Category Archives: Health

2024, Gatherings, Health, Music, Uncategorized

In Poor Taste

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Last weekend our local Opera group held a gala evening of a lovely meal and selections from various operas.

We have a surprisingly active opera group here, and they host a summer youth musical camp, as well as operas and recitals during the rest of the year. Our church choir director and her husband are very active in the group.

We didn’t attend the Gala, but heard plenty of comments about it the next day. An acquaintance of ours and her husband attended the Gala. She is a former piano instructor at the college. She and her husband also attend our church. Just before the end of the evening, our acquaintance’s husband collapsed and had to be resuscitated with CPR. He was taken to the hospital. There were several medical professionals in the audience who saved his life.

The final selection to be performed at the Gala was from one of the last acts of Carmen, in which Carmen is stabbed to death by Jose’. Our church choir director was to sing the part of Carmen. They decided that Carmen being stabbed to death just after Larry, the piano teacher’s husband, was hauled out on a stretcher would be in pretty poor taste, so they quickly ended the show.

I am happy to report that Larry survived and the Carmen selection will be performed at the next recital in the fall. This is just too much drama for our small community!

What are your favorite and least favorite endings to operas and musicals

2024, animals, Family, Health, Medicine, pets, Uncategorized

As Sick As A Dog

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Husband and I are pretty anxious right now to find out how our dog is doing at the vet. We had to take him there Thursday after three days of constant hurling after meals. The vet did x-rays and found him to be constipated and dehydrated. There is the possibility that he has an upper intestinal blockage of some sort, perhaps from the shards of an Icelandic lamb horn, or the Kong Wubba he chewed and destroyed over the weekend, or a mixture of both. He hasn’t had anything different to eat for the past couple of weeks. He has been drinking water like crazy, though. He typically doesn’t swallow what he destroys, so we can’t think what would have plugged him up.

It is hard to tell when a terrier is under the weather, as they typically don’t let you know they aren’t feeling well until they are half dead. Even before we took him to the vet he wanted to tug, steal things, and go for walks. They are giving him special IV’s to hydrate him and get his digestive system flowing, as it were. They will do surgery if that doesn’t work. I refuse to take as on omen that the flock of vultures on the local butte were circling our home as I wrote this.

What health issues have your pets had? How can you tell your pets or human companions aren’t feeling well?

2024, Health, home, Medicine, Uncategorized

Rolling Pin Redux

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Husband and I have four rolling pins. Two are French-style ones I use for pie crusts, one is a knobby one for hardtack, and the biggest one with narrow grooves is for lefse. I use the French ones pretty regularly. The lefse rolling pin only comes out in November, that is, until now, thanks to my physical therapist.

My physical therapist really likes to attack knots in my sore muscles by vigorously rubbing them. This is not gentle massage. It hurts, but helps loosen the muscles. The other day at my PT appointment after the heating pad and dry needling there were very sore knots on the muscles on the outside of my right leg above my knee. My therapist got out a large and heavy styrofoam roller and rolled it up and down those muscle knots for about 10 minutes. After she was finished it felt wonderful. I told her I thought I could do the same thing at home with a rolling pin. She agreed, but cautioned that the narrower circumference of the rolling pin might hurt more than her roller did.

I spent a good amount of time Saturday doing my PT exercises and rolling the lefse rolling pin up and down the knots in my leg. I had the most pain-free day I have had in a couple of months.

What is your preferred rolling pin? What are some alternative uses you have found for objects? Any odd home remedies you have tried or heard of?

2024, Health, Technology

Therapy Routine

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Went for my first physical therapy appointment yesterday.  It went fairly smoothly; she poked and prodded and measured.  Made me stand on one foot and then the other.  Walked up and down the hallway.

She showed me four exercises to start with – one with a strap and one with a stretchy thing.  Two on steps.  All fairly straightforward but when I got home I realized that a couple only get done once a day, one gets done twice and day and the last one gets done three times a day.  I sat with the paper in my hands for about a minute before I knew what I had to do.  A spreadsheet!  It’s pretty simple, just a chart with each exercise listed the prerequisite number of times for each day of the next week.  I imagine, since I’m a morning person, I’ll do the four together in the morning and then slot in the rest as the day goes on.  

Spreadsheet isn’t pretty, but enough to keep track of what I’m doing on a daily basis… a rustic spreadsheet as it were.  What in heaven’s name did I do before Excel?

Do you have a daily routine (with or without a spreadsheet!)?

2024, education, Health, Medicine, Mysteries

At Least I’m Upright….

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I think I know why it takes so long to become a doctor. You have to learn a completely different language:

This accessory muscle is located posteromedially, originating from the fascia of the deep posterior compartment at a level posterior to the tibiotalar joint and talus and then extends inferiorly, deep to the flexor retinaculum, posterior and superficial to the traversing tibial nerve and posterior tibial artery within the tarsal tunnel, inserting distally upon the quadratus plantae muscle (axial series 2, Images 6-22, sagittal series 4, images 15-11 and coronal series 7, images 7-10.)

