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.

Whine, whine, whine - You've been warned.

It was -21 with the wind chill yesterday. Today it is supposed to warm up so it can snow. Great weather for, hmmm, bears? The cold certainly doesn't help my pain levels. Our house is warm and cozy, but I still have to let the dog in and out, and son is in and out while trying to get his fuel lines thawed on his big rig, and hubby was in and out this morning. Oy.

We went grocery shopping last night. That was after Michael drove me to Ohio Health for the 2-week post surgery X-rays. What a sight we were. Knowing there would be no available electric carts, he pulled my wheelchair out of the truck and I steered the cart while he pushed my wheelchair.

For Christmas, we'll be having pot roast. Not my favorite, but something hubby can do well - since he's still doing all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, AND bathing me/washing my hair, etc. All this while working his backside off to build a Walgreen's store that normally takes 8 months - in 4 months. He's good at what he does, obviously.

I'm sad that we can't go to Louisville for Christmas. The weather is supposed to be ugly and even packed in pillows, riding in a car/truck for any length of time, is hell. We had all the grandkids here, except the two in Seattle, and the one in the military, at Thanksgiving, so I should stop feeling selfish for wanting to spend Christmas with them, too. But, it's tough.

I'm still fighting with Tripod to get my website moved to GoDaddy. It is completely down while they screw with me by withholding the DNS unlock code. This is day SIX of my site being down. Tripod sucks. Even after finally being able to move my site, I'll still have to pay Tripod annual "rent" of $12.95 for the use of my "FREE" domain name. Did I already say Tripod sucks? Please learn from my pain of dealing with them and do NOT ever set up your website with them.

Since my website is completely down, so is my website email. If you have sent me an email at linda@, I didn't get it. Please use hutchlj at yahoo dot com until this whole completely needless mess can be cleaned up. Please don't spam me, though.

My website is still down.

This is day 5 of my website being down. Tripod's "FR*E" domain name is NOT FR*E if you every want to leave their web hosting - which I've been trying to do for a very long time. They won't give me the DNS unlock code until I've paid a $12.95 "rental" fee on my domain name - and agree to pay it for the rest of my life.

My site was never set up on "Fr*e" to begin with. I paid them $8.95 for the Pro plan every month for 5 years. One would think that I would own my domain name. However, I do not.

And, of course, their "customer service" is only open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 - and it takes at least 3 days to get a response from them via email.

So, I've not only got a website that is non-functional STILL, but all of my website email is down, too.

I will say LOUDLY once again, "Do NOT use Tripod/Lycos as your webhost!" Ever.

GoDaddy is ready to give me telephone support - 24 hours per day !! - if Tripod will ever get around to giving me the DNS unlock code so I can move my site.

Tripod/Lycos sucks.

I'm sure this will not be the end to this particular rant. The BS never seems to end when your webhost is Tripod/Lycos.

Beware, be wary!

All of this on top of trying to heal from major spine surgery. Please excuse typos and mis-spellings. I haven't had my meds yet today.

Spine surgery report: It's slow going. Hate the neck brace. When I put on my CPAP mask on top of the neck brace I look like something out of a bad horror movie. Hubby is doing double duty - working more than full-time and still cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and even bathing me and washing my hair. But then, I knew he was a keeper 18 years ago.

My hands are working and they don't hurt - most of the time. My surgery wound hasn't hurt at all. My neck hurts all the time from all the digging around in there. Still not sure if I'll pick up any traits from the former owners of the cadaver bones my neurosurgeon replaced my badly deformed discs with. Hmmm. Anyone know anything about this? Might make for a good story!

I'm required to take two naps a day, plus I'm sleeping about 10 hours per night. No lifting! No sleeping on my stomach - ever again.

So that's about it. Tripod is the suckiest webhost on the planet. I'm not completely myself yet - and may become someone else. I may be happier when my website is back up and running, but I'll still warn everyone I meet up with to stay away from said sucky webhost.

Frustrations, muscle spasms, and need to sleep a lot

This has been a horrendously difficult day, both physically and mentally. I've been on the verge of tears since this morning. And once again, it can all be traced back to my webhost. Add the pain from recent spine surgery and the picture becomes clearer.

I've wanted to switch to another host - one which would provide some semblance of customer service - for some time. I've not taken the chance that Tripod/Lycos (my nemesis) would register my domain name properly since they do so little properly that I've been registering it myself with NameCheap for years. Well, this year, Tripod caught that and decided to boot my site. They gave me two days notice.

Except that they will not release the authorization code or unlock the DNS code to do so. They will also not respond to emails, as usual. They do not provide telephone support.

So, my website is down. My email is down. And I have no hope that either will be back up anytime soon.

Several of my friends with more website building experience than I have have explained how simple it should be and that there should only be an hour or two of interruption. That I should just be able to dump Tripod and move to GoDaddy and be back up and running quickly. They've never dealt with Tripod/Lycos.

So, today, none of my meds are helping with muscle spasms or pain because I'm so stressed out. I want to sleep but can't. I want to take a shower and wash my hair, but can't because I can't raise my arms up over my head.

I'm going to write today off as a feel-sorry-for-myself day and move on.

Since Tripod is only open for business about 30 hours a week, my site may be back up and running sometime after Christmas, or New Years, or Easter.

In the meantime, if you'd like to contact me (DON'T SPAM ME OR I'LL SEND LUCIFER HIMSELF AFTER YOU! I'm in no mood to be messed with!), you'll need to use hutchlj@yahoo.com.

After almost 5 years of putting up with Tripod's crap because it was such a hassle to move my site, I truly, truly, understand why some go postal.

And hubby will have to drive me to have X-rays of my neck on Saturday so I can take them to my neurologist next week. Hubby will have to take time off work to drive me there, too. I haven't felt this trapped since I was 8 - the old tractor or my horse always got me where I needed to go.

To top it off, our Louisville family is falling by onesies and twosies with the flu, so dear hubby and I will probably be BBQing steak for our Christmas supper. Hope son can be home. He's always got a few friends who'd like a good meal.

Tomorrow has to be better.

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.