Not Content to Crawl

T-Rex Arm & Boobies

Posted onFebruary 3, 2021February 5, 2021

Monday (2/1) I saw a shoulder surgeon about my range of motion issues with my left arm. I’ve been going to physical therapy but haven’t seen much improvement, although pain wise it has been better. He diagnosed me with a frozen shoulder, which is what everyone suspected all along, but it was good to get confirmation. They took x-rays to rule out arthritis, and he doctor explained that if it was a tear he’d be able to physically manipulate my arm, but he couldn’t because it’s stuck. He said if we focused on stretching that eventually it would unfreeze and I’d get my full range of motion back. It’s a long process, though, that can last upwards of a year. This began in August of last year so who knows when it will be back to normal. The doctor’s assistant, Dan, gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder to help reduce pain so my PT can stretch me out more without me being in agony. I really like her. Or I guess I should say them since I’ve been going back and forth between two very lovely women, one of which does dry needling on the area too. They have been my main source of in-person socializing. We’re always joking and whatnot. Yesterday they even sent me home with a slice of cookie-cake from a birthday celebration one of their assistants had. It was covered in frosting and very good too!

The shot was painful, but after the trigger point injections I got in 2019 I can tolerate the pain. The only thing I didn’t like was how the doctor lowered his mask twice to speak. Dude, I can hear you fine, damn! The assistant didn’t do that, though, and spent more time with me, so overall it was fine.

Today (2/3) I had to go back to the hospital for a follow-up mammogram and ultrasound because my right breast looked different on the screening mammogram I had last month. My obgyn told me not to worry since this is quite common, so I actually didn’t think about it much. And he was right – it was nothing to worry about. In fact, after doing the second mammogram they decided an ultrasound wasn’t even necessary, so now someone is gonna owe me some money since I paid my out of pocket portion at the hospital this morning in full ($389). I called their billing department when I got home but they don’t have anything in the system yet, so I’ll need to call back on Monday. I’m sure we’ll figure it out but let that be a lesson to me – only pay the deposit next time instead of the full amount due. I guess I wasn’t expecting them to see everything they needed on the new mammogram. Perhaps I wouldn’t have had to come back in had the original woman been more thorough then. Hard to say, though. This new lady took more angles and took her time. She explained too that the doctor who looked at the scans compared them all the way back to 2012 and didn’t see any differences to warrant an ultrasound.

The one thing that stood out to me this week is how in neither scenario was I asked if I could be pregnant, nor did they shield any other part of my body from radiation. Is this suddenly not a standard practice, or is someone dropping the ball? Usually when I’ve gotten x-rays they would at least ask, and have me wear a shielded apron. They had me do it for my mammogram last month, so that is weird. I guess now that I’m 45 it’s like fuck her uterus?

Ok, I actually took a second while typing up this entry to see what the deal might be, and apparently there’s good reason they don’t shield you during scans anymore. This article eases my mind.

The Most Relaxing Scent

Posted onJanuary 23, 2021

Several years ago when I was getting beauty boxes like Ipsy and Birchbox, I once got a hand lotion sample that smelled so wonderful I would constantly smell my hands after applying it. I wanted it to never run out, and contemplated buying a full size until I read reviews saying it didn’t smell like the sample. I eventually forgot about the scent, until yesterday.

For a little background, last month I bought some wallflowers from Bath & Body Works, including two in the vanilla bean noel scent. Unfortunately you can barely smell it once plugged in, so I decided to exchange the second one for another marshmallow fireside instead. Except our closest store didn’t MF, so I decided to check a different location near my ear specialist after my appointment this past Monday. They also didn’t have MF, so I browsed the other wallflowers looking for something I might like and came across one I never heard of before called white tea and sage. It seemed appealing from what I could tell in store, so I decided to give it a shot.

I ended up plugging it in yesterday and it reminds me exactly of that long forgotten hand lotion that I was obsessed with. Now I want a candle and soap and everything possible in this scent! It’s just so soothing to me. Almost like a fresh garden except not floral at all. Something you’d encounter at a spa probably.

B&BW owes me a gift card so maybe I will be getting more of this scent soon, assuming it doesn’t sell out before then. Apparently it isn’t easy to come by from what I’ve read.

Oh, and why do they owe me, you ask? Well, they never sent me a birthday reward so I contacted them and they sent me a $10 gift card instead. I used most of that card on Monday, but there was a $2.23 balance left. The cashier asked whether I’d like that in cash and I told her to leave it on the card. She agreed, and then when I checked the balance the other day it said zero! I checked my receipt and it indicated I took the balance in cash which I absolutely did not. I contacted B&BW and they are sending me a $5 gift card to make up for it. What the heck is going on with that company?!? Maybe I should stop giving them my business, but I love their soaps and wallflowers so much!

