the_rck | Entries tagged with elbow

Most of today's to-do list carries over from yesterday.

( To-do list )

I got through about four pages of the fourteen page questionnaire yesterday before my elbows started hurting horribly. Apparently typing straight through as fast as I can is different from composing as I type. When I compose, I pause a lot and move around in the text to rework things, effectively giving my arms and hands micro-breaks. I also wander off to read DW when anything starts to twinge. Yesterday, I typed for 30-40 minutes straight and then couldn't do more. For about an hour, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do things like open my water bottle to refill it, but things calmed down enough for that.

Right at the moment, I'm trying to deal with the urgent things before starting today's stint on the paperwork. This section is all work history and has a lot of things that I really can't remember. I don't recall my hourly rate for the waitress job I had for less than two months the summer after I turned seventeen. I'm fifty two; I'm not sure I can reasonably be expected to remember much of anything that happened when I was seventeen.

Mainly, I remember that I made more in an evening of babysitting than I did in a full shift at that job. I just only got babysitting jobs Fridays and Saturdays.

Cordelia took care of getting the trash and recycling out yesterday. I was grateful because getting the trash out is hard on my hands. The bag opening is stretched tight on the bin in the kitchen, and it needs hand strength to get it loose. I can manage the rest without being too hard on my hands, but that part is nearly impossible. Putting bags in place in that bin is more or less beyond me now, too. (I can. I can also drop hammers on my toes or slam the door on my head. Apart from being necessary, it's in that class of unwise actions.)

I have to go out this afternoon/evening. That or I have to persuade someone else to do it. Well, I suppose that the library book won't be overdue until the library opens Friday morning, so I could have Scott do all the other things.

I slept badly last night, probably because I'm stressed out about the paperwork and about the appointment next week. It's hard to say. I kind of need to get the paperwork done quickly because it's going to keep me from sleeping well until it's completed.

I woke with a headache. Coffee and food helped it, but it was that sort of thing that comes with my body needing sleep but also being too wired to allow me to sleep.

Yesterday, for most of the day, I felt like only half of my brain was working and like that half was moving sluggishly. I managed to go along for the library trip because I wanted to let someone at the library know that some CDs in the sets I was returning wouldn't play. Scott won't do that part because it's too complicated and adds considerably to the time required for the trip.

After the library, Cordelia wanted to go to Espresso Royale, so Scott dropped her and me there while he went on to pick up a couple of things at Kroger (a few doors down). Cordelia had a chai latte which seems to have come out the way she expected it to. I had a ginger dragon which is normally gingery with lemon and a bit of sweetness. Yesterday, it might have been straight lemon juice.

I probably should have complained, but I didn't want to make more work for the barista who seemed to be alone in the place.

Last week, on my way out to Skyline, I walked by a park entrance sign that wasn't an Ingress portal. I submitted it as a potential, and it got approved. This was my third suggestion but the first accepted. I have no idea how it's possible that that wasn't a portal before. Park signs are pretty much always accepted, and this one was on a major street and part of a big park that has internal portals. Of course, there was another entrance I passed that wasn't a portal either. I didn't submit it because I was trying to hurry to catch my bus (which I missed).

I have my Yuletide assignment. I've dug out as much of the canon as I can reach. I'll have to wait for Cordelia to help me move things in the basement before I can get the rest. I think this one will be fairly straightforward once I find a way into the POV character's head.

There's a pinch hit I'm eying and hoping someone else takes before I can overcome my common sense. I'm looking at the other lingering ones and wondering how hard acquiring the canons would be. I'm mainly protected from that by having zero clue whether any of them are things I'd like or could write (not the same things).

I need to give some other things priority over writing the Yuletide story, however. I still have a big beta job to complete. The DC mini bang story is due Monday and still incomplete (maybe half done?). UCon starts on the 9th of November, and I need characters and a setting and a rough outline for my rpg scenario. I also need to review the rules for the board game I'm going to run. I keep forgetting nuances. (My best bet for this is to retype the rules. That seems to help me set the information in my head. It's not as good as copying by hand, but I can't actually do that any more, so... Typing.)

Right now, I'm thinking that I'll knock off the short daily chores and then try to use a timer to rotate through tasks. I'm not sure what a good length of time is for that. I'm pretty sure I could do some things with 20-30 minute stints, but I have trouble getting myself to focus on other things in that frame.

