About Me -Too Much Time on my hands - TWC

It was commented that it appears that I have too much time on my hands, after I posted another of my song title story series that I created this morning. A Doobie Brothers Story and reposting A Queen Story and A Reo Speedwagon Story that I wrote earlier this year. I will repost the others I wrote in the next few days. I know I was only being teased but it got me to thinking...

Yes, I agree, I do have too much time on my hands. I wish I didn't. Here is a history of how I have gotten to having too much time on my hands. This is not a pity party, I am a survivor and this is the history of how I was once an active lady who could drive 12 hours straight.

I am a 52 year old mother of four, my oldest daugher will be 34 this year. The older three are all happily married and live in very nice homes. I have one daughter Jordan who is 13 and still lives at home. When I was 28 I gave birth to my third child natural, a 11 pound 1 ounce baby and by the time I was 30 I herniated a disc in my lower back and was told I had degenerative disc disease. It was a painful process to recover which I was able to function but learned to live with pain. I was told to stay in bed or be hospitalized. It was not easy to watch a 2 year old but with a vcr, tv, snacks and drinks I manage to keep my son entertained until my husband came home for a late lunch until the older children came home from school. I was trying to be super Mom and I had to be in bed a few weeks to heal, at least that was the theory in 1984.

When I was 33 I worked full time wearing a back brace because we needed the money. I had a bout of menieres disease but it was my breathing difficulties that put me on State disability and could no longer work when I was 35. I increasingly became extremely ill and my family had to help me from the car to the bed when I came home from work at night for several weeks. I deteriorated to the point I could not even drive. The doctor told me I could no longer work. The focus was on that  I had breathing problems which was causing me to pass out if I exerted any physcical activity. I was exposed to something at work and it was likely the cause of my deterioration. They could not determine a diagnosis and everyone agreed I was in bad shape but no one could figure it out. I did not file for Social Security because you need a diagnosis. One test said I had early restrictive lung disease. Over the years I got better but about 60%. 

When I was 35 I had my right side of my jaw reconstructed. When I was 39 when I became pregnant with Jordan I developed Gestational diabetes and began taking insulin. When I was 42 we moved to Florida so I could help take care of my parents, if I was well, I wouldn't have been able to do this, I would have been working.

When I was  44 I was diagnosed with arthritis, fibro-myalgia, and high blood pressure. When I was 48 I had an operation and stopped breathing during it and I went for testing and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I stop breathing 20 times an hour when asleep. My Mother died a few months later and then in the fall I had a total hysterectomy. My father had leukemia diabetes and a failing liver and I took full time care of him as he grew sicker and sicker and when I was age 50, my father had a stroke and died. I was arranging to get him an electric wheelchair because I was having difficulty lifting his wheelchair in an out of the trunk several times a day. I was falling over with it to the ground. My Dad had appointments and wanted to visit my Mothers grave as much as he could. He also liked to go go go.He died in March of 2005.

At age 51 in March of 2006, I shattered my left tibia and dislocated my right shoulder. I had two operations on my left leg (titanium bar and 4 screws) and had my right arm put back in twice. I wound up in a nursing home until June 2006  and was not to put weight on my leg for 12 weeks and had my right arm in a sling for 12 weeks. I had a car accident a few months after I got out of the nursing home and relearned how to walk. In September 2006 my car was hit from behind while stopped and I hurt my back neck and my right shoulder which was better after being in the sling. This year at age 52 I had my shoulder operated on in February, Two weeks later with my arm still in a sling, I fell in my kitchen on the tile floor in March and hurt my tailbone, head, neck ribs and back. In April I had a bout of Menieres disease for about 6 weeks.  So now we are in August. 

I have a bad back, a bum left leg, I get periods where the rooms spins from the balance problems from the menieres, I can't walk around in the dark as I have no balance, my muscles are hard with spasm from the fibro in my calves, thighs and sometimes in my back, neck and arms. I am taking insulin, high blood pressure medications, anti depressant, anti inflamatory medicine, allergy medicine and a steroid inhaler. I have sleep apnea medication but can't take it every night so I don't get REM sleep like most people do. I average 4 hours a night when I do sleep. I pace myself during the day to get things done in the house. Moving around hurts. If I work too hard or I walk too far, I am in bed the next day. The fibro flares if I do too much and after walking to far, the following days are torture to try and walk. If I take the medicine for the fibro I am woozy all day so I take it at night to help me sleep. I am going to take that medicine when I wake up at 2am tonight and see if I can get another 4 hours by taking a second dose. I am supposed to take it 4 times a day.

Since my Mother had alzheimers I am concerned I may get it so when I am resting I do things like the song title stories  or writing articles or poems to exercize my mind. It is a challenge and I find it amusing how the stories grow out of these groups of words. 

Yes, I have too much time on my hands.I wish I could be well and out working and making money. Most of my friends on Gather say they appreciate my poems and articles. This is my part time job and it  is about all I can do. I write from my heart.