Feeling Irritable

Feeling irritable

Not having a good day, at all. I woke up at 0430, after falling asleep around midnight and then had a hell of a time trying to go back to sleep. I was pissed off. Then I woke up around 0830 with my ankle going berserk. I called it quits and took some pain meds that finally allowed me a few hours of sleep. When I did get up around 1130, the gas man turned off the gas so I couldn’t make anything to eat or make coffee. I am really upset that I couldn’t make coffee more than making something to eat. So now I think I will go out to Starbucks so I can have my fix, even though I really don’t want to go out. It’s really damp, windy, raw and cold out, not really good for my ankle. I just wanted a nice day at home where I make the food that I bought and drink coffee. Nope, I am denied. All because they are doing work in my area. Damn condos. I ordered a burger and now I am not so grumpy, but I still want coffee. The food that I prepared for my lunch will have to be my dinner now.

I emailed my psychiatrist late last night about my anxiety around next week, just so she knows. I started writing about what I was going through, with the memories of the phone call and then the surgeries and how I faired afterwards. Aside from getting a UTI (urinary tract infection), I did okay. Though mentally I was more scared than I was physically. It was good that the CES was caught in time and I was operated on so urgently, even though it was twice I had to be cut open. I then had CSF leaks both times so I had to lie still for 24 hours. That was not fun. And it wasn’t fun when the idiot resident came to me and told me after my second surgery that he wanted to take my urinary catheter out. I asked him how I was going to pee if I had to stay still for the next 20 hours or so? He didn’t take it out. This jerk also wanted to send me home without any PT in the hospital. I couldn’t get around on my own inpatient, how was I supposed to at home? Then the stupid stuck up nurse that I had was yelling at me, asking why I didn’t want to go home. Maybe because if I fell, there would be no one to pick me up? Maybe I had two flights of stairs at my house and I couldn’t walk up one step? My leg was still weak, I couldn’t put any weight on it and without a walker, I couldn’t stand on my own. It really pissed me off and the only doctor that was understanding was my surgeon. Then I got the UTI and the antibiotics they put me on really did a number on my bowels. If you ever want to clear your system out, go on Leviquin. All I did was shit and shit and shit. For two straight days. Then they sent me home and I was tired of fighting them anyway. So I spent another two days shitting my brains out and became weak. Guess what? I had to go back to the hospital ER for fluids. If the idiots had kept me, they could have avoided this. I still had stitches in my back, I couldn’t feel my left leg, I couldn’t walk unassisted and was sent back to the ER all because the resident wanted me to go home. No wonder I have a hard time trusting doctors. They can be really stupid sometimes.

I have to watch my niece in like an hour. I really don’t feel up to it. I just want to stay in my bed. Foot is acting up so I don’t think I will be going out. I hate this. It just started to rain so that clinches it. I am not going out. I will have to wait till the workmen finish their work so I can make a damn cup of coffee.

Sox are in Cleveland tonight. They have three games left and they are done. I am very sad at this. I knew they weren’t going to the post season, it would have been a miracle if they did, but it just didn’t work out. They lost last night and sent the fucking Skankees to the post season. Hate the Skanks. I hope they lose, and they will. I think the Jays have a chance at winning it all.

Tomorrow will be college football. I can’t wait. OSU is playing Illinois, a school that I had my eyes on for grad school. They have a beautiful campus. I visited twice when I went to Chicago. Those dreams are long gone and I will be rooting for the Buckeyes. It’s going to be a tough game because Illi is also 4-0. OSU is still undefeated from last season. They just keep on winning games. And I hope my having their hat doesn’t jinx them. I will be so sad.