I’m all stocked up on hand soaps, in fact – 17 bottles – because the fall/winter scents were 75% off. I picked up a few at our local store and 8 more at the other one since they had an even better selection, including my favorite scent from last fall: marshmallow latte. I won’t need any holiday soaps for at least a few years now. I grabbed two summery scents to try as well since they too were only $1.88 each.

Here’s my two hauls from this month:

That candle holder was another reason I checked another store. I had a reward that was due to expire next month and my local store didn’t have any decent candle holders.

Life Update

Posted onDecember 22, 2020

Yikes, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I’ve been so busy, haha!

Ok, the crappy stuff out of the way first –

Unemployed
As of January 15th Joe will be officially unemployed. We knew this was coming for months since his company decided to eliminate his department. He will be getting a generous bonus for staying until the end, plus severance which includes his company covering our insurance premiums through May. His company has been good to us so he’s been looking internally but so far nothing has come up. He is also looking externally but between COVID and it being the end of the year he’s heard nothing back from anyone at this point.

Left arm issues
A few months ago my left arm started giving me trouble. Mostly it would just hurt if I tried to grab/reach for something. I figured it would just eventually go away on it’s own. It did not. In fact, it slowly lost it’s range of motion and now I can’t even lift that arm up past my chest or put it behind my back. This has made washing my hair or shaving my armpits difficult. I saw my doctor (really the nurse practitioner since the doctor is always so busy) and she determined it was likely a rotator cuff issue which could progress into frozen shoulder syndrome. Yay!

I’ve been going to physical therapy since the at home exercises I was given by the nurse weren’t making any noticeable difference. PT has been good, especially once another therapist started dry needling the area. The pain is much less since then and even my range of motion has improved ever so slightly. It still blows my mind that I just can’t move that arm normally anymore. Hopefully it’s just a temporary issue. I have to wonder if moving a bunch of cases of water to prep for our spare room makeovers is what started all this.

Ok, now on to the positive stuff –

Master Bedroom Renovation
Our bedroom makeover has been “done” for awhile but I haven’t posted it because we were on the fence on whether to replace all the furniture. It could use a refresh, as it’s 16 years old at this point. Many of the clips in the dresser drawers have long since broken, so if you pull the drawers out too far they fall out of the track. We are tired of how high up the bed is in the frame, plus I am really starting to hate the footboard. We went to IKEA weeks ago but nothing really struck us, nor did Ashley furniture. So we’re at a standstill right now.

We did get a beautiful shag rug and matching runner and small rug for inside the closet. Speaking of, Joe still needs to install our new mirrored closet door. He’s going to install molding around the opening first, though, because the builders left it rough and just did a really crappy job. It will look much nicer when he’s done. I don’t think I have a before photo, though, which is a bummer. We didn’t put the bed back into the frame so that is hanging out in the loft right now. Wookie can get on and off the bed easier with it being closer to the ground which is nice. I predict the bedroom won’t be fully finished until spring. In the meantime, I am loving the lighter colored walls (we went with Sandstone Cove by Behr, which is the same color in the loft). The bedroom is just way more inviting now. During the day it’s so nice and bring in there, particularly because we haven’t put the blackout curtains back up. I tend to wake up at sunrise anyway so there really isn’t a need for them now.

Wookie’s Health
Wookie has had this bile vomiting issue for as long as we can remember. It usually occurred in the mornings and the vet suspected it was tied to her having an empty stomach and the digestive juices upsetting her stomach. We’ve tried changing dry foods and limiting her treats to narrow down the culprit since some things seem to trigger it more than others (such as dental chews, of course). When she had two bouts of mysterious diarrhea this year we noticed when she was on the special canned food diet her vomiting stopped. So we’re in a trial run right now to see if it was a fluke or not. Unfortunately the food is hella expensive (a week’s supply is $23) so if it does the trick we’ll have to see whether it’s just the dry food that’s the issue and see whether we can find a more frugal food. It would be nice to no longer suffer from the anxiety of worrying she’s going to vomit on the nice new rugs or damage the new flooring if she vomits and we don’t notice right away. She seems not too bothered by the vomiting but I’m sure she too would be happier if it stopped.

Don’t Shop At WishDOTcom

Posted onNovember 19, 2020

Just don’t. Unless you like being robbed. They are shady!

