We went to see the new Ben Affleck movie, called “The Way Back.”  The hype on television says this is an uplifting movie, and the first “feel good movie” of 2020…I have to say that they might be leading the viewers slightly (or quite a bit) astray.  If any of you see this movie, please let me know what you think.  We found it to be kind of depressing, and not a “feel good movie.”  We went with our college friends that love movies like we do, and unfortunately, our friend had just lost his mother a couple of weeks ago, and I think, was hoping for something uplifting.  I don’t think he expected to be sad when he left the theater, but it was clear from his face, that he was.

The only upside was having lunch at Blaze Pizza.  If you have a Blaze Pizza near you and you haven’t tried them, Rich and I think they make a great pizza.  Each person chooses their own pizza, as well as the number of toppings they want.  Rich always gets a two topping pizza because he likes pepperoni and bacon.  I get the unlimited topping pizza, because I like a lot of different vegetables.  We’ve eaten there several times, and have also eaten at their location in the Cranberry Mall near Pittsburgh.  They’ve never said anything to us about the two topping pizza, but this time, when I asked the server if she could add more bacon to Rich’s pizza, the server said he’d need to change it to the unlimited topping pizza if she added more.  I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that to us before, and we both were a little bit unhappy with her response.  If I had to guess, I’d say she was either having a bad day, or was just really bad at her job.  I know I should have said something to a manager, but we never complain.   I read once that for every person who has a bad experience in a retail establishment/restaurant, they’ll tell thirty people about it, but if they have a good experience, they will only tell six.

Once I heard that statistic, I decided every time I had a really good experience at a business, I’d make sure I told someone there in management, and would fill out any kind of response card to give the employee kudos.  I can’t tell you the number of times that managers have come to talk to me, and I can see on their face that they expect the worst, only to have me tell them what a great job their employee has done.  Let’s face it, the people who are doing these jobs aren’t paid exceptionally well, and receiving praise for a job well done, or receiving special recognition from management, would give them a little boost in their work day.  In the world we live in today, we can all use a little more of that…

I’m a little bit disappointed that only a few viewers have asked for me to send them one of the cards I made.  It’s not that I think my cards are exceptional, I just hoped that viewers would find one that they might like to have as their very own.  I probably should have made the offer earlier in the video, as they probably fast forwarded and didn’t hear the offer.  I did add a message under the video, as well as on Facebook, to let people know about it after I posted the video..

Today I decided I had to get serious about my St Patrick’s Day cards.  I wanted to make one with a pair of sunglasses with huge shamrocks attached that I bought at the Dollar Tree…They were perfect when I paired them with an old song that starts out, “I’m looking over a four leaf clover that I overlooked before….”  The song came to me when I was trying to sleep last night, so I got up and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget, and then I still couldn’t sleep, so cleaned my craft room a little more.  It’s getting to the point where I’m not embarrassed looking inside as I walk by the doorway.  I used to keep the door closed, as it was so horrible to look at.  At least now I can leave the door open without feeling bad about it’s condition….one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind….

The second card I made came from a YouTube channel called Mixed Up Crafts.  I love all of the ideas Sam, the crafter from that channel, makes.  She’s very talented and does a lot of three-D projects as well.  The card I’m making is called a Pull and Slide Card and here’s a link to her video.  I recommend her and her channel highly…  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWY-lF1Ua0I   I’m going to do a collaboration with Rebecca Walton from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the peg stamp company where we both make a pull and slide card and both use some peg stamps on our card.  I finished both cards tonight and am really happy with the results.  I hope all of you will be too.

Below you’ll find as many details from the video as I could recreate….Thanks to my friends for the nice Christmas cards I was sent..

I had colored the images four years ago and I don’t know where some of the stamps came from, but will include as many as I can find..

Carolyn Shores Wright Cardinal stamp link on ebay: https://tinyurl.com/wy487jn Michael’s Card Bases: https://tinyurl.com/qotczsl

Dog with tie…Penny Black Bubbly stamp set link: https://tinyurl.com/yx73tg24

Stampin’ Up Send a Celebration (Envelope with umbrella and Envelope with candles & envelope with flowers) stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/t7h5h8b

Tim Holtz Treats (Soda Pop, Popcorn and Gumball Machine) Stamp Set link: https://tinyurl.com/rmtypk2

House Mouse Signing a Card Stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/wk7tzz2

Metallic rub ons link: https://tinyurl.com/uysuee9

Elephants with flowers—I know I got this at a stamp show, but can’t remember who made it sorry..

