Hi All!
I just wanted to let you all know why you haven't seen any 
messages from me recently.  I've not been all that lazy,
really!  
My kidneys are still spilling protein, which means my
muscles aren't getting enough, and they ache and have spasms.
After several hundred dollars' worth of lab tests, the team
of nephrologists haven't come up with much of a cause or what
to do about it.  You'd think they'd have some ideas!
My SIL was here from July 26th till August 4th, visiting.
I had to do a *lot* of housework (sorry about the obscenity
but that's the only word for it!) to get ready for her 
visit.  Pat only comes here twice a year and I like to make
her visits as comfy as possible.
Two hours after she got here, I fell in the bathroom and
jammed up my spine something terrible.  Slipped on the wet
floor!  And I'd just had a shower so I didn't have on any
clothes at the time.  Nothing like falling and hugging a
toilet in the nude, y'all...it's a real trip!
I've been back and forth to the chiropractor several times
and boy, does this hurt.  Then I got gout this past Tuesday
and the meds the kidney doctors gave me for that gave me
diarrhea.  Oh what fun!  That was bad, but the worst was yet
to come.  
Wednesday afternoon I noticed that while the pain and swelling
of the gouty toes was virtually gone (those pills work fast!),
my left foot was swollen in other places...just full of fluid,
including the bottom of the foot from the base of the toes to
the beginning of my heel.  It hurt so bad to try to put any
weight on it, I had to haul out my crutches.  I had to go get
Tom from work and putting in the clutch on that little car, I
screamed every time I had to shift it.  Tom drove it home and
helped me inside.  By 11 pm the bottom of the foot was red and
hot, with some purple places.  Not good.  I called the doctor
yesterday (Thursday) morning and he saw me right away, then
sent me to have an ultrasound done on the deep veins of my leg.
He said the arterial pulses were very good, but he wanted to
rule out a blood clot in the leg.  If they found one, I heard,
I would be admitted to the hospital immediately and started on
heparin.  Well, there was no blood clot or blockage they could
find so they sent me home, with orders to put moist warm packs
on the back of the left knee and calf, stay off it (yeah, right!
I still had diarrhea, remember?) and elevate the leg and foot.
Today it's still sore but the swelling has gone down somewhat.
It's Friday and on Monday I get to go to the nephrologists, and
see what they can do about reducing some of this swelling, which
gets worse every day as the hour gets later.  But not like this,
thank God!  And the gout meds have apparently left my system, I
can now eat something without eating it in the hallway outside
the bathroom door.  
In the meantime we have TV dinners and some frozen leftovers 
to eat until I can stand to walk on this foot.  And I sat at
the table and cut up a whole head of lettuce for salad, and a
few veggies for steaming in the microwave steamer.  
I have a whole load of crafting supplies here...good thing!  I
can hardly go shopping at Hobby Lobby right now.  I have a hunch
my rubber stamps and such are going to get a workout the next
few days.  I'm sleeping in the guest room bed so I don't disturb
Tom too much with my tossing to find a comfy position.  I'm
lonesome...even though he's only 2 rooms away!  
I may even get some mail caught up, but I can't sit here, even,
without the foot swelling up.  Plus my lower back is a mess and
I'm hurting just sitting here, so I'd best get going for now.
Love you all, and LadyBear Hugs,
Wendy
... The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back.
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 2
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