She Lives!

Thank you! for the concern and well wishes from everyone over the last week.
And secondly the ugly troll who doesn't want to listen to me whine can KMFA and don't darken my blog's door.  Find somewhere else to spew your venom thankyouverymuch!

Pain at the ER was about a 8-9(I guess when you are screaming they believe you when you say it hurts!)  After the valium when we left the ER pain dropped to a 4-5.
They did an EKG(all clear), drew blood(nothing bad showed up), and did a CT(showed a tiny gall stone which isn't an issue and a bit of diverticula in the colon, new since my colonoscopy but isn't inflamed or anything) but none of these CT findings have anything to do with these back muscle spasms.  You know I am not well when I can't even fret over the cost of all these tests that did not help diagnosis the current issue. ;-)

The weekend was rough I gotta say.
Being sent home from the ER with an Rx that helped NOT AT ALL!! was rough.   There was a lot of laying in bed(when I could get comfortable-not often), some standing around, some sitting on a heating pad in the recliner and very little sitting at the desk reading blogs but no writing. And a bit of crying when the pain got too bad.  I didn't get up to a 9 over the weekend but we hovered around a 6-7 after being at a 5-6 for 2 weeks beforehand.  Being in that level of pain wears you down after that long and there was no end in sight until Monday.

There may have also been some old pain killer pills popped too when nothing else helped and/or some CBD oil consumed and/or some edibles eaten to relax me but you didn't here it from me. ;-)

Hubs has been having to pull up the slack with shopping(oh how the budget has been blown!), dealing with dogs and anything involving bending and lifting.

And not being able to "do" anything was/is driving me nuts!  There is so much to do and I sit here twiddling my thumbs(well not that since my thumbs ache most of the time).  I can't move my stuff into my new sewing room still even though the new carpet was done a full week ago.....so there is no progress being made on the house basically. ugh.

I was able to stand to go to Big Lots on Saturday after popping a pain pill for my HS flares to do some deals since Hubs drove me.  Hubs went back get get a refund for something that rang up wrong and purchase a new desk for his man cave on Sunday since it was still 20% off everything in the store.

I did end up making and canning a bunch of jam on Sunday as the alternative drugs had me feeling less pain that day.  I had bought 4 pints of blueberries and 7+ lbs. of local peaches two days before the ER visit to can so that had to get done.  At least Hubs could help with the lifting and all for that.

Monday I got in to see the doc(after a 50 min. delay in the waiting room), recounted the last 5 days adventure(ER and beyond)and he prescribed me 2 weeks worth of the muscle relaxer that worked(thank you God!!!).  We talked about seeing a pain manager and then he asked if I've ever had back surgery/back issues before(which was all a no).  Then he had me get an X-ray or two so that meant sitting in the waiting room for another 30 minutes waiting for the gal from radiology to come back from lunch but once she was back they got me right in.
Then it was over to Rite-Aid to pick up the pills.  I went across the road to Burger King for a drink and popped the first pill in the parking lot before driving home.  Driving myself places in this condition really aggravated my back.

My eldest son and his GF are here now for a 3 day visit and I am waiting on the results of the X-rays.

The muscle relaxer is helping but now I am thinking the pain may be spine/connective tissue related or arthritis in my hip?  Last Spring my doc had an x-ray done of my shoulders/neck which showed I have degenerative arthritis in those areas plus I've had arthritis issues with my thumbs for a couple of years now which makes me think these new pains are just some sort of arthritis expanding to other areas.

We'll see what the scans show once they get read and will go from there.

Knowing me, you know it was bad if while in Rite-Aid on Monday waiting for them to fill my pain pill Rx, I saw a penny on the floor and I did not bend over to pick it up!
Yes, Sluggy is on her deathbed if change on the floor cannot get her to pick it up. lolz
I guess I'll have to put a magnet on a string and carry that in my purse from now on.............


I will continue to take any prayers, white light and good wishes I can get. 

Additionally if someone wants to voodoo doll the anonymous troll(who is either very naive or just a  moron who thinks the government has my, as well as all of your, best interests at heart) won't go away that would be awesome too. 
Voodoo doll or if you "know a guy" that would work too. 8-)


Sluggy

Craptastic Health Update

Well I finally went to the Urgent Care and just as I suspected I have a sinus infection.  Haven't had one of those in years so yeah.....
I was also working on a case of bronchitis it seems but I took an albuterol treatment and am on an antibiotic and steroids for one or the other condition and am feeling on the mend at this point.  I sound like death when I breath or I am hacking up a lung but really I am better and not contagious.
The Daughter woke up this morning feeling like crap(or so she said)so she went up to the urgent care for a flu test.  Daughter can be a bit of a hypochondriac(she comes by it honestly as my mom had a touch of that)plus all her medical studies before she decided not to continue in premed and go to medical school.  We'll find out tomorrow or tonight if she is contagious so until then she is banished to her room and the Lysol and hand sanitizer are back on standby at Chez Sluggy.

