No Mo' a 4.0

Summer semester is over. I'll enjoy having some evenings to myself, but my weekends until Fall semester starts on August 20 are completely booked. Ted and Bill are here this weekend with my girls Sarah and Meghan, and then next weekend Eric and Chandra are home for a few days. Then the weekend of the 15th I am horse & kitty sitting for Georgia. I love feeling like a farmer for a couple of days, but I admit to being only a poser (not to be confused with poseur).

I had my final in algebra last night and while I finally felt relaxed and comfortable with the questions, it was a timed test, and I did not finish all the questions. I was not alone at the end. Many who normally finish long before me were in the same boat. I'll be getting the first non-A of my new college career. It will be my first B though - is that something to celebrate?

It's time for football to begin! Yeah! I'm pulling for Rex, but I heard he was boo-ed at Family Night at Soldier Field. I don't believe a good fan should boo anyone on their team. Naturally, we could be dissappointed, but I think booing works against the aim. I'm glad that (so far) nobody is booing me at school!

Can't believe I'm back already, can you?

I can't either. But I just had to say that I was nuts to think I could take two classes this summer! I do still have A's in both, but I have so much homework to catch up on this weekend!
I did have to create a resume' and a letter of application for my Tech Writing class. I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself and think I should hire me! I also had to write a response to an editorial and was quite impressed with my political savvy! Needless to say, both assignments were not actually submitted to anyone but my instructor, but all involved are pleased with my work. I have 4 papers to write this weekend and pages of algebra homework.... Arrrghhh. I want to ride my horse!!!!!!!!

'M Back

I was thinking (or not thinking) of waiting for 2009 it seems...

Another semester of outstanding studiousness has been completed, and I am proud to say I still have a 4.0 GPA! I have to admit that at the age of 53, considering that these have all been intro level classes, I should have straight A's in the bag, but not so. I've had to work at this quite a bit. I've been told by some that I've worked too hard at some parts - for example my final presentation in Biomedical Ethics on the health care system/debacle in the U.S. Looking back at it, I suppose I did more research than was necessary for the sake of a discussion on the ethics of the issue, but it turns out that it was a subject I feel quite passionate about and I couldn't present a possible solution, as I was directed to do as a conclusion, without a better understanding of what other possibilities there might be. My Psychology class proved challenging in a completely different way. I was not feeling at all passionate about the subject, although in parts it was interesting. What made school much more enjoyable this semester were the new friendships developed with a couple of fellow students. I hope that I will have opportunties to spend time with them again. We have exchanged email addresses and phone #'s, which has proved useful and entertaining.

This semester I am taking Intro to Technical Writing - a course that should prove useful, and Fund. of College Math. Yes - I have to learn algebra again. I didn't like learning it in the first place, some 35+ years ago, I don't expect to enjoy it this time, but fortunately my math-whiz son has offered to tutor me through it if I need him to. With these English & Math requirements out of the way, I'll be getting closer to the nitty-gritty of what I want to be studying. In the fall I'll begin Anatomy & Physiology for two sememsters, and I'll just have to take Math for Health Sciences, and a Speech class along the way. By next June I should be able to apply to the PTA program, unless another field of interest takes me in another direction. I have a certain amount of interest in radiology, but the program at COD is so popular there is a waiting list to get into it. My friend Tacz tells me there is a new radiology program opening at Elgin Community College, but that would be so far from home or work, that it could be too much of a challenge. Perhaps keeping up my 4.0, and my age/experience level might push my entrance possibilities up the scale. Who knows. I just keep taking this thing one step at a time and I'll see how it goes.

Marv & I managed to get away in April for another visit to the Riviera Maya in Mexico. He won the trip again, and I'm sure he has deserved such a reward many times over for as hard as he works. We visited the Mayan ruins in Tulum and Coba this time, and I'll be getting the pictures together soon. Here's one nice shot from Tulum:

I also spent about a day & a half of the time studying in our hotel room while Marv did some walking and putting and general nosing around the resort. People said I was crazy to spend time on my vacation studying, but it was just a week or two before finals, and besides - it was such a comfortable, pretty place to be studying and the solitude was helpful. My only distractions were outside the door to the balcony, and I did have to partake of the company of the birds and flowers and warm air while I worked for some parts of it.

Work at the store remains challenging, as the economy tries to affect us. We had a fantastic first quarter and beginning of the second quarter, but then a couple of tough weeks in May. It looks to be picking up again, with show season upon us and young kids taking riding lessons or going to riding camps for their summer vacation entertainment. I'm overseeing the installation of a new website for the store, and this is not easy for me, with so many other responsibilities, to gather together all the necessary product information. If this website takes off, it will mean that I will have to give up some of the responsibilities that I feel I do better than anyone, and delegate them somehow to people who might not understand or appreciate the complexities of keeping things in order. I've always been a hands-on, in the trenches sort of manager. This has been my only way of staying informed. What will I do if I can't do it all? Another problem facing me is that with my interests in academics increasing, I find the discipline of concentration on my job waning. I'm running out of the extra time and energy to be the workaholic that I have been known for.

I still haven't been riding as much as I would like to be. Not nearly enough to recoup my skill since the collarbone fracture and the back problems. Stacey is on the road a lot now with horse shows, and so Biff hasn't been able to get as much work and training from her. When this happens, he just seems to get an attitude - which horses can do when their work is not consistant. If you think of his job like that of any human athlete, you can then imagine how he might feel about working out consistantly 3-5 days a week, then not working for two weeks or so, then being asked to work out at the same level again for a day or two, then off again for a week, and so on. So what this all means as far as my riding is that since I don't have the fitness level I need to work through his needs on the weekends she is gone, it is not particularly rewarding for either Biff or me for me to ride him. I spend time with him on the ground, but unfortunately neither of us becomes more mentally or physically fit for riding that way.

