Black Friday

OK, I make it a point to NOT venture out of the house on black Friday. People are nuts, traffic is horrible, accidents everywhere, it's just too dangerous. I only ventured far enough out of my house to get the mail this afternoon.

I don't DO shopping very well, never have. I hate trying to figure out what family members I see 2 or 3 times each year want. Not to mention the absurd gifts they come up with for me. Perfect example, I'm not a girly girl, never have been. I live in tshirts and blue jeans, add a sweatshirt or just a thick coat in the winter. Umm, guess I should throw in that most of my wardrobe came from wally world since I'm painting such a picture for ya. OK, back on track...Last Christmas, my aunt/uncle gave me a giftcard to LL Bean (which I gave to my dad because he could use it), year before it was a knit sweater.

Now don't get me wrong, I can smile 'n nod when I get a horrible gift. I'd just sometimes rather forget the whole thing, it's such a hassle and a huge headache.

In other news, my arm is finally healing. I go to the Dr. next week and the PT folks are hoping he'll say I can start weaning off the brace.

Physical Therapy anyone?

OK, so, I was originally looking for a cartoon of a monkey fukkin a football...That's what I found and I like it better anyway. More original I guess.

So, today was my first day of physical therapy, finally. Same crap I expected when I got there, hurry up and wait. I filled out the 573 pages of info they always want (which isn't easy when you don't have an opposible thumb), and sat there, waiting my turn. Once the Dr. rescued me from the waiting room, I had to sit in a chair and wait for the 3 other guys to leave (only 2 Dr.'s....go figure). They put a nice warm pack around my wrist to "relax the muscles." I'm not sure how much that helped, but my hands were cold so it felt good.

(insert sarcasm here--> ) Yippie, my turn.

They started off by moving my hand and thumb a million different directions to see which ways made it hurt. Unfortunately, it was quite a few.  They also had me close my eyes and point to where they'd just touched my arm and hand with some special tool. It was nothing more than a clear stick with a piece of fishing line at one end to test sensitivity. I passed...so do I get a lollipop or something?

Next was an ultrasound for 5 minutes, it's supposed to help with circulation. As promised, I didn't feel a thing...other than the ice-cold gel and pressure of the ultrasound probe.

I was half-heartedly cleaned up and then my arm was massaged. All I could think was that  it hurt so good.  I think she was buttering me up, because after the massage I had to go through all of the home-therapy movements. Which HURT!!!

The last step of the day was what I've been calling electro-shock therapy. The first electrode was soaked with some pain-relieving liquid then placed from my wrist across the bottom knuckle of my thumb. The other electrode went on my forearm and they turned on the juice. It felt like pins and needles stabbing me, and itched like mad! Those 15 minutes took forever.

I was finally allowed to escape after setting up my next 4 appointments and promising not to remove the medicated electrode for 2-3 hours.

They said the PT lady that is a hand specialist will be there tomorrow, can't you feel my excitement?

Update on me, and other things

The Halloween season is FINALLY over!!!

My arm is the same, if not worse. I'm still in the process of getting approved for OJI status (worker's comp... can kiss my arse!). Because of this, I haven't even gotten anywhere close to being approved for my physical therapy, even though I've had this stupid brace on for nearly 3 weeks now. My wrist is increasingly stiff and now hurts as much without the brace as it does with it.

I've basically lost my faith in what some call "brotherhood." If this "brotherhood" actually existed, at least 1 of my "brothers" from work would have called me to see how I'm doing. My phone has remained silent, for 17 days now. I'm not counting everyone in that statement, I've had a couple friends on yahoo that occasionally ask how I'm healing.

Thanks again to my arm, I haven't been able to ride my motorcycle any. I have just enough grip (and, thankfully, a built-in flat part on the throttle) so I can slightly twist the throttle...just enough to be able to easily roll the bike back into the garage after pulling it out to run it each week.

My car is back in the shop, for the 4th time in as many months. It's been the same problem every time, P0400-EGR flow problem. This time, I contacted the service manager at the dealership directly and basically lit a fire under his arse. He seems prepared to "get to the bottom of this," but is he ready to deal with me??? The first time, they cleaned the EGR ports. 2nd, they replaced the vacuum hose (thinking they accidently skewered it the first time). 3rd, they say it's the exhaust manifold (I went to my regular shop due to prices....they didn't address the fact that the original code was thrown too). Now, the light came on again and I first took my car to my shop to see if it was the same code. After pulling the code, they cleared it so the check engine light went off. I shifted my car to the dealership and they don't seem to believe the p0400 code was thrown since it isn't in the memory anymore. Instead, they said that when they hooked it up to pull any codes, it had a p1000 code...something to do with the emissions. Umm...HELLO?!? My car just passed emissions with flying colors 3 months ago!!! Not to mention that if the light was off...there wouldn't be any codes to pull!

On the lighter side, I got the notion stuck in my head a few days ago...I couldn't resist myself ....Must....Beat.....a.....claw-machine!!!!!! So, off to Dave 'n Buster's we went. I ended up with 2 bracelets, 1 bling-bling necklace, 2 doberman puppies, 1 green frog, 1 my little pony, 1 grey/white cat, and about 800 tickets. I already had a bunch of tickets saved, so we got a t-shirt and 2 different types of thermal mugs.

Time to go hang out with my boyfriend's parents, they're up here for a HAM radio fest.

Be safe out there.