Carolyn Shores Wright Robin Stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/upk3x4c

Zig Two Way Glue Pen link: https://pegstamps.com/product/zig-glue-pen-fine-tip-two-way/

Nail Art diamonds: https://tinyurl.com/vh56obg

Hedgehog Gifts of Apples stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/rkv5lz4

Inky Antics Flamingo Stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/shlwtwv

Cat with balloons from Penny Black Bubbly stamp set: https://tinyurl.com/yx73tg24 Penny Black hedgehogs with gifts—retired, couldn’t find a link to it

Hedgehog with butterfly stamp Penny Black Flutterby Link: https://tinyurl.com/u6w9jq4 Rabbit with frog–Stampabilities House Mouse Puddle Fun stamp link: https://tinyurl.com/vtnkg9u

Dog with tie from Penny Black Bubbly stamp set link: https://tinyurl.com/yx73tg24 Envelope w/ heart & flowers Stampin Up Send a Celebration set link: https://tinyurl.com/uelzalc

Flowers in a Circle–Just for fun, Mums in a circle stamp (no longer available that I could find)

Frog with Flowers stamp bought at a stamp show but don’t remember which store, sorry.

Carolyn Shores Wright four blue birds stamp–no longer available unless you keep checking ebay for it.

Reindeer from Stampin’ Up set called Holiday Lineup…not available currently, but keep checking on ebay..here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/urxmptp

Baby Bird–Holly Berry House Stamps #1347L-1 I’m not sure if this stamp is still available for sale, but here’s a link to the page where you can still see it, near the bottom of the page. http://hollyberryhouse.com/blog/?page_id=852

Kadomaru Pro corner rounder link: https://tinyurl.com/rnmn7db

I tried to include as many of the items I used to create these cards. If you’d like to have one of the cards, I’d be happy to mail one to you. Please email me at saundralparker@yahoo.com and please let me know if you’d like a specific card and I’ll try to send that card to you.

Last night, I finished making cards with the images I’d colored while off with hip replacement surgery four years ago.  OK, maybe it was three years ago, I’m just not quite sure.  I found a big Ziploc bag full of the images I’d colored, and thought it was high time I did something with them.  I didn’t realize how many images there were, and by the end of this process, figured out there were a lot more than I anticipated.  I made a video showing all of the cards and if I had to guess, I’d say there are at least forty cards…I didn’t count them, which was kind of foolish, because I just keep guessing at the number, but there are a lot of them.  I’d patting myself on the back for coming up with a plan and following it through to completion.  The only thing I didn’t do (yet,) is to decorate the envelopes I’ll be mailing them in.
I thought it was a great idea to allow viewers to have whichever card they wanted, so left it open in the video, for viewers to email me the card of their choice, and I’ll send it to them.  I’m not sure how many cards I’ll be sending, but I’m always happy to mail viewers cards, and now that I have a ton of cards available, I’m hoping viewers take me up on my offer.  I don’t think I’ll write in the cards I send, but will include a post-it note instead, with my note to them, so the recipient can re-use the card if they so choose.

Shortly after I started my YouTube channel, I bought an address book so I could keep viewers addresses, so I’d be able to send them a surprise card at a moment’s notice.  I have a lot of addresses in the book, and sadly, I’ve misplaced it.  It’s killing me to admit that, because today I cleaned my craft room, and still haven’t located it.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to start a new address book with this card offer.

One good thing that came out of my craft room cleaning,  I found my art journal.  It’s been bothering me, because I’ve had an idea I’d like to try in the journal, and couldn’t locate it anywhere.  It never occurred to me that I would have put it in a shoe box when I sprayed gesso on the last few pages I need to finish.  And then I put the shoe box on top of one of my storage cabinets, where I never look….Ohhh, if I had a dollar for every item I’ve lost in my craft room, I’d be rolling in dollars.  That’s a slight exaggeration…I’d have at least $10…so it’s more than a “slight exaggeration”…it’s a huge exaggeration.

