It's been a while since I checked in here, so it is time for an update.
The days have been busy and the nights have been long. I'm still struggling with my
trigeminal neuralgia and balancing the pain relief from the meds and the side effects from them. I have not reached a good balance yet. I am with moving forward and carefully considering other options which involve doctors' visits and tests. Depending on the day, my thoughts go from do nothing to extreme intervention and everything in between. The very good news is this is not a threat to my overall health. The bad news is this is not a threat to my overall health and so there are no clear decisions to be made.
But otherwise, it's just been this and that around here. Nothing major. Below are a few of the things I've been up to.
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| I continue to work in the yard. We have very rocky soil and I've started a rock pile from the rocks I find while working. Maybe it's the geologist in me, but I get a certain satisfaction from my rock pile. |
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| I'm not sure who set them all off, but we saw five different sets of fireworks from our back deck around the Fourth of July. The best ones came, however, from our backyard neighbor. They were slow, but that gave Ward and I time to chat between bursts. |
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| I marched with the library in our annual town parade. This year I carried a selfie poster promoting the summer reading theme, A Universe of Stories. |
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| Our elderly cats are slowly failing, but presently they are still champs at howling for laps to sit in and food to eat. I seem to spend a lot of time with a cat in my lap. |
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| Uncle Billy's blueberries are ripening and I spent a morning picking them. I am guessing there will be more for me to pick in the future. |
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| Ward spent 10 days on the west coast backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail with a little sightseeing thrown in. This is outside the visitor's center at Mt. Saint Helens. |
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| Ward and I spent a pleasant morning finding a couple more quilts on the barn quilt tour we have been doing. (Carolina Lily pattern show here.) |
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| Last week, we had extreme heat like most of the country that ended with severe weather. As a cold front came through, we were in the basement during an imminent tornado warning and lost electricity for a while. However, we didn't have much damage--just a few small branches down and lots of pears. This is the first year that we have more than a few pears from either tree. All of these should have stayed on the tree longer, but I'm going to see what I can do about getting at least some of them to ripen. |
I hope you manage to find a good balance between the pain and the side effects of the medications, Live and Learn.
ReplyDeleteYour rock pile is interesting! Maybe you can turn it into a landscape feature, like a dry stream bed or a rock garden.
I like your Summer Reading Program poster!
I'm glad the storm front didn't do more damage! Hope you are able to salvage those pears!
Occasionally, I do need a rock for something and I go to the pile. Right now, it's doing weed control around the tree. I don't know what its future will be.
DeleteIf the pears don't ripen, pear preserves? Slightly green ones make the best .
ReplyDeleteI am sorry you are going through everything. Hopefully it will resolve!
I don't have much experience with pears except eating them. Thanks for the tip about the preserves.
DeleteUgh, your ongoing pain sounds miserable. It is hard to make a medical decision when there are no clear-cut answers, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteWard's backpacking trip looks marvelous!
We are at the end of cherry season and smack dab in the middle of blueberry season.
We also had storms last weekend. Fortunately, my neighborhood didn't get hit hard, but when I got to work on Saturday, traffic lights all over the city were out and branches were all over. Staff arrived late due to trees in the road. Sounds like it was stormy everywhere.
Some how I lost my first reply. I have a feeling it was user error, but let's blame it on Blogger. :)
DeleteWard had a good time on his trip. He had been to the area once before when he climbed Mt. Hood. I like to hike, but not at the level he does, so I'm glad he has friends to go with.
I'm sorry there aren't any great options for you. Sitting with a cat in lap would be my idea of perfect. I'm glad you enjoy yours.
ReplyDeleteI love a cat in my lap, but it does come at a cost. I found out a couple of years ago, I'm allergic to cats and have started allergy shots for that. Unfortunately, if I insist on having a cat on my lap I will have itchy eyes. Right now, that's a price I'm willing to pay. However, the shots have improved the situation somewhat.
DeleteThat is a lot of pears! I had terrible problems left side of my face, still do sometimes, with twitching around my eye, nose and one side of my mouth, even inside the top half of my mouth, all from my neck injury. Has your neck been checked out? I know the facial nerves exit the skull from the very top vertebra just behind each ear. I used to put ice there, for relief, and sometimes at the back top of my neck. In my case, because my neck was ruptured, the muscles tightened horribly up my neck and side of my head, across the nerves, causing the pain and twitching. Just a thought, always wishing to fix things, sorry.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's my neck as I have never had an injury there, but if they don't find the typical reasons for TGN, I'll suggest that. The vast majority of the cases are caused by blood vessels pressing on the TG nerve. Sometimes they find no reasons and theorize that it has something to do with nerves passing too close to each other. Never have read anywhere that ice helps, but it's worth a try. Thanks for your concern and suggestions. Sorry that you have problems of your own.
DeleteI am sorry about your diagnosis and hope you can get it to where you can tolerate it better. Although, you seem to be tolerating it well. When I had nerve pain before my surgery I was so miserable. Praying God sends you less pain and more comfort.
ReplyDeleteI know when I had my cat and I was going through dire medical crisis, he comforted me. His purrs smoothed me and he just seemed to be always with me. Now he's in Cats heaven. Yours looks similar to the one I had. God bless. Stay strong. I'll be praying for you.
Thanks for the prayers, Cajunme. You have had far more suffering than I have had and most people in general, yet you keep on going. A good example for all of us to follow.
DeleteThere's nothing like a purring cat to calm things, is there? I'm sorry you lost your cat, but hope there are good memories when you think about him.
The link you gave to your condition just links to blogger main page.
ReplyDeleteThat's odd. It's fixed now, I think. Thanks for the heads up.
DeleteHave you tried tramadol?
ReplyDeleteI have not tried tramodol because unfortunately, this does not respond to any kind of pain relievers even narcotics. But thanks for the suggestion.
DeleteJune - That's a real bummer about your TN. I'm sorry to hear that. Getting old sure has its challenges. I hope you eventually, sooner rather than later, find something to mitigate it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Ward is doing sections of the PCT. Is he heading north or south? My wife's incredible cousin and her husband have been doing northbound sections for the past few years. We acted as "sherpa's" for the 1st few years, but they are now out of our reach. They are on the trail right now in northernmost California and are ending up north of Crater Lake, Oregon. Our daughter and her boyfriend in the Reno area were able to be sherpa's this time, so we still had, if even remotely, a family connection to the trip.
Concerning your rocks, "Well, that is very interesting, June. That shows that those interesting rocks were part of the syntectonic sedimentation of the doubly-plunging Salem Synclinorium in late Martinsburg time, just as Byron had predicted!" (Said with great respect for the reference, and with remorse to all for the inside joke).
Ward drove north to Mt. Adams and headed south to end at the Colombia River Gorge. As you may remember his group picks a different place every time they go, so I don't know if they will head back to the PCT anytime soon. However, Ward was in the area several years ago when he climbed Mt. Hood with his friends.
Delete"Just as Byron had predicted" :)