With my luck if both the kids have the flu it will be hitting me next on top of my current miseries. sigh.
I wore a mask to Rite-Aid today to return the shampoo and Kleenex that my L2CQs didn't come off for and got some other goodies with today's Wellness Wednesday coupons.
I'll write that trip up later tonight or Thursday and report in on it.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!!!
 Today is the last day it's open so go HERE.

Fear not!  The box is filled and sealed already just waiting to make it's way to it's new home so no germy hands with me handling the goodies.  I'll open the lid briefly to slip in a paper with the winner's address/name(after spraying that with Lysol of course!).

Ok, I am off to go nap if I can stop coughing long enough to do so. 

Sluggy

Goings On Around Chez Sluggy Lately

Oh, where to start.

My drug regime shake up has had some positive results on me.....well, after my angioedema/hives episode happened.
First off I had ENERGY last week!  That's something I've had none of most of this year.
I am actually getting things accomplished that I've wanted to do for months.
Go me.

Last week I........
* Cleaned out my painting supplies(plus washed the tubs I keep these in).
* Cleaned out the pantry
* Cleaned out the cabinet to the left of the stove
* Did some reorganizing in the garage/stockpile
* Cleaned the bookcase next to my desk
* Got together a Food Bank Donation
* Got a Salvation Army Donation ready to go
* Went through some files and purged a bunch of paper
* Cleaned and vacuumed my car(This is something I NEVER do!)

All this was in addition to my usual routine of cooking/laundry/shopping/blogging/etc.

And all this moving around has had me losing weight too, 8 lbs. so far.  I suspect one of the meds I was on that I am now off of was hindering me dropping weight.  Has to be a combo on exercise and off the drug as my food type/intake has not changed at all.

And then Daughter got sick and shared her grunge with me.
Ugh.
This week has been spent in a brain fog and 1 activity.....just trying to be able to breath out of my nose. ;-)
I suspect if this thing doesn't loosen it's grasp on me by Monday I'll be sitting in the Urgent Care early next week.

Another thing I got done last week was to prepare a whole slew of Giveaway boxes......

The open box is for December's Giveaway and the stack contains goodies for 6 Giveaways for 2017.
As long as the blogging ad revenue continues to come in(in drips and drabs)and I can cover the postage to mail these boxes with that tiny income stream(and I get stuff for Free to use as prizes)the Giveaways will continue!
Rah.

So barring catastrophes I am well ahead of the game for at least half of next year on this score.
I just need to figure out where to store these boxes in the house until needed. First world blogger problems, eh? lolz

Putting these boxes together came out of cleaning the dining room.  I had a large box of toiletries in there that needed to be moved out before Thanksgiving as we'll need that room then.  This box was overflow from the toiletries stash in tubs up in Hub's man cave room.  So instead of shoving them goodness knows where in the house and then trying to dig it all out to make up prize boxes for Giveaways I just "got 'er done" now and that potential job is off my plate.  I can just photograph the contents and write up each Giveaway post as needed next year.  I think I have room under the daybed that the dog spends her days napping on in the living room to tuck these away until needed.  This hiding place will be easy to access too.

Here is the Food Bank donation I gathered so far......

Assorted foodstuffs and 10 bottles of shampoo

I'll probably add to the food component before I take this all in next week, as I will be reorganizing the stockpile in the garage some more and will most probably find more "goodies".

And speaking of the garage, next week once I am feeling like myself again I need to concentrate on going through stuff in the garage to donate to charity.  Between the stockpile, Daughter and BF's stuff and all my old eBay selling days stuff out there it's just too, too much in there and I am ready to let go of more crap!

I want to do at least another 4 Salvation Army donations before the end of the year(not counting the one ready to go this weekend).  I've still got lots of new/unused toys and gift wear and this is the time of year that sort of stuff is highly sought after for gifting in the charity stores.
I'd rather donate and take the tax write-off(if we hit the threshold this year-last year we didn't)than spend lots of time and energy on eBay attempting to sell it.
There are a few items if I get the "umph" that I will try to sell....mostly items I know I can get a good price for(to make the hassle worthwhile).

Ok, I am off to breath and maybe get some more cleaning/organizing done today.
Oh, and a trip to Rite-Aid too if I can sustain some energy long enough to do that. 8-)))

What are y'all up to today?

