SO happy I rode a bit this weekend

It may be nice again by next weekend but we are getting an arctic express with bitter cold temps for a couple of days. Supposed to get down to -15F tonight or tuesday. Today snow and getting colder all day. I have got to decide whether to try to get a tax prep appointment or just try to find out my depreciation question online. If the weather would get nice again I should maybe move Lady next to AJ and try to fatten her up. Its hard for me to judge her weight but she could use SOME more - I don't think she can be more than a 4 on the 1-9 scale. I cant feed her much more where she is cuz Sadie and CJ are plenty fat. Lady has plenty of energy too so I would only want to feed her more fat not more grain and probly not try to make some of her hay alfalfa either.

I guess the drugs are working against my sinus infection. I've been sleeping good. I had a scare that I might be allergic to my AB this weekend - I noticed my throat felt a bit swollen --front of neck seemed to be pushing against shirt collar or even just skin saturday around noon and then sat eve after taking the AB -- But then I noticed that sensation on sunday morning when I hadn't taken the AB so pretty sure its just being a bit fat, tipping my chin down looking at laptop and the steroid probably makes me a bit puffy. Ugh, I would love to just veg on the couch today but I think I should drag my ass to work since I was coasting a lot last week with the durned sinus crap.

Wondered how MaryAnne was doing in Egypt

I recall how she went all in with the MarxSpewMedia against Palin and for Jugears so I don't really care if she gets hit by some of the shit but I went to her blog out of curiousity. Last post Jan 10, mentions the Giffords shooting and quotes Keith Olbermann about violent rhetoric as an underlying cause. Well ostrich keep your head firmly in the sand, maybe the predators won't see you that way. I do hope your horses fare OK.

drugs work better when you TAKE them

I woke with headache this morning and was feeling a bit frantic that my SI might be coming back in spite of steroids+AB. Well arrived at work and see that the AB pill I thought I took last night after eating is sitting on my desktop. So hopefully if I actually take the dang pills 2x/day they will keep beating back the sinus infection. I did get some drainage yesterday after taking the steroids and it seems to be 'infection mucous'. Nasty taste in my mouth from the post nasal drip --or maybe its a side effect from the prednisone.

****Arghh, darned company is not calling me back about the new stipulation. I am not even sure they received it. I hate not being sure that a stupid fax even went through. I suppose I could/should photocopy it and send it snail mail. The sibs are probably upset at not getting money they expected the last check is not last 2 checks. I hate paperwork crap; I often feel bullied by it.

And the web still shows USPS as a place for tax forms -NOT. They haven't had them for 3-4 years the gal tells me. The library at work only had stinking state forms. So now I am gong to have to print out the instructions. I need to be able to look at the instructions in hard print. Maybe I should just go to a tax prep place.

YESSS, headache free night, good cuz

I have to fax the new stipulation of interest to the company that handles the oil payments and get them to call me when they have it to find out if they will make up difference on the next couple of checks or I should send the sibs money. It should not be a big hairy thing I guess but I feel so bummed that its not taken care of yet. Got my royalty statement and went HUH? Well the first statement was full royalties not what I got after they took out the gubmin'ts royalty share. I am still dreading finding out how much Uncle Sam is going to want. I must try to get a tax book today. Have to look on web to see if post office and/or the library at work has them. The forms (and instructions) are online. I might use the online form but its too painful to have to go to another window with the online instruction and back and forth.

ow, PLEASE let new regimen kick this sinus infection

So I called the HMO today and they scheduled me to see a dr in case I was missing something that needed surgery or urgent care. I now have a stronger AB and am on a steroid taper. I tried ibuprofen today in case the naproxen sodium was just not working as well anymore. And my head hurts. Partly some stress reaction from work I think. Lord I hope the steroid shrinks things up so the infected crap can be flushed with the saline rinses and the AB's can get to area and kill the bacteria. If the Z-pack as the HMO calls the first AB had not worked pretty well I would be thinking I must have a tumor.

