I did - praying for protection from whatever the whole time.

Ahhh, light.  So much better.

Back to the garage for the ladder...to find it blocked in by snow tires.

!@#$.

The back seat was seeming more and more like the option I was going to have to pick.

Eventually wiggled the thing out of it's location (probably hadn't been moved for years) and hauled it off in the near-darkness to the side of the house.  I started having flash-backs to the night I helped my Irvine roommate crawl through her kitchen window to unlock her place.  ha!

Managed to get it set in place, now praying the whole time that it wouldn't slip and I wouldn't fall...and crawled through the window onto the sink counter...while Bear stared at me wide-eyed from the kitchen floor.  LOL

I made it!  Whew.

Back to the garage to close things up, I opened the freezer to get my bread...

Turns out we're all out.

Damn it.  Go figure.  Such is my life...

Sunday, April 5

i-wannabe-irish beef stew


Alright guys...y'all left me in a lurch on what to do with my huge side of beef and multiple bottles of Guinness (the latter not being so much of the issue - hehe).  NO ideas AT ALL??  I'm very disappointed.

You left me no choice but to wing it on another recipe...

I-Wannabe-Irish Beef Stew
by:  yours truly, cvo

huge chunk of stew beef, browned
cubed up fresh veggies:
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1 lg onion
- 3 potatos
- 3 rutabaga
- several celery stalks
- dump in some baby carrots
2 C beef stock
good-sized handful of various herbs & seasonings
and...
3 bottles of GUINNESS! -->  two for the recipe, one for me...  ;)

It's cooking in the oven at 350F right now and will continue to do so for probably a total of 2-3 hours I'm guessing.  Already an hour into it though and it's smelling the house up something fierce....yummmmmmm....can hardly wait!



What's up with this serious lack of comments, though?  Don't think for a minute I don't see you parading by on my Feedjit widget...come on now...  ;)