| Week One: |
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April had a unexpected ending. Carolynn still hasn't been well and needed someone to drive her to Cleveland. So I promised that I would help her out. Wouldn't you know it though, my car had a water pump problem just before I was supposed to take Carolynn. Once again, Jim  came to my rescue and offered his car. The catch? I needed to drive him to work. Instead of heading for the hour trip straight over to Salem to pick up Carolynn, I rode with Jim about 30 minutes up the highway to Tallmadge and then I drove 40 minutes southwest to pick up Carolynn. |
At Carolynn's, I switched to her car, and we headed back up the road. (Well, back up the road for me. LOL) Through my travels, I drove through SEVEN counties! (Stark, Summit, Mahoning, Columbiana, Portage, Geauga, and
Cuyahoga) When the trip started, I was driving in the sunshine; then I was driving in the rain; and finally I ended up driving in snow!! And when I sat down in the Cleveland Clinic waiting room, I realized that I had three sets of car keys in my pocket (mine, Jim's and Carolynn's).  |
My tour through NorthEast Ohio (Too bad I had just mailed Flat Stanley back to Jackson (see last month), he would have enjoyed this trip.  ) |
| From Carolynn's MRI scans, the doctors have finally decided that she has a slipped disc in her neck pinching her spinal cord. They now can start treating her and hopefully get her some relief. Carolynn and I were at the Clinic most of the day, so that she could get an
epidural cortisone shot without having to come back to Cleveland the following day. If this procedure doesn't work, the next step will be surgery to relieve the pressure on her nerves. |
Although I ended up picking Jim up late, the day turned out very
well. The change in Carolynn was very nice to see. On the ride up, she was very quite and really seemed to not feel well at all. (Ah, so that's what I looked like when I was sick with the fever.  ) On the ride back though, she was quite animated and seemed to be nearly back to normal. She told me that although some of the pain was still there, it was very much diminished and she was feeling much better. Hopefully, the shot will be all that she needs until this disc heals up, without having to have the surgery. |
| By the way, I did get
Flat Stanley mailed out to Jackson and his school and they should be receiving their packages on Tuesday the 3rd (the same day the new Nine Inch Nails CD is released, and Phantom of the Opera comes out on DVD ). Each package contained a new red folder with the whole presentation printed out, along with the presentation burned onto a CD (with a cute little label too ) |
| I don't have any pictures for May yet (although I'll probably be taking pictures on Tues of how the cosmos are doing in all the places that I planted them); but that doesn't mean that I don't have a good update. Instead of working on this site, I got around to updating my puppies' website (http://reigningpages.com/puppies), which hasn't been updated since June 2002!! So there are years worth of pictures added to the site now. Check out the homepage along with the pages for Gabby, Joxer,
Aries, Zeus |
| I still have a couple of pictures from April though. This is from outside the Cleveland Clinic, well, at least part of it. The whole complex stretches from probably about 80th St. W to 120th or further. The clinic has it's own police force, and shuttle bus system to transport people between all the various
buildings. |
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On the subject of clinics and doctors, I had a doctor's appointment this week. I can report Good News again.  My number have greatly improved since the first of the year, as you can see in the chart below. However, since my appointment was canceled (the doctor's kid was sick that day) and it had been another month, the doctor is having me do some more blood work. He's also checking to see if he can see a reason why my muscles have been so
achy since the fever in February. Some days it really really hurts,, so I hope that there is some reason, other than the fact that I'm 43 now.  |
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| Date |
Viral Load |
T-Cells |
| 1/25/05 |
337,969 |
49 |
| 2/23/05 |
10,924 |
128 |
| amt changed |
- 3000% |
+ 250% |
| 3/30/05 |
498 |
180 |
| amt changed |
- 2100% |
+ 140% |
| 5/02/05 |
? |
? |
| amt changed |
- 0% |
+ 0% |
| I'll fill in this information on the 17th after the next doctor appt. |
| On the last day of April, Ritchie came over to spend the night. Rich, Jim and I had a great time. We played a bunch of games (Rich beat me at Celebrity Deathmatch on the Xbox; but I whipped his butt at Diddy Kong Racing on the N64.) Plus, Gabby got to see her "boy". |
| That's Rich is the living room surfing on the computer that I set up when I was sick. (It also runs "Front Porch Cam".) |
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The following morning, it looks like we stayed up too late and then had too much sugary cereal for breakfast. |
| The cosmos about are a third of the way until they should be blooming. I read (on the internet, of course) that it's 50 days from planting to first bloom. However, we did have the bad spell of cold right after they starting growing, so they might bloom a little later. All the plants were a little yellowish after recovering from that snowfall late in April. |
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the seedlings
at my house |
along the side
of Jim's driveway |
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For a while there I was worried that Austin was growing up too fast. LOL But I checked and that's just him sitting on Tara's desk. |
| My car. Now here's a story. My poor car has been having problems lately. There's been a water leak and all evidence pointed to a water pump problem. Luckily, the guys at EAC squeezed me in and replaced my water pump one afternoon. Thanks Mark and Stephen! I really appreciate your help. |
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Un-luckily, the car is still having really bad problems. Although, at EAC, they showed me how trashed the water pump was, something else is still wrong and I overheated on the way back home. I had to stop about a mile from home and wait about half an hour to cool down some. With the engine clanking now, and Jim following in his car, I got the car back home, and it sputtered to it's death as I pulled into the driveway.
