Hooray for ... well... everything.

Dearest My Peeps,

Hooray! Hooray Hooray Hooray! I'm in a very good mood tonight. I'm not entirely sure why, I just am. It was a pleasant shift at work, which was quite nice. I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Not too much is new. Well, some is new, but it's not too much. On the 25th, Pat & his Mum came up to the Miramichi for a visit. Pat had some stuff to do for school & she had some errands to run. So we got together and had lunch. It sure was nice to see them both again. His mother is super nice. As for Pat, well, he's.. Pat. That's enough, that he's Pat. Best bit of the whole subject is that he is coming back for good on the 4th of September. I work that day from 9 till 5, but I'm going over after work to spend some time with him. Hooray! His folks were supposed to be bring him up earlier in the day & then I presume they were headed back to Fredricton. However, he told me last night that they're going to bring him up a bit later in the day & that we are going to all get together for supper. His nanny is up visiting & she's going to be there to & everything. Hooray!!

On a less thrilling note, I was into the hospital on Thursday evening after work. I went to pick up my bookbag after work, so I could go out to the car & well, go home. I thought for a minute that my hand was breaking it hurt that badly. So I switched hands, took my bookbag and went to the car. I couldn't move my hand at all it hurt so badly. I got in the car & put my wrap back on, which by this point was starting to look more like some kind of rag. That's what you get when you buy cheap junk. Junk. But when you can't afford the good stuff, you take what you can get.

So that's all good. I went to pick Mum up at work (she got off at 6 too, so we were travelling together). It was much harder than usual to drive, since I couldn't use my right hand at all. I had to shift into gear with my left hand, & I had set the emergency brake & had to undo that with my left hand. Wow was it ever hard to do. I got it all done though & stopped for Mum. She was waiting for me outside, but there was a girl with her. Mum told me that she was going to go inside to see if the girl's boyfriend was still at work & that she'd just be a minute or two. So I drove around the parking lot & was waiting for her by the door when she got back. She knew my hand was sore & after very little questioning, discovered that I couldn't even flex my fingers from the agonizing pain. She asked if I wanted to go to Emergency, since I couldn't very well do much with my hand in such a state. I answered that I wasn't going to ask her to go wait at the hospital with me after working all day. Honestly, it wouldn't have been nice. I know I worked all day too, but that's not the point. She insisted though, saying that if I couldn't use my hand, I'd better just go in & have it done with.

So in I went. I knew the lady who was doing the recieveing from work, so that was nice. Anyway, Monday through Friday from 6 till 8 there are two walkin clinics in the city, one in Newcastle & one in Chatham, so the hospital wasn't very busy at all. It was great. We were in an out in nearly exactly an hour. Mum read her book & I listened to my iPod. The doctor didn't say precisely what the problem was, but that it shouldn't be anything too serious. He then told me to use cold packs & advil, because the advil should take down both the pain & any swelling inside. He also gave me a prescription for a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome brace & a quality wrap too top it off, in case I couldn't afford the wrap right away. Fortunately Mummy had some money in the bank, so she got me the wrap that very night at our Pharmacy. Hooray! It was $29.99 taxes included, but it works wonders, that's for sure.

Best part of the whole thing is that I had a doctor's appointment the very next morning to have it looked at. Needless to say I called & cancelled; it seemed a little useless to go in to the doctor after having already seen one at the Hospital. Go figure.

It hasn't hurt severely since I've started wearing the brace on a regular basis. It's starting to get pretty tired now, but nothing like the severe pain it was. I've been taking my brother's advice & sitting up really straight (well, straight for me anyway). I've also been taking a different lad's advice & am keeping it parelell to the floor, by letting it lean on my keyboard tray. I suppose, I should do that with both arms, shouldn't I? Honestly, I don't think I could handle having this happen in the other wrist. I might go entirely crazy. The brace is enough to drive a preacher to murder. It nearly completely immbolizes the wrist so I can't use it. It's padded, which is nice, but it gets very hot & sweaty when I do anything, which is all the time that I'm at work. I'm constantly taking it off to adjust it, because it is driving me batty.

I tryed not wearing it off & on today at work, but wow did it ever start to throb in a hurry when I had it off. I do mostly only wear it while I am at work, or doing anything. When I'm home I mostly jsut sit around. I hardly use the hand at all, except when on the computer, so I don't need it as much. I wear that ace bandage that the doctor gave me whilst using the computer. It does help, though not nearly as well. I have it off right now. It must have been too tight; my fingers were going numb & they were absolutely freezing. Hooray!