Sluggy

Been Sick & Blah

I've been feeling not so great this week.  Might have had a stomach bug around Friday.  Having vertigo and sinus issues, feeling lethargic....you name it, I've felt it. lolz
But I'm feeling better today but still weak and tired.
I've been working on my end of March posts between running to the bathroom(TMI I know).
Now I am going to sit down and figure out the meal plan for the coming week...which won't be too difficult if I just move all the meals I didn't make last week to this coming week's schedule. lolz

Since I didn't get out to the grocery stores at all last week I don't have much grocery spending so far in April.  Hubs picked up a handful of items for us over the course of the week.

I did send Hubs out on Wednesday night as he wanted to go to the liquor store right next door to Weis(PMITA)Markets.  I sent him into Weis to do a deal I didn't get around to doing last week.
If you bought 2 x "ICBINB" margarine, which was on sale for $2.50 a container, you got $1 off an 18 ct. of large eggs(which are $3.55 reg. retail).  I sent him off to buy these three items along with 2 x .55¢/1 ICBINB Qs(which double up to $1 at Weis).
$9.13 reg. retail-.58¢ on sale items=$8.55-$1 on the eggs=$7.55-$2 in coupons=$5.55.  There was also a $1.50/2 ICBINB Rebate on SavingStar(which I have already gotten credit for in my account)so in the end these 3 items cost me $4.05 OOP.
That's about my only frugal shopping accomplishment for this week. ;-)

It snowed here last night and we awoke to an inch or so on the ground.
Happy April!!! ha
And it's windy as hell and the cold is coming right in through the walls and more of the same is expected tomorrow.  End of the week it should warm up to the 50's-60's(at least during the day).
I hope it's not this dreadful out by Wednesday as I must go out to a consult with a surgeon and the walk from the parking lot will be brutal in these temperatures.

The project manager from Lowe's finally came to the house this past week to check on the bathroom job and put in a work order for the 3 small issues remaining.  We are lucky we got our reno job on the contractor's schedule back in February when we did because project manager nows says that the contractor is backed up into JULY with work!  People poured into the store late Feb. through March signing contracts for work and there is now a 3 month backlog! Geez.

We need work done in the other upstairs bathroom but we can wait and this backlog gives us time to save up the money for that job now instead of yanking funds from the emergency fund for it.  It's looking like we won't get that job done until early next year or December of this year at this point.

Just not much being accomplished around here lately.  No Rite-Aid trips either.
Oh well.
Not much else to report in on so I'll sign off.

What's going on with y'all?

Sluggy

The Nothing Goes Right Weekend

This past weekend was a real pip.

I'm feeling real sorry for #2 Son especially.
He was been run ragged what with all his musical extracurricular activities--marching band, pitt orchestra for the high school musical, concert band.
He's a bit rundown.
Then he had to get up the crack of dawn on Saturday to go take the SAT at a downtown high school......he missed the PSAT, so we had him take the SAT as a Junior just to get a "baseline", as he is planning on taking it again next Fall as a Senior.
Anyway, he sat for that thing for 4 hours Saturday morning.
Then sleep deprived and now tired from thinking for 4 hours, Hubs made him drive home.
He's still working on the 60 hour "behind the wheel" requirement to get your license here in PA.
I know nobody here makes their kid actually log 60 hours in all kinds of weather before they take the road test but us.  We are hard asses. 8-)

So he's driving home from the test with Hubs and he runs a stop sign(one of those rolling stop deals from a merge lane....he says he didn't even see the stop sign).
Unfortunately, a police car was sitting about 100 yds. up from where he merged/ran the stop sign, so #2 Son got to experience his 1st time being pulled over.
He handled himself well and only got a warning from the officer.

Then after getting home and giving me all the details of his thrilling morning, he goes upstairs and I hear him stomping around more than usual.
He comes down to tell me he has lost his wallet.
The last time he saw it was at the SAT when he had to take his ID out to show to get into the high school for the test.
And he had $70 in it.  8-(
I told #2 Son that he was most definitely the BUG and not the Windshield this past weekend.....

$70 hard earned money.....gone.
Mind you, this is the kid who wants a $400 cell phone for Christmas!....which he is Not getting by the way.  I don't know what it is, but those teen hormones are doing wacky things to his brain lately.  He has gotten so absentminded!  He loses everything......even his train of thought.  If he was a bit older I'd swear he was going through menopause. lol

Then he started running a fever on Sunday and he missed the pitt rehearsal.
Then I started running a fever Sunday night, followed by chills and a queasy stomach.

It's not been a fun day today for either of us as well, though the chills are gone the low-grade fever and the queasies are not.

But the good news is that someone turned in #2's wallet at the downtown high school.  Since it was a VANS wallet(coveted by teenagers the world over lol) I figured it was gone for good.  I'll lay money that the $70 won't be in it when we get it back.

