Progress and setbacks
Feb. 1st, 2020 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gailmom77I feel like most things have been a mixed bag lately.
I have some nervous energy and maybe more focus? (can't tell for sure on new med, we are upping the dose) but I'm also exhausted and various parts of me are acting up so that physical stuff is hard.
We did the first shot test of the possible ablation to the nerves in my lumbar spine that like to tell me constantly that arthrosis is a thing and I have it, and that seemed to go well. So we did it again this week and while it wasn't as obvious, because my left hip is being a screaming asshole and my mid back was cramping up, I think it still made a difference. Unfortunately they are booked pretty far out for the ablation surgery so I"m currently scheduled the first week in March, but that gives me time to try to find someone with a car to come sit in the clinic for two hours. Apparently I have to have a driver with a car there the whole time since they are doing IV sedation. I get the impression it's to make sure if I need the hospital I have a ready made ambulance...no idea why else someone couldn't go run errands and come back. Or just be there to escort me home in an uber. I can also report that valium, which I'd previously not tried outside hospital, is indeed calming enough that having someone repeatedly put needles into my back didn't freak me out like usual. I"ll be asking for that every time we have a procedure with injections from now on.
Wiggins is still refusing to eat FT mice, and assistance feeding isn't keeping up with his needs; his skin is starting to look like a loose sweater. So I'm in the process of sourcing some breeding mice and will tomorrow be attempting to build a stand to hold the large tank I curb scored a while back in order to have space to breed him live babies. Hopefully that will work and he can get fattened up and grow a bit...then we can try again when he's got more room to go without a bit to get him onto FT like the rest of the sneks.
I met with my PCP to talk about the sleep issues. Mainly that I'm sleeping a LOT and without much control about where and when, and also (according to my partner) snoring and grinding my teeth, which didn't used to be a regular thing. She's concerned about my "thyroid being enlarged" (pretty sure my neck is just fatty, but we'll see) so I have orders to go get a bunch of blood drawn and a scheduled ultrasound of my thyroid, plus a request in for a sleep study to be approved. I'm sure that will be totally fun. /sarcasm
On the organizing and decluttering front I'm making some more progress, but I've also been slipping on my purchasing hygiene, so that's a mixed bag too. I finally (!) sold the extra loveseat to a very nice couple, and have sold a couple other items plus some small things; raising a little over half of what I needed for the first property tax payment. I need to keep going on that, because there are three more of those to do, and also because momentum matters. I picked out a few more things to post this week, but I"m not letting myself get distracted by it this weekend because tomorrow is dedicated to building the mouse hotel stand and the new perch for the chickens. yay, power tools.
I have found myself going "that would be a good thing to have" and just ordering it, or coming across a good deal on a thing we use and buying them to stock up, and then a week later remembering that I"m trying to NOT DO EITHER OF THOSE THINGS. It's going to be a hard habit to break, but I think once I can it will help a lot. Big breath in, start over. I have resisted by reminding myself of the new goals at least as often as I've flubbed it with old habits, so that's still progress.
Sort of like doing my "daily journal entries" every week or so ;)
I've decided to do the "turn your clothing hangers backwards" trick on my shoes, slightly modified. It's hard to see what's what if they are backward in their cubbies...so what I"m doing is; when I wear a pair of shoes, I turn it backward when I put it back, moving it to the top cubbies. Anything that is still facing forward next Valentines day: goes away. I figure if I reach a point where I"m having to look harder to find the pair I want cuz it's backward and I'm STILL not choosing to wear one of the forward facing ones...I really must not wear that shoe. I love all the shoes I have left after getting rid of more than half of them, but I think there are some only getting loved *in theory*.
I'm also really tired of ending up doing three loads of towels at a time because we have so many I can just ignore the dirty towels and we keep having clean ones to pull. for one thing; they sort of start to smell mildew. For another, here I am doing three loads of towels, not because we ran out of towels (we haven't) but because the pile got big enough it was sort of intimidating. I should not own four loads of towels. Just...why? I need to sit down and figure out how many we actually need if I'm doing the laundry every 7-10 days, at most, and just keep that many. (number arbitrarily picked based on "once a week makes sense, but add a couple days in case of sickness).
Also doing an experiment with dishes: I have enough that what usually ends up happening is:
we fill the dishwasher, I run it. I don't empty it cuz I don't wanna, the sink fills up with dishes. we run out of dishes, I empty the dishwasher, load it with the sink dishes, which fills it, run it, leave the clean dishes in the dishwasher cuz I don't wanna empty it. repeat forever, with the kitchen being actually clean less than half of our lives.
So I took away four of each of the plate/bowls, leaving us with a set of 8 of everything, instead of 12. Hid them in the garage; didn't mention it to the kids.
We'll see how that goes. If it's better, great. if it's still too much, I'll take away two more of each and leave us with six of everything. I figure one of those should be about right. I want enough we can fill the dishwasher before we run it, but I don't want so many we can ignore the full dishwasher of clean dishes and keep plating our food out of the cabinets while pretending the clean dishes in the machine don't exist.
I am glad I seem to be starting to see areas that "aren't working" to identify new areas to maybe downsize.Of course, I know they aren't working because I'm often falling behind on basic home management tasks, but there it is.
Big event approved my job request though, so (weather willing) I'll get six college kids for a couple hours to help wash windows, clean out gutters, rake and pull weeds a bit, and help me empty, clean, and reorganize the garage.
