the_rck

We didn't do a lot over the weekend. Scott played some board games online and did the grocery shopping. We were late in considering Valentine's Day food delivery options, so we ended up not doing that and just ordering bubble tea for pick up.

I'm making steady progress on my LTD paperwork. I still need to call my psychiatrist about her portion of it and about how to get the forms to her. I've been waiting because my section needs to be done before I can hand the packet over, because I wasn't sure about my ability to sign my name, and because I have no idea how we'll manage the hand off. We don't have time for mailing, not when that might take weeks, and I can't get downtown unless Scott's home.

Scott has his birthday off, the 24th, but that's kind of a tighter turn around for the doctor's part of things than I would like to demand. The paperwork has to be in, mailed or faxed, by the 2nd of March.

I think the main reason I really managed to get things done on the paperwork last night was that I took an Ativan. A lot of what I'd already written had to be tossed because it was me panicking and babbling rather than answering the questions. Not that any of it wasn't true or even relevant, just that it wasn't what they asked for. Without the Ativan, I probably would have kept flailing.

( A-Ride renewal related stuff )

I'm still having trouble walking today. I didn't expect that because, usually, even when I do that much walking, the pain doesn't last this long. My feet are aching when I put weight on them, and my calf muscles are still cramping.

I had to make a trip to Kroger today (I needed eggs, and we only had one), and I wanted to do more walking around. I even planned it so as to have manageable bits, even with the aches and cramps, but the bus was detoured. There was a train broken down and blocking the only connecting road, so the bus just skipped a big chunk of its route.

I had intended to get off by the Traverwood library, return some things, and then walk the rest of the way to Kroger. The detour meant that I was carrying the full library bag through my entire shopping expedition. By the time I was done shopping, they'd cleared the train, so I walked to the library and emptied that bag, but it wasn't a happy trip because I had a bag of groceries, a bag of library stuff, my purse, my water bottle, and still another bag with just the carton of eggs.

Fortunately, I only had to wait about five minutes for the bus home from the library. I just wished that my holds were at Traverwood. I still have to go downtown for those at some point this week. I have PT on Thursday, but I wouldn't normally go downtown after that. Whether or not I do will likely depend on how I feel after the appointment. I want to carry the equipment that I use for my daily exercises with me to the appointment, and I don't much want to add library things for the return trip.

I have an appointment at 3:30 this afternoon. The timing is awkward because getting the bus home from medical campus after 4 p.m. means either squeezing onto a bus that's barely got standing room or going downtown and catching a different bus home. The former is much faster, a lot faster.

If it's warm and not raining, I might just walk home. Intersecting with the other bus line without going downtown is iffy and might have me standing at a stop for half an hour if I'm unlucky. None of the stops I can walk to have a bench, and there's only one bus every 30 minutes.

I have two goals for today. The first is canon review for one of my two projects. The second is changing our sheets. I figure there's at least a chance that the missing library CD is somewhere in our bed.

Cordelia's English class will be reading The Catcher in the Rye. I'm not sure what else is on the syllabus.

I managed to mismanage my time yesterday afternoon. I got a lot of chores done in the morning-- three loads of laundry and changing the sheets. The mismanaging part started with me intending to pack some sort of protein-ish thing that I could eat while out. I hoped to buy something downtown, but I meant to pack some almonds or something to have a backup.

Part of that was me dithering about when to leave and whether or not to wait for Scott and let him drive. As it turns out, I should have waited because he left work at 4:00 and really could have gotten me there by the time I had hoped to arrive.

I got downtown and started looking for where I wanted to get food. Then Scott's sister texted me to ask about the surgeon I had for my lumpectomy. Scott's mother saw the same guy yesterday. I ended up going to Starbucks and buying a coffee and a cheese danish which wasn't really what I needed, but I wasn't quite sure where else to go to talk to Scott's sister.

We ended up talking awhile. It sounds like the plans are set for Scott's mother's treatment-- lumpectomy, surgical biopsy of another site that they think is just scar tissue (pathologist in the OR), then radiation. They don't plan to check lymph nodes. Scott's sister had the impression that it was because of her mother's age. I'm a little puzzled by that; I could see asking her if she wanted the checking done or not based on the odds of finding anything and the repercussions of that part of the surgery and of whether or not she'd be up to dealing with chemo if they found something. Unilaterally deciding not to check seems weird unless there's some other reason.