Right now, I really don't know what I'm going to do about my car. It really doesn't matter if I repair or replace, because I don't have any money for either choice.  Sometimes my situation really bugs me. On one hand, I have to stay poor to keep getting medical assistance; because on the other hand, I still have enough health problems that I can't really work enough to support me and my medical bills. It's a catch-22 for me. But I've managed for 10 years, and I'll manage through this crisis too. (Maybe I should start the "New Car for mIkIE Fund". LOL Please donate frequently with large amounts. Thanks! ) |
| Little Baba is growing bigger and bigger every time that I see her. She's also getting friendly to me. And she and Nami get along great. It's amazing the difference in Nami over the last year. After his buddies passed away, he seemed to be depressed and sullen but was a much love-ier cat. Now with Baba, he's so much happier and so much more playful. |
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Scroll to see Baba playing under the table |
I got a great email from my sister-in-law this past week. Flat Stanley made it back to NC and made quite an impression. It seems Lisa had a porch-full of the neighborhood kids to whom she could read Flat Stanley's adventures in Ohio.  |
Gabby's Day Off |
My little girl, Gabby, has really become attached to Jim. She loves him more than she even loves me! (Well, she'll kiss him, and sneezes on me!  ) As a special treat, we took Gabby, all by herself, up to Jim's house. She had a great and EXCITING time. Click on the picture below to find out more and find out who
ended up in the pool first this year! |
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| It seems that Spring has returned to Ohio again. (But, for how long?, is the real question.) Jim and I worked on cleaning the pool some more, and even spent an hour or so playing some tennis. Well, actually just hitting the balls around; but it was
exercise even if we didn't play an actual game. I know with my achy-muscle problem, I probably shouldn't have done so much on the weekend; but it's hard not to be happy and active when the weather is so very nice for a change. |
I've been so busy with the car problems and trying to enjoy the nice weather while it's here, that I was lax about one thing. My Mother's Day cards to Carolynn and my mom won't get into the mail until the Monday afterwards. (It's the thought that counts anyway. Love you, Moms!) I did chat with Carolynn online some (she's doing a little worse and has another visit to the Clinic coming up); and chatted with my mom on the phone for a while. DO is the lucky "mom" though. Since she only lives a couple of blocks away, she already got her card, along with a new beautiful apron and oven mitt that Jim and I got for her. Always keep the cook happy is my motto! (Keep an eye on your mail, Celia and Carolynn. Your cards should show up soon and even though they are late, it in no way reflects on how much I love y'all.  ) |
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Week Two: |
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| With my car still out of commission, this has been a fairly quite week for me; but Tara has had a little excitement this week. Ethel, who passed away a few weeks ago, has been replaced with Ethel2. |
| Austin is still wanting Tara and Jason to get "Ricky" the kitten too. They promised "Ricky" next. |
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Of course, I can't not mention Lu-Lu. How come we keep getting pictures of this dog being cute? LOL Well, she's not as cute as my Gabby, but getting closer every day. |
Being stuck at home really wasn't too bad. I should have probably spent the time resting; but the weather got nice again and my bushes had finally grown out enough for a cutting (gosh! I've been waiting for this for weeks! LOL   ) |
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| Wow! EAC was pretty busy; and poor Tara has been complaining about a migraine. |
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Obviously, her migraine was a symptom of something worse. By Thursday, she was really sick (and Austin too) so I filled in for her at EAC (courtesy of DO loaning me her car ). Too bad Tara was out. She missed the wreck out front. That was it for excitement that day. LOL (MouseOver
CloseUp) |
| The hollyhocks and cosmos that I planted at EAC are starting to sprout. |
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| Jim is already ready for pool time. He got a good buzz cut the other day. So much easier to get out of the pool and go when you're hair dries in 30 sec. ROFL |
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| Oh, and by the way, Jim has passed his 7-week training course and is now officially an employee of Summit Racing and will begin phone sales on the afternoon shift (3p-12a) starting Monday. |
| A quick update on Carolynn: Her cortisone shot has worn off and she's been hurting a bunch again. Now she has gone back to the Clinic for another shot and to schedule surgery soon. |
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| Speaking of surgery, I had to do that at my house, with some help from Jim. Recently I had seen a couple of drops of blood on my desk and wasn't able to figure who was bleeding in the house. Since it wasn't me, and the dogs can't get onto my desk, I checked Sheagra. It's been a long time since I last clipped her nails, and now I see that I should have done it much, much sooner. My poor kitty had an ingrown toenail on each of her paws (the claw corresponding to our "pointer" fingers). Her nails had grown out, curled up and had stabbed back into the pads of her front paws. OUCH! Hollering and hissing while Jim held her, Sheagra wasn't a happy kitty at all, as I cut the nails and pulled them out from her infected pads. My poor kitty was already doing better a few days later, although she was limping for a little while. |
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The bamboo is growing like mad over at Jim's house, and we frequently have to do a "cane walk" in his yard (that's when you walk the yard looking for more bamboo upshoots so that you can pull and remove the invasive, spreading bamboo). Recently we took some of the roots we had removed and replanted them to the back of my yard. |
| We had planted bamboo here last year, hoping to create a "natural fence" across the back of my property. This new batch of bamboo seems to be taking hold this year. |
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my cosmos
are still growing well |
MouseOver Iris bud CloseUp |
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| The cosmos grow taller every day, at Jim's; while his lilacs are in full-bloom. |
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the dogwood at DO's is blooming, while a couple of squirrels are busy trying new ways to get into DO's birdfeeders every day. |
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| MouseOver for Squirrel CloseUps |
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