Hubs got the Christmas tree out of the garage and set it up this weekend.  It's still nekkid however.
And he's set storage tubs of Holiday accoutrements willy-nilly all over the living room, so I can't get to my eBay items should someone purchase one.
And yah, the eBay stuff isn't going so great this Holiday season.  I need to get some more listings up this week and hope for the best.

So how was your weekend?

I've got some errands to do and a Menu to figure out post, and 2 giveaways to post winners for so maybe I'll get to that tonight.
Stay tuned.

Sluggy

Is it Really Monday AGAIN?!?!

* Being sick on your birthday sucks.  Ok, so this isn't startling news to anyone.  As of this morning, I do feel like I have turned the corner on this thing however.  I am drained of energy still but I am on the mend.

* Being sick for a week turns your Meal Plan into a Meal Disaster.  I made a few things this past week but lots of other things didn't get eaten, still other things didn't get put into the freezer in time(which makes me sick again to thing about the waste) and the fridge needs a good clean out.  The freezer, pantry and stockpile as well could use a good clean out also.  Having the offspring home and pawing through the freezer, pantry and stockpile means nothing is in it's place.  Daughter hauled back 2 bags of foodstuffs to college(which I didn't inspect or "ok" before it left the premises)so if anything comes up missing, I KNOW where it is.lol

* Being sick while trying to show your 19 year old daughter how to do her taxes is NOT found under "Fun" in the dictionary.   Come to think of it, neither is doing your own taxes and TWO, COUNT 'EM TWO FAFSAs......

* Being sick is not conducive to figuring out ones Goals for the new year.  I know everyone is probably bored to tears with my Monthly Food Budget spending reports and my Monthly Savings Challenge reports and my Weekly Meal plans and the little bit of Shopping I do each week(IF I do any).

So what say you dear readers?.....should I continue with these reports and plans? 
How about I bring back the Sluggy's Boring Box Giveaway?

Bueller?......Bueller??.......

I will have my List of Goals for 2012 later this week.
Hey, at least I'm getting them done before January is over!...maybe......lol

Sluggy

2012 Decluttering P*rn & Other Stuff

Yes, I am back at the decluttering again.  Once the weather improves a bit this is all leaving the garage and heading into Hub's car trunk....well, the stuff that isn't already in there....then off to Salvation Army. ;-)

Matchbox Beetle Car 1:32 scale
Small Soldiers Slot Car Racing Set
Small Soldiers Board Game
4 Racing Champions 1:64 scale Rockin' Steel Cars
7 Johnny Lightning .Com Racers 1:64 scale
6 Matchbox Airplanes
1 Johnny Lightning Wacky Racers car
1 Miniature Drag Racing car
1 Star Wars Yoda figure

3 Micro Machines Miniature Star Trek vehicles Sets
3 Micro Machines Double Playsets
1 Hallmark Floyd the Dog Mug
1 Johnny Lightning .Com Racers
1 Batman Playset miniature
1 Godzilla Playset minaiture
1 Lunchbox Keychain set
1 Set of 101 Dalmatians Playing cards in collectible tin
1 101 Dalmatians Pen in collectible tin
2 101 Dalmatians Christmas ornaments
2 sets of Christmas cards
1 set of Barbie Paper Dolls-1976
3 Women's blouses(used)
5 Happy Holisters books(used/vintage)
1 Silver Plate Tea Service with Tray

2 Wooden Shelves
1 Rock Tumbler
2 Sets of rocks & findings for Rock Tumbler

Load #1 for 2012.
Go me!lol

I got Daughter to go through all her crap I boxed up when she left in August for college.  Her room was a disaster!  It looked like a Stuff Bomb blew up in there.lol  So everything got boxed and shoved into the closet.  She finally went through the boxes last week.  She threw out 3 garbage bags of rags, worn out shoes, paper and junk.  I have 2 boxes in the living room ready to go into my next Sallie's donation.
She threw out 2 perfectly good cell phones which I found in the garbage pile.  I've tucked those away in case somebody's cell phone dies.  It may not be "in" anymore but it will work fine for me.
Anyway, after she got rid of all that crap, there is now room in the large closet in her room to put away ALL the Christmas stuff.
Finally!  Boxes of Christmas stuff don't have to be in the garage or sitting out in the living room all. year. long.
Can you tell I am pleased?

I'm fighting some illness at the moment....sinuses.....flu.....I don't know what it's turning into.
Hubs had been sick all week and has graciously shared whatever he had with me.  I love him anyway.....

I've got a dentist appointment in a half hour and that Women's Club talk on Thursday so falling apart is NOT an option right now.

My eBay store is empty and once I feel better I'll have to fill that up again as part of the Big Purge.

Off to brush my teeth again and get through the day.

Sluggy