Alphabet Game

Alphabet Game
•
A- Age: 39
B- Biggest Fear: losing my therapist
C- Current Time: 2200
D- Drink you last had: powerade
E- Easiest Person To Talk to: My sister
F- Favorite Song: ATM, crash and burn, Thomas Rhett
G- Ghosts, are they real?: yes
H- Hometown: E. Boston
I- I can’t: run
J- Jealous Of: Extroverts
K- Killed Someone?: No
L- Last time you cried?: Sunday
M- Middle Name: don’t have one
N- Number of Siblings: 2
O- One Wish: Find stability and contentment
P- Person who you last called: friend from home town
Q- Question you’re always asked: How are you?
R- Reason to smile: wrote an article in the NYT
S- Song last sang: Man to Man, Gary Allan
T- Time you woke up: 0630
U- Underwear Color: black
V- Vacation Destination: California or Texas
W- Worst Habit: planning my death
X- X-Rays you’ve had: ankle
Y- Your favorite food: pizza
Z- Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Hurricane Joaquin

Hurricane Joaquin

Today has been heavy rain and flash floods every where. I am glad I didn’t venture out as I would have gotten soaked. It’s windy but not too much. During one of the breaks in the rain, my mother decided to open the back porch door. Then the heavy rain fell. Luckily, I got to the kitchen in time before it flooded. It is really humid and the house is very muggy as most of the windows are closed. I am ok in my room, but then I have the AC. I hope the rain clears up by tomorrow as I really don’t want to be traveling in the rain. I don’t mind getting wet if I am just walking in the rain (I love it!) but if I have to go somewhere, I hate being in wet clothes. I don’t usually carry an umbrella in stormy weather because all you are doing is fighting with the damn thing and going to get soaked either way. I will carry it if there is no wind, which is what I hope the case will be tomorrow.

I’m glad I didn’t have to go into town today. There was a fire inside one of the stations and flooding at another one. Good going MBTA! The line was down for a good couple of hours. It is now just getting close to being on time. If the stations can’t handle heavy rain, I don’t know how they are going to handle the winter. This past winter there were major delays all over the place. Commuter rail going to the suburbs were affected as well. It was a disaster. I hope this winter won’t be as horrid, but you never know until January.

I had therapy though we didn’t talk about therapy things. Our connection wasn’t great today, probably because of the weather but I think my therapist needs a new phone and she is in great denial about it. So we talked about tech stuff. She was amazed that she went on the internet when I send her links to my blog. She had no idea. Talk about being clueless. She also doesn’t want to lose my text messages, which I can understand. She did that before and doesn’t know how she did it and boy, was she in a panic. I tried explaining to her that getting a new phone will suck for a little while but she wouldn’t listen at all. This is what I am getting from therapy. Counseling my therapist on cell phones and how the internet works. LOL. I found it funny and made a comment about it. She just laughed. She did read the yesterday’s blog that I sent her. She said that it was good that I sent it to her because she doesn’t know when her anxiety about my pain is interfering with things.

We then talked about my writing, or rather the lack of it. Today has been a long day because I woke up so damn early. She said to print out the things that I have written and read it over. Maybe that will spark something. I haven’t done that yet. I was describing the difficulty of writing when she asked if I had any journals about psychosis or something to that effect. I told her I just have suicide or self harm journal articles. I suppose I could Google something but that sounds like a lot of work for something that is supposed to be fiction. I don’t really want my short story to become a clinical paper. She really wanted me to write about my early experiences with my fantasy world but it would be too triggering for me and then with the weekend coming, her not being available, it would be tough to sit through all that stuff. So it stays in my head where it belongs. I’m already having enough anxiety over the anniversary coming up next week. What keeps going through my mind is when I got the phone call from my PCP while I was driving to my therapist’s appointment (I had a car then). I remember having to pull over because I wanted to listen carefully to what he was telling me and not crash into something. After the phone call, I was numb. I had CES again and I was to report to the hospital the following day for surgery. I am glad I had therapy that night because I was close to losing my shit, but it was a weird calm. I knew what to expect this go round because I had been through it before and I had the support of my group. I didn’t know when I would be able to see my therapist again. I was walking when I went to the hospital but wasn’t when I left, not unassisted anyway. I was walking with a walker or a cane. I can’t remember. I just know my left leg was weaker than it was before the surgery. It is what lead to my disability. I know that if I didn’t hurt my back the second go round with this horrid condition, I probably would still be working now. I lost so much after this but I was determined to make as full a recovery as possible. I had to fight to keep my PT appointments, even though they were just telling me to join a gym. A gym wouldn’t help me. I would have to figure things out on my own and fuck that. I wanted someone to show me what I should be doing and how to do it. That is how I learn. I think during my recovery time my therapist started with the phone sessions and it just continued even after I recovered. If I couldn’t make it to where she was, I would have a phone session. It didn’t become a regular thing until I no longer had access to a car to get to her office thirty miles away from me. Both my cars died on me. They were used when I got them and I just didn’t want to put more money into old cars. I do miss the Camaro. That car was sweet. I got my first speeding ticket with that car. I think I still have the violation somewhere in my files. It is paid, of course, but I just wanted to keep it.