I can finally see most of the floor of my craft room, something that’s been missing for a long time.  The tops of the counters are still cluttered, but it’s a lot better than it was before I started weeding it out.  I’m still missing the address book, which was one of the main reasons for my search.  I’m thinking it’s either caught in a drawer and is now stuck inside the cabinet, or has been misfiled with a bunch of other documents.  I thought I always kept it with my first address book, and if that’s the case, it’s definitely jammed into the back of the drawer, and I haven’t figured out how to remove the drawer to check if something is behind it.  I’m hoping there’s a way to pop the drawer out, but if there is, I haven’t figured it out yet.

I think I’ll leave it for tomorrow and maybe work on a diamond painting..  I know that diamond painting will relax me, and after spending several hours cleaning my craft room, I need a little bit of relaxation.   (If you saw the state of my craft room before I tackled it, you’d understand why.)  And more importantly, if you saw how bad the room still looks, you’d definitely know why I need to relax.  I’ll bet Jennifer McGuire never worries about a crazy dirty craft room, but then again, I picture her having a helper that follows along behind Jennifer, cleaning her messes and leaving her craft room looking spotless..  I need to find someone to do that for me..Rich?

The nice people at Fansells.com sent me several of their products to try. I was able to choose the products I was sent, and focused on non-diamond paintings since I don’t have much wall space available.

I started by showing what Fansells calls a “boarding pass,” in their search listing, but in reality, it’s a luggage tag. I wasn’t sure how practical the luggage tag would be to use on standard luggage, so came up with an alternative use for it. I made it into a paper pad. You can use it for a luggage tag, and I’d probably only use it on my carry on luggage, as I wouldn’t want to ruin the pretty Mandala image.

Luggage Tag:

Diamond Painting Special Shape Mandala Pattern Luggage Boarding Pass Link: https://tinyurl.com/rnaqasz   I cut copy paper to 2 1/8″ wide by 4 5/8″ long and used my Kadomaru Corner rounder (link on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/s9tl5a8) to round the corners on the largest setting. I took an old Stampin’ Up horizontal slot punch (it’s retired, so the links I found are on ebay: https://tinyurl.com/tssh7gh) and laid the first paper up to the luggage tag and making sure it was centered and the paper wasn’t visible from the back of the luggage tag, drew a mark where the horizontal slot was, then using the slot punch upside down, punched the entire mark I’d drawn. I also made a back cover for the luggage tag paper pad I was making, by cutting thin cardboard (backing from a paper pad) to 2 1/4″ wide x 4 3/4″ long and rounded the corners, then drew the hole by lining it up with the luggage tag, making a mark for the hole, then cutting the hole with my horizontal slot punch. I covered the cardboard with two pieces of patterned paper and followed the same steps, rounding the corners and cutting the slot. I adhered the patterned paper to the cardboard with tear tape and Tombow Mono Glue to allow me to move the paper if it was laid down imperfectly (and you know that happens.)

Notebooks:

Mandala Special Shaped Diamond Painting 50 Pages Sketchbook A5 Notebook Link: https://tinyurl.com/rtw4b7x

Peafowl Special Shaped Diamond Painting 50 Pages A5 Students Sketchbook (Peacock) Link: https://tinyurl.com/vtxmps7

I wanted to share my storage system with you.

For small diamond projects,  I bought a box from the Dollar Tree                                         link: https://tinyurl.com/unyywe9  and wrote on the inside of the box with a black Sharpie, a number for each opening. I then put the small baggies of diamonds you get in a small project like the luggage tag and notebooks inside, to keep me organized and allow me to easily find the correct diamonds.

For larger diamond paintings, you’ll get a lot of different diamond colors (usually under 40) and you’ll need to keep them organized and in small covered bottles to allow you to find and distribute them easily.  You’ll need to keep the round drills separate from the square drills, and you’ll want to use the code for the painting they came with as well as the embroidery floss codes on the bottles (to be able to combine the colors with other diamonds you have left over.

I bought two different systems. One on ebay for $2.67 that has 28 compartments (link: https://tinyurl.com/wt22s5c) and a larger storage system from Joanns (mine had 30 bottles, but I couldn’t find it online at Joanns) Here’s the same system with fewer compartments than mine. link: https://tinyurl.com/qrh3dz6

All of Fansells.com “diamond paintings” (which covers everything I’m showing in this video,) will always come with a tray for your drills (the proper term for diamonds,) a small piece of wax, and a pen to pick the diamonds up with. Any true diamond paintings will also come with a few extra small plastic bags (in case you need them for diamond storage.)