Hooray is my new favourite word. That last one was absolutely dripping with sarcasm too, I might add. At least it's mostly not sore anymore. It just gets tired an awful lot faster than normal & once it's tired, it's a short step to go to throbbing sore. At least it isn't sharp, stabbing pains anymore. That's another thing, apparently I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy either. That could very well be what brought on the 24th's agony. That afternoon, I put the pop order away at work. Lifting those red crates of 24 bottles of pop is fairly heavy lifting. At the time though, I wasn't aware of the fact that lifting was a bad idea. I mean, I made sure to mostly use my left hand & just use the right one for balancing the crates & stuff, but I still had to use it a fair bit. Go figure. So yeah, it's probably my own (unwitting) fault that it got so bad that evening. Ah well, at least I got the problem addressed.

I was reading up on carpal tunnel online too. Apparently it's caused by frequent repetitive movements of the wrist. It's some kind of nerve in the wrist that gets pinched between some kind of muscles or something. http://www.carpaltunnel.com/ explains it pretty well.

Anyway, I just put the wrap back on & sonce I can't no longer move my fingers enough to typ easily, I'm headed out for bed. Not to mention that it is 3:07 am. I should have went to bed hours ago, not stayed up blogging a book. Ah well, dearest My Peeps are now all up to date concerning my life & what all is new with it. That's the main thing I am sure. Anyhow, happy day. I'll talk to you all later I'm sure.

Cheers! VickEMullin
"Women who behave rarely make history." -Unknown

Ethel & Wilma & New Hooray Stuff

Dearest My Peeps,

So I sent am email to a friend. He told me that I should blog it, since it was a very nice story about my two stuffed panda bears, Ethel & Wilma. So I figure that I better, since I was told too. Besides, it's been ages since I've blogged.

So yesterday evening, I lay down for a 'few minutes'. Dad popped his head in 20 minutes later to get a cd of pictures that I'd borrowed from him & said something about laundry. Then suddenly it was 3 hours later & I was wondering where on earth I was & how in blazes did I get in bed? It was a nice sleep, entirely needed, but incredibly too early.I wasn't up half the night, so that was a bonus. I made it to bed by 3 or so, the usual time & slept right through, except for a few washroom breaks. Just like normal. It was nice, even if I did sleepy again WAY too quickly.

The stuffed panda that my sister gave me for Christmas past had her first bath tonight. I've been trying to be careful with her, so she doesn't get all raggy quickly. My Auntie Ethel gave me a stuffed panda for Christmas when I was four. Being so VERY original, I named the bear Ethel. Speed time forward 19 years to Christmas when I was 23. Ethel is still around. A bit ragged around the edges, incredibly flat & starting to get threadbare in more places than one, but still kicking. In fact, still sleeping with me every single night, generally ending up as a pillow before morning.

That's fine. Every once in a blue moon I would mention how I need to find a new Ethel, before she finally kicks the bucket & I'm left all alone, but I never bothered to do anything about it. Then both siblings came home for Christmas. Hooray! It was the first time we've all been home together in ages. It was nice, barring the big fight about politics.

Anyway, I was unwrapping presents, as are we were, when out of one falls a stuffed panda bear. I set aside the pillow shams that were wrapped around it & pick up the bear. "IT'S ETHEL! SHE'S NEW!" I freaked right out & throughly gave my sister the reaction she wanted, entirely without meaning to. Then when I was calming down again & everybody had stopped focusing their attention on my little outburst, I was cradling my new found treasure gleefully. "Hello Wilma." I said this quietly, intending it only for the bear's ears. However, my sister was sitting
directly beside me & burst to hysterical laughter. Through the cackling I heard something about how she knew it. She should have just put an "Hello My Name is Wilma" sticker on her & had it over with.

Well, she obviously didn't need a "Hello My Name Is" sticker. Wilma was just Wilma, no questions asked. To clarify as to why the name was just what it was, my Auntie's full name is Wilma Ethel Baisley. She goes by Ethel, but her first name is Wilma. When I was a kid, I didn't know this. But as I grew up, I found this out; thus it only seemed fitting to name the new bear the same thing as the old bear. They are exactly the same, excpet that Wilma isn't nearly as old & raggy as Ethel. She's still all plump & not threadbare or ragged at all. I'm out of names though. So in 18 years when somebody else gives me another new Ethel, I dunno what I'm going to name her. Probably Baisl, after the Auntie's maiden name.

It sure was nice to be given a new one though. Poor Ethel; I don't know what I'd do if she really did kick the bucket. She's the only one who has been there with me through everything. I quite literally mean everything too. She's the only one who has never judged me, never picked on me, never made me cry, never ditched me or hurt me or was mean in anyway to me. She did nothing more than uphold me, support me, love me, protect me, listen to me, let me cry on her, be sick on her, laugh on her, and generally be myself entirely with her. She's been getting quite a bit more snarky with age, but that's alright. I have too, so what can I really say? "Stop being snarky at me when I'm snarky at you?" Honestly. That'd just be hypocritical & that's one thing I try my hardest not to be.