I also wrote a 4K Amber story over the weekend while I couldn't manage other things. It needs editing, and I probably won't get that done for a few days. Part of that is that I'm afraid that, if I dig into it, I'll look up and realize that I've spent a week on it and expanded it to 20K words that could become 100K. I enjoy those stories, but I have things I need to get done right now.

I'm way, way behind on my October daily challenge, but I'm not looking at that right now. I don't really have time to try to catch up. That would require starting 20 fics by the end of the day on Halloween. Not happening. But, hey, I wrote for 10 prompts and attempted one more.

My hands, elbow, and neck/shoulder are hurting a lot this morning. That last pops and crunches when I roll it (this is the bit between the joint and the neck rather than the joint). I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm trying to keep the Tylenol to only night time because 24/7 would be a risky thing for my liver. My other option is naproxen which I limit because my genotype doesn't metabolize it really well (other NSAID are worse).

PT went well yesterday. It was nice outside, so I walked around the hospital garden between getting off the bus and checking in for my appointment (I got there about 45 minutes early). After, I walked slowly from the main hospital down to Plymouth Rd.

There's a diner right there, so Cordelia and I met there and had a meal then took the bus home. I think she enjoyed it, too.

The PT person thinks that my elbow problem is caused by a particular muscle not doing its job, so she's given me some exercises. I'm to do those three times a week and gradually work my way up to doing them more often and with more weight. All four are wrist movement things. I'm doing them empty handed now and will move to one pound weights later. I'm still working out the best way to do them in terms of how my elbow is relative to my wrists. I may need to look online as the sheet explaining the exercises doesn't seem to say.

I melted down a little last night over the way that the next several weeks look with regard to scheduling and Things That Must Be Done. There isn't anything Scott can do to help because the problem appointments are all dead in the middle of the day. Getting me to and from an hour long 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. appointment means missing a lot of work.

I'm working on an email to ask my mother, MIL, and SIL if they can help, but right now it keeps devolving into a rant about how impossible it all is with a long list of the other things going on close enough to drain the resources to make it impossible.

The one week when I thought I had elbow room for the two big errands turns out to be Art Fair which makes everything those days vastly more complicated. Cordelia and I need to go to the Secretary of State's office that week, and we need to go to the bus headquarters that week. Cordelia doesn't see why she should have to go along for the latter, but I think it will be a lot easier for me if she comes along. She's old enough now and responsible enough to help my agoraphobia a bit rather than make me more hypervigilant while we're out.

Art Fair is an issue because every bus route detours and runs wildly off schedule and because Blake Transit Center, the downtown transfer point, is in the heart of the crowds. We have to go there, both ways for each trip, because the bus system is set up with spokes that don't generally interconnect.

I got up about 45 minutes before my alarm because Scott's various phone alarms kept me from really going back to sleep after he got up. I dozed in and out until the last one and then got up about five minutes after he left the house. I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep before my alarm went off. I'd just get close enough for it all to be very, very unpleasant.

I have PT later this morning. Otherwise, I'd just have slept in. My elbow is still pretty bad. I think I've figured out how to do the shoulder exercise without aggravating it further, but it's really not getting less painful.

I need to do some grocery shopping this evening or to get Scott to. I'm having a write-in here tomorrow afternoon, and I want some carrots and hummus to share. I'm also thinking that I might tweak our AC a little for the afternoon so that the dining room cools off a couple of degrees. It's not supposed to be as hot tomorrow as it has been all week, so I'm cautiously optimistic. The ceiling fan helps, and the table, chairs, and snack options are better than at Espresso Royale, but it is cooler there.

Here, though, I'm less worried that we'll have a loud conversation about tropes and fic and such that will make listeners uncomfortable. Scott and Cordelia can deal with it. We'll also all fit at one table and all have outlet access.

Scott and I went out last night and got me some more thumb/wrist braces. They're $20 each at Rite Aid. I wanted four so that I could wash them regularly (they take about 24 hours to dry enough to be worn), but they only had three. I guess I can rotate them or something. Or find a fourth somewhere else.

I kind of wanted to go out for lunch after PT, but I think it'll be better if I don't. Me getting lunch would run most of the cost of that fourth brace and make me less able to go out again later for groceries.

( Complaining about our phones and data use )

Yesterday evening, I cat waxed a little bit by making a randomized list of stories I'm currently working on and/or have definite ideas about. My intention is to work my way down the list and to add at least 100 words to each as I go. I'm pretty sure that one of them will catch fire and end up completed.

