My Back Pain Continues

In May I decided to schedule another epidural injection in my spine. The last one I had worked for about 18 months and it's been quite a while since it wore off. Walking around with a numb foot gets increasingly difficult. Between that and my osteoarthritis in my spine, I can rarely sleep. The pain in my hips and the numbness in my foot are a combination that have become unbearable.

Unfortunately, like the last time, the first injection did not work. So I went for a second one in July. That one only worked for a few months. The doctors say sometimes it takes 3 in order for it to work but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it again.  It's not a painful procedure, but I don't exactly look forward to it. It has some risk which makes it stressful.  It's not cheap either so I'm not sure I am getting the return on the investment that I had hoped for.

After some serious thought and many sleepless pain filled nights I decided to get a second opinion.  I started to research spinal surgeons. Why not get a consult? It couldn't hurt. I have a hard time doing the research.  I look through the lists of in network surgeons in my health plan and Google them.  Looking at reviews from patients seems so arbitrary.  If they give good reviews, I wonder about their standards for what qualifies as good.

My husband mentioned that a coworker's wife had a major back surgery with a doctor that she gave rave reviews.  So I asked him to find out who it was.  His name is Dr. Perlewitz and his reading his bio was pretty incredible.  He was a Medical College of WI grad with an orthopedic fellowship at Harvard. I think that was good enough for me so I made an appointment.

I made the appointment and my husband and I went together. Dr. Perlewitz did a comprehensive exam of my spine and we had a long discussion of my symptoms.  He was thorough and easy to talk to. He suggested that since my last MRI was from 3 years ago, I get another one.  After that I would make another appointment and we would discuss options based on the results of the MRI.  He stated that normally he would have 2 or 3 suggestions (physical therapy, more injections, surgery)  and we would sit down and choose a plan of action based on how I would like to proceed.  Wish me luck!

4 Generations

As the holidays approach, I always get this melancholy feeling and I think about my dad. I think about him a lot. I think about how proud he would be of his grandchildren. I think about how much he would love his great-grandchildren. But he's not with us anymore and hasn't been for a very long time. He died from a brain tumor at the age of 52. It was called an astrocytoma. He died on a Friday, the 13th, not that I am superstitious but that was the day. This photo was taken during his chemo days. In the photo is me, my daughter Jen, my dad and his mother. 4 generations. I think it is an incredible photo although I doubt that we gave it any thought of how important it would become at the time. In fact, it was taken with a Polaroid camera with instant results. It's a photo that brings me great comfort on days like this.

Four Generations

Ed's Confirmation

Today was my nephew, Ed's confirmation. There were only two kids who completed the final test and so the ceremony was quite intimate although it does occur during the regular church service.  Ed's brother, Stan was excited to be the acolyte during the service. It made him feel like a big part of the day too.  After the church service, we took some photos with Pastor Mortenson (P.J.). It was a very nice ceremony.

Greg, Ed, Kelly and P.J.

Selling Clinique

All of a sudden I am really digging eBay.  In the past I have sold things like Christmas ornaments, fabric, clothing and lots of shoes and boots. Another item I've had lots of success with is cosmetics. I don't really use that many cosmetics but I do love Clinique lipstick and lip liner and also their face soap. Since both Boston Store and Macy's will have Clinique days sales, I only buy what I need during those sales.  That means I get lots of make up bags and many samples. Most of which I will never even try yet use.  So I sell them on eBay and they are surprisingly popular. Sadly I have been hoarding 18 of those things. If I do the math (2 stores with 2 sales per year = 4 divided by 18 = 4.5), I've had some of these cosmetic bags for 4 and a half years! It is definitely time to let them go so I listed 12 of them on eBay. Amazingly, all of them are going to sell. The bidding is going well and I am happy that I will be making some extra cash off of them and I am happy that someone will use these nice products.

Considering all that will sell, I still have quite a few items left.  In fact, I put together a makeup kit for my granddaughter. Kind of crazy and a little decadent that a little girl's play will include some Clinique.  Even after that I still have some great stuff left. And I only kept the stuff I think I would definitely use, even if I can't justify how to use 6 new makeup bags.

It's a little bit of work but worth it, it's like getting some of my money back to pay for the ones I like. Since I have bids on all the items listed on eBay, I better start digging up some shipping boxes!

Selling Baby Stuff

As a family we try hard to help our daughter who is a single mother.  Our adorable granddaughters are one of the best part of our lives. However, they need and go through a lot of things.  So in order to help our daughter, we have rummage sales in both spring and fall. This year our spring sale was extremely successful, but fall was not so great. I'm pretty sure it would have been better if we would have had our sale in September instead of waiting until October.  But weekends get booked up and things fall where they can whether we like it our not.  So on an overcast October day, we tried but didn't make as much cash as hoped. More importantly, we didn't get rid of as much baby stuff as we would like. I did take the leftover baby things to New To You Kids and they bought a lot more than I expected which was a pleasant surprise.

We were left with some big ticket items; a stroller, car seat, babycook, and a breast pump. So I used a Facebook local sale page to try to sell things. It worked for the stroller and the car seat will probably never sell, but I was not ready to let go of the babycook (retail $149) or the breast pump (retail $269) for cheap so I thought I would try eBay.

I used to sell lots of stuff on eBay but I haven't given them much thought in the last few years. Craigslist was working pretty well for me for things that were too large to ship; these items were small enough to ship and I thought I could get a good price with a wider audience on eBay.  So I listed the items and wouldn't you know it, within two minutes of hitting post...the breast pump was sold.  Incredible. Love the Buy It Now option.

The babycook is still on the auction block but I am pretty sure I will get top dollar for that like I did for the breast pump. So hopefully by Sunday, it will sell high. Wish me luck!

Custom Privacy Fence Panel

I've been following Pinterest for quite a while and I seem to constantly return to the same photo.  It is a picture of a pergola and a privacy wall covering a nice patio.  That privacy wall is built out of two-by-fours forming a grid and there are random glass blocks in some of the grid openings.  I wanted very badly to use that idea.

We recently installed some fence panels on our lot line to give us some privacy.  In the process of doing that project, we had our fence post hole guy dig two extra holes next to our hot tub.  So here was my chance to use that Pinterest inspired idea.

My husband and I installed the 4x4x10-feet long posts into the ground next to the tub. After a few days to ensure the cement footings were firm, we filled the dirt back in and cleaned up the rest of the piles of dirt left over from the dig.  From there I got out my graph paper and measured and re-measured the opening.  I drew out the plan down to every little detail. On Friday morning I went shopping for glass block.  

On Saturday morning, he went shopping for the lumber and we started to build the grid that would hold the glass block.  Between the shopping and laying out the grid and the frame, we used up most of the day. On Sunday morning, we installed the grid-frame structure to the fence posts.  It went up quickly and easily, thank goodness. Then we spent the day cutting the boards to fill in the bottom half of the fence.  On Monday I installed the glass block permanently by using silicone caulk to hold them in place.

I am so excited to see this project completed. We discovered together that we can do our own thing without worrying too much about having an expert draw up a plan - we can do it all ourselves! This was one of the most rewarding projects I have ever completed!

Thank you, Jeff for your fantastic woodworking skills, we make a great team.