There’s a lot of things I wish I knew when I got the second diagnosis of Cauda Equina Syndrome. Like how my bowels and bladder were going to be. They still don’t work the way they did before. I had retention and leakage with my bladder before the second surgery but it got worse after. If I had checked out the AFO before I got CRPS in my ankle, maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t have it today. These are the things that go through my mind. But mostly it was getting that phone call saying that I had CES x 2 that kills me to this day. It’s going to be a rough week.

an injustice and other things

I have been up for the past hour or so. I am in pain and I am not happy about it. It’s raining cats and dogs so I probably won’t go out. It still is muggy though so I have the AC running. I wonder if the rain is what is causing my good ankle to be so sore. I really need to eat something so I can take my NSAID. Hopefully that will help this pain.

While I was up, I read my Twitter feed and a friend posted an article about how a young man died in jail while waiting for a psych bed at the state mental hospital where he was ordered. Cause of death is unknown at this time, but it is not a suicide or homicide. The man was very sick. He had stopped eating, was covered in his own filth as some psych patients get when they are untreated. I find it hard to believe that the people who run the jail didn’t notice his demise and didn’t do anything to get this man the help he so desperately needed. According to the article and the buzz around Twitter, jails are becoming warehouses for the mentally ill because there are no psych beds available. It is sad that they keep on making more jails than psych wards. And what is even more staggering, is they keep closing units left and right. In my own community when I first moved here, there was a mental hospital and three psych units at the local hospital (2 adults and one for kids). Now there is just one adult unit and that is it. The hospital closed because of budget cuts and so did the other units. That is just in my area. I am sure that is the case in other communities as well. Let’s cut the psych unit before all others because who cares about the patients. And now they are wondering why there is a mental health crisis. Good lord.

It bothers me that this young man died all because he was in jail and didn’t get the care that he needed. Course, jail isn’t for folks like him. They do belong in a psych ward but why did no one visit him? Why didn’t his lawyer check up on him? All these questions and no answers. And you know the jail is going to be covering their ass in this day and age when the system is under fire. The guy didn’t do anything wrong, really. He stole $5 worth of snacks and got a death sentence in return. Just doesn’t seem right for a misdemeanor. $5 and within something like 50 days, he was dead. Just so wrong, very wrong.

I don’t know what I am going to do today. I wish my day didn’t start so damn early. If my mother goes to my aunt’s, maybe I will watch the season finale of CSI. I recorded it but haven’t watched it yet, like many of my shows. I still haven’t finished watching Rizzoli and Isles episodes. Though I think I didn’t record a couple because Maura’s father hasn’t been introduced yet. He was played by David Ogden Styers. He also played in M*A*S*H as Winchester. He is a wonderful actor. I could have a M*A*S*H marathon. I had bought the whole DVD collection because it was on sale at Best Buy. It’s one of my favorite comedy shows. I love Hawkeye and Frank. They are so funny. I really missed Frank when he left the show.

I have therapy later this afternoon. I hope no one calls me like they did yesterday. My mother called and then someone else did too. The one time I am on the phone, everyone decides to call me. My phone is silent the rest of the day. I just don’t get it. I think I have figured out a way to see her at least once a month, in person. I just hope it works. Otherwise, I am back to just the phone and not seeing her at all. If it does work, then I won’t have to change my father’s doctor either.

I hope to get some reading done today. I still have not finished the Harry Potter book, yet. I realized it’s because I really hate one of the characters in the book and can’t stand reading about how mean she is and a bully, though she tries to play it off like she is wonderful and kind. It’s not my favorite book because I know what happens in the end and I don’t like it. I guess that is another reason I haven’t finished it. I am half way through and soon as I am done with HP, I plan on reading about the Lusitania. I really should finish “American Gods” but that book is very creepy. It’s one of Neil Gaiman’s books. I didn’t realize he wrote so many books. He is a brilliant writer.