ruthenberg status update 8/11/11

I haven't blogged in a long time. Not much to say. I mostly was working, spending time with my dad, spending more time with my Dave, missing my children and grandchildren back in Michigan, and relaxing.

Then Dave and I got the idea that we needed a bigger house so that if and when our families from Michigan come to visit, there is room for them to stay.

We found a lovely house to rent and decided to move. So for two weeks or so we boxed up all our "stuff" and on August 8 we had the movers come. Just before that I had been having increasing pain and numbness in my back, hips, legs, and feet. So I went to the doctor, had an x-ray and a MRI of my back. Apparently I have bulging discs in my lumbar spine. Well the move didn't help - in fact it made it worse. But I am waiting to get an appointment at a Pain Clinic here in Enid.

On Monday, after all our stuff was moved to the new location - a storm blew through. 96 mph winds. Knocked down a lot of electrical poles. So we didn't have any power until the next afternoon. It must have been hilarious (to others if they were watching) to see Dave and I dig through all the boxes to find the candles and flashlights, all the while getting irritated with each other because we were hot, tired, sweaty, and uncomfortable.

Then I realized that my dad might not have power. So at 9 p.m. I made Dave drive me through the storm ravaged roads to get to Golden Oaks to check on him. Because of Dave's expert driving we were able to navigate around downed poles and through the back entrance of Golden Oaks. There were generators running. People in the hallways. One entrance was closed off because of the downed lines. I went to Dad's apartment and he was in bed and pretty comfortable. He still had air conditioning because of the generators, so he didn't want to come back to our house. I got him caught up on what happened and made plans to go get him the next day. He had a doctor's appointment to go to.

Golden Oaks had some windows blown out by the storm in the atrium where they have the main dining room. They weren't sure when they would get the electricity restored.

one of those days

Sunday was one of those days. I didn't think I would have a bad day, but starting in the afternoon, the day went downhill.

First it started off with Dave looking for his VirginMobile USB so that he could work online at the baseball games tomorrow. I couldn't find it. I am pretty sure that we brought it home from our trip and that I had it one day when we had tornado warnings. After looking in all the usual and unusual spots, I couldn't find it. I could tell that Dave was getting upset that I couldn't find it. I was getting hungry, blood sugar dropping, etc. But he wanted me to go to Walmart right then to get a new one so that we could get it set up.

I got one and brought it home. Started setting it up...still hungry...decided to start the rice-a-roni and the chicken. I started the butter to melt in the skillet and turned back around to continue activating the wi-fi device. I forgot about the butter until I realized that it was burning. I got that off the stove and asked Dave if he would take me out to dinner. He wasn't as mad at me anymore because he thinks we left the usb in a motel on the way home. I don't think so, but was glad he wasn't mad at me.

So I got the USB working on his laptop and we decided that I had better not try to cook some food, since I was having so much bad luck already.

We went to Napoli's. Dave ordered his favorite food, pizza. I didn't want pizza, so I ordered Stuffed Pasta Shells in pink sauce. For some reason I couldn't handle the pasta shells. The mozzarella cheese was so thick that I couldn't get it, the sauce, and part of a shell on the fork. It kept sliding off. At one point one slid off into the rest of the sauce and splashed all down the front of me.

At that point, I kind of gave up. I was embarrassed that my shirt was filthy. And I needed more napkins. They only provide you with one. After a bit I was able to put the shells on to a plate and eat them that way.

I am happy to report that the rest of the day went better and Monday was productive also. Dave had to work, so I took my dad for a drive to get him out of his apartment. We went to see the Gloss Mountains. But after seeing the San Juan Mountains, the Gloss Mountains only looked like hills. Then when I came back home I swept and mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors.

Glad I don't have too many days like Sunday.

need sleep

For the last few months I have been waging a battle with sleep. My body doesn't want me to sleep for some reason, so it is making up these stupid little twitches, itches, pains, and uncomfortableness so that I cannot lie still. But it is getting even worse, where I cannot NOT lie down. Around 9 or 10 p.m. my body just starts feeling like it has to lie down. Or it cannot sit up. I have to move or lie down. I cannot sit still. It is so uncomfortable feeling and I hate it.

So I am trying different things. I went to the doctor and he thinks I have restless leg syndrome. So we are trying the medication for that. But so far it hasn't seemed to help. Actually it might be a little worse.

Then I went to a chiropractor. Not sure that did anything.

Today I tried not having any coffee in the morning. I seem a little better this evening. Maybe I am just getting too much caffeine.

Now a couple of days later - still can't sleep. Nothing seems to work. I am so tired.

Valentine's Day and husbands

I have never been really gung-ho about valentine's day. It seems like it is more for the card, candy, and jewelry companies than for what it was says it means. However, I am afraid that we did give a little money to the jewelry store, but not because it was valentine's day. Dave has lost a lot of weight and his original wedding band was falling off. Since I didn't want him to lose it and therefore possibly have other women think he is available, I suggested he and I get our bands updated. Which we did. We now have bands that are a little more sparkly then the original ones.

On another note: I almost lost my husband. I am trying to make light of it and it actually happened so fast that I didn't realize the implications while it was happening. Dave woke up on 1/31 with diarrhea. After three hours of almost constant diarrhea, he was dehydrated and in pain. I guess his potassium was extremely low. I called an ambulance after not being able to reach the doctor immediately. They got him to the hospital and was able to start IV fluids and bring his potassium back up to where it was suppose to be. It was 2 when he was admitted and it is suppose to be 3.5-5. It took a few days for him to start feeling better. When I married him his parents warned me that he could go into an adrenal crisis very quickly and I had had a glimmer of this eleven years ago before we were married. But I was scared. That first night, when he was either in pain or sleeping from the pain meds, all I could think about was how much I would miss him if he died. I felt helpless because I couldn't do anything except make sure that the doctors and nurses understood that he an underlying conditional called congenital adrenal hyperplasia and that it was the salt-wasting type. I am not even sure what all that means. I just know that by saying that the doctors were pointed in the right direction to help him get better. I am glad that his parents warned me so that I could help him get the medical attention he needed.

But he is better now. Like I said, it all went so fast and I made light of what happened when he was first in the hospital because I didn't really know what was going on. Just a bad case of the flu? But for someone with CAH even a normal case of the flu can be life threatening.

Birthday blues

Well, yesterday was my birthday. Dave got the day off and we planned to go to Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge Eagle Watch and then stay at a local hotel for a "night away from home". A rare day - spending time with my husband.