I have been looking for an oil royalty check and hopefully statement so I can do my taxes and I may have to just do the taxes based on my bank statements. I did see something where by paying by Jan 31 I should be ok for not having sent in the estimated tax. Lord this getting royalties business is going to make me REALLY hate the tangle of government red tape. I don't know how small business owners can stand it --of course part of the reason I like renting from my parents is just 1 check, no utilities to keep up with and I canceled all my credit cards so I wouldn't have to keep track of them so I am a person who seriously hates tracking this kind of thing anyway. I should call sis and find out if she got a check and the 3-way split got implemented.

No, the Sinus Infection was not retreating

**UPDATE*** HMO gave me 2 weeks of doxycycline. If I am not feeling much better by next monday I think I get a bottle of SMZs from the vets office to have available. I shouldn't be so quickly ready to self-treat, especially with my low co-pay but it wont hurt to have some reserves in case oh-bummer care is not repealed and the commies succeed in crashing the county. I wish they could all be exported to cuba, USSR or Venazuela. Oh I care less how its spelled. Its being ruined by its commie ruler.

Sunday I didn't take any acetaminophen during the day, maybe it would have helped but probably not -- I wasn't hurting at the time. But sinus pain at 2 am, take 2 caplets, hot pack and ice until pain recedes than back to bed. 6 am -- take 1 naproxen instead otherwise repeat. 8 am Not full blown pain but there. 1 acetminophen. Tea, toast, look at internet, feed horses --then take another acetaminophen caplet shortly after 9. Perhaps I should do the hot and icing even though the pain is not intense but I hate to do that. I called the dr's office and am waiting on a call back.

2011 crystal ball sucks every bit as bad as 2010's did. I should have called the dr. and persuaded her to extend the AB's two weeks ago when it had set the infection way back but not gotten rid of it instead of hoping my immune system could clear up the remnants on its own. RIght now I just want to wallow in self-pity instead of dealing with things and moving forward. Well I can wallow some and still move forward I guess. I will move forward --I cannot continue in this state. I'll get some SMZ tablets from my vet "for Grey Moun, cuz he wont eat the powder" --which is actually true; if the HMO does not come through but I'm hoping they'll give me a longer course of the AB that was working and maybe a steroid taper to get me over this hump where doubling up the kidney and liver processed NSAIDS is barely keeping things tolerable. I really don't want to exceed the dosing although I think people take excess of ibuprofen and naproxen fairly often without serious problems. I won't exceed the maximum on the acetaminophen though. I'm not risking my liver.

I think the sinus infection is retreating

I had a horrible night friday after taking the first 3 doses of the herbs and was really bummed -waking twice to pain. But after getting myself moving I rode Shade then went to stock show with dad. I dosed naproxen sodium and acetaminophen on the clock and my 12 hour sudafed too but really didn't feel sinus pressure. I was getting a headache about the time the draft show ended but I'm pretty sure it was caffeine shortage. It was not my sinus cavity hurting. I had a cup of black tea before bed as well as the chinese herb infusion/tea and did not get pressure in the wee hours. OLE stepped in to wake me in the middle of the night though. He HAD to go out and run something off and was not at the door to come back in until 40 minutes later. I noticed I was stuffed up in my left nose so tried to rinse out good, fell asleep.

Was woken an hour ahead of my alarm with sinus pain on the dot of 8 hours since last naprox. dose. So started today's dosing and iced and hot compressed for 30 minutes then crawled back into bed and dozed off before the alarm rang. I have not taken any acetaminophen since ~4:30 am and its 1:30 pm now so at least I don't seem to be needing to dose with the 2 different NSAIDS today. I was so out of things this morning that after intending to make my 3rd infusion from the chinese herbs that I only got made twice yesterday I threw them away. Ugh.