Wilma is a great cover, a great ... replacement? That's not the word I'm looking for, but it will suffice. Ethel (and my baby blankie, the last blankie my paternal grammie ever knitted) have FINALLY been retired to a shelf. She's in the corner with a picture of my cat on her knee & a couple pictures of important friends/family around her. It's my little "Ethel" sanctuary, though she doesn't always get to stay there. If I'm having a really rough go of it, she comes back out of retirement for a few days until I can deal on my own again, but she's been there pretty steady now for at least 6 months. Considering that I had a hard time going just a night without her before, I'm quite proud of myself.

And now that I've made you all aware of exactly how needy I really am, I'm going to change the subject before I frighten you all away. So I'll fill you all in on what's all new with me. Not that it's anything that great or exciting, but that's fine. I think it's exciting. Well, some of it is exciting at least. Not all of it I'm sure, but some.

The bit that isn't exciting is that I hurt my wrist. I'm not sure for sure what I've done exactly to you, though I do have a basic idea. I was slouched at my computer talking on MSN Saturday evening when this sharp, shooting pain suddenly started in the base of my wrist, in line with my middle finger. It hurts worse when I moved my fingers around to type, so I started moving the whole hand instead, but wow that tired my arm out pretty quick. I was talking to my brother on MSN, so I asked him about it. He said that it sounded like carpal tunnel syndrome and told me to stop slouching, that should help some. SO I sat up straight, in spite my desperate dislike of it & low & behold, it actually did help.

Since then I've been wearing a wrap on it (just when it hurts too bad to deal with) & trying to stay sitting straight whilst using the computer. Wow it's some hard to do, but soembody jsut suggested something that makes it a bit easier. He told me to keep my arms parallel to the floor & that should help too. So I shoved my keyboard further back on the tray thing & have my arms resting on the desk tray, instead of angled in front of it. I think it might be helping too, but I don't really know. It's not that sore right now, since I already have the wrap on. I'm going to start using it like this all the time though & maybe it'll stop hurting me.

I do have an appointment to see the doctor about it on Friday, so maybe he'll be able to fix me. Well, she. My family doctor is a guy, but occasionally he'll get young doctors in to help him. Usually they're ones that have finished their schooling & just need their work experience before they graduate. Occasionally he'll even ahve in the ones that are still in school, but almost done. They'll do the exam & stuff, but can't write the presciptions or anything. It's a good setup. Not to mention that the waiting time drops by about 2 weeks when he has one of them in. It's great. It can be up to 3 weeks from when you call in to when you get an appointment. It's sad really, but he's busy too, with lots of patients, so it's a little udnerstandable. He does volunteer at the free night clinic & he does emergency room at the hospital sometimes too, so he is a busy man.

Onto more jouyful news, the stomach yucky is gone away. Hooray hooray hooray! So that's good. And even more joyful news, I get to see Patrick on Friday too! Hooray! He has to come up for loan stuff, so we're going to get together for food whilst he & his mum are up. I'm incredibly looking forward to it. His mum is great & Pat is... well... there aren't enough adjectives to describe Pat. I'll settle for splendiferious. Pat is splendiferious. AND he's coming back for good (well more for good anyway) on the 4th. I even can go over & see him that night since I only work till 5. That'll be really nice.

And I'm off on the 3rd, so I should be able to get to bed at a decent hour that night so I won't be played out & do something evil like fall asleep on his couch or something. And the 3rd is the day for the 70th anniversary celebrations at the church, so I'll be able to make that too. Hooray! I really want to go, but I thought I was working. I'm off, so I can go. Isn't it spiffing? Simply spiffing.

Anyhow, I'm headed out for now. My wrist is still sore, & though the wrap & sitting up straight & leaning on the table turns it into more of a dull ache, I want to save my typing efforts for my MSN message with Pat. So happy day! Cheers! Be safe, dearest My Peeps.

Vicky Ellen
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Goodbye stomach yucky!

Dearest My Peeps,
I think the stomach yucky is gone. My head is killing me, but other than that I seem to be pretty much back to normal. My head was killing me Saturday to though, and then the stomach yucky attacked on Sunday, so watch out Tuesday. I can't be sick though. I just can't be. So yeah, *knock on Scripture* I'm back to normal.

The knock on scripture is a play of knock on wood. When the knock on wood started, they were knocking on the wood to call out the spirit of the wood to save them from whatever evil might harm them. Well, I know that there is no spirit of the wood, but there is definately the Spirit of God. Since God uses his word (ie: Scripture) to speak to us, I knock on Scripture rather than on wood.

With a good night's sleep I should be pretty much back to normal. On a plus side, I lost approximately 5 pounds in around 24 hours. That's something. Not healthy I'm sure and it'll probably all be back within a couple days, but still. Not that I want to be sick, and I definately can't afford to be, but that's a great side effect. Honestly. I try and try and never manage to. Then when I stop trying it just sneaks up on me. It's great.

