I have actually slept well enough to get a dream here and there.  With the infrequency I find it odd that, in recent weeks, I had a reoccurring one.  It involved a classmate from elementary up through high school.  He was a good looking guy.  It was clear in the dream he was trying to gain my interest.  In both cases he was telling me about the money he had saved and how well he was doing.  I told him both times that money wasn't the most important thing.  I seemed a little frustrated that he wasn't getting what I was telling him.

I have lived here long enough that I am replacing batteries in the smoke detectors (as they die) for the second time.  Of course, they die in the middle of the night.  4am to be precise.  It's extra fun to balance on a step stool and try to change the battery when one arm doesn't want to go up that high but you need both arms to unclip the detector from the wiring.  Why on earth you can't open the battery compartment without removing it from the wiring I don't know, but it's pretty annoying.

Speaking of my shoulder... did I comment that the MRI was around $3100?  I was wrong.  They billed the xray used to place the dye separately, so that's another $515.  I finally got kind of a straight answer.  The doctor had left a message pretty fast saying the MRI was negative as I mentioned previously.  But he also indicated he would call me back in the next couple of days, which he did not.  I called over the last two weeks leaving messages on the doctor's group's line to no avail.  I finally employed the woman in scheduling by playing stupid.  The doctor called (again) after hours and (again) left a message saying all was negative and that I could get on the schedule for that procedure.  I guess I need to call scheduling for real now.

The good news is I will quickly be over the first hurdle on my insurance and only paying 10% of the bill until the second hurdle.

I just saw one of the bald eagles... again... flying out in front of my house!  Hide your little doggos people!

Saffy got her hair did too.  I was concerned because she has had skin issues recently, but the mobile groomer did have sensitive products.  The groomer was able to clean away the dried and crusty spot on her back that I was afraid to mess with after opening the wound back up previously.  All seems to be totally healed there, thank goodness.  She also got the last bit of rough, dry, crust that was on her nose off.  I have been using olive oil on her nose for the past 5 days or so and we had notable improvement.  I'm going to keep putting it on there until we're totally healed up.

When she returned to the house Saffy had a lovely flower on her collar which scared the heck out of me at first.  It is a deep, dark red.  When it first caught my eye it looked like a big patch of blood right at her neck.  Heart attack averted.

This weekend Avery got a hair cut!  I didn't cry.  I'm kind of surprised.  She opted to have it styled straight, so it should be interesting to see how it looks after her hair get washed tonight.  From there we did our grocery shopping.  I decided to try recipes for Texas Roadhouse rolls and honey butter yesterday.  The butter is decent but the rolls aren't close enough.  They're tasty, but not quite the same.

Today we did a little more shopping.  I bought a few shirts and comfy pants to get me through while I remain at this obscene weight with an arm that doesn't want to work properly.  After I got a few things repotted and cleaned up a little more outside.  I put some potatoes into soil (fingers crossed) and put some pepper seeds in soil.  I have tried to do things from seed many times and failed -- I am not expecting much.  We'll see.

Also, I found Jesus!  Did I post here about loosing Jesus from our one manger scene?  Yeah, before Christmas Avery took him to school for show and tell.  She carried him to the car and then poof.  I found him in the plastic bags that I was gathering to take for bag recycling.  He must have dropped into them at the garage door on our way in the house.

Almost as exciting as finding Jesus (ha ha) was, finally, spotting one of the bald eagles flying above rt 19!  Hoping to be able to go sit and watch by the lake when the weather starts getting nicer.

At least I feel like I did something useful this weekend.

As I like to do...

I saw my first robin today!  It looked like a she.  She was in my back yard popping back and forth along the fence line.  Yay!

The doctor did call and leave a brief message on Monday evening (work number so I didn't hear it ring).  He indicated that the test was negative (meaning no other issues were uncovered) and that he would call me back in the next couple of days to talk one on one.  I would presume we will proceed with a manual adjustment.

Even without physical therapy the pain and stiffness hasn't dissipated enough to give me a good night's sleep.  If the pain would end I would just say screw it and wait out the thawing.  The pain is mostly in my neck and bicep which are tight.  I have a massage today, I am hoping for some relief.  The other big pain comes when I bump the arm or move the arm abruptly in a direction it doesn't like.  For example, this morning the cuff of my sleeve caught on the knob on the front of the stove as I moved in front of it.  This left me doubled over roaring and chain swearing for a minute.  I am ready to be done needing to complain about this.

I dropped off my tax papers yesterday, another good thing that has come from COVID (in addition to the surge in curbside offerings).  Money moved to bolster my Roth IRA for last year and this year.  Money went to procure some other savings materials that will be held here (I really need to buy a bigger safe).  I think I'll (finally) be opening a 529 for Avery.  I am also itching to buy some type of mini pool or inflatable thing for our entertainment this summer.  It seems like a reasonable investment since I can't justify a hot tub just yet.

You'll note in my last post that I commented about MRIs not hurting. This is true.  The placement of the dye however, well that is most definitely painful as frell.

The MRI itself was snug, my left side rubbed as I slid in and out, which they warned me would happen since they needed to center my right shoulder in the tunnel.  They do give put a washcloth over your eyes, so that mitigated that - and headphones to listen to the music of your choice.  I had a wonderful staff member explaining things to me and he was kind enough to offer his hand before the doctor proceeded to put the dye into my shoulder.  The process is kind of neat - they use an xray while placing the needle to make sure they're in the right place.

It was unpleasant to have the needle go down into the joint, but dealable.  When they started to inject the dye however, that hurt pretty good.  My entire arm felt like a lead brick after the injection.  The rest was butter.  I did have a slight reaction to the surgical adhesive on the bandage placed over the hole they poked in me.  I had pretty bad contact dermatitis from the tape/adhesive that held my IV in when I was in the hospital having Avery.  This one seemed to heal up faster, but I still have a pretty solid bruise there.

Didn't hear back from the doctor today.  I left a message later in the afternoon.  I hope to hear more tomorrow.