Passport Cover:

Special Shaped Diamond Painting Travel Passport Protective Cover Crafts Link: https://tinyurl.com/wbs75m5

Diamond Paintings:

Tree of Life 30 x 40 cm Link: https://tinyurl.com/u69z8w7 Round Drills

5D DIY Full Drill Diamond Painting Words Embroidery Mosaic Craft Kit Decor, 30 x 30Round Drills,  Someone we love is in heaven: link: https://tinyurl.com/u62ovrm

I’d like to thank the wonderful people at Fansells.com for sending me these great diamond painting items, and hope you’ll go to their website and see the wide selection they offer.

I’m glad February is almost behind us, as spring is just around the corner (in my mind.)  With that being said, the groundhog’s prediction for an early spring has not proven accurate…We are in the middle of a winter storm advisory with anticipated snow fall up to 12″…that doesn’t sound very springy to me.  We’ve already gotten about four inches, but it’s the wind that’s been causing issues..  Snow is falling almost horizontally, making visibility impossible in certain spots.  It’s days like this that I’m so happy we’re retired and don’t have to venture out unless we need something.

It’s also a great day to get into the craft room.  Unfortunately, Honey hates the wind, and hates me being in the craft room even more…She finds Rich and sits beside him, crying.  It’s so sad to watch.  I wish I knew why she hates the craft room, maybe it’s the horrible state of messiness it which it normally can be found.  I wish I knew, so I could ease her anxiety.

I’ve been seriously working on the “simple” cards I wanted to make out of the images I’ve colored.  So far, I’ve worked on them for three nights and have only made ten cards.  Yep, ten.  I think the reason it’s been going so slowly, is the first night I took each image and die cut it, and cut frames and other papers to layer with.   The second night, I went through my scrap box of cardstock and patterned papers and found ones that might work well with the stack, and then last night I really worked at making cards in earnest.

Maybe the word “simple” isn’t in my vocabulary, because I thought I’d stick to a few embellishments and make the process streamlined, by using those and rub-on sentiments I had in my stash.  I chose to tackle the pile of images from the top to the bottom, rather than looking through the pile with each new card I was making, thinking that would make things more efficient.  What I’ve found is that I can try to do the steps I’ve outlined, but ultimately I’ll think of another embellishment that would work well with a particular image, or I’d find a card could use some ribbon, and my embellishment stack continues to grow.   I know Kristina Werner is working with just a few craft essentials for her February cards, but just realized that wouldn’t work for me.  I wish I could do that, and this video was an attempt at that, but it isn’t my style.  “I have a ton of craft supplies so why not use them?”  That’s what I’m telling myself is the reason for my failure.  Ultimately, though, I think the reason Kristina’s system works for her is because she designs her cards before she makes them, so she can design them around the supplies she’s using.  I never design anything before making it.  I will follow a fun fold card design as far as the workings of the card, but never plan the papers or embellishments or overall look of my cards.  I wonder if you plan out your cards, or if you’re more like me?

Rich is running errands, so I won’t be able to do anything with the cards until he gets home.  I have to hang with Honey, and believe me, she’s not happy with the wind.  I just looked outside and saw five male Cardinals and one female in one pear tree.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of them hanging out with each other like that.  It’s really beautiful and if I thought they’d sit there long enough for me to get a camera, I’d take a photo and upload it so you could enjoy them too.

Alas, already I’m down to three Cardinals left, and now there are two.  Lucky I didn’t run around looking for my camera….

I spent the day today practicing interviewing with the college seniors from the college Rich and I attended.  It’s always fun to give back, and hopefully, the students will get good jobs with their newly improved interviewing skills.

Last night, I worked on the images I want to turn into cards.  I die cut a ton of frames for the images with different dies, and put them in piles to now turn into cards.  My goal for tomorrow is to finish them, and since it took all evening to die cut the frames, it should give me a lot of cards to use going forward.

I made this diamond painting for my sister, who is Catholic.  She fell a couple of weeks ago and had to have surgery on her wrist, and I thought she’d really like this image.

I wanted to surprise my sister with this gift, and hope she really likes it.  I’m trying to find something that is large enough to mail this and the larger diamond painting I made of my nephew and his bride on the beach.  It’s almost double the size of Mother Mary.