I will ride Lady Paloma today if the wind doesn't get nasty and try to find out how she would react to some things a beginner rider might do. I never got a hold of the oil royalty company. I HOPE the royalties are split evenly with this months check and I don't have to personally put paperwork in their hands. I haven't started stupid taxes yet either, just hope I wont have a big penalty for not paying estimated due by Jan 13th. I have got to call the brand inspector about Lady too. Whether D's friend in KS takes her or I have to try to sell or lease her locally I still should take care of the damn inspection --I at least find out what paperwork I may need and if I need to try to get a copy of the 3 yr old KS health cert/ coggins since my copy got wet and was thrown away.

**RESULTS**
She passed my tests:) She will get into somewhat of a bouncy corto gait when gripping with legs and holding her back with the reins but she whoa'd with legs gripping, tested that multiple times. She did no more than break into a canter when I didn't hold her back with the reins and suddenly gripped with my legs etc. I also played around with riding with just 1 hand etc. She doesn't neck rein super well but does neck rein and going high handed with the reins doesn't affect her that I noticed. Of course she knows I can ride so I don't know she wouldn't take some advantage of a rookie but its good to know she is tolerant of some things that could happen.

My telephone buddy is engaged.

And I truly am happy for her, she is the sweetest soul and really deserves to be loved and cherished by a husband. But I'm also selfishly sad. After the wedding I will no longer be able to call her on my drive home from work as she won't be driving an evening route anymore. Oh well I guess my block of minutes on my tracfone plan will start lasting for ages but I'll miss having someone who gets being a horse lover and shares my conservative outlook on general politics and is also one of the few people who really GOT why I sent Cindy across the bridge this fall.

Football started. GO Green Bay! I wouldn't have much stake in who won but the narcissist in chief stated he'll go to the super bowl if the Bears do. What a selfish nit he is and I bet if he's ever attended a Bear's game before it was only as a guest to someone's sky box with intent to trade $$ favors for political favors rather than to watch the game with any interest.

Belated acupuncture/TCM appointment

I called this place last week from work on thursday (they are closed thursdays) They called me back on saturday and I did not respond to the message when I saw it tuesday after my 3day weekend. But today I had the sinus HEADACHE around 3:30 am and again about 7:15 so I called them from home. PLEASE let the herbs and needles work like I believe they did almost 6 years ago when 3 courses of 2 different AB's the last with a steroid taper had failed to kick my infection and I was on hold with the HMO until a sinus scan which wouldn't happen for 3 weeks or more. I couldn't face 3 more weeks of waking up to sinus headache so I tried the TCM then and it kicked whatever remained of that infection to the curb.

I need to give the HMO notice that shorting the time I was on the antibiotics was a bad thing. I didn't manage that as well as I could have but I am quite convinced now that my vet's philosophy of give plenty of AB's for a good length of time is the correct one. I am not yet on board with giving AB's all the times DR. M would recommend; but if you start them give an effective dose for plenty of time. If I live long enough perhaps someday I will be good at convincing medical 'pros' (afraid I don't even always tell them now) when I'm sure what is needed based on past experience. The AB's were working on this infection but it just wasn't a long enough course to kill it. Hooh boy -- I was shook up to have the double barrel headaches today when I've been taking full recommend 24 hr amounts sudafed and alleve and took acetaminophen in the middle of the night since I was at the limit for alleve until 7 am. Yesterday I procrastinated on calling for any appointments because I was getting some nasal drainage. I knew that could be a sign of spreading infection but I was hoping it might mean things were breaking up instead. No such luck. I guess God gave me my sign that I need to get more treatment of some kind for this bugger infection.


I didn't even blog all my riding last weekend. I rode Shade saturday, just a short and slow ride as it was still sloppy. Rode Lady on sunday; after she finally let me catch her the ride was fine. Posted about monday's fun ride on Shade. Tuesday morning I caught Lady and tied her to the trailer for her grain. Perhaps because she knew it was food time or perhaps because she had been caught just 2 days ago instead of off for a month it only took a couple minutes. It also helped that Sadie