1/17-1/23/2011 My Life as a Zombie

I haven’t written anything for the last week due solely to the medication I’m on. I am a zombie. There is no other way to explain it. I’m getting through my days on automatic pilot….when I’m awake.

When I went to the doctor last week to talk to him about my emotional state of being I wanted to get my money’s worth. (There’s that Queen of Cheap coming out again) I brought up that I didn’t have anywhere near my normal range of motion with my left shoulder and the right was giving me a bit of trouble too but it wasn’t nearly as bad.

He poked and prodded and took note of the range of motion I had and wrote out two prescriptions for me to deal with that. I’m happy to tell you my shoulders feel great! I can move my arms every which that I want to. However, the meds knock me for a loop.

I get up in the morning, check my email and then make myself a bagel w/cream cheese, or a bowl of cereal maybe even a tuna fish sandwich. I have to eat something because my two morning pills I have to take with food. That’s fine. The pill I take for my shoulder is 500 mg of the drug and it says on the pill bottle, MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS. I’m the type that if I take over the counter Nyquill, that has the same warning, twenty minutes later I’m asleep. An hour and half after I take this pill, I’m struggling to hold my eyes open. In addition it makes me feel like I’m……..vibrating. Let me explain. If I sit very still and close my eyes I feel like my outer layers of skin are vibrating. It is the strangest sensation and I don’t know how else to explain it. Not just my skin, it feels like it goes a quarter inch deep. If I don’t pay close attention to it I don’t feel it so much, just occasionally. I soon get to the point that I just can’t stay awake anymore and I sleep. Sometimes as long as two to two and a half hours. When I wake up I’m groggy. This is no way to live. I called the doctor’s office and told them what was happening to me and the lady I spoke with came back on the phone and said to continue the meds until my next appointment this coming Monday.

I don’t like this at all. I can’t drive because I don’t trust myself to NOT fall asleep behind the wheel. At dinnertime I take the second pill and by seven I’m ready for bed. I force myself to stay up otherwise I’d be wide awake at three. You can bet by ten I’m in dreamland.

I am really looking forward to seeing the doctor so that these meds can be adjusted. I would rather have the limited range of motion than live(?) like this.

So needless to say we haven’t done anything this past week. Bob has been out riding in the desert with guys here in the park. He is so enjoying that. Of course he has also done his share of puttering around the house, playing pool, poker and Texas hold ‘em. I’m glad he has those things to keep him busy otherwise the poor guy would sit in his recliner and just be like I am. It’s no fun!

Oh yeah! Our fridge is fixed! Finally!

We’ve got some new readers. I heard from Doris in Washington who started the blog from the beginning. She and her husband are getting ready to sell their home so that they can get started fulltimin’ too. Two other readers, one from Overton, Nevada and the other from Ashland, Ohio have also started from the beginning. I hope they are enjoying the trip. Welcome to all of you!

This part of Arizona is trying real hard to swing into spring. We’ve had teaser days where the thermometer touches 80 and then slides back down to barely 70. It won’t be long now and we’ll be in the 80’s all the time. Compared to the east coast where we’re from we’ll take 70 any day.

So there it is in a nutshell….my life as a zombie.