I separated out the one story that just needs editing because, in the random listing, it came out about 50th (out of 62). It will take me maybe an hour to finish it once I start. I'm looking at one more Nonconathon story for a person who's still without one. I'll see how I feel after PT. If I can think, I'll try to do it.

I'm also looking at a handful of prompts for

fandomgiftbox. Those may or may not happen. Usually, for fests like this one, I wait for the needy list near the end of the writing period. That makes the challenge of focusing in on what to write a lot smaller. I could probably write something for one request on about half of the giftboxes, but I can't write that many stories in the time available. Instead of trying, I looked through everything and pulled out some that I thought likely to spark ideas that I'd enjoy writing.

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.

Neither Cordelia nor I did much on Monday. I listened to all of the CDs I got from the library on Sunday, and I did some editing.

Yesterday, I did a little writing and a lot of chores. I meant to get to bed early because I was exhausted, but things kept piling on at the end of the day.

Today, I'm in a lot of pain and only vaguely functional. I need to make an appointment to see my doctor in order to get a PT referral. I'm having major issues with both hands and with my right shoulder and left elbow.

I tried to nap this morning but didn't manage to fall asleep in spite of trying for more than three hours.

I managed two fics for Fandom Stocking. Timing's been bad this year. The first message about needy stockings came the day that I started a stretch of several days with no time/energy for writing. The second one... Well, I commented on the post around the time Cordelia left for school and said that I had writing time for the next eight hours. Eight and a half hours later...

At any rate, one story is in a fandom I've written before, and the other is something new to me. The latter... I'm worried that I made some obvious canonical errors, but that's the one I started this morning and finished around noon.

I finally called to try to set up PT for my elbow and was informed that the university medical system considers elbows to be hands. Hands don't get PT; they get OT. All of the possible locations are massively inconvenient, so I'm looking at going outside of the university system. The place where Scott went last year isn't very far. It's at that awkward distance where I can't actually walk that far but would feel ridiculous taking the bus because I'd ride for less than half of the distance (from one stop to the very next one) I need to cover to get there. Walking to the stop to catch the bus and from the next stop to the PT clinic would cover as much ground as (more actually) as the bus did, and I feel ridiculous contemplating it.

I also scheduled an appointment to get my eyes checked. That's two weeks from now. I think I will have to give in and get progressives. I really don't want to deal with them, but having reading and distance glasses is awkward, and I'm almost certain my vision's getting worse, distance and middle range vision, anyway. I haven't really done much in close.

I'm going to crash as early tonight as I can because my eyeballs ache and have been doing so for hours. I only need to be up another 50 minutes.

I'm also having weird cravings for salt. Not specific salty foods, just salt in the could pour some into my hand and eat it sense. My general assumption when I get very specific cravings (like, say, for chicken liver or spinach) is that there's something lacking in my diet and that, if there's not a reason not to, I should just go ahead, but salt? There should be more than enough salt in my diet already. My blood pressure has always been on the very low end of the normal range, so I'm not worried about extra salt from that direction, at least.

I added salt to my coffee this morning. Enough salt to taste but not, apparently, enough to taste bad.

It was warm for Michigan in December yesterday, but my lungs were still unhappy about the temperature. I managed everything I needed to by breathing through my cotton scarf. I'm worried about this because it will get colder going forward and because I'm not likely to leave Michigan in coming years. I think that, when I see my primary care doctor again, I’ll ask about a referral to an asthma specialist.

My mother and stepfather have cancelled their plans to come to the concert on Thursday. Mom had apparently been trying to text me for several days without getting through, so she sent me an email.

I’ve got a long to do list, and I’m going to have to make myself deal with it over the next few days. I think I’ll start with a shower, then load and run the dishwasher, then make the two necessary phone calls after 8:30 a.m. After that, the most critical thing is an inventory of which ingredients I have for Christmas cooking so that I can give Scott a list of things to pick up. He’s going to have to stop at Kroger tonight for a prescription anyway.

Yesterday’s Chex mix came out tasting odd, IMO. Scott thinks it’s fine, though, so the oddness isn’t a problem. Our theory is that it’s because we had (and I used) smoked almonds instead of plain roasted almonds.

