Chairs, Flowers, Blood and Feet

Outside the fabric and quilting store on 10th Street

Astoria, Oregon ~ August 20, 2012

Spending a few moments in a plastic Adirondack chair outside the quilting and fabric store after getting energy work done downstairs was a higlight of the day. I was relaxed, the chair was comfy, the sun was perfect, and a nice breeze blew up from the river. Unfortunately the photo showing the trees turned sideways when I uploaded it, so I took it down. I've had that happen before with images on Blogger, not sure why. It was a phone photo if that makes a difference.

 Columbia Memorial Hospital exit and Park Building

Astoria, Oregon ~ August 20, 2012

This morning I had my blood drawn again and had to return one of those ultra-fun 24-hour pee tests. The women in the lab and the records office and I are getting to know each other pretty well by now. They are all very cool, so that part is fine. If I want a copy of the test sent to me, I have to go down the long hallway and fill out some papers. Finally we all know the drill, and this time the lady was right on it when she saw me coming. 

Some days the hallway is an issue, though, because I still cannot walk anywhere without my feet getting sore and bleeding internally. The two latest theories both say my nerves are giving the veins signals to behave wrongly, as there is nothing at all wrong with the veins (which is good). The podiatrist in Astoria thought the screwed up signals might be from low potassium, but my potassium is normal. The vein doctor at OHSU in Portland thought fibromyalgia could be causing the nerves to give wrong signals. Maybe so, because my feet began to get weird the week after my bad fibromyalgia crash at the end of May 2010. Maybe we're getting somewhere with the cause. The tests are about my parathyroid problems (which also affect nerves, so who knows), but it's all connected. I see the fibro specialist in about six weeks and am beginning to try some new things on that score. More in another post.

I know I am getting very tired of the walking problems (although I am beginning to get the awareness of being grateful for every little thing, such as the fact that I still HAVE feet). After yet one more set of tests, it was elevating to walk out the side door of the hospital and see such bright flowers. I didn't even notice the sculpted bush until I downloaded the photo. By the way, the hospital is behind me. The nondescript brick thing is the Park Building across the street.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Red on Red

Astoria, Oregon ~ November 1, 2011

Every year I smile because someone had the foresight to plant bushes along the edge of the Safeway parking lot that turn screaming red in the fall. This year I'm also glad that they were near the car. 

I haven't said much about this, and I won't make it long now, but I've had a hell of a time wanting to take photos this past year and a half. It simply hurts too much to stand for any length of time or walk to where the good angle is. I can't even think of taking a walk beyond a stone's throw from the car until I get better. I had a relapse of fibromyalgia a year ago last Memorial Day weekend. I've been dealing with it off and on for 30 years, and some years have been very good. This time severe foot problems came along with it. This is new as far as noticing that it was a real problem. In hindsight, there have been nagging symptoms that have been seriously misdiagnosed more than once over the past ten years, as much as I talked with medical people about what I was noticing. I'm fed up with doctors. They're fine if you break something or need surgery, but I prefer to work at this from the point of "what can I do to help myself?" I'm working with my Egoscue guy again (specific exercises for specific causes of musculo-skeletal problems), and again I have hope. I had given up the "e-cises" for much of the summer for various reasons, although after much thought and observation, I still believe this is how I'm going to get better. It took some time for my muscles to recover after I quit the anti-inflammatory meds almost two years ago. I'd been on them for almost 10 years, and now I'm not even taking asprin. Meanwhile, although my muscles still get sore very easily, they are better. I feel and hope I can get back into the routine of the exercises that are going to get me literally "back on my feet." I've started again, taking it slowly.

A dog with sore feet likes to curl up and sleep. I've been curling up with my projects, which keep my attention and keep me creative and mostly positive. I've been wanting to work on them anyway. For followers of this blog, this is why you're seeing more pictures of my office than of the wonders in the outside world. I feel ready to begin to bridge that gap, so here's a photo of Mother Nature, even though she's been domesticated by the landscape artists who complemented Astoria's Safeway.