Even after Dr. Moser showed me the MRI images and “explained” it to me, I’m still not sure exactly what the issue is except that it seems to be related to my initial ankle sprain (20 years ago – a bad sprain that took several months to feel better). No pinched anything, no compressed anything, no torn anything and in what was clearly a surprise to the doctor, no arthritis. He did point out what he called some edema – that’s about it. Two co-pays and an MRI to get told my ankle hurts.

Sent home with a brace and a couple of physical therapy appointments. In the meantime, I suppose the fact that there isn’t any arthritis is the good news I’ll try to keep in mind.

Do you have a favorite tongue-twister from childhood?

2024, Family, Health, home, Mysteries, TV

Verily’s Pity Party

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The last time I said “I think I’m the only person left in America who hasn’t had covid” I should have knocked on wood.

Went to a party on a Saturday night 10 days ago and had a great time, met up with some current and former neighbors for a 70th birthday celebration for a friend.  Good food, drink, company.  Had a wonderful time.

On Tuesday morning as I was starting to get ready to go to the art museum, one of my Saturday night friends texted a group of us saying that she had covid and was pretty sick.  Even though I felt fine I thought it would be the responsible thing to do to test before I went on a tour at the museum.  And there it was… a big pink “T” line.  I’ve taken a lot of tests since the beginning of pandemic and I’ve never gotten the “T” line before.  Shocking.  The good news is that I am still asymptomatic so all those jabs did pay off.

The bad news is that I’m feeling sorry for myself – although I’m not sure why.  Except for cancelling my museum tour with my friend at the last minute, I haven’t really done anything differently the last week.  Thank goodness for the Target pick-up, the Aldis pick-up, the post office drive through and the library drop box.  I did send YA to the library to pick up a book for me on Friday so I wouldn’t have to go in.  YA is avoiding me like… dare I say “the plague” and seems fine so far.  I’ve done stuff around the house, read a lot, worked in my studio, labored on a 1000-piece jigsaw of a dragon in a “dragon forge cave” (it’s a doozy) and binge-watched the Colombo marathon on Sunday.  I’m not sure why I’m feeling weird about this… but it does feel like the first couple of weeks of pandemic when I remember feeling trapped in the house.

As of yesterday, still positive but the “T” line was very faint so I expect in the next 48 hours I’ll be clear and free to break out and roam the neighborhood again.  I’ll have to shut the pity party down.

Ridiculous, right?

2024, Gatherings, Health, Uncategorized, work

Ah, Youth!

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Last week I went out with six coworkers for a farewell luncheon for one of them. These are all young women under the age of 35, all mental health professionals. The lunch was delightful, but the conversation sure made me feel old.

Much of their discussion was about their newest discoveries for facial moisturizers and makeup, their latest experiences getting their nails done, their favorite coffee shops they visit daily, their favorite restaurants, their recent appointments at the chiropractor, and the new tattoos they were planning. Since I don’t wear makeup, have rather nice skin for someone who is almost 66, and would never, ever, get a tattoo, I hadn’t much to say. I have never had a manicure. I have never been to a chiropractor or had a massage. I refuse to spend money at coffee shops when I have perfectly good French press coffee brewed for me every morning by my husband. They were all astounded, however, when I mentioned that I have never had a pedicure. They all agreed that they are going to take me out for a pedicure before I retire. We shall see. I don’t know if I want someone messing around with my feet.

My coworkers view these activities as self care. I could never justify spending all the money that they do on these things. My self care is listening to music, gardening, and cooking. I suppose I spend more money on cooking ingredients than they do, but I am healthier than most of my coworkers and eat way better then they do.

What do you do for self care? What activities did you engage in that your elders shook their heads over when you were young?

2024, Family, Games, Health, home, Mysteries

I Will Not Finish the Puzzle….

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I will not finish the puzzle today.  I will not finish the puzzle today.  I will not finish the puzzle today. 

I have an obsession problem when it comes to jigsaw puzzles.  I have trouble stopping once I sit down in front of a puzzle.  There have been times that I have not walked away for hours.  I’ve skipped meals, I’ve been late to work, I’ve lost sleep.  YA has inherited this from me.  During the pandemic holidays, we worked 8 hours on a puzzle, taking turns picking movies to watch on tv.  Sad (although we DID finish before bed).  Because of this, sometimes I shy away from starting a puzzle if I have things that need getting done.

Over the holidays I did an Advent jigsaw puzzle.  It was 24 little boxes of 42 pieces; one little puzzle a day that made one big puzzle at the end.  It was wonderful… it was a fun and relaxing start to my day throughout the season and the fact that each day was in its own box kept me from jumping ahead.  I will definitely do it again.