We were out late enough last night, running errands, that we had to pick up food for me while we were out. Cordelia and I got soup from Zoup. I was pretty frustrated by the menu as it relates to what I can eat for dinner-- I wanted to avoid peppers of all sorts, dairy, tomatoes, garlic, and anything spicy. Not one soup met all the criteria. The sandwiches were all of the sort where I’d be paying full price for plain bread and half of the meat. I can have romaine lettuce (or iceberg), so the salads were out. At any rate, I ended up compromising on the dairy to get the chicken potpie soup. I’ve had it before without trouble, but I wasn’t sure about it under current circumstances. As it turned out, I didn’t end up with bedtime reflux, so I guess I’ll get that again if we go back.

One of the calls I need to make is for setting up PT for my left elbow. While I was so sick, the pain from that wasn’t as noticeable. I don’t know that the pain levels changed so much as that I was focused enough on breathing and on sinus pain that those mattered more.

We had four guests yesterday for games. The guests were a long time friend and her daughter and a woman I met at UCon and her husband. Our friend knew them, so I was a bit more willing to gamble on a longish gathering than I might have been otherwise. We played two games of Flash Point and one of Microscope. The Microscope game got really, really silly and so made a good way to end the evening.

We ordered from Cottage Inn, and they actually got my pizza right this time.

Cordelia spent part of the afternoon at the library then sat in the living room, watching library DVDs, until everyone left. I think she was a bit annoyed to have people over. Her stated preference was to stay out until after everyone left, but we weren't sure when we'd be done. As it ended up, she could have stayed at the library if she was willing to wait until 8:30 or so to eat dinner (she didn't have enough money to buy a meal downtown. I bought her a late lunch before leaving her downtown).

I banged my elbow (the bad one, of course) really hard on one of the kitchen cupboards. That particular door has been a constant problem in that regard because we're opening it constantly to get dishes and not getting it to stay closed after. It's right next to the sink and over both the dishwasher and the pressure cooker. Banging one or the other elbow on that door is a two to three times a week thing for me, so I asked Scott last night if we really had to have a door on the damned thing.

He removed the door this afternoon and plans to look into putting up a curtain instead. He also got rid of half of the leaves from the front yard (we may be stuck with the other half until April because I'm pretty sure that Wednesday is the last compost pick up until then. They usually stop at the beginning of December) and rearranged things in the garage so that the car will fit.

Scott and I transferred more money from Cordelia's account to our checking yesterday. It's all going directly for her medical expenses. She's sporadically worrying that we're running out of money which makes discussing money while she's around very fraught. There's still about $3500 in her savings with a bit more from Social Security every month, and Scott's parents have an investment account for her that we can legally tap for medical expenses. That last has about $4000 in it.

I'm a bit frustrated because I haven't managed to sleep past about 6 a.m. any time while Cordelia's been off school. I'm staying up late because I expect to sleep in (and because I'm stupid about that) and then waking between 5 and 6 and not falling back asleep no matter how long I stay in bed. I can get my body to rest at that point, but my mind runs in circles.

We had friends over last night and played Scott's Firefly RPG for the first time in months. Our next scheduled session is the week of UCon and so may not happen, but who knows? One player was absent due to pain from having had a dental deep cleaning done, but we managed to work around his character.

We started late because Scott ended up working with Cordelia on her geometry homework until about half an hour after our normal starting time. They worked at the dining room table, so the rest of us waited in the living room and talked. One of the other players has a sixth grader, a boy, who's been having the same sort of problems as Cordelia, so that was a topic of discussion.

I tried helping Cordelia with her geometry homework, but it didn't work so well. I had trouble reading the worksheet when she was holding it, and she didn't want me to hold it. She didn't trust what I found on Google (but trusted it when Scott found the same information). I think that she also didn't quite get me working around the problems to figure out all of the different things we knew in order to try to figure out which of those things was applicable. I simply could not get her to accept the idea that, if two thirds of the length of a line was 8x and all of it was 9x+6, the length of one third of it had to be x+6.

The algebra education at her old school was really terrible, so she didn't quite get that having all sorts of different bits of information about x makes it easier to solve for x. I think, too, that me wanting to use algebra for a geometry assignment confused her. Plus, she's got the idea that I'm very, very rusty on this sort of math and doesn't trust that I have the slightest idea what I'm talking about as I try to pull things out from 35 years ago.

