First post-surgery checkup and...

Today, I'll have my first post-surgery check-up. It's been 3 weeks and two days since surgery.

I'm still experiencing a great number of muscle spasms across my shoulders. I've been "good" and worn this awful neck brace every day. Only take it off for bathing. The best part of that is having hubby wash my hair. He does a great job with the shampoo and conditioner.

Fixed my first supper yesterday. Nobody's favorite, but something I could put together without cutting myself, breaking anything or burning the house down. Lentil soup in the crock pot. We don't like it, but at our ages must eat it for the fiber. Getting old ain't for wimps.

Some of the Fibro BURN has subsided. It now only covers my lower back down to about six inches below my waist-line - well, the waist-line I had before being forced to slow down by osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia. Pre-surgery, the burn creeped down to about 3 inches above my knees.

This surgery has done nothing for my hip-lock problem, so I'm sure "something" will be done about that at a later date. Still can't walk the length of a block without my hips locking up. Makes it extremely difficult to put one foot in front of the other. I'm thankful for the "freedom" chair we bought a couple of years ago.

I'm also having to re-learn how to use my hands and fingers. If I've covered this before here, please understand that Fibro Fog is still present. Pre-surgery I had to consciously order my hands to do most activities that most just take for granted because their brains are on auto-pilot. Now that my hands are almost working right again, I catch myself trying to over-ride the sub-conscious movements. Note to self: Stop that!

I'll find out today how long it will be before I can drive again. Being house-bound isn't so bad when I have deadlines looming, but it sure would be nice to be more independent.

Will update after my checkup.

On another note: Somehow, a lark I'm sure - or divine intervention - my domain name has been wrested from Tripod/Lycos and my website should be back up and running with GoDaddy today.

Speaking of Tripod: If you sign up with them for their "free" domain offer, THEY, not you, will own that domain name. Then, if you ever want to move your site for, say, the fact that their customer service is nearly non-existent, you'll have to "rent" YOUR domain name from them for the life of the website - or until the Second Coming - whichever occurs first. It was a fluke that my transfer went through on August 26th by me hitting the "transfer" button about 3 dozen times. All were denied except for one. It took Tripod until December 17th to recognize the transfer and they shut down my site on December 19th. Need I say more?

Venturing out for Bob Evans Breakfast

We ventured out yesterday morning. I managed to sit in the seat without being packed in pillows to absorb road bumps. Went out to a leisurely breakfast. Then stopped at a couple of places to pick up necessary items. The last stop - to replace my electric mixer that burned up while mashing spuds for our Thanksgiving supper - Michael had to haul out my wheelchair. My hips were done moving. My back ached. My neck was throbbing. It was time to go home.

After a 4-hour nap, life was looking like it was worth the effort again.

I have an article due on Friday and most of the folks I need to interview are on vacation. This is the toughest time of year to write for a construction magazine. But, my article will get turned in on time, regardless.

My website. Dang. I'm hoping to be back up and running today. Just have a few final edits and then I'll be on the phone with GoDaddy. If I didn't hate Tripod enough before, well, I hate them triple now. However, I did have the good sense to NOT use their site-builder, but Front Page, so my online life wasn't completely destroyed.

I'm healing. Slowly. Very tired of the neck brace. Tired most of the time. Fewer meds for pain. Still have some dizziness issues. See my neurosurgeon on Wednesday.

Lycos/Tripod gives me the boot

Well, it seems my nemesis, Tripod/Lycos is screwing with me again. Got an email yesterday that said I have two days to move my website because I had registered my DNS?? elsewhere. Funny, that, because Tripod has refused to allow me to move my site for the past two years and would not give me the unlock code to do so. I have absolutely no idea how to "register my DNS" elsewhere.

I strongly suspect this is because the service I've been paying $8.95 a month for for almost 5 years is now $12.95.

I have had a hate/hate relationship with them for years. This is only because of their total lack of customer service. It takes 24 to 96 hours just to get a canned BS email that usually isn't even relevant to the question asked.

So... I've been given license to move my site. Have no idea how to do that but I will be going through the GoDaddy link at The Writer's Chatroom to get some help with moving it. The little bit Audrey gets as an affiliate helps to pay the chatroom's bills. She's had no problems with GoDaddy and it has been recommended to me by many others. They actually have telephone support. What a concept!

Fortunately for me, my site has been built using FrontPage and I keep a copy on my laptop and on a jump stick.