So when I started a new puzzle last Thursday I told myself that would have a two-hour limit.  I figured if I set a boundary, like the little boxes had been boundaries, then I could avoid sitting at the table for hours and hours on end.  I even wrote it down on my daily “to-do” list.  Thursday turned out fine; it took me right about two hours to sort out all the edge pieces and put them together.  I spent 2½ hours on Friday; aided and abetted by having my Zoom book club for close to three hours. 

On Saturday, I was making good progress and watching tv and I felt myself sliding down the slippery slope.  The two-hour mark came and went.  “I’ll just work until this tv show is over”.  Then the next show.  As the next show started, I began my mantra.  “I will not finish this puzzle” today, I will not finish this puzzle today”.  This worked; I stood up from table after a little over five hours.

You know how this is going to end.  I spent 5 hours yesterday and finished it as it was started to get dark.   And just what happened to the two hours yesterday?  I excused myself from the rule because I was feeling sorry for myself… still coughing a bit much to hang around with healthy folks.  I can  come up an excuse with the best of them!

Do you ever have to set limits on yourself?

(Thanks to Jacque for the puzzle!)

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Health, home, pets, Uncategorized, work

Pause

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Today’s Farm Update is from Ben.

Felt like a rather quiet week on the farm.

I did get snow fence installed, and driveway markers are in.

Hauled in the last of the scrap Iron I wanted to do for this year. I’ll be curious to see what my total was for scrap iron this year. Several thousand lbs. This last load was 3500 lbs and was an old disc, a bit of the old elevator frame, and some misc pieces. Price was still $100 / ton so it paid for the gas anyway.

I did an (almost) final cleaned up behind the shed one day just scraping all the brush into a pile; I wish I had done a before photo but there’s the after.

Just image it full of trees and junk and crap collected over 40 years. I’d love to put an overhang back here to shelter some machinery like the rear blade, the snow blower, the brush mower, etc. Got a pile of cement blocks to move yet.

Met our banker one day and made a plan. I’ve got most of the big bills paid. Signed the last of the papers for crop insurance, but don’t know what that’s going to pay yet.

Had two nights of Holiday Concerts at the college this past week. The choir sounds really very nice. The band is small but growing, and they’ll be really good in another year or two. The one photo is the designer, Paul, with Santa.

We’ve had a little issue with Luna and Bailey lately. They really got into a fight the day I was working on snow fence. Like a ‘to the death’ type fight. I had to separate them three times, finally putting Bailey in the gator.

We can tell Bailey seems jealous, yet she’s picking fights she doesn’t want to be in. They’re equal size and weight. It almost seems like Luna is trying to find her place in the order. Bailey is spayed, we don’t think Luna is yet. We’ve had Luna for 2 months now. She’s really settling in. Which might be what’s putting Bailey off. Any thoughts on 2 female dogs getting along would be appreciated.

Need to get the final paper submitted for class this coming week and the semester is over on the 15th.

The Rep Theater has the next phase of heating and AC going on so that will take some of my time. They have a lot of old photos out as part of the 40 year anniversary. This was me at about 20 years old at the Rep. PHOTO

I should get going on 2023 bookwork one of these days… I’ve been really lazy on that this year.

HAVE YOU GOT THINGS WRAPPED UP?

2023, Health, Medicine

Mindfulness

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​A mental state achieved by concentrating on the present moment, while calmly accepting the feelings and thoughts that come to you,

Mindfulness is a therapeutic strategy all the rage in mental health treatment. I personally find it annoying and tiresome to pay attention to what is going on in my thoughts and my body for extended periods of time, It has been very helpful lately, however, as I have struggled with some pain.

I have had crappy posture all my life. I slouch, even when I am sitting. I probably have a weak upper body and don’t do enough exercise. A few years ago I was having a great deal of back pain and found that I have lumbar scoliosis. I had Physical Therapy, and that helped a lot. I didn’t change my posture, though. Last year I struggled with sciatica down both legs, and PT also helped with that. For the past couple of months, though the sciatica came back with a vengeance, and there have been times I thought I needed a cane as my left leg would give out on me with intense pain while I walked, and I was afraid I was going to fall. I have a lumbar support chair at work that that didn’t help at all.

I decided I needed to do something about this, and I realized that when I sit, walk, or stand (especially in the kitchen when I cook) I slump my lower back outward in such a way that I was pinching a nerve in my left leg. I have started to direct my attention to my lower back and its position, keeping it straight, and for two weeks now my leg pain has disappeared. My lower back has protested somewhat as I am making it go into a position it hasn’t had to be in for some time, but I think I am on the right track. I am mindful of my back position when I drive, when I sit at my desk, when I stand, and when I walk. I hope that it will become automatic for me one of these days, but I may have to resign myself to have to practice mindfulness for a long time.

What do you need to be mindful of? What are you prone to ignore that you should pay attention to?