At any rate, the 20-30 minutes of talking to Scott's sister threw me, not so much the time involved as everything else. I set out to try to intersect the bus going to Skyline but was off by about 10 minutes in terms of how long it would take me to get to where I meant to do it. That bus is so crowded that I wanted to get on as far out as I could, and I ended up missing it. The next bus actually going to the school wouldn't have gotten me there until 5:30, and Scott was actually at the school by a few minutes after 5:00, so he came and got me.

The meal part of Music and a Meal was pancakes, turkey sausage patties, and applesauce. I didn't dare touch anything but the pancakes, and I really desperately needed something that wasn't pure carbohydrates. They had coffee, but I decided against because it wouldn't have been a particularly good substitute for the protein I wanted/needed.

There were small musical performances at either end of the cafeteria between 5:00 and 7:15(ish). We could only hear bits even though we were sitting pretty close to one of the performance areas. Cordelia only participated in one set, at about 7:30 with all of the choirs together. We were all able to hear that, and they sounded good.

I liked not being trapped in the auditorium, and the set up gave families more flexibility about when parents arrived, but sitting at the lunch tables for two plus hours wasn't great. Last year's set up meant that late arrivals didn't get food because they stopped serving at the point when the performances started. Last year's event also ran longer.

I started feeling more functional after I got home last night and was able to eat some almonds.

I've got a moderate sized to-do list, but some items on it will expand to fill as much space as I let them. My current plan is to knock off some of the things that can be done more quickly-- filling and running the dishwasher, getting the trash/recycling to the curb, a phone call. Of the more time consuming things, I'm planning to start with my absentee ballot. I know how I'm voting on some things, so I'll fill those out and then start researching the others. Michigan no longer allows straight ticket voting, so I'll have to manage to fill everything out without that short cut to save my hands.

Yesterday's plans got changed not long after I posted. I had a neurology appointment scheduled for next June to look into my hand tremors, and they called this morning to ask if I could make it at 1 p.m. yesterday. I decided that that was likely to be more important than the parent-teacher conferences and that it was possible I'd still be able to manage the conferences anyway.

( Cut for length more than for TMI )

After the appointment, I caught the university shuttle to the hospital. I didn't realize how long that would take. I'd been under the impression that it was just out and back, but this one meandered through several different far flung university properties. I didn't get downtown until 3 p.m.

A bit after that, while I was trying to figure out which bus I needed for getting to Skyline, my phone died with no warning. Fortunately, I had a charger with me and was able to get it back, but it had been at 50% less than half an hour before. Playing Ingress depletes battery charge, but it doesn't eat through it *that* fast.

At any rate, I stopped at the Starbucks on Main St and got coffee because I was cold. I'd left home without a jacket because I hadn't realized how bad the wind was. I'm normally good with short sleeves down to at least 50F, but yesterday was unpleasant.

The city bus company's online ride planner was broken. It wouldn't accept anything I put in as starting point or destination. I'd had problems with it earlier in the day but had hoped that it would be fixed. At any rate, I resorted to Google for route planning which... was not a rousing success. It told me to get the Miller bus at Main and Huron, but when I got there, I couldn't see a sign for a bus stop. The signs are tiny, and the stop could have been anywhere within half a block of the intersection.

I ended up walking on to Miller and trying the route planning again. At that point, it told me I'd missed the bus I wanted and would have to wait 25 minutes for another one. I decided to walk up Miller for that time because I'd have frozen if I'd stayed at a stop that long. Also, standing hurts more than walking for the same duration.

The bus I finally got was packed. No one was standing, but there were only about three empty seats. It went to the commuter lot first, and everybody got off but me and the driver. Then it went to Skyline. I was a little surprised to be the only person going there, given parent-teacher conferences, but I was.

I got to Skyline a bit after 5 p.m. I saw Cordelia's science teacher (no line) and math teacher (long line) before Scott arrived from work. All of Cordelia's teachers this trimester are women.