I heard rumors about them before so when I placed my order it was for very low value items: two decorative pillow cases. The first arrived no problems. Actually looked like the photo even. The second one, however, just sat in limbo. I placed the order in late August and it estimated the item arriving in late September. That date came and went with no update to the tracking info. It kept saying “arriving September 23” even well past that date. I figured it was delayed due to COVID and coming from China.

Finally around Halloween I decided to pursue it further, only to find out that their “return” policy includes items not even sent, and you have to request a refund within 30 days of the estimated arrival or basically they will (attempt to) keep your money. WTF?!? I called them, but it’s an automated recording saying they offer no phone support, and it refers you back to their website. Everything on there is automated too, and when it tried to offer me store credit instead of a refund (because they charge you immediately instead of when your items ship), and I refused, the system told me to have a nice day (basically F off) and stopped the “conversation”.

I found an email address so started dealing with them, but they only gave me the run-around, asking me to “open a support ticket” via their website, which I attempted to do several times to no avail. I even sent them screenshots showing this. I told them the other day if they didn’t open the ticket for me and/or issue a refund I would be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and disputing the charge with my credit card company.

They had the audacity to respond again telling me to open a ticket, and I told them no, I already explained everything to them and since they weren’t willing to help I would be doing as I said I would, and then I opened the dispute with Discover and included all the emails and screenshots as my backup.

This past Saturday I got the notice from Discover of my credit, as well as ANOTHER email from Wish telling me I was opening the ticket on the wrong item, which is FALSE. I don’t know if their customer support is really that inept, or it’s just a tactic to stop people from getting their money back, but I ignored it.

I’m sure I spent more of my time than is worth $4.52 but it’s the principal of the thing. You don’t get to take people’s money and then not send them the product and create a ridiculous policy that doesn’t allow them to request their money back. That’s called stealing!
Long story long, don’t do business with wishDOTcom.

Nintendo Switch

Posted onOctober 12, 2020

Earlier in the year when my health started improving (pretty much magically without any doctors’ help, which I really should write about at some point), I started talking about buying a Nintendo Switch. I was conflicted though because I get tired of games pretty quickly. We both have a Nintendo DS and a library of games we rarely play. Regardless, whenever we’d walk buy the Switches at Target I would consider buying one. Well, Costco then had them on sale but I hesitated too long and they sold out. Suddenly they weren’t available anywhere and of course at that point I decided I really wanted one!

Fast forward to the morning of September 22nd when I saw a deal site advertising Switches back in stock at Walmart. I went to their website but didn’t see any available. Then I had an idea: maybe if Walmart had some, Target would also. Sure enough, they did! Not at my local store, though, but to order for delivery. Joe was at Menards picking up the scaffolding to do the living room ceiling work so I decided to order the Switch without discussing it with him first (so it could be a surprise). It felt wrong because we always discuss large purchases. Luckily when it was delivered a few days later he was just as excited as I was even though I’m more of a Nintendo fan than he is.

Since the system didn’t come with any games we immediately headed to the library to see what they had and wow, was I impressed with their library of games.

Switch Games – Adult Section

The kids’ section is where all the really good games were, however.

We came home with the maximum number of games we were allowed to borrow at one time.

By far my favorite game was Penguin Wars. I have the same game on my original Gameboy. Joe and I had fun battling each other. So much so, in fact, I wanted to buy a copy but it’s already out of rotation. Instead of paying $20+ on ebay, I ended up buying a digital copy for $7.50 since it happened to be on sale. So that was my first actual purchase.

I also liked the Tsum Tsum game and Bubble Bobble. The rest I could do without.

A week later we got another batch of games, mostly Mario related.

I didn’t care for Mario Party, or the Rabbids collaboration, but I really liked Super Mario Odyssey and Paper Mario Origami King. And of course, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which we’re going to have to buy at some point because it’s a Nintendo staple. You can modify the settings so you’re not able to die which makes it more fun. Nothing is more frustrating than flying off the edge of the track.

We also borrowed Burgertime (not pictured), but it was terrible. As was LEGO City Undercover which I was hoping to like.

Here’s our recent batch of games which are due back tomorrow:

I haven’t tried them all yet, but so far I am surprised to like Untitled Goose Game. I got it because it sounded so ridiculous, but it’s fun and I spent awhile playing it yesterday while lounging on the couch. I’m enjoying the Switch even more than I anticipated which is a relief.

Since none of the libraries in the area carry them, and they were on sale, I bought two games from Walmart that were delivered yesterday:

Bomberman R ($15) (for the battle screens, of course) and South Park Fractured But Whole ($20) because it sounds funny. I’m sure these games will keep us entertained through the cold, lonely winter.