Week Ending 3/22

Hey, it's me...

Wow, where do I start? I've got two weeks worth of excitement to share... which is not a good thing. So, let's begin at the beginning. 

The rotten insurance company has decided it's time to do one it's periodic checks to see if I still deserve disability. Unfortunately, this means a trial by fire for the new doctor, who has not yet proven himself in battle against the insurance company. I am... concerned.

That said, in the course of talking to the doctor about insurance, he brought up the idea of me to doing physical therapy, which was something he'd mentioned before. Brief aside - what is it with new doctors that they always think everyone who came before them is an idiot and they know how to fix me? Well, his idea was the try physical therapy. I was... dubious... but I said I was willing to try. 

To my shock, they scheduled me for a PT intact appointment almost immediately (a week ago Friday). Compare that to the almost-a-year it took me to get in to seeing the neurologist.

So, the PT appointment was... a complete disaster. Despite their casual reassurances, it was abundantly clear that they did not understand my condition. Long story less long, I was functionally incapacitated for three days and I'm not going back. 

What's interesting there is that PT didn't even really argue with me about not coming back. Oh, they called me back after I'd called to cancel the months worth of weekly appointments they'd talked us into... but they didn't try to convince me to come back. If anything, I got the sense that they knew full well how badly they had screwed up and were in full damage control (please don't sue us) mode.

That was why last weeks update was so short, in case you wondered.

This week was... not as bad but still not good.

Tuesday (so just barely recovered from the PT debacle), I had to go into the eye doctor to pick up my new glasses. My new glasses are... not great. As soon as I put them on, I said "this is really weird." I was seeing 3d illusions of letters leaping off the page. Not something you want in reading glasses. This lead to spending too much time there while they checked, rechecked and double checked that the glasses were the prescription that had been ordered. They are. In the end, it was - well take them home and we'll call you to follow up.

When they didn't call, I did... because I'm mean. Result, I also spent way too much of Friday back at the eye-doctors when they re-checked, triple checked and tested the new glasses again. End result... me exhausted and still no answer.

However, the glasses seem to work better when I'm exhausted. 

Theory 1 - The prescription is based on data from when I'm exhausted. 

Theory 2 - Less-exhausted me (yeah, there is such a creature) was so used to forcing my eyes to focus using my old glasses (which were like 10 years old) and I was unknowingly doing the same thing with the new glasses, throwing them off. I can't do it was well when I'm tired, which is why the glasses actually work when I'm tired,

Could be either, could be both. I'm using the new glasses now. They're still not great but I seem to be adjusting to them.

So... yeah... the last two weeks sucked. 

I really want to just do nothing next week. Wish me luck. 

Onward

Week Ending 3/15

 Hey, it's me...

So, I'm sick and I've had a really rough week. So while I have a few things to talk about, I'm not up to it today obviously.

I'll try to check in later this week, or maybe I'll just have a really long post next week.

Onward

Week Ending 3/8

 Hey, it's me...

After all the excitement last week, this week has been a bit less intense...

I did try the new cholesterol medication and, shock and amazement, it had exactly the same side effects as the previous two attempts. So, not doing that anymore. The doctor agreed, we need a new plan, which we will discuss at my next appointment. 

I've been keeping pretty quiet the rest of the week. With the medication mess behind me, I've been sleeping better but it's pretty clear my body clock got thrown off. I've still been waking up around 6:00... which means for the first time in my life I was actually glad when Daylight Savings Time kicked in this morning. It means I woke up at 7:00 without changing anything about my sleep habits. 

Otherwise, just hanging out, reading, writing, did a little painting (nothing new to show off yet). 

I've had a couple of evenings, last evening especially, where the fatigue has gotten really bad. When I hit a certain level of overtired, tired becomes depressed. I have to remind myself that the hopelessness and despair I feel is just me being too tired... not that I'm a worthless human being. Fortunately, J was there to get me through it.

On the whole, the week could have been better but it could have been a whole lot worse. 

I'll take the win.

Onward

Mini's Challenege

So, a month or so ago, I saw an article on the Games Workshop website about their Million Miniatures Challenge. Evidently, the GW stores are asking folks to pledge to pain 25+, 50+ or 100+ minis between January and May 9, 2026. 

