Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
books
Since I just took a few tylenol to try and ease the pain, I feel like typing a bit more. The computer is somewhat of an addiction for me, albeit a painful one. I can't imagine going back to work at this point, it would be sheer torture.
So I left the last post without mentioning any books! I have discovered quite a few Saskatchewan authors over the past year:
Pam Bustin, so far has only the one book called 'Mostly Happy', love the title and loved the story about a single mom and her kid and their journey thru life in the different Saskatchewan towns they end up in and the different men in their lives. Very well written!
Anne Marie Brockman, this woman I think is a fan of Gail Bowen, my favorite Sask. author. (By the way I got to meet her in January at the Estevan Public Library). My friend Crysta told me about her, otherwise I'd never have known about her great series of books. She has written three so far: "Please Forgive Me", "Angels in the Snow" are the two I have read of her. The third book, I can't find anywhere since this woman's books aren't sold everywhere unfortunately. You can't just hop on the internet and order them from Chapters or Amazon. The stories are about women who grew up together, going to a boarding school with nuns somewhere near the manitoba border and their lives later on the road, a great mix of spirituality and sensuality, according to the author's website. Kind of bizzare, the covers of the books seem like they are Christian novels but the contests are a whole other story. Hard to get used to at first but the stories themselves are fairly well written and entertaining. Plus they take place in Saskatchewan, you gotta love that!
So an exciting thing happened. Nelson Brunanski, another Sask. author finally came out with the sequel to his first murder mystery, "Crooked Lake". "Frost Bite" did not disappoint its readers and when I opened the book, imagine my surprise when I saw MY NAME in the dedication list! Woohoo, a book dedicated to me!! It was all because I emailed the guy to tell him I enjoyed his book and so did about a dozen others apparently :)
Gail Bowen also released her latest book "Nesting Dolls" Another great Joanne Killbourne murder mystery. Can't wait for the next one!
I'm sure there were others from Saskatchewan authors, they just don't pop into my mind at the moment.
Other great books I've read this year are the biographies of Melissa Gilbert who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie and Alison Arngrim who played Nellie Olson. I've been on a Little House kick since being a disabled invalid. I've watched three seasons of the show and can't wait to watch more! Life was so much simpler back in those days!
i have a feeling a lot of the books I will be reading soon are books about chronic pain and dealing with that sort of thing. I am ready to stop typing now.
So I left the last post without mentioning any books! I have discovered quite a few Saskatchewan authors over the past year:
Pam Bustin, so far has only the one book called 'Mostly Happy', love the title and loved the story about a single mom and her kid and their journey thru life in the different Saskatchewan towns they end up in and the different men in their lives. Very well written!
Anne Marie Brockman, this woman I think is a fan of Gail Bowen, my favorite Sask. author. (By the way I got to meet her in January at the Estevan Public Library). My friend Crysta told me about her, otherwise I'd never have known about her great series of books. She has written three so far: "Please Forgive Me", "Angels in the Snow" are the two I have read of her. The third book, I can't find anywhere since this woman's books aren't sold everywhere unfortunately. You can't just hop on the internet and order them from Chapters or Amazon. The stories are about women who grew up together, going to a boarding school with nuns somewhere near the manitoba border and their lives later on the road, a great mix of spirituality and sensuality, according to the author's website. Kind of bizzare, the covers of the books seem like they are Christian novels but the contests are a whole other story. Hard to get used to at first but the stories themselves are fairly well written and entertaining. Plus they take place in Saskatchewan, you gotta love that!
So an exciting thing happened. Nelson Brunanski, another Sask. author finally came out with the sequel to his first murder mystery, "Crooked Lake". "Frost Bite" did not disappoint its readers and when I opened the book, imagine my surprise when I saw MY NAME in the dedication list! Woohoo, a book dedicated to me!! It was all because I emailed the guy to tell him I enjoyed his book and so did about a dozen others apparently :)
Gail Bowen also released her latest book "Nesting Dolls" Another great Joanne Killbourne murder mystery. Can't wait for the next one!
I'm sure there were others from Saskatchewan authors, they just don't pop into my mind at the moment.
Other great books I've read this year are the biographies of Melissa Gilbert who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie and Alison Arngrim who played Nellie Olson. I've been on a Little House kick since being a disabled invalid. I've watched three seasons of the show and can't wait to watch more! Life was so much simpler back in those days!
i have a feeling a lot of the books I will be reading soon are books about chronic pain and dealing with that sort of thing. I am ready to stop typing now.
