When Your Life Comes Crashing Down

I know, I know.  I'm not doing so well lately and I sincerely apologize for that.  Things are just not going good here lately and not a single ounce of it is within my control, unfortunately.  As everyone should know from reading my prior blog posts, I finally saw the hand specialist on February 2nd which wasn't necessarily the best or worst news.  Basically, after they had reviewed the MRI and X-Ray results, all they managed to find is a ganglion cyst which they are saying is irrelevant to my injury.  My diagnosis?  Wrist pain.  They wanted me to immediately make an appointment with a local occupational therapist who specializes with hand and wrist injuries.  I've had two appointments thus far.  The first appointment was the consultation, of course.  That day he compared and contrasted my hands and wrists, took measurements, and spoke with me.  After my first visit, I was on the verge of tears due to him moving my injured wrist in ways that were painful that shouldn't have been painful.  Though I was quite nervous for my second visit, I braved it.

During the next visit, they had me sit at this machine and had me put my hand in it.  They strapped my arm in this sleeve like thing and my hand sat in this machine that got really warm and tossed corn meal around my hand.  I guess it's suppose to relax the muscles and nerves.  I have to admit, it felt really good.  I almost fell asleep.  They had me sit there for 15 minutes or so.  After that, the therapist massaged my hand, wrist, and forearm for about 25 minutes.  It hurt and swelled up so bad.  I thought that the first visit hurt...not even close to the pain I felt with the second visit.  He was trying to push the swelling out and also said that he felt a lump in my arm.  He was trying to work out the swelling and lump.  I couldn't believe how much pain I was in.  I hurt worse than the night that I actually got hurt back in September.  After the massage, they had me do some activities with physical therapy putty which is suppose to provide resistance as you do the activities.  Lastly, they submerged my hand in very warm water and did an ultrasound which was to help reduce the swelling.  They are still trying to determine what is exactly wrong and why I'm swelling so badly.  I have 7 more weeks of visits, 2 times a week as far as I know.  They might end up recommending more.

Anyway, I have to wear a compression glove 24/7 to keep swelling down as well as eat fruits and vegetables that promote swelling reduction as well as take krill oil once a day.  I'm also suppose to refrain from physical activity that aggravates my injury.  So basically, I can't do anything really.

Moving forward, Jason's grandmother passed away last week.  She was in and out of the hospital for the past 3-4 weeks prior to passing away.  The doctors found significant brain damage and told the family that she wasn't going to get any better.  Of course, she is super religious and doesn't believe in resuscitation or being on any kind of life support, so they respected her living will.  I've only had the pleasure of seeing her less than a handful of times, but she was just the sweetest women.  Unfortunately, Jason and I couldn't make it because of me being on workers comp and Jason's job only allows one grievance day for a grandparent.  The services were down in Florida which would have obviously required more than a day.

My in-laws were going to wait until Monday to make their way back to South Carolina, but since South Carolina is under a winter weather advisory, they are making their way back today to beat the storm.

I took my midterms this week and did considerably well despite everything going on.  My diet has come to a brief halt and I actually gained back about 4 pounds or so, but I'm going to be getting back on track with the diet as soon as I get paid again.  I also just recently purchased the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.  My contract was up.  I was going to wait for Jason's contract to be up in June, but all of a sudden my iPhone decided that it no longer wanted to hold a charge, so I had no choice.  What great timing, huh?!  The Edge is cute and all with the curved edge, but I can't see paying a $100 extra just for the design.  Everything about the Edge is exactly the same with the Note 4, except the screen.  Also, I don't imagine that they will be able to come out with too many case options for a phone like that.  The sales associate also told me that there are too many potential kinks with a phone like that at first, so I should wait until they have worked them out.  Personally, a curved screen does nothing for me.  So far, I love it.

Valentines Day was quiet, but nice.  My newsfeed on Facebook was filled with people in competition with one another to see who got more from their significant other.  Please.  While I agree that Valentines Day shouldn't just be the only day to express your love to your significant other, it should be a day that is completely reserved for two people in love where they set aside their priorities such as work, school, bills, and raising kids to sit back and enjoy each other.  I made a nice steak dinner for Jason and it came out so good!  For desert was, 'Death by Red Velvet' layer desert which was layered with red velvet cake, white chocolate pudding, cool whip, and white chocolate morsels.  I also made a pomegranate sangria which was very tasty.  All in all, we had a wonderful Valentines Day.

Lastly, I just wanted to let ya'll know that I'm still here.  I'm hoping that my participation on the blog will pick up as soon as things calm down here.  I want to thank my followers for sticking by me during difficult times.