Scott and I went on to talk to Cordelia's English teacher (who really, really loved the idea of a book club) and choir teacher and psychology teacher.

Then we went home, and I fell over, and Scott and Cordelia went to Kroger to pick up prescriptions.

I'm now two weeks behind on The Good Place, but I can't think well enough to watch it and appreciate it.

So far this morning, I'm feeling pretty good. I might still end up with a headache later, but right now, that bit of me doesn't hurt. (Though I'm wondering if I can give myself a headache from stressing about potentially getting a headache in the same way that people can have panic attacks out of fear of having a panic attack. The situations would seem analogous.)

( Medical appointments and irritation. Very little medical detail )

After I had rescheduled, I took my pre-breakfast meds. One of them has to be taken 30 minutes before food (I had leftover ginger chicken that Scott had made and some carrots and a Dr Pepper). I wanted to eat before I tried getting the bus. There's a ban on eating and drinking on the bus (not unreasonable), so eating during the trip wasn't going to work. So I set an alarm for 30 minutes and started walking around. I thought I'd circle the building.

What I failed to realize is that the place isn't set up for pedestrians. Each end of the building abuts pasture. The first of those had a clearly marked electrified fence. I didn't see such signs on the second, but I also wasn't nearly as close to the fence. I ended up taking an hour and a half to circle the building, and much of that was added on time because of having to go around the pastures, too. There also weren't any sort of paths or sidewalks along the roads around the pastures, so I worried a good bit about traffic in places.

The Ingress stat for distance walked ticked over from 910 km to 915 km. Some of that may have been either on the bus trip home or the drive there, but most of it was probably me walking. I hacked and/or captured a bunch of new-to-me portals. There were some I could see and considered pursuing, but I really needed a restroom, and those portals would have taken me at least another ten minutes and were in the opposite direction from where I was certain I could find a bathroom.

The university bus stops at Domino Farms have no signs to indicate where they are. You have to ask or to already know. I asked the driver if there was a way for me to switch to the city bus, and he told me that he could stop at the park and ride lot out by 23. The bus I wanted stops there before turning back and heading into town, so that worked. I only had to wait about ten minutes, and the park and ride lot has a shelter with a bench. At 10:30 in the morning, no one else was waiting there.

The driver of the university bus reacted as if my question was unusual which surprises me. I suppose that there aren't that many people who want to make the switch that early in the route. Or maybe people don't generally ask the drivers about that sort of thing?

At any rate, being able to get the university bus from the park and ride lot makes using it more feasible than I had thought it was (my first look at the university bus route website left me with the impression that it didn't stop between the hospital and East Ann Arbor. Apparently I misunderstood). I'm not sure how long getting to the park and ride lot by city bus will take, but it shouldn't matter whether I get the A or the B route because both end there and both run their routes in the same length of time.

I spent a lot of time yesterday with the lights off because they made me feel worse. I took Tylenol then naproxen about three hours later. I also took both Amerge and Ativan. I suspect that the Ativan helped most. I also had some unsweetened black tea, just in case it was a caffeine problem.

Scott took Cordelia to choir registration. They were back much faster than I expected.

We got home around 3:00 yesterday and more or less collapsed. I need to do a load of laundry, but I'm not sure we have enough laundry detergent for it.

I had planned to try to do the grocery shopping today and to time it so that Scott could pick me up on his way home from work, but apparently things blew up over the course of the last week, and he's going to be staying until it's done every night this week. I don't want to do it by bus because we need distilled water, laundry detergent, and almond milk. I could carry one of those three but not two. I think I'm going to have to ask around to see if anyone local can help out.

The week is going to be busy. I had to go to the credit union today because our first payment on the home equity line of credit was due and Chase's payment portal hadn't been willing to have the UMCU as a payment destination. I've got it set up now, but I'll have to go down there again if the monthly payment goes up more than about $10 a month (which it might after the garage roof payment).

Wednesday is Skyline's makeup registration day for those who couldn't go in last week. I don't expect the registration to take very long at all, so my current plan is for me and Cordelia to go downtown for lunch and then take the city bus to Skyline.

Thursday morning, I have a doctor's appointment. I don't think that will be a big deal because it's my primary care doctor. That's an easy bus ride both ways.

