Life After The Army » back

Twitchy Woman

Charlotte — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:21:08 +0000

Ever since I had my spinal fusion surgery a few years ago I’ve had tingling in my legs. The tingling slowly developed into twitches. The twitches now make my whole body jerk. I’m fine when I stand, but I can’t stand for long periods. The happens mostly when I sit certain ways or when I’m laying down. It’s more of an annoyance than anything. The doctors have told me that I’d most likely end up with permanent nerve damage and I guess this is a side effect of that damage.

It must look like, to other people, that someone came up behind me and poked me and made me jump. It doesn’t happen when I’m sitting in the car driving thank goodness… that could be a huge problem. I jerk so hard that I’d probably end up crashing the car. It’s like when you’ve just fallen asleep or are almost asleep and you get that “I’m falling” feeling and you jump and wake up.

It’s only on my right side, which is the side that was injured in 2001 that caused me to have 2 back surgeries. And it’s just the strangest feeling too. I can feel it coming. It starts with a tiny fluttering feeling just above my foot. It moves slowly up my leg and it gets to a certain point and then BAM… I jump/jerk. Just so very annoying. It will happen several times in a row then go away for awhile then I feel it coming back again. It’s a viscous cycle… calm, twitchy, jerky, calm, twitchy, jerky.. rinse and repeat!

It’s a lovely birthday…

Charlotte — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:44:37 +0000

Not really… it’s raining and it’s supposed to rain all day. My shoulders, neck and back are aching and I feel much older than 56 today. But it’s my birthday and I guess I should just be thankful I woke up today, right?

I have no plans for today… you know.. the whole no job and no money thing but I’m not big on big celebrations anyway. I’ll just be happy to have my kids call and say happy birthday. Right now I’m just going to sit back and relax and wait for my Tylenol Arthritis to kick in.

Everyone have a wonderful day on me!

Owie

Charlotte — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:28:16 +0000

It’s damp and miserable out and my back and legs are killing me. I almost needed on of those seat lifts to get out of bed this morning.

I dosed myself up on my Tylenol Arthritis and I’m waiting on that to kick in. I really hate the achy days. I have to do laundry today too.. this should be fun.. NOT!

Andi sent me her “old” cell phone, an LG Rumor, but forgot to send the charger. I ordered one and got it yesterday and called my cell company and got my “new” one activated. I spent most of last night playing with it. I love having a little keyboard to text with. It’s so much easier than texting with a regular phone. It also has a camera and I took some pictures with it. My phone is an apple green color.

I’m also re-thinking my decision to show Tweets on my blog. After looking at them I think it makes my blog look crappy so I’ll probably disable those Tweets. I had it set for every day then changed it to weekly.. but it still looks crappy.

Job market stinks

Charlotte — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:09:57 +0000

The job market stinks around here. I’ve been looking for a job since I was laid off the end of December. I could work in a store, I do have sales training.. but my back won’t allow me to stand for long periods of time.

I’ve sent out resumes and I got 1 interview and haven’t heard from anyone else I’ve sent resumes to. I didn’t get the job that I interviewed for. They found someone else who was more qualified. But the woman who interviewed me wants to hang on to my resume.

I was getting worker’s comp for a back injury I got in 2001 and have had a couple of back surgeries. That money ran out 2 weeks ago. I do have unemployment but that’s only about half of what I was making when I was working.

I hope things get better, job wise, soon. Hubby doesn’t have to worry about being laid off. He works on Atlantic City cop cars and they are always wrecking them.

Completed

Charlotte — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:36:40 +0000

My desk is all completed. Now I’m sorry I tackled this on my own (for the most part). My back is killing me. My middle finger on my right hand is killing me… I got a blister from using the screwdriver for so long. I didn’t move it myself… hubby moved the heavy end of the desk with the drawers and door.

But I am totally in love with my new desk in spite of the pain it caused me. I now have my printer/scanner/copier up on the desktop where I can reach it without bending over. My tower is in the door next to the 2 drawers. Those drawers are so nice and deep too. I can use one for files and the other to hold all the junk I had in a plastic cabinet that was next to the old desk.

As we moved the old desk out of the way it dropped the keyboard tray onto the floor for the last time! It will be dismantled and tossed tomorrow. It’s so crappy it’s not even worth giving away.

Falling apart

Charlotte — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:09:50 +0000

I’m falling apart at the seams. Not literally, but physically. Today my back was killing me right in between my shoulder blades. I think it’s stress but I’m not sure or it could be all the bending over at my desk at work. My feet still hurt from wearing heels on Halloween. I only wore them for a couple hours before I took them off. Maybe I should have worn some MBT shoes instead. My feet wouldn’t be hurting now if I had.

I think I’m going to get off of the computer, get in my nice comfy jammies and vegetate on the couch for the rest of the night!

Organizing at work

Charlotte — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:34:09 +0000

When I went back to work I got the job of transferring all of the past 3 years worth of store files to a filing cabinet. I had to move them from the many cardboard boxes into the cabinets. This involved a lot of bending until I got the idea to sit on my desk chair to transfer them. When I got to the upper drawers I put the boxes on my chair. That saved a lot of wear and tear on my already messed up back.

I always try to find ways to make things easy on my back. I don’t want to re-injure my back. I’ve had 2 surgeries on it in the past 8 years and I’m not really feeling like having any more surgeries. Between those 2 surgeries and others I’ve had a total of 7 surgeries in my life. I had my tonsils removed when I was in 4th grade. Then I had 3 c-sections and a hysterectomy then the 2 back surgeries. No more surgeries for me please and thank you!

This weekend

Charlotte — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:00:10 +0000

I was just looking at my bedroom and got the urge to move the furniture around. I’ll do that this weekend probably. Now that I got rid of all of the moving boxes full of stuff that Andi left I have room to move things. I just have to decide where to move them.

Just a year ago I was unable to move furniture because of my back. Since taking calcium everyday and Fosamax once a week my back has gotten stronger. I think using the elliptical has helped with that too. I can sit longer than an hour and can stand longer than a half hour. My back still gets “tired”, that the only way I can explain it. I don’t get pain much anymore. I’m so glad the fusion, because of a herniated disc, worked and things are healing the way the doctor said it would.