I didn't make much time for blogging last week. I guess it was just a crappy week all around. Between my three chiropractor appointments, the two visits from our electrician friend and, let's see . . . what else was there??? Oh yeah, my father had a ridiculously close brush with death. To say my week was busy and sucky would be an understatement. But fortunately a lot has changed in just a few days. My father pulled through his near death experience and it looks like he's going to be fine. Our hot tub finally got hooked up and if the stress of balancing the water doesn't kill me, we may just get to enjoy it some day. Unfortunately my neck and shoulder are still miserable and the timing for me to have to jump on an airplane and fly across the country certainly isn't ideal. If Karlo calls me on any given night from the hot tub I swear I will scream. So not fair!
I pray that my week in Seattle is uneventful. I'll be very busy with work so it should fly by. I just hope I come home in no worse condition with my neck. It seems that I'm in such bad shape the chiropractor can't even start to adjust me. I have to 'work my way up' to the adjustments. In fact, the doc said that the hot tub may not even be a good idea for me right now because the heat may cause further inflammation. uuuuugh. I'm pretty sure if I was a horse somebody would have shot me to put me out of my misery by now. Wishing I could click my heels and be back from my trip and be ready to get fixed. Be back soon . . .
1 comment:
Hi Paula,
1)Can't an MD prescribe an anti-inflammatory to nudge you closer to where the chiro can adjust you?
2) I was going to answer your recent email in which you replied to my posting, and told me about Karoly losing his mother a year ago, and then when I went to your blog I saw a photo of a yellow Porsche--and you were so happy that you had "finally" cleaned it for your shopping trip (as a man, the idea of "recreational shopping" continues to baffle me), and it sent me into a tailspin. You see, I got laid off from my job at USC as a radiation safety inspector, where I was the guy who inspects the radiology people, and have been getting by, living a very week-to-week life, literally paycheck to paycheck, working as an x-ray tech in the local ER near my house. They have been using me as a per diem, and I got lucky all summer long, because several pregnant x-ray techs were out having their babies, and my friend Aurelio fell in his garage, and broke his hip. Well, people started coming back to work, so I was getting less shifts each week, and the stress levels in my house were rising (imagine worrying about not being able to pay your mortgage i.e. losing your house when you have a 5 and a 6 year-old). So, I was a in a very dark place, and the glare off your yellow Porsche was the last thing I needed.
Then, of course, a company that I used to work for as a hired gun called me and asked me to work at the VA hospital, so now I am working there as a nuclear med tech (that's a different school, license and board exam) 4 days a week, and as an x-ray tech 3 days a week, and OMG I'm tired. The x-ray job is really close to my house, and the nuclear med job at the VA is a 2 and 1/2 hour commute one-way, so I am spending 5 hours a day on the Metrolink train, Purple Line subway (yes, we have a subway system in L.A.!) and 720 Express bus (it ain't all that fast). To add insult to injury, at the end of each long day at the VA, where they are working me like a slave (they always do that to outside i.e. registry techs) the 720 bus from Westwood to Koreatown is so full of passengers (half of whom are illegal aliens) that I wind up stuck standing on my feet for the first hour of the commute home, while the bus trudges along Wilshire Blvd, and as we slog through Beverly Hills I stare at uber rich people whose sunglasses are worth as much as my Jeep, while they sip chianti at sidewalk cafes with Mercedes, Porsches, and Ferraris in the valet parking area. So, of course, now the Health Department has finally given the word that they want to hire me to do what I used to do at USC, only this time I will be the "government inspector" as opposed to the in-house inspector. The process of getting on board with them will drag out e.g. this Friday, before I got to work at the hospital near my house, I have to drive in to an industrial part of L.A. to their HR department to get fingerprinted for a criminal background check (and how many weeks will that take?).
I will be blogging about my days at the VA Hospital. Dealing with a population of all military veterans is fascinating, exciting, and depressing.
OMG it's 10:45 p.m., and I should have gone to bed at least an hour ago (the alarm clock goes off at 04:40 a.m.). My feet were so tired when I got home, tonight, that I filled the bathtub with scalding hot water, sat on the toilet (yes, the seat was down), and soaked my legs for 15 minutes. Wow, that helps.
Tom Miko
Claremont, California
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