And on that note: The clavicle is healed. At least that is what my shoulder guru says, and I do believe him. Why it took so long is a question that remains, but his thought was that I was just a slow healer. Maybe I did some things sooner than I should have and put additional stress on it, who knows, but it is finally mended. My shoulder - now that I can lay on that side and attempt full use of it - is not feeling perfect, but I will give that time before checking back in with the Dr. The low back problem is the greater evil at this point, so I will tend to that. Since my last post I have had two nerve ablation procedures done, and was feeling so perky and confident about things until last weekend when I had another flare up, not more than 3 weeks after the last ablation. I saw my back Dr. about that yesterday and his feeling is that it is still the very same facet joint causing the pain, and another ablation procedure might be needed. In the mean time, he suggested a tune-up at physical therapy, and an oral steroid regime for the next 6 days to treat the inflammation. I took the first dose last night and can feel the difference already this morning. Hmmmm. I find this all very frustrating and somewhat discouraging, as I want to get on with my life. My kids are grown, I'm working full time, I'm in college after all these years, and I want to ride my horse. I want to pursue a new career in a few years that might require that I be at a higher fitness level. I hope that my therapist can help me find that level or a comfortble path to it. In the mean time, all this has been costing me thousands of dollars, which brings me back to my topic in ethics class:

Why is our national health system a free market system that can ration its services to only those who can afford to pay for it? Why is health care not a right of all citizens? Try watching Michael Moore's "Sicko" and then the Frontline program (available online) "Sick Around the World" which conveniently aired just as I was preparing my ethics presentation. The additional interviews with Uwe Reinhardt and Tseng May Cheng are very interesting as well. I've included the link to the PBS site where you can watch the program to the left along with other sites that were of interest. Look up HealthLawProfBlog online and see the post there by RoCali. She says an awful lot about the reality of what happens even to those of us who believe we have the advantage of health insurance these days. I could go on and on, and if you would like me to I will. But for now I'll stay off my soap box and keep my rants to deliver in person. Stay well. I'll be back.

Wait, Wait! It's 2008 Already?

Where have I been? Well, to begin with, work takes up the majority of my time, especially with the holiday crunch that meant extra hours. Then there has been my class at COD and the studying to memorize all those medical terms, then two nights each week I've had physical therapy for my back, and the daily 45 minutes or so of home exercise for the same (okay so I do admit to missing a few of those days), a day each weekend in Wisconsin to see Stacey & Biff, and my buddy Georgia once or twice and going to a few Bears games with my brothers, and then suddenly here it is a new year! Wait! I wasn't finished with the last one!
Work has been more challenging than I remember it being in years past. I suppose with school and health issues weighing on my mind, my focus at the store has been affected. And I also suppose that this year I have been taking on more responsibility for purchasing, and it can be a worrysome task. What is purchased, has to SELL! I don't like to take risks anymore than anyone along those lines, but I do know that it takes new merchandise to attract the the general interest of the buyer. Knowing the right new merchandise to attract our very conservative market is not an easy task. The store owner, who has the primary responsibility for all this, is extremely conservative in areas where I am more liberal and vice versa. We go head to head sometimes, but all in all I think we do well that way. I hope she feels the same. Sales for 2007 exceeded 2006, not by a huge margin, but a healthy one. Now it will be interesting to see how our purchasing matched up.

I finished my class with an A, are you surprised? Out of a total possible of 848 points, which included 9 of 10 quizzes (lowest quiz score was dropped - mine being 1 point shy of a perfect score), attendance, mid-term and final exam, I earned 836 - the highest point total of my class. I suppose I could have done a couple of extra credit papers to make it a perfect score for the class, but I figure why not just take some of those points off the quiz that was dropped?! Now that I have my feet wet in this college thing, I'm going to take two classes next semester - Psychology and Biomedical Ethics.

Ah, the shoulder & back issues.... You couldn't wait to hear about that stuff again could you. Well, since the only people who possibly read what I write down here, are Phil & Eric, and they have heard it all before, I'll just say this:
Shoulder - not healed. Reasons - could be me (some patients just don't heal well); could be the surgery wasn't all that it should have been. Shoulder guru doctor says we'll look again in Feb and see how the clavicle looks. His initial remark the last time he examined it was "A bone that is healed does not hurt." So as long as I have this pain, I know there is a problem. If it's not looking like there's progression in the healing, he'll recommend a CT scan to decide if a new surgery could fix the darn thing.
Back - well, since my right side is compromised by the injured clavicle, that puts a lot of additional strain on my already compromised left side. The MRI showed that I had severe arthrosis (arthritis) of the left L5-S1 facet joint (with a few other things going on in the area, mostly due to my scoliosis), which after 3 weeks of physical therapy and then a major pain flare-up in November, the Dr & I decided to inject. The procedure was changed to a nerve block once I was under the fluoroscope, since there was no space left in the joint to put the needle in. So the two nerves to the joint were blocked (medial branch block). This is done as much for the purpose of diagnosis as to relieve the pain. It's only temporary relief, but if effective, it proves that my pain is caused by that arthritis, and that I could be a good candidate for a more long term treatment called radiofrequency ablation. Basically speaking, those same two little nerves are burnt, so that no pain signal goes from that specific joint to my brain. They eventually can grow back, but the procedure is usually effective for 6 months to a year at time, and if the pain returns, the procedure can be repeated. I had my second block done yesterday, as the pain was back after four or five weeks, and now the Dr and I will talk again in two weeks about whether or not the RFA is in my future. Check out Spine-Health.com if you are interested in any of this. I've found it most informative.