I just placed an Amazon order. I needed more Gel-Kam and then added a few things from my wishlists and from Cordelia's. I shouldn't have spent the money, but I really wanted to do something nice for myself.

I managed to do some writing last night, the first since the 11th. That's my longest dry spell this year. I'm pretty sure August is going to be my lowest word count month this year. I'd need to more than double what I currently have in order to equal February's count.

Last night's writing was meant to be part of my Iddy Iddy Bang Bang story, but it took a left turn at Albuquerque to create yet another branch of Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion. I finished that story this afternoon which means that my IIBB story is still not working right and that I have another 3K word story to edit and post. The new thing is, at least, something easier to find a beta reader for than the IIBB story.

(I'm probably not even going to try to find a beta for the IIBB story. The whole needing to read 100K of other stories first combined with Yuletide sized fandom and darkfic and explicitness and... I don't need a pony. I need a unicorn.)

I only got about five hours of sleep last night because I couldn't fall asleep to begin with and because I couldn't get back to sleep after Scott got up. It was just too difficult to find a position to lie in that didn't start hurting just as I was about to fall asleep. The result is me having trouble with basic arithmetic for things like bus schedules. For some reason, when I got done at the credit union, I looked at the time and somehow subtracted 35 from 48 (the outbound bus leaves the transit center at :18 and :48) and got 8 instead of 13.

I checked the time more than once as I walked to the stop and never spotted the error. That left me kind of panicked when the bus didn't come right after I got to the stop because I knew I took more than 5 minutes to get there and because it's only three blocks from the transit center to that stop.

I got better sleep last night than I expected to which is good because the day got stressful in ways I didn't expect. Scott's sister called me about 9:15 to say that she was waiting to hear from her doctor about whether or not she needed x-rays for her neck.

I was out the door on my way to my appointment not long after. The appointment was at 1:00, but I thought I would be better off getting out there early and then buying lunch (searching the fridge and cupboard yielded very little in the way of portable foods-- crackers, bagels, almonds, chocolate chips. We're out of safe-for-me lunchmeat and of all jams/jellies and almond butter. I could have gone with margarine and/or cheese on a bagel, but I didn't think I'd be able to swallow that).

I ended up having lunch at Olive Garden. I got off the bus before Wolverine Tower. The route went through a commuter lot a good way back from the intersection of State and Eisenhower, and I got off there because it occurred to me that I'd be better off walking from there rather than walking equally far and still having to cross both streets.

The restaurant where I hoped to have lunch turned out not to be there any longer, so Olive Garden was my best option without crossing the streets anyway. It wasn't a great option because I ended up with basil in my food. Three hours later, it's still haunting me. I'm just hoping it will be gone by bedtime.

The appointment was largely me talking to the OT to figure out what we need to focus on. The next step is getting some photos of how I sit and what options I have in that direction. I also need photographs of how I lie when I'm trying to sleep.

She's pretty sure that the finger/hand numbness is referred sensation from tension in a couple of specific neck muscles. She showed me a map of what they do, and where they are. I think she's likely right because none of the nerves that might be pinched would do quite what's happening here.

She suspects, based on what helps and what doesn't, that my hand tremors are due to muscle weakness. All of the weighted and extra large handled stuff makes my problems worse, and that's not consistent with what usually causes tremors that look like mine. The way she put it was that the various muscle groups that ought to be working together to give me fine control are playing hot potato with responsibility for doing the work.

After the appointment, I walked toward Main Street. evalerie texted me after I'd been walking a bit, and she came and picked me up. I'd been thinking that I'd catch an inbound bus eventually as there are some through there. It's just that none of the stops are shaded, and if I was going to be in the sun, I wanted to walk rather than stand. Standing five minutes is much, much harder than walking for an hour.

I was up with Scott today so that I could get a bus to the hospital for PT. I got there 45 minutes before my appointment, but that was the last run of that bus until late afternoon, so I really didn't have a better option. I consider taking the #23 a worse option at that time of day.

After PT, I took the bus into town to visit the credit union. They claim the problem's fixed, and I was able to log into our account there, but I still couldn't do it from home. That meant I needed to call them to ask them what was going on. This is twice that I've had to go in to 'fix' the problem without it actually being fixed. I think it's okay now, but I really didn't want to have to call.