A year has Passed
So much has happened in my life since my last post. I changed careers in May of last year and struggled through the ropes of learning the new job and getting used to not being home day in and day out. It was the most depressing and stressful summer of my life. Things did eventually get better, my co-workers are the most amazing, knowledgeable men and women who taught me a lot over the 8 months I was working with them. I had finally reached the point where I could say I was happy with my decision and the job and then my health went downhill in January. I haven't worked a day since February 1st and I am stuck at home in constant chronic pain. I was diagnosed on March 14th with Hypermobility Syndrome, a form of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which affects the connective tissues of a person's body. I am struggling to learn more about the condition I have been diagnosed with, what I can do to improve my situation and possibly get back to working again. At this point with the pain affecting my wrists on a daily basis, the likelyhood of spending hours at a desk typing doesn't seem like a possibility for me. So I feel like I am in a mourning stage so to speak about the loss of something I was only just beginning to enjoy. With that being said, what are the chances of physically being able to care for children on a day to day schedule if I were to choose to return to my old life?
Hypermobility of and in itself is not a probably for many of those who are classified as being 'hypermobile' In fact, my doctor told me 15% of the population is considered to be hypermobile. I was not aware that I was. A hypermobile person can do all sorts of neat tricks with their joints. Double jointed is what I always knew I was as a kid. I could freak people out with my fingers, and my elbows. I've seen photos on the internet now of people that can physically turn their foot around backwards and I'm pretty sure I can't do that, in fact it sounds pretty darn painful. Hypermobile people tend to report more sprains, strains and other injuries. Since I didn't really play sports as a kid I wasn't prone to injuring myself and had I been more physically active I probably would have discovered that I wasn't normal a lot sooner. I do recall spraining my wrist quite often while doing cartwheels as a kid and my ankle as well. In fact I used crutches at my high school graduation due to an ankle injury. I have never been able to wear high heeled shoes, my ankles are just too weak. I remember dislocating a finger playing tetherball as a kid and during my short foray as a saxaphone player, my fingers used to seize up (which I've heard referred to as 'subluxation') At the age of 7, I wore a patch over my left eye to correct a 'lazy eye' which is another condition of the connective tissues (ligaments). These are a few things I can think of that while not serious health concerns, were indications of my potential problem.
In February, an optometrist informed me that my ligaments holding my retina in place are detaching somewhat. He mentioned small tears in the tissue and that if the floaters I have been seeing for awhile now get any worse I am supposed to come back to see him.
What happened with me in my case was this:
The combination of a desk job where one sits possibly hunched over with improper posture (I am well aware that I struggle with this) and the excessive swimming I was doing during the month of January, (70 laps front crawl 4 or 5 times per week for four weeks)has overstretched my tendons and ligaments (a hypermobile person must take special care not to overstretch any part of their body). This overstretching of led to the pinching of some nerves in my neck and brachial plexus area of my body causing my right arm to go numb. When I woke up with a numb arm that was my clue to see a doctor. My first visit to a doctor was January 30th and finally on March 14th, seeing a Physiatrist (not to be confused with Psychiatrist) in Regina made his diagosis. I also have some scoliosis thrown in for good measure.
So I know what I have, that's fine but what to do to fix this is harder than it might appear at first. Tendons and ligaments are like elastics and the older a person gets the less elasticity they have and for me, I am feeling like my tendons are not returning to their proper places in my body, thus causing the pain. The doctor gave me core exercises to do. Core strengthening is key to recovery and must be maintained for the rest of my life, he stressed. So I am working on it. However, patients with EDS/HMS do not tend to heal at the same pace that others would so this will be a slow going process. I am happy to say that the muscles in the brachial plexus area must be improving in strength since I no longer feel like something is pinched. The numbness is no longer a problem but the PAIN has never gone away. I have had maybe three somewhat pain free days over the past two months and those were not completely pain free they were just a bit more bearable than the rest.
My wrists hurt and my right shoulder is in pain quite often. Yesterday was a bad day for shoulder pain. My physio therapist has given me joint stability exercises to do each day because my joints hurt every day as well. Today the worst joint pain is my right knee and my shoulder and elbow. The left side is usually not as bad. I wonder if it's from the swimming and how they tell me my right arm is my dominant arm.
I am frustrated and angry that something I love has caused my 'injury' and agrivated my 'condition' I have not been to the pool since January 29th and I doubt I'll be headed there any time in the near future. I am stressed over finances and I feel useless at the age of almost 37, knowing that I will most likely have to apply for disability benefits through CPP or however that works. It's embarrassing not being able to help support our family and I grew up with a mother who couldn't work and now although my problem is physical and not mental, here I am following in her footsteps.