I had a discussion, years back, with a friend who maintained that the only necessary math after algebra was statistics. I agreed that statistics is important but argued that some bits of geometry are as necessary because they have real world applications if one's ever going to design or build so much as a community theater set. Doing proofs teaches a little bit about step by step logic, too, and that's a generally useful thing.

I'm not sure where the rest of yesterday went. It certainly happened. I was certainly there. I got very little done. My hands and elbow are both hurting quite a lot. My left ankle is also giving me problems if I move it injudiciously. Standing on it and walking on it aren't problems. The trouble comes when I fidget by pointing my toes. That particular movement provokes a pain spike in a very particular spot. I move my feet pretty constantly while I'm sitting, so this is a thing that happens every five minutes or so. I'd have thought that my brain would have gotten the message not to do it by now.

I'm having better luck with the c-PAP at this point. It's not causing me so much anxiety. I'm usually able to wear it all night. There are two problems. The first is that one of the straps, the one around the back of my head, slides upward and off as the night goes on. I have to rouse enough to pull it back down. The second is that once or twice a week, I will wake just enough to be utterly convinced that I need to remove the headgear and then do it and fall asleep again. I've had similar near wakenings in the past where I became convinced that I had to lie on (or specifically not on) one side or the other or to have my legs bent in some specific way. It's new since the cancer in 2015, and I have no idea why it's now a thing. It leaves enough of a sense of urgency that when I wake fully I wrack my brain, trying to figure out whether or not there actually is a reason for the lying on one side and absolutely not the other. At least, when I start questioning what I did with the headgear, I know that there is no reason at all for me to have been convinced of that.

Tonight is going to be dedicated to filling out forms for an appointment Cordelia has tomorrow. Some of the answers required will be long, and I'm thinking to ask Scott if he can get her out of the house for a while so that I can work on it . I lost the morning and early afternoon today to an appointment of my own, so she'll be home in slightly less than ten minutes. Tomorrow is a half day at school, so I won't have child-free time then to finish.

Cordelia seems happy at Skyline and not regretting giving up on Community at all.

I'm inching closer to level 11 in Ingress. I think I might be closer to that than Scott is to level 10. My current guardian portal is at 127 days, and I have two other potential guardian portals that I've been maintaining for a while. Sadly for Scott, I accidentally deleted the only key for the one I'd been recharging for him for the last forty plus days. (I think I'd feel worse about that except that he didn't care enough to try to maintain it himself.)

I spent a little time this morning looking at the Yuletide tag set. Finding things to request is always harder than finding things to offer. I wonder if it would be a terrible breach of etiquette to request something as a gift for someone else?

We went out last night to get Cordelia fitted for a rental dress for choir concerts. That was $25, payable to the choir program at her school. Then we shelled out $30 for shoes to go with the dress. I'd have felt better about that if they had samples in different sizes so that we knew what we were getting that way. Also, girl-identifying folks aren't supposed to wear flats. Guy-identifying folks can. Then we paid $15 for a t-shirt.

For some reason, going out there really smacked me hard physically. I'm not sure why. It was very, very hot outside, but Skyline is air conditioned and was no warmer than our house. I got cranky and ran out of ability to stand (I can still walk when that happens. I just can't stand in one spot without falling over). I had my left arm in a sling because I finally got the discharge instructions from my doctor's appointment back in August. I'm apparently not suppose to use that arm and hand for anything at all. I don't know that I can manage that, though.

The choir also requires that each child's family provide a volunteer on at least three occasions. The thing was that they couldn't tell me exactly what they'd expect me to do on those occasions or exactly what times I'd need to be there or really anything but the title of the event and the date. They probably had about twenty different events needing volunteers. I was near melting down, and Cordelia was horribly embarrassed by me.

I think that some part of this was that this was something for which I'd normally have taken Ativan, but it was too close in time to when I needed to take Halcion in order to sleep. I was also worried that we wouldn't get home in time for me to eat (we did, but I no longer had energy to prepare myself food, and Scott has apparently decided that he will only make me food if I ask specifically and tell him what to make).

Cordelia's having some pain at the hinge of her jaw, so Scott and I will be taking her to the dentist tomorrow afternoon. She also says her teeth are cold sensitive. I suspect that she's clenching and/or grinding at night since that's generally what gives me that sort of trouble.

I like Scott being awake and energetic in the evenings, so that's a positive for working third shift. The negative is that I have to be super quiet all day so as not to risk waking him. I'm even hesitating to make tea because of the noise of the whistle.

My left elbow is hurting a lot. Even when I'm not using the arm or hand, it sometimes hurts enough to make me mutter. The doctor recommended cold packs, but those hurt worse while I'm applying them and don't make things better after, so I'm wondering if I should try heat. That will be a bit harder because Scott moved my rice pack, and I'll have to find it. The elbow is bad enough to wake me if I move wrong, but I discovered this morning that, if I lie on my right side with a pillow between my arm and my body, the damned thing doesn't hurt. It's not ideal because I'm still feeling too warm most of the time and because the rest of my body doesn't like staying in that position, but it's better than nothing.

I have pulled out my sling. It can be useful in reminding me not to try to pick things up with that hand, but it also seems to make things worse in the long term. There's something about the angle and about how close in to my body the sling is that just doesn't work right. Possibly, I need a sling that holds the arm about three inches out from my torso.

I think that I have a solution to the problem of my c-PAP headgear sliding off-- I loosened the straps just a tiny bit, and now the dratted thing stays in place better. It's counterintuitive, but I've had it that way for two or three nights now, and it is better.

Sleep is still not great. Halcion has an effect, but it's not what my doctor said it would do. The stuff is supposed to be very short acting and hit me like a ton of bricks. It doesn't make me more immediately sleepy, but I am tending to stay asleep longer before I wake up to pee. The downside of that is that I'm getting up for that too close to when I have to get up for the day to be able to sleep again. When that's ten minutes, it's not such a big deal. When it's more than an hour... That's enough to matter.

My left elbow is hurting a lot. It's been giving me trouble for a couple of months, but it's now hard to sleep because of it, and bending it and straightening it both hurt like hell. Clenching my fist hurts the elbow, too, as does lifting anything heavier than my cell phone. I'm seeing my doctor next week, so I'm going to talk to her about it then. The pain at night thing is the biggest problem. I can get by without using it to lift/carry most of the time, and I'm managing not to move it much even without wearing a sling.

Neither heat nor ice help, but Tylenol does help a bit. I suspect that being low on sleep isn't helping at all as I tend to hurt more when I'm tired.

This is pinpoint pain, so I'm assuming tendinitis.

Scott has gone off to teach our niece and a couple of her friends how to play D&D. I'm chipping away at certain bits of household chores that have needed doing for quite a while as well as working on more urgent things. I was considering taking a bit of a walk, but it's too hot out there for me. Maybe this evening.

Before he left, Scott brought up one of the boxes of junk from the basement. I've almost finished sorting that. Most of it is trash, but I've got a grocery bag of stuff to donate and a grocery bag of Cordelia's old report cards and certificates and school work. Scott wants to keep all of those papers, but we don't have a defined place for them. I want something other than a paper bag for storage.

There are a lot of index cards in the bottom of the bag. I'm not quite sure what to do with them. We might still use them, but they're loose and kind of grimy. I'm pretty sure Scott would want me to keep them, but... I think that the bottom of the box has mouse droppings all over, so I'm inclined to pitch them and the box.

I also found Cordelia's 3DS which she had apparently never realized was missing. I didn't find the stylus, but I suppose that's easy enough to replace if she gives it away or donates it.

I have no clue at all why there's a rock the size of my fist at the bottom of the box. It's gray, dirty, and ugly, and I don't recall anything that would have given us something of the sort as a souvenir. I feel ridiculous putting it in the trash, but putting it in the yard will just mean the lawnmower hits it the next time Scott mows. I can't see myself walking to the science and nature center or to the railroad tracks in order to put it down.

I kind of want to write, but I'm not sure I have sufficient brain for it just now. Last night was not great for sleep, and I had to be up with Cordelia this morning.

I have managed to find my cloth sling and am wearing it so that I don't keep using my left arm. I'm hoping that the elbow will start to recover if I can just keep it still.

The results of my blood draw on Monday are mixed. My blood sugar is stable, but for the first time ever, I have high(ish) cholesterol and triglycerides. I was expecting my A1c to have gone up because my diet, with regard to sugar, has been terrible during the last few months as I've struggled to keep myself functioning. My blood pressure at my appointment today was 98/63, so that's still fine. It bounces around a bit, but it's never once gone higher than 110/80 which I've been assured is still solidly in the middle of the normal range.