I need a new body transplant

You see it on TV all the time, people have a problem, they just make an appointment and change their nose, face, etc... Well, my problem is my whole body. Do they do that yet?

Besides the nightmare of the migraines, I'm dealing with a horrid right shoulder. Saw the bone doctor today. I had my left shoulder operated on about 4 years ago, so when I started having pain in the right one, I got worried. I ignored the pain as long as I could, then went to see a bone doc. He did an exam and sent me for physical theraphy. It's helping, but not quite fast enough. It's either a "frozen shoulder" or my rotator cuff is torn. Either way, it hurts!!!

The bone doc is now sending me to get an MRI on Friday. Not looking foward to being stuck in a coffin for 25 or so minutes. I'm suppose to bring a CD or my iPod to keep my calm while in there. I think my music choices will scare the technician, so I better go through and take some things off. Going from Pavaratti singing Ave Maria to Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People and then maybe Elvis or Rammstein's Engel (Angel) or Du Hast (You Hate). I have quite a bit of German heavy metal.

So now I have to bribe someone into driving me there (about 20 minutes), sitting there for the half hour, then back home again. Thankfully, my daughter or son are happy to be bribed with McDonald's or Wendy's.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Didn't I say I was tired of living in interesting times?

Well, apparantely, someone didn't listen. I was just trying to get some sleep this morning after Randy got home from work and the phone rings. It's the school nurse, "Your son was hurt in gym class." OK, is it bad? Do I need to get him? "Well, I think it's just he didn't eat breakfast." Umm ... how did he get hurt? He got KNEED IN THE HEAD during dodge ball. I'm on my way. Just as I was throwing on clothes, the phone rings again, a source is calling to let me know there was a school bus wreck in a near-by town. OK, son isn't hurt too bad, so I can pick him up and he can sleep in the backseat while I go to the wreck for photos. Called my mother to drive since I'm on too much good stuff to do that safely.

We get to the school, he can't pick his head up. I help him stand and get him to his locker, so we can leave. He start throwing up. OK, off to the local med express. They take one look at why he's there and want to call an ambulance to take him to near-by hospital for emergency CT scans of his head. We decide it would be faster to drive ourselves. Mom is going about 80. She NEVER goes more than 5 miles UNDER the speed limit.

The hospital sends him for scans and decides he needs x-rays of his neck, too. He spent the whole time throwing up. That concerned the doc and showed he took a really hard hit to the head. By now, his eye is swelled and turning black. The scans both say he's ok, but will need to have further checking tomorrow.

Now I'm here with him, have to keep checking him to make sure he's alert and knows what's going on. He'll stay home from school tomorrow. I'm supposed to spend the day with the Lt. Governor, but it'll depend on how he's doing.

I'm afraid to ask what next....

Cleveland Clinic

I'll be leaving for a week of intensive IV therapy in just a couple hours. The neurologist thinks that replacing all my current meds with brand new stuff will make all the difference. He's also warned me that it will be very painful for at least the first couple treatments. Just what I needed to hear. Even more pain. :( The treatments start at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning and go five hours a day. The thought of getting jabbed every day is making me very nervous. I'm not good with needles at all. My veins are very small and will roll and hide from IVs. I've had more than a few veins collapse because of that.

The doctor said he's treated other chronic migraine patients like me and this does help. I promised to try anything that might give a little relief, so ...

Of course, it's snowing for the drive. Can't have nice weather. It's not coming down as hard as it did our last trip there.

We have a room right across the street from the clinic. It's an efficiency apartment, so there's a stove, microwave and refrigerator for us to use. Much better than eating out every night. How many fast food burgers can anyone eat before they puke? They also have a van that will take us to and from the treatments as well as local restaurants (Hard Rock Cafe, here we come!). That will be so much more convenient that driving and trying to find parking. We can just leave the car at the hotel the entire time we're there.

Not sure about internet access. This laptop is about dead. I've asked Santa for a new one, so we'll see how that goes. It doesn't even have to be fancy. As long as I can get on line and do my articles and photos, I'll be happy.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Altoona Trip

We spent the past four days in Altoona visiting with a friend from Ohio. I had to be there on Thursday for a medical procedure and she decided to make the drive and spend the time with us. We've been friends for ages, we started writing as pen pals when we were both in high school and that wasn't yesterday.

The treatment was horrid. It involved 11 injections all around my head and back of neck to try and stop the migraines that rip apart my head and destroy my life. Not working so far. :( It was supposed to take effect within 3-5 days and tomorrow is the final day. At this point, I don't hold out much hope it will work. He wants me back in four weeks for a check up and to schedule more injections. Don' think I will be doing that. Being stabbed in the head repeatedly isn't enough fun enough to want to do it again when it doesn't help.

While we were there, we went to a couple Curve baseball games, went shopping and visited the world famous Horseshoe Curve and the railroaders' museum. The day we did our sightseeing was the hottest day of the entire summer - over 100 degrees. It was still a good day.

The weekend went by way too fast, but then fun always does. Why can't the bad times go by quickly and the fun last forever?

Now we're home and it's time to try and catch up with everything. We made the mistake of staying at the Econo Lodge and their promised wireless broadband service never materialized, so I haven't been on line since Wednesday night. I had hundreds of emails to go through so far. I was going through serious withdrawal symptoms by the time we got back and I was able to log on. I know, I know it's an addiction.

That will be our last trip of the summer since the kids go back to school on Thursday. They aren't at all happy about it. I'm not ready either, I like having them around all the time.