On another note, I'm working on blog format today and clicking on my own sidebar (and moving some slow-loading links into the tabs above). I just noticed that one of my all-time favorite blogs is NOW DEAD. The remains are still there. If you love fun and crazy art, check it out. I was a collage artist in an earlier incarnation, and I LOVE the humor in this blog! It was best before the decoupage folks joined in, but I haven't gone through the posts in awhile to see how it's evolved. Here it is: Scrapeteria.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

From Bend to Home

Redmond, Oregon ~ January 3, 2010

6:45 in the morning

Adam dropped me off at the airport on his way to work, so I got there pretty early. Thankfully, the highway was dry, not icy, as the images of terrible fatal accidents on that same road were fresh in mind from the news.

I'd been sick since Christmas day with some kind of bug plus complications, so the wheelchair is significant. I was going to try to use one despite feeling like it was stupid, because I *can* walk, therefore I *should* be walking, even though it hurts and will have repercussions for the next couple of days. Being my first time, I didn't handle it very well. The lady was curt, there was nobody to push after I got through security, and I was in the dang thing in the first place because of muscles as well as feet. The muscle thing meant it was actually harder for me to push myself in the chair than to get out and walk. This is temporary. I know it's temporary, but it's been chronic for awhile, and what happened this holiday was a setback of sorts, even though it was a move in the right direction getting off the anti-inflammatory medication that had been keeping the muscle pain at bay. I will not be in a chair permanently, but it sure would have helped with the long distances in the airports. It is so hard sometimes to ask for help, especially when I *can* do it. If I'd had a broken leg, people would have been falling over themselves to help. We can relate to a skiing accident. It's hard to relate to someone who looks healthy and has "something wrong."

At the other end, there was no wheelchair for me at PDX, although I'd asked for one to be there. I didn't realize I might have to wait, and I didn't ask. I walked anyway. When I saw the chair pushers coming, I was nearly to baggage claim. I told them one chair was for me, but I couldn't remember where I'd put my flight number, so they kept on going to where, I knew, there would be nobody waiting.

Driving back to Astoria was fine, but there was frost on the ground mid-day from Longview to Astoria. I've never seen so many tire tracks weaving back and forth across the median, so although the ground wasn't slick when I passed through, it certainly had been.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

I'm now selling incredible make-up, and you can get points for buying!

Motives - Incredible Cosmetics

In this economy (which I don't have to explain to anyone), it seems that finally some of the big companies are figuring out that what we want is something we can afford . . . we want discounts, we want money back, we want rewards programs that actually mean something - such as, giving us points for things we actually plan to buy, therefore, getting something for free that we would have spent money on anyway.

I became a Market America Distributor last March, and I love the company. The products and systems have helped me lose 40 pounds and keep it off, have helped me GAIN BACK HEALTH in so many ways (more on all this later), and now they've energized their rewards program across the board so that when you go online to buy ANYTHING through my web portal you get points that you can turn into real merchandise. The stores you can purchase from to get these points run from Best Buy to Barnes and Noble to baby clothing stores, Travelocity, and much, much much much more. I love it! They've introduced a price comparison feature, customer reviews, and coming soon is the "unicart," a single shopping cart and one-time check-out that will handle your stuff from over 1,000 stores in ONE CART with one payment - and you can ship it to multiple addresses.

As of this posting, the products you can get for free for shopping in a variety of stores all come from the FEATURED BRANDS section of this page. Over the next few months, the products you can get will also come from the 1000+ Partner Stores, which are linked from the same page. The featured brands include some totally awesome health products that really work, such as the world-class OPC-3, an incredibly effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. I'll be talking about more supplements and products later, because they've helped me and people close to me so much. Since taking OPC-3, I no longer have the symptoms of fibromyalgia that plagued my life for maybe 20 years. If you think that doesn't make a huge difference in my life, just ask me! There are also anti-aging products, car care, pet care, and the wonderful high-quality Motives brand of make-up linked at the top of this page on my Motives Mini Web Site. Or you can see the Motives makeup display on my regular web portal.

If you find all of this intriguing and want a bigger piece of the action, just give me a call. Or if I've been obtuse and you'd like a better explanation of how to use the web site, I'd love to talk to you! I'm in Oregon: (503) 338-8646.

~ Sheryl