General Update
5/2/08 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wobblerlorri1. CAT WOES: Going through another medical patch with my little Siamese cat Kim (aka Brownie Boo). She's been getting a depo-medrol shot every month for asthma for about 18 months, but since long term use can cause other health issues, most notably diabetes, I've been thinking about trying to stop the shots and use her inhaler and rigging up a nebulizer chamber instead.
So we didn't get her shot in April, and she was doing fine with no wheezing or coughing. She had a little wheezle a week or so ago, but it was handled nicely by her albuterol inhaler. But she had taken to just laying in my lap all the time and not eating. Mike tends to think I worry about her too much and see things that aren't there, so I didn't say anything, but Friday I noticed she was getting really thin -- her backbone is extremely prominent and her hip bones are jutting out, and she was walking extremely tenderly, like everything hurt.
We took her to the vet Monday, and she's lost a pound down to 6 lbs -- at her highest she was 8 lbs (before her bad illness in February and March, when she quit eating and her tongue wasn't working right) and she had gained back up to 7.1 by the middle of March. He watched her walk and agreed with us -- the depo-medrol was apparently also treating arthritis. Wonderful. My poor little Brownie. So she had a shot and a pill of depo -- the shot for long action, the pill for quick onset. He also thinks she might have TMJ, which is why she wasn't eating -- her jaws hurt too much.
I've also gotten some liquid glucosamine chondroitin -- Syn-Flex -- and we'll be giving her that every day. She was eating these neat little treats called Hip Action but she's gotten over them. The Hip Action seemed to really help her, so I'm sure the Syn-Flex will too.
The shots and pill have worked admirably. She's eating with alacrity and, because she's My Special Boo, she's eating canned white meat chicken. Last night she helped demolish some roasted pork loin (marinaded in Coke, chili powder, oregano and garlic...yum). She's always been a picky eater, but she just can't afford to be so picky anymore. It's more expensive, but I don't care -- she's worth it. I realize though that she won't live as long as the other cats, and she's likely going to pass on within a couple of years, but by damn she'll be comfortable and well fed during those years. Mike knows better than to fight me on this. When Brownie is ready to go, she'll tell me. Every animal I've had that I've had to euthanize has told me they were ready to go. I won't shuffle her off until she's ready.
2. SOCIAL SECURITY: Finally met with the attorney, and he is confident we will come out just fine from the hearing with the ALJ. He gave us another form for the doctor to fill out about my condition (she filled it out with no questions, and added that my vestibulopathy will not improve and is life-long, and that she is not aware of any work that I could safely do) and told us roughly what would happen. I told him about my attempts to work from home last year, and he said that was great, that evidence of attempts to work were very helpful when going before the ALJ, since it proved you weren't just wanting a free ride. The fact they were jobs I'd done before I was damaged (telephone customer service), using software I'd used before, and I was unable to perform would be very helpful.
I've figured previously I should get about $1200 a month from SSD. The laws have changed, and now I should get back pay from the time I filed, which was March 2005. SSD holds back 6 months, and the attorney will get his cut, but after all's said and done I should get a lump sum back benefits payment of around $25,000. I'll also be immediately eligible for Medicare, which will be a HUGE relief, I can get out from under this $600 a month crap BCBS high risk policy I've got. I haven't mentioned it to Mike, but I'd like to take some of the back benefits and take Patrick to England. I'll never get another opportunity, and god knows if Patrick ever will on his own, and I'd like him to see that beautiful country.
That will all be several months in the future though...
3. STATE OF THE PATRICK: he's still got a job, but his job depends on roads being built in the counties of Douglas and Gwinnett. There was talk of the Douglasville office (which he works out of) being closed, which would mean he'd either be out of a job or have to commute to Norcross, which is clear on the other side of Atlanta from us, and would be about a 75 mile commute one way. He'd have to either find another job or telecommute, if they'd let him.
We got his finances straightened out, and he's been doing them on his own for a couple of months, but last week he got a returned check notice so we did some quick checking. Sure enough, he was on the edge of fucking them up again, so I turned it over to Mike. They got is figured out, apparently he hadn't totally screwed up YET, but if we hadn't stepped in it would have been right back in the mess he was in before. I worry about what will happen to him after we're dead and gone.... I wish we were in a position to set up a trust for him that would pay his bills, but we aren't.
4. STATE OF THE MARRIAGE: well, it's still chugging along. We had our 25th anniversary a week ago, Mike got me some lovely tiger lilies and we went out to eat at Longhorn Steaks. Sometimes I wish we still had a passionate, physical relationship, but you know what? Sex doesn't make a marriage. Sticking together through tough times, quietly doing little things for each other, getting something at the store because you know the other will like it -- that makes a marriage. Leaving each other enough room to do what they want to do. Not letting the little things get under your skin.
5. GIVE ME LAND: Hopefully the tenants in our house in Tallapoosa will want to buy it in August. I've already put Mike on notice that I want to find a little land, then sell this house when the economy picks back up and build something. With the back pay from SSD and the proceeds from Tallapoosa, we should be able to get about 5 acres somewhere and have a kit house put on it, either a log home or a prefab. Not a modular, I'm talking one of these or something similar. This particular model would run about $100K. Patrick would have the upstairs suite (I'm not fooling myself, he'll be with us until the end of time) and the floor plan on the ground floor is almost identical to our current house. Only this time I get the big bedroom with the built in bath!
I'm doing okay with my little side yard garden, but I'd sure like to have more garden, more corn. Maybe even have a pick your own business on the side. If I had a couple three acres in cultivation, I'd be happy. That would leave an acre for the house and an acre for a nice little bomb-proof Appaloosa mare and a mule for Mike. I could even use them to plow and cultivate with, cutting down on fuel costs. Or Mike could, if I was too wobbly.
Amazing how you can still dream, even when all reason to dream has been taken away. Does that mean I'm resilient or that I just refuse to face reality? While I'm sure it's the latter, I prefer the former...
So we didn't get her shot in April, and she was doing fine with no wheezing or coughing. She had a little wheezle a week or so ago, but it was handled nicely by her albuterol inhaler. But she had taken to just laying in my lap all the time and not eating. Mike tends to think I worry about her too much and see things that aren't there, so I didn't say anything, but Friday I noticed she was getting really thin -- her backbone is extremely prominent and her hip bones are jutting out, and she was walking extremely tenderly, like everything hurt.
We took her to the vet Monday, and she's lost a pound down to 6 lbs -- at her highest she was 8 lbs (before her bad illness in February and March, when she quit eating and her tongue wasn't working right) and she had gained back up to 7.1 by the middle of March. He watched her walk and agreed with us -- the depo-medrol was apparently also treating arthritis. Wonderful. My poor little Brownie. So she had a shot and a pill of depo -- the shot for long action, the pill for quick onset. He also thinks she might have TMJ, which is why she wasn't eating -- her jaws hurt too much.
I've also gotten some liquid glucosamine chondroitin -- Syn-Flex -- and we'll be giving her that every day. She was eating these neat little treats called Hip Action but she's gotten over them. The Hip Action seemed to really help her, so I'm sure the Syn-Flex will too.
The shots and pill have worked admirably. She's eating with alacrity and, because she's My Special Boo, she's eating canned white meat chicken. Last night she helped demolish some roasted pork loin (marinaded in Coke, chili powder, oregano and garlic...yum). She's always been a picky eater, but she just can't afford to be so picky anymore. It's more expensive, but I don't care -- she's worth it. I realize though that she won't live as long as the other cats, and she's likely going to pass on within a couple of years, but by damn she'll be comfortable and well fed during those years. Mike knows better than to fight me on this. When Brownie is ready to go, she'll tell me. Every animal I've had that I've had to euthanize has told me they were ready to go. I won't shuffle her off until she's ready.
2. SOCIAL SECURITY: Finally met with the attorney, and he is confident we will come out just fine from the hearing with the ALJ. He gave us another form for the doctor to fill out about my condition (she filled it out with no questions, and added that my vestibulopathy will not improve and is life-long, and that she is not aware of any work that I could safely do) and told us roughly what would happen. I told him about my attempts to work from home last year, and he said that was great, that evidence of attempts to work were very helpful when going before the ALJ, since it proved you weren't just wanting a free ride. The fact they were jobs I'd done before I was damaged (telephone customer service), using software I'd used before, and I was unable to perform would be very helpful.
I've figured previously I should get about $1200 a month from SSD. The laws have changed, and now I should get back pay from the time I filed, which was March 2005. SSD holds back 6 months, and the attorney will get his cut, but after all's said and done I should get a lump sum back benefits payment of around $25,000. I'll also be immediately eligible for Medicare, which will be a HUGE relief, I can get out from under this $600 a month crap BCBS high risk policy I've got. I haven't mentioned it to Mike, but I'd like to take some of the back benefits and take Patrick to England. I'll never get another opportunity, and god knows if Patrick ever will on his own, and I'd like him to see that beautiful country.
That will all be several months in the future though...
3. STATE OF THE PATRICK: he's still got a job, but his job depends on roads being built in the counties of Douglas and Gwinnett. There was talk of the Douglasville office (which he works out of) being closed, which would mean he'd either be out of a job or have to commute to Norcross, which is clear on the other side of Atlanta from us, and would be about a 75 mile commute one way. He'd have to either find another job or telecommute, if they'd let him.
We got his finances straightened out, and he's been doing them on his own for a couple of months, but last week he got a returned check notice so we did some quick checking. Sure enough, he was on the edge of fucking them up again, so I turned it over to Mike. They got is figured out, apparently he hadn't totally screwed up YET, but if we hadn't stepped in it would have been right back in the mess he was in before. I worry about what will happen to him after we're dead and gone.... I wish we were in a position to set up a trust for him that would pay his bills, but we aren't.
4. STATE OF THE MARRIAGE: well, it's still chugging along. We had our 25th anniversary a week ago, Mike got me some lovely tiger lilies and we went out to eat at Longhorn Steaks. Sometimes I wish we still had a passionate, physical relationship, but you know what? Sex doesn't make a marriage. Sticking together through tough times, quietly doing little things for each other, getting something at the store because you know the other will like it -- that makes a marriage. Leaving each other enough room to do what they want to do. Not letting the little things get under your skin.
5. GIVE ME LAND: Hopefully the tenants in our house in Tallapoosa will want to buy it in August. I've already put Mike on notice that I want to find a little land, then sell this house when the economy picks back up and build something. With the back pay from SSD and the proceeds from Tallapoosa, we should be able to get about 5 acres somewhere and have a kit house put on it, either a log home or a prefab. Not a modular, I'm talking one of these or something similar. This particular model would run about $100K. Patrick would have the upstairs suite (I'm not fooling myself, he'll be with us until the end of time) and the floor plan on the ground floor is almost identical to our current house. Only this time I get the big bedroom with the built in bath!
I'm doing okay with my little side yard garden, but I'd sure like to have more garden, more corn. Maybe even have a pick your own business on the side. If I had a couple three acres in cultivation, I'd be happy. That would leave an acre for the house and an acre for a nice little bomb-proof Appaloosa mare and a mule for Mike. I could even use them to plow and cultivate with, cutting down on fuel costs. Or Mike could, if I was too wobbly.
Amazing how you can still dream, even when all reason to dream has been taken away. Does that mean I'm resilient or that I just refuse to face reality? While I'm sure it's the latter, I prefer the former...