I have to call to make some appointments, too. I don't want to, but it's necessary. Cordelia's annual check up will be a serious PITA. There's no way to do it before school starts, so we'll have to figure out transportation for that.

I stopped at the library and returned some things and picked up my holds. I got lunch at Which Wich and did a lot of Ingress. I think I spent too much time out and about because I'm feeling pretty sick now. I don't have to do much tomorrow until late in the afternoon, though, so hopefully, I'll have time to recover.

I'm trying to call the A-Ride number to ask about purchasing scrip, but weird things are happening with the number in the guide PDF. I get a connection and then completely dead air. I let it go a minute and a half one time. As far as I can tell, I'm not on hold. The number connects to something. Damned if I know.

We had a relatively laid back holiday. Scott built a fire in the portable fire pit in mid-afternoon so that I could have a 'smore. I've been watching him and Cordelia make them in the evenings, when I can't eat such things, for weeks now, so I was pleased to get the chance. It was horrifically hot for a fire, though, so we were only out there as long as was necessary for safety.

We got carry out Chinese food for dinner because Cordelia's guest had had pizza too recently. Also, getting pizza would have meant me needing to scrounge for other food. Pizza cheese tends to make my reflux act up. Normal cheese doesn't, so I don't know if it's the blend or something they're adding on top (even though I tell them no seasonings but salt). Pizza after 2 p.m. is just not a wise thing for me.

I finished a reasonable draft of a second pinch hit for the Nonconathon. I'm still looking for a beta reader for it, but I think it will be acceptable without, just better with.

I have changed the sheets on our bed. The dirty sheets are washing. One of the new fitted sheets is seeing its first use (the second is still in packaging as it's easier to store that way).

I still need to deal with a few things in the kitchen before the cleaning lady comes. I'm going to do those in short bursts because it's very hot in there with no air movement at all. I just can't tolerate it long.

Cordelia's friend from middle school visited yesterday and stayed until quite late. They watched Marvel movies with Scott (he has a tradition of watching Captain America: The First Avenger every year on the 4th). Then, about 10, they went out with the friend's parents to drive around to see if they could spot any fireworks (this is apparently their family tradition). Cordelia got home about 11:40, so I got to bed after midnight.

The decreased dose of Halcion is leading to me waking more frequently in the night and having pretty constant anxiety dreams. I was still pretty exhausted when I got up at 9:00 and felt like I needed more sleep. I just also knew that I needed time for the pre-cleaning lady chores. I'll be seeing my psychiatrist next week, and I'll ask her about the Halcion. I think I sleep better with it, but I also know that it's the sort of thing that rings warning bells in doctor's heads when they see it on my medication list.

I'm also not sure that our school year schedule is something I'll ever be able to handle without sleeping medication. A single school night with me waking several times or spending a long time trying to fall asleep would leave me not functioning at even the necessary basic levels for the rest of the week.

Of course, maybe having the option to take something, after Scott and Cordelia leave, in order to sleep more might mitigate that.

My shoulder is doing better, pain-wise, but my elbow is doing worse. I'd prefer that it go the other way around, and I think the exercise that's helping the shoulder is aggravating the elbow. I'll see the PT person tomorrow. Maybe she'll have ideas for things I can do at home to help the elbow. I'm pretty sure that the exercises my doctor gave me last year are aimed at the wrong things because they all hurt a lot to do.

( Cordelia driving stuff )

I need to arrange to have some cash on hand so that using the A-Ride is actually feasible. The last time I used it, I needed exact change and couldn't use a credit card. That's a really huge burden on me because I almost never have cash and, if I do, usually have a twenty and no options for breaking it.

Back when I was using the A-Ride regularly, it was always a scramble to make sure I had the right money-- $3 for me each way plus $1.50 for Cordelia each way-- to be able to pay, even when we knew exactly when I'd need it. The prices haven't changed in the last five years, so there's that. There's an option for 'Scrip ticket,' but that's not defined in the handbook, and I suspect it's not something I can order online or even by phone which means a trip to wherever they sell it.