Go go gadget "free physically fit labor".
I have some nervous energy and maybe more focus? (can't tell for sure on new med, we are upping the dose) but I'm also exhausted and various parts of me are acting up so that physical stuff is hard.
We did the first shot test of the possible ablation to the nerves in my lumbar spine that like to tell me constantly that arthrosis is a thing and I have it, and that seemed to go well. So we did it again this week and while it wasn't as obvious, because my left hip is being a screaming asshole and my mid back was cramping up, I think it still made a difference. Unfortunately they are booked pretty far out for the ablation surgery so I"m currently scheduled the first week in March, but that gives me time to try to find someone with a car to come sit in the clinic for two hours. Apparently I have to have a driver with a car there the whole time since they are doing IV sedation. I get the impression it's to make sure if I need the hospital I have a ready made ambulance...no idea why else someone couldn't go run errands and come back. Or just be there to escort me home in an uber. I can also report that valium, which I'd previously not tried outside hospital, is indeed calming enough that having someone repeatedly put needles into my back didn't freak me out like usual. I"ll be asking for that every time we have a procedure with injections from now on.
Wiggins is still refusing to eat FT mice, and assistance feeding isn't keeping up with his needs; his skin is starting to look like a loose sweater. So I'm in the process of sourcing some breeding mice and will tomorrow be attempting to build a stand to hold the large tank I curb scored a while back in order to have space to breed him live babies. Hopefully that will work and he can get fattened up and grow a bit...then we can try again when he's got more room to go without a bit to get him onto FT like the rest of the sneks.
I met with my PCP to talk about the sleep issues. Mainly that I'm sleeping a LOT and without much control about where and when, and also (according to my partner) snoring and grinding my teeth, which didn't used to be a regular thing. She's concerned about my "thyroid being enlarged" (pretty sure my neck is just fatty, but we'll see) so I have orders to go get a bunch of blood drawn and a scheduled ultrasound of my thyroid, plus a request in for a sleep study to be approved. I'm sure that will be totally fun. /sarcasm
On the organizing and decluttering front I'm making some more progress, but I've also been slipping on my purchasing hygiene, so that's a mixed bag too. I finally (!) sold the extra loveseat to a very nice couple, and have sold a couple other items plus some small things; raising a little over half of what I needed for the first property tax payment. I need to keep going on that, because there are three more of those to do, and also because momentum matters. I picked out a few more things to post this week, but I"m not letting myself get distracted by it this weekend because tomorrow is dedicated to building the mouse hotel stand and the new perch for the chickens. yay, power tools.
I have found myself going "that would be a good thing to have" and just ordering it, or coming across a good deal on a thing we use and buying them to stock up, and then a week later remembering that I"m trying to NOT DO EITHER OF THOSE THINGS. It's going to be a hard habit to break, but I think once I can it will help a lot. Big breath in, start over. I have resisted by reminding myself of the new goals at least as often as I've flubbed it with old habits, so that's still progress.
Sort of like doing my "daily journal entries" every week or so ;)
I've decided to do the "turn your clothing hangers backwards" trick on my shoes, slightly modified. It's hard to see what's what if they are backward in their cubbies...so what I"m doing is; when I wear a pair of shoes, I turn it backward when I put it back, moving it to the top cubbies. Anything that is still facing forward next Valentines day: goes away. I figure if I reach a point where I"m having to look harder to find the pair I want cuz it's backward and I'm STILL not choosing to wear one of the forward facing ones...I really must not wear that shoe. I love all the shoes I have left after getting rid of more than half of them, but I think there are some only getting loved *in theory*.
I'm also really tired of ending up doing three loads of towels at a time because we have so many I can just ignore the dirty towels and we keep having clean ones to pull. for one thing; they sort of start to smell mildew. For another, here I am doing three loads of towels, not because we ran out of towels (we haven't) but because the pile got big enough it was sort of intimidating. I should not own four loads of towels. Just...why? I need to sit down and figure out how many we actually need if I'm doing the laundry every 7-10 days, at most, and just keep that many. (number arbitrarily picked based on "once a week makes sense, but add a couple days in case of sickness).
Also doing an experiment with dishes: I have enough that what usually ends up happening is:
we fill the dishwasher, I run it. I don't empty it cuz I don't wanna, the sink fills up with dishes. we run out of dishes, I empty the dishwasher, load it with the sink dishes, which fills it, run it, leave the clean dishes in the dishwasher cuz I don't wanna empty it. repeat forever, with the kitchen being actually clean less than half of our lives.
So I took away four of each of the plate/bowls, leaving us with a set of 8 of everything, instead of 12. Hid them in the garage; didn't mention it to the kids.
We'll see how that goes. If it's better, great. if it's still too much, I'll take away two more of each and leave us with six of everything. I figure one of those should be about right. I want enough we can fill the dishwasher before we run it, but I don't want so many we can ignore the full dishwasher of clean dishes and keep plating our food out of the cabinets while pretending the clean dishes in the machine don't exist.
I am glad I seem to be starting to see areas that "aren't working" to identify new areas to maybe downsize.Of course, I know they aren't working because I'm often falling behind on basic home management tasks, but there it is.
Big event approved my job request though, so (weather willing) I'll get six college kids for a couple hours to help wash windows, clean out gutters, rake and pull weeds a bit, and help me empty, clean, and reorganize the garage.
Go go gadget "free physically fit labor".