Well, we don't really have a GW store handy, but I thought since J, D and I all enjoy painting GW minis (and playing their games), it would be a good way to inspire us to paint. So, we made a challenge of our own. We agreed that we will try to paint 25-50 minis before May 9, and each of us who pulls it off gets a GW kit as a reward. 

J, naturally, has a huge lead but since I've been feeling better this week, I managed to get a bunch of painting in.

So, I wanted to show off..

Darkoath Marauders

Objective Markers (we didn't say they had to be GW minis)

Barrow

Finally, this isn't one that I painted for the challenge but I wanted to share a picture of it...

A Corrupted Wyldwood

I need 11 more to hit my 25, so more to come. 

Week Ending 3/1

Hey, it's me...

OK, so this was a big, big week. Lots of stuff going on, too much really to talk about.

First, I want to briefly address current events. Yesterday, President Trump launched unauthorized, elective attacks on Iran. In my view, this is a man-child who thinks he is playing live action Call of Duty and is destroying real lives and potentially destabilizing the entire world because he wants to distract people from his corruption, his failed foreign policy, his failed economic policy, his failed domestic policy and his involvement with Epstein. That's all I have to say on the matter today. More to come.

Moving on to my own life, the last couple of weeks have been rough. I've been trying out various new cholesterol medications, all of which cause muscle pain. I haven't been able to sleep well. I've been overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed and generally messed up.

So, my doctor and I decided to try another new medication and see if that's any better. However, due to a slight insurance hiccup, there was a delay in getting the new meds. So, I decided for a variety of reasons to stop taking the old meds and let my system clear out before starting the next one.

Let me just say... Oh. My. Gods! I feel so much better. The pain is gone. I have been sleeping through the night. What's more, I am thinking more clearly than I feel like I have in weeks. One of the other side effects turned out to mental confusion and memory issues. I didn't even realize I was having them! (Which can be understood given my, you know... mental confusion and memory issues from the post-COVID.) 

I honestly don't want to try the new medication and I haven't yet. I will though. Just not today.

But wait, there's more. 

I also had my first eye doctor appointment in several years. My last attempt, a year or two ago, was abandoned when I crashed and had to leave before the doctor even got to me. This time, we planned better. We had the second appointment of the morning. We brought the wheelchair, so I didn't have to do all the walking around. We explained my health issues to the staff, so they knew. Plus, I was feeling great (see above). So, I actually managed to get my vision checked and new glasses picked out. They wanted to dilate my eyes and do a couple more things. We tried. 

I fell asleep. 

Literally. I fell asleep in the doctors office and woke up in the car on the way home. I vaguely remember the doctor helping J wheel me out to the car.

It's good really. I feel so much better being off the bad meds but I am not actually Better. 

So, yeah, big week. Resting now.

Onward.

Week Ending 2/22

Hey, it's me...

I don't know. This week just feels like it's been rough. Still having trouble with waking up too early. Muscle aches are bothering me. 

Last couple of days, I've been feeling really overwhelmed. Like sensory overload, driving me toward wanting to scream and throw things, which I can't do... and then the effort of holding back just makes me even more overwhelmed.

On the positive side, I've managed to get a fair bit of writing done on Wyrd Tales and I've carved out time to paint minis. The good/bad of that is that I have goals for both of those things and that adds to the sense of being overwhelmed. No matter how much I do, I still haven't hit those goals yet. I need to back off and give myself some grace. They're hobbies, not obligations.

Yeah, all in all, not a great week. I feel like I'm trying very hard not to fly apart, which I could do at any moment. 

Breathe. Just breathe. 

I can do this.

Onward

Week Ending 2/15

Hey, it's me...

This has been a rough week. I couldn't seem to get a full nights sleep. I kept waking up way too early... like 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. On the one hand, I had a couple of days where I managed to get things done despite getting up so early, but for the most part I've just had a lot of really tired days. Today is really the first day I managed to get a good nights sleep and wake up at a reasonable hour, so that's a positive sign. 

Not much else to report. I've been watching Outer Limits and surfing the internet. (Do people still 'surf the 'net'? Is that a thing?) 

Anyway, quiet week. Hopefully I'll sleep better next week.

Onward