mountainmom's Journal

Well, a few more day's have passed. The Last Two days have not been very good, but I still remember the one good day with hope! I am doing much better mentally, not near so depressed and listless right now. Looks like the St. Johns Wort is helping a lot, and so far no side effects or adverse reactions have been noted. Same with the DMSO but I am using that carefully and slowly, only once per day. I was using it in the mornings, but decided to switch to around 11 pm at night to see if it will help me get to sleep. I am also back using the spa more with the lower tempatures, it was hard to sit in a hot spa with high temps. I keep hoping that will help me sleep better, but so far no luck. Nights are the worse for the pain.

Beginning to look at what I can do to make the house easier to clean and maintain. I have over two years worth of filing to get caught up on and have been working on it here and there for weeks. It lead to me getting all the boxes of paperwork we have collected through out the last 20 + years and organizing it and refiling it in one location. Next, I think I will reorganize our library as it's scattered through out the house and a mess if you really want to find a particular book. We are avid readers and have thousands of books and magazines on a wide array of subjects plus fiction. So my husband and I got some more book shelves and are arranging it accordingly.

Seems crazy to be worried about all this, paperwork and books etc. but we are hoping to move in a few years and I decided while I had the time I could condense and down size all the pack rat stuff we have collected, organizing it and getting it accessible. That way it will be easier to move the 700 miles we are hoping to do. Since it takes me so long to do a simple task, starting now is a good idea! Plus it will have the great side effect of making the house easier to clean, with less clutter, which is needed. I have a hard time staying up with house work, etc. Heck, I barely manage to make one meal a day and take care of my needs let alone do general housework! Good thing I have kids still at home that I can delegate some of that to!

Pain is pushing me, it has calmed down to a certain degree that if I stay focused on doing something I do not notice quite how bad I am hurting.Pain is still at a 7 or 8 level but definetly an improvement of the 10+ pain scale levels that I have been having where distraction is not an option. When the pain gets that bad, nothing seems to help. I have noticed I am loosing a lot of hair and my hair is turning quite brittle. I put olive oil heavily in my hair on Saturday, left it for the day, and it helped repair some of the damage, but lots and lots came out too- soon I don't think the longer pieces will still be there. The hair stylest reassures me that hair is growing back in slowly, but it's only and inch or two long and may be all that get's left! My skin is also become very dry and tears extremely easily, so I got heavy duty intensive cream and try to use it daily, but rubbing it in on my feet and legs is difficult, and I somehow forget to do it alot.

Still haven't heard from the doctor about the vascular test study I had done a week ago, I wonder if I will have to wait for my appointment next week for her to tell me how she interprets it?

The weather turning has increased the aching in my bones and I can tell it is going to be a struggle not to turn up the heat this winter due to the pain in my joints. We have gas forced air, I wonder if wood heat would work better on bodily aches and pains? Just curious, I know it warms the body and house much better than gas or electric heat, and I miss having it available.

Because I stay awake at night so much, likely I go to sleep around 2 or 3 am, briefly get up between 6am and 7 am to get kids off to school, then back to sleep till 11 am or noon, I rarely catch anyone anymore on DS, and kind of miss chatting with everyone. Hope everyone is doing alright and not having too much difficulty with the change in the weather.

Best wishes, and gentle hugs to all