However, this is a blog about books and not my health problems. Over the past year, could I really sit back and remember everything I've managed to read? Well probably not but I can come up with some highlights. However, my wrists are killing me and typing pretty much depresses me these days so not sure if I'll get back into this blogging or not. But since I've come across so many people who have EDS/HMS that are blogging their journey to understand this illness I thought I'd give it a try too and in the meantime, try and get back on track with this book blog. It hurts to read these days. My wrists do not feel strong enough to hold a book most days. You would think with all this time spent at home alone, I could get in a book a day but to be honest I just try and cope with the pain, that takes up the majority of my daily routine. If I get a load of laundry or some dishes washed I'm doing good.
Hypermobility of and in itself is not a probably for many of those who are classified as being 'hypermobile' In fact, my doctor told me 15% of the population is considered to be hypermobile. I was not aware that I was. A hypermobile person can do all sorts of neat tricks with their joints. Double jointed is what I always knew I was as a kid. I could freak people out with my fingers, and my elbows. I've seen photos on the internet now of people that can physically turn their foot around backwards and I'm pretty sure I can't do that, in fact it sounds pretty darn painful. Hypermobile people tend to report more sprains, strains and other injuries. Since I didn't really play sports as a kid I wasn't prone to injuring myself and had I been more physically active I probably would have discovered that I wasn't normal a lot sooner. I do recall spraining my wrist quite often while doing cartwheels as a kid and my ankle as well. In fact I used crutches at my high school graduation due to an ankle injury. I have never been able to wear high heeled shoes, my ankles are just too weak. I remember dislocating a finger playing tetherball as a kid and during my short foray as a saxaphone player, my fingers used to seize up (which I've heard referred to as 'subluxation') At the age of 7, I wore a patch over my left eye to correct a 'lazy eye' which is another condition of the connective tissues (ligaments). These are a few things I can think of that while not serious health concerns, were indications of my potential problem.
In February, an optometrist informed me that my ligaments holding my retina in place are detaching somewhat. He mentioned small tears in the tissue and that if the floaters I have been seeing for awhile now get any worse I am supposed to come back to see him.
What happened with me in my case was this:
The combination of a desk job where one sits possibly hunched over with improper posture (I am well aware that I struggle with this) and the excessive swimming I was doing during the month of January, (70 laps front crawl 4 or 5 times per week for four weeks)has overstretched my tendons and ligaments (a hypermobile person must take special care not to overstretch any part of their body). This overstretching of led to the pinching of some nerves in my neck and brachial plexus area of my body causing my right arm to go numb. When I woke up with a numb arm that was my clue to see a doctor. My first visit to a doctor was January 30th and finally on March 14th, seeing a Physiatrist (not to be confused with Psychiatrist) in Regina made his diagosis. I also have some scoliosis thrown in for good measure.
So I know what I have, that's fine but what to do to fix this is harder than it might appear at first. Tendons and ligaments are like elastics and the older a person gets the less elasticity they have and for me, I am feeling like my tendons are not returning to their proper places in my body, thus causing the pain. The doctor gave me core exercises to do. Core strengthening is key to recovery and must be maintained for the rest of my life, he stressed. So I am working on it. However, patients with EDS/HMS do not tend to heal at the same pace that others would so this will be a slow going process. I am happy to say that the muscles in the brachial plexus area must be improving in strength since I no longer feel like something is pinched. The numbness is no longer a problem but the PAIN has never gone away. I have had maybe three somewhat pain free days over the past two months and those were not completely pain free they were just a bit more bearable than the rest.
My wrists hurt and my right shoulder is in pain quite often. Yesterday was a bad day for shoulder pain. My physio therapist has given me joint stability exercises to do each day because my joints hurt every day as well. Today the worst joint pain is my right knee and my shoulder and elbow. The left side is usually not as bad. I wonder if it's from the swimming and how they tell me my right arm is my dominant arm.
I am frustrated and angry that something I love has caused my 'injury' and agrivated my 'condition' I have not been to the pool since January 29th and I doubt I'll be headed there any time in the near future. I am stressed over finances and I feel useless at the age of almost 37, knowing that I will most likely have to apply for disability benefits through CPP or however that works. It's embarrassing not being able to help support our family and I grew up with a mother who couldn't work and now although my problem is physical and not mental, here I am following in her footsteps.
However, this is a blog about books and not my health problems. Over the past year, could I really sit back and remember everything I've managed to read? Well probably not but I can come up with some highlights. However, my wrists are killing me and typing pretty much depresses me these days so not sure if I'll get back into this blogging or not. But since I've come across so many people who have EDS/HMS that are blogging their journey to understand this illness I thought I'd give it a try too and in the meantime, try and get back on track with this book blog. It hurts to read these days. My wrists do not feel strong enough to hold a book most days. You would think with all this time spent at home alone, I could get in a book a day but to be honest I just try and cope with the pain, that takes up the majority of my daily routine. If I get a load of laundry or some dishes washed I'm doing good.
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