I'm sewing again!

I have to tell you... we (Rich, Charlotte, the kids and I) saw the most wonderful movie this weekend. It is called "Stardust" with Michelle Pfeiffer and Claire Danes. Very mystical/magical ~ beautiful scenery ~ great love story with some comedy thrown in and even some fight scenes for you guys out there. This will definitely be a "must own" when it comes out. If you get to see it, I'd love to hear what you think.

I actually did some sewing this weekend. I got a few flannels the other day when I was with MaryCatherine with the thought of making a flower pillow for Julianne's room. I didn't have a pattern but was able to tell Richard what I wanted and the genius he is, figured out the angle for the wedge piece and made me a nice little pattern for this. Julianne was very pleased and it's yet another step towards redoing her room. I also got the fabric and pins to make her bulletin board and just in the nick of time. I noticed an explosion of Zack Efron posters all over her room and I'd really like to keep the amount of holes in the wall to a minimum.



I also got some very cool fabrics for a new quilt for Nathaniel with bugs, dragons & lizards in bright vibrant colors. Still not sure what type of pattern I will use but it's not like I don't have enough books and magazines to find something I want. It's just a matter of sitting down and picking one.

I brought my van back to Tires Plus today with not much success. They swapped tire positions, realigned the tires ~ and still the van pulls to the right. He also says the squeal in my brakes is something I'll have to learn to live with unless I want them to do a complete rear brake job, which it supposedly doesn't need. I think what I need, is to find a new mechanic!

Did go to my regular doctor today (who I just love) and he says he's glad my arm is feeling better but I do have a torn rotator cuff which doesn't heal itself. The only way to completely eliminate the problem is surgery which he DOES NOT recommend. He says if it flares up to come in and he'll just give it a shot and I'll be fine. Actually he'll have his brother, the other doctor do it. You see they both work in the same practice and until today I didn't realize they were twins. Right after I saw Dr. David he walked away and when I looked back there he was but in a different shirt! Guess that was Dr. Steve ~ go figure.

Julianne came home from school early because she had a tummy ache and then proceeded to polish off a snack bag of barbeque chips while I wasn't paying attention and as soon as school was over, decided she felt much better and was hopping mad when I wouldn't let her go out to play. Hey, it's always been the rule... you stay home from school (or come home early) you are "in" for the day! Did get to the park with Nathaniel and two of his friends after dinner tonight to practice baseball. He's really good at hitting, especially since he's had absolutely no training at all but oh Lord, he throws like a girl! What he really wants to do is play soccer so we've gotten the information to sign up but the leagues are full right now. We have to wait till November to sign him up for the spring! Maybe till then we can figure something else out. Well I'm off to bed. It's been a long day....So, how was your day?

Diagnosis, please?

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. We've had company this weekend and I've been too busy having fun. Did ya miss me? Are you even reading my blog ~ well I guess "you" are but how about the rest of you out there? Can I get a shout out? How about a comment or two? Just need to know you are out there!
Here's my friend Mary Catherine. She came up Friday night and we did our own quilt shop hop on Saturday. 4 quilt shops and a Jo-Anns... not to mention lunch at R.J. Gators which is where this picture was taken... Several of the shops that were on our list of places to visit had the nerve to go out of business though ~ how rude of them! We still found plenty to spend our money on and so many things to inspire us. Hopefully I will start sewing again this week and will post pictures for you all.

So, at the beginning of last month my left shoulder starts to hurt, BADLY. I am in pain 24/7 and can't find an angle to rest my arm that relieves the pain which starts in my shoulder and goes all the way down my arm to my elbow. Advil doesn't work, heat helps a bit but not much so I do what we all do these days... go to the expert ~ THE INTERNET. I google around for a bit and decide I have torn my rotator cuff. Now, I know better than to use the internet for self diagnosis but I have all the symptoms, read up on the treatments and use this as a starting place to decide what kind of doctor I need to find which turns out to be an orthopedic surgeon. Again, still on the internet, I go to my insurance company's web site and find a doctor in the area whose name I can pronounce - nothing prejudicial here but my I had a really hard time understanding what my last doctor was saying and vice versa which makes for a less than successful doctor/patient relationship.
I get there and tell him what my symptoms are and what I suspect ~ he runs me thru the gamut of moving my arm in every way possible and some that are were NEVER possible on any human. Pokes me so hard in the shoulder (OUCH!) and says "Does that hurt?" "Hell yes, and it would have before I tore the rotator cuff too". We take some X-rays and fortunately there are no black blobs to be seen (cause you know in the back of my mind my arm has been taken over by tumors) but we do find a bit of bone floating out just past my shoulder. The doctor, in his infinite wisdom says "well maybe that's our problem, or could be a torn rotator cuff, arthritis, or (gasp) osteoporosis. Let's do some physical therapy, a bone marrow test, take some anti inflammatories and see where we are in a month. After that we'll talk about MRI's, cortisone injections and after that surgery". Hey, wait a minute ~ can we decide what's wrong before we treat it?
A month later (after AGONIZING PT three times a week ~ I swear those people get off on your pain!) I go back to see the doctor. He asks how I'm doing and I say "Better than I was, the level of pain is less and not as often but I still can't sleep with my arm up under my pillow and I can't lean my head back without getting shooting pains and can't lean my arm on a table or the whole thing goes numb (didn't do that before physical therapy), can't use my arm to lift anything heavier than a pillow but if you don't count that, I'm good." He moves my arm this way and that and says "Hey you can move your arm now" HELLO, I always could move my arm, that wasn't the problem. "Well it seems that your rotator cuff is all better (Oh, so that's his diagnosis?) but I think you have a pinched nerve in your neck as well." So I ask if I should continue PT and he says something vague along the line of maybe, so I ask if maybe a chiropractor would be better at this point. His brilliant answer is "If you think that would help,". "Okay, well should I continue taking the anti inflammatories?" he says "if it helps, sure. If not, don't worry about it". Oh and "If you decide (why should I decide) you want cortisone shots we'll do them in your neck not your shoulder but we'll talk about that when you come back in a month."
So I guess I am the medical expert here because basically he's left my treatment completely up to me. HELLO ~ Did he not go to medical school for all those years to become a doctor? I mean I finished high school and even took one or two courses at the local junior college but somehow I would have thought that he should be the one to decide the course of treatment, not me. Needless to say he'll miss me next month cause I think I'll find someone who can actually tell me what's wrong and what to do about it.
So, how was your day?