I've also been drinking less pop and the doctor told my father that if you want to lose weight, stop drinking pop & you'll lose at least 10 pounds in a week or two. I've been trying to drink more juice. On pay day I'm going to get some Gatorade. Not that I like it very much (I don't know if I do or not, I've never had it) but the bottles are awesome. I can start taking water and juice to work instead of pop with those bottles. They're simply splendid.

So, there're only 10 days till I get to see my Pat again. I'm incredibly looking forward to it I might add. He's coming up on the 25th to do some loan stuff & give out some resumes. I've managed to get it off (surprisingly enough) so we're going to get together for lunch or something while he's here. His folks will be with him, but that's cool too. They're really very nice and I like them alot. It's not hard to see how Pat turned out to be such an incredible person with parents like that.

Anyhow, I'm headed out for now. I jsut stopped by to reassure dearest my peeps that I am going to be okay. I figure you all knew that anyway and weren't overly concerned, but I didn't want to run the risk of causing you all to worry. It's not my place to do that to anybody, especially not to dearest my peeps. Seriously. You're all more important than that.

Take care! God bless! Cheers!
Vicky Ellen
"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." -Movie Quote, Akeelah and the Bee

Scary, EVIL stomach yucky.

Dearest My Peeps,
So I'm not dead. I figure that you probably knew that much anyway. My poor stomach is having a field day lately though. I really don't know what I did to upset it either. I've not eaten anything out of the ordinary, I've not been doing anything all that different. I figure it must be some weird kind of stomach flu/bug or something.

Yesterday around 3 or 330 I went to the washroom. Everything seemed fine. Then 15 minutes later I went again. And promptly every 10 or 15 minutes after that for several hours. In that time frame I took 2 pepto pills everytime I went, so in under two hours I exceeded the safe dosage for two days and it DIDN'T HELP! SAVE US ALL! Well, save me anyway. So the lad who opened at work (9 am) told me that if I could get somebody to take their opening shift today, they'd stay till close for me. I was all like, "What!? Are you sure!??? I'll tough it out, it'll be okay.." But they insisted. They would have let me try to tough it out but they figured that maybe the employee working should be able to do stuff & not leave the other employee mostly alone all evening. So I called around and somebody else agreed to cover today's open shift & the other lad working last night agreed to cover tonight's close shift, since that's when the guy who was taking on the open was supposed to work.

So it worked out well. I came home, spent a good portion of my evening in the bathroom. Dad has a home remedy that's supposed to work after one cup. Take half of a package of jello, mix it in with half a cup of hot water (to dissolve the crystals) and half a cup of cold water (to be able to drink it without scalding yourself) and then drink the entire thing down without stopping until it's gone. Yeah. Well, at least jello tastes alright.

So I've had enough remedy that I should never have this issue again. Hopefully not this week anyway. I work everyday straight through Saturday. Then Saturday afternoon my childhood friend Candace is getting married. She'd beat me senseless if I missed her wedding. Honestly. Go figure. We've been friends since the age of 3. She turned 3 in March, we met in April, I turned 4 in May. All through childhood & high school we hung out. Our parents were friends too & that helped. Until the age of 11 or 12, we were mostly always together. One lady who moved to our church thought we were twins. We def. didn't look alike (I'm fair to the point of sickly sometimes & she's naturally tan) but twins don't always look alike. In fact, they don't usually look alike, according to statistics.

Anyhow, I'm headed out for now. Hopefully that evil stomach yucky will go away. I can't afford to be sick, in more ways than one. Honestly! Car everything renewal time is less than a month away. I need to be able to gey my insurance down payment... and my inspection... and my registration... and all that stuff that makes it legal to drive Pinky. And I definately need to be able to drive Pinky. I can't work otherwise, what with both parents working full time hours too. It just isn't doable for 3 people to work 30 to 40 hours a week with one car. Especially when one works 10 minutes in one direction, the second 15 mintues in another direction and the third 15 minutes beyond the 2nd.

So, to stop babbling needlessly and go properly have an msn conversation with my Pat, have a great day my peeps. Do be safe! Cheers!
Vicky Ellen
"Bolonga: the retarded cousin of steak."

Month-iversaries

Dearest My Peeps,
So, today is offically my month-iversary with Pat. We're 11 months shy of an anniversary, so I made a word that works for this important day.

*trying to sound casual, the slight tremor of badly suppressed glee giving me away*

YAY!!!!!! Yay for Pat! Yay for me! YAY for us! YAY YAY YAY!

And since I'm talking to Pat on MSN *happy dance* I'm going to go and do that instead of typing here. It's much more fun & interactive & important.

Ciao my peeps. Be safe! Cheers!
Vicky Ellen
"Save the world! It's the only planet with chocolate!"