I’ve been having so much fun with diamond painting and finding ways to diamond paint on things that aren’t painting, and hope some of you will give this craft a try.  I can’t recommend it more highly.  You don’t have to buy a bunch of extra tools, the ones you need come with every new kit you buy.  It’s inexpensive too, and I like that as well..

 

I’m feeling a lot better, and the steroid burst I’m taking is giving me a lot of energy.  I have been using the inhaler too, so between the two medicines, I have a lot of energy and am a little bit shaky, since that’s a side effect of the inhaler.

I decided I needed to get back in the craft room, so made a video showing a diamond painting haul that shows how you don’t have to do paintings to diamond paint.  I really enjoy the craft aspect of diamond paintings, but don’t have the wall space for them.  I talked to a company called Fansells, and they sent me five items, with only two being paintings.  I wanted to show viewers that you can try this craft with a very small investment (usually under $6,) and come away feeling relaxed.  I’m not sure why I like diamond painting so much, but I do.  I guess it’s because you don’t have to do much thinking, and the feeling of accomplishment comes quickly.  I loved the finished results when I used diamonds called rhinestones, as the end result is really sparkly and exciting.  I made a luggage tag that Rich didn’t think was practical, as the luggage handlers could easily destroy the art just by throwing our bags around….so I decided to convert it into a note pad.  It was easy and I liked the end result.  Of course, you can always use this luggage tag on your carry-on bag, but I wanted to give people options.

On vacation, during the evening, I finished covering the front of a notebook with diamonds (rhinestones.)  It is really attractive, and I think I could give them as gifts.  I received another notebook from Fansells, that has a peacock on the front, and I think it will be even better looking when it’s complete.

I was going through one of the drawers where I store cardstock, and found a bunch of smaller images that I had colored with watercolor pencils after my hip replacement four years ago.  There were so many of them, and there were a wide variety of images, I decided I needed to do something with them.  I decided I would get out a bunch of the pre-made card bases many of us have purchased at Michaels at one time or another.  In my case, I’ve bought a lot of them, and in a wide variety of colors and styles.  I thought I would make a video showing you how to use scraps of cardstocks, as well as the colored images, to make a bunch of quick and easy cards.  Of course, with that being said, I’ve only finished two cards, because I started making big mistakes, and that’s when I know it’s time to stop.  Rich had gone to the gym to hang with his basketball buddies, and our humidifier made a loud noise because it needed water, thus putting Honey into a state of panic.  I decided to take all of the images I’d colored into our bedroom with watercolor pencils, and add more color and highlights to them.  It took me almost an hour to play with them because, as I said, there are a lot of images, but now I’m ready to put them to use.  I’m going to use a bunch of my dies to cut the images and then cut another layer to line the image out of my scrap box.  I plan on making a video showing the end result, and maybe showing how I made one of the finished cards.

Today, I had to go to the dermatologist to have a biopsy of the skin on the top of my scalp.  Last year, I had some skin cancer removed from that spot, and it left a small spot that is still really tender to touch.  My dermatologist can’t decide if it’s scar tissue, pre-cancer, or more skin cancer, so he wanted to take a small biopsy, which he did.  He’s really good at removing tissue, and his injections to numb me never hurt for more than a few seconds.  The whole procedure maybe takes five minutes, and since my mother had melanoma, and that’s hereditary, I try to be diligent about having my skin checked annually.   I have very fair skin and have a lot of (I’ll call them) freckles, all over.  I’ve had so many of them removed, and it’s not made a dent in the sheer volume, but I’m always glad when I get the results, and really, have only had my scalp come back with skin cancer, and luckily, not melanoma, which is far more dangerous.

I’m going back into the craft room to work on the simple cards I want to make, and hope I can make a small dent in the number of images I’ve colored.  It was funny when I found them, as I completely forgot coloring them.  Now if I could only find the art journal I’ve been working on for the past year….I’d be extremely happy if it turned up.

 

 

 

I went to my doctor’s appointment yesterday for the chest cold that I got while in St. Maarten.  My doctor is scared to prescribe even antibiotics, and practices medicine like she is afraid.  I’m not sure if she was sued for malpractice, but she definitely doesn’t like to prescribe common medications.  She asked me once if I had trouble sleeping and I told her I did.  She said she would prescribe a sleeping agent, and did.  I was frankly surprised that she offered the prescription, but when I filled it, I was no longer surprised.  She gave me five pills.  Five..  Apparently she was concerned I would get addicted to them if I had access to more.  Oh, and no refills.

Back to yesterday’s appointment.  When I checked in, there was a sign in the lobby that said if I had a number of symptoms, I should wear one of their masks, but the box was empty.  When I checked in, I explained that I had a cough and there were no masks in the lobby, and the receptionist gave me one.  I told her I didn’t know if I was infectious, and had been in the Caribbean when I got sick, so she gave me a mask immediately, and threw away the pen I wrote with. (Smart move on her part, in my opinion.  I have not been diagnosed with anything, so it’s better to be safe than sorry, and I don’t want to infect anyone else if I can avoid it.)  They put me in a room and the nurse took my blood pressure, temperature and whatever that finger-thing they clip on measures.  The nurse didn’t seem concerned, and put the finger-clip thing back in her pocket and I pointed to it and asked if she was going to disinfect it.  She seemed a little miffed about it and said she would, but I’m not so sure.

The doctor came into the room and asked me some questions about symptoms, and I explained how I was feeling.  She asked if I had taken any over-the-counter medications, and I said I had.  Apparently, the only ones she feels that would be of value if I had a head cold (which I didn’t) would be the ones you have to ask a pharmacist for.  The ones people can use to make meth.  They really help with relieving the symptoms associated with a head cold, but NOT a chest cold, like I have.  The others, the ones I took, she doesn’t think are helpful.  Since I mainly had a cough, I thought the ones with dextromethorphan would be the most effective for me, (as they are in the cold aisle) and told her that.  She ignored that and did the examination…She looked in my mouth, had me say ahhh, and might have looked in my ears, and then got out the stethoscope.  She took one listen to me deep breathing and said “Oh.”  Rich could see her face and said her eyes got really big when she said it.  She listened to deep breathes and then had me breathe normally for a long time and then was done.  She sat down and said “You have restrictive lung disease.”  And then said something about asthma symptoms and prescribed a burst of prednisone and a rescue inhaler and said if I don’t feel better by Friday, to give her a call and she’ll prescribe something more then.  She had asked if I have had these symptoms in the past, and I said yes, about twenty years ago.  I’m not sure if that’s one of the reasons she gave the diagnosis, but regardless, she felt that’s what I have.  I’ll explain this more later.

When I got home, I called my sister, who almost always talks to me on speaker.  I told her the diagnosis and my brother-in-law, who was an Emergency Room physician as his career, said something in the background that I couldn’t understand.  My sister said “John thinks you were misdiagnosed.”  I trust John implicitly, because he’s an amazing diagnostician, and diagnosed my arthritis over the telephone while he was in medical school, after I’d been to five doctors/specialists who could not diagnose it.   I didn’t really think much about what he’d said, because I hadn’t done any research on restrictive lung disease.  I thought it was another term for asthma.

I was going to write this post this morning, but wanted to research my diagnosis so I could explain it, and I was amazed and disgusted by what I read, and I read a lot.  Apparently there’s no cure for restrictive lung disease and it’s cause can be rheumatoid arthritis.  I am angry.  My doctor did not base her diagnosis on my symptoms, instead, based it solely on the fact that I have arthritis.   If I was someone who had lung issues often, which I am not, or if this lung issue happened out of the blue, and not after both Rich and I had the same chest cold, then I would understand the correlation.  Also, restrictive lung disease isn’t contagious, but she wiped her stethoscope with alcohol immediately after removing it from my chest and made sure my mask was in place the entire visit, except when she had me say “Ahhh.”

Instead, my brother-in-law says I have asthmatic bronchitis.  Totally curable and, bronchitis caused by a virus, is contagious.  He said my doctor gave me the correct medications, and if I don’t run a fever, or have a change in mucus color, I should be fine.  I asked him how my doctor based her diagnosis (because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t barking up the wrong tree,) and he said she based it on the fact that you have rheumatoid arthritis.  I was right, and that’s SO frustrating to me.  My doctor apparently couldn’t see the forest of evidence for the tree of my arthritis and wanted to make sure she covered the worst case scenario and hope that I would be happy that in fact, I didn’t have restrictive lung disease.

Rich thinks I’m overreacting, and should let it go.  He didn’t read any of the information on restrictive lung disease, because if he had, he would have been as upset as I am.  It can be fatal….It’s not curable, and the only way to diagnose it, is with a test done with  breathing into a machine, and, chest X-rays, CT scan or an Endoscope that they put in your airway.  None of those tests were performed.  I know I should let it go, but I can’t.  I’m mad that this diagnosis is now in my medical records and that my insurance company will think I have this (from the code the doctor used for my diagnosis.)  I don’t know what either of those things means to me, but when you have a chronic health issue, you worry about these things.  Like I did in high school, when teachers would tell us, “this will go on your permanent record.”  Maybe it means nothing, like those threats, but maybe, in the future, my insurance company could decide not to cover a “preexisting condition related to my lungs because of this diagnosis,” you never know.  OK, I never know…

I wish I could change medical doctors, but all of the “good” family practice doctors in our area aren’t taking new patients, and I don’t want to drive an hour for things like this.  I am exceptionally lucky, because I know I have my brother-in-law, my sister and my nephew, who are both RN’s, to help me through any kind of medical questions or issues.  I think that’s the real reason I don’t change family practitioners, because I know I have a backup for when things like this happen.  And frankly, my rheumatologist is the one that writes all of my prescriptions, even antibiotics, because my family doctor won’t.  It’s sad when a medical doctor who went to good schools is afraid to practice medicine and makes a diagnosis like this.

 

I’m almost finished with the Mother Mary diamond painting I’m making for my sister, who fell last week and broke her wrist.  She’s having surgery on her wrist Thursday, so they can put some plates and screws in it to stabilize it.  My sister (for those of you who might not know,) has type 1 diabetes, and has had it since she was four.  She’s now sixty-two and has been really struggling with the complications the disease is throwing her way.  She lacks balance, and is falling a lot more often than we would hope.  I bought the painting before she fell, and when I saw it, I knew my sister would love it, and I hope she does.  I should have it completed tomorrow, and will try to get it in the mail so my sister has it when she gets home from the hospital.

I left the house today for the first time since getting back from St. Maarten….I had promised the college Rich and I attended, that I would give a seminar on interviewing, and had already postponed it a week…I didn’t want to postpone it a second time, so gave the seminar today.  I made sure none of the students were anywhere near me, and didn’t touch any of the papers that I gave them.  The papers have been in a folder for months, and I had one of the students pull them out of the folder and distribute them.  I would feel awful if I knew I gave this cold to anyone beside Rich.  It’s inevitable that we share colds.

Rich has been worrying about the fact that I can’t get rid of my cold, and today, after some serious nagging on Rich’s part, I called our family doctor to make an appointment.  Our doctor doesn’t like to give prescriptions for anything, and I know, will pat me on the back and send me home, telling me to drink more fluids and rest.  I’m taking Rich to the appointment, because he’ll push her to do more for me.  He’s a lot more aggressive with doctors than I am, and is tough on any doctors I see.  He’s physically threatened doctors that he thought were hurting me, and although they were good natured about it, have never forgotten he threatened them….So he’s a terrific advocate for me, but also a little on the scary side.  I think he’ll be fine at this appointment, or I wouldn’t be taking him.  I’ve been coughing up a lot of colored phlegm, and Rich thinks I’ve got a respiratory infection.  When I called for the appointment, I told the nurse I’ve had this cold for over two weeks, and her response, was “Have you taken any over-the-counter medications for the cold?”  Of course I have.  I’ve taken several different products, as none of them have made me feel better….Isn’t that what we all do before going to the doctor?  I felt like it was only common sense to have done so, but apparently my doctor’s office was hoping I would say no and then they would tell me to take some before coming in to see the doctor.  I hate to think that I’m wasting anyone’s time, but after two weeks and no end in sight, I guess I thought I should maybe see if there’s something else wrong, and that’s the real reason I’m not feeling better.

I’ll update you on how things go, but if I had to guess, my doctor will think I wasted her time…even though she gets paid for my visit..

I would like to get back into the craft room but don’t have the ambition to do more than placing diamond pieces on a canvas, and I’ve only felt good enough to do that since Sunday, when I started the Mother Mary portrait.  Maybe I’m under estimating what my doctor will do….And if that’s the case, it’s either because she hears a lot of stuff rattling around in my lungs, or Rich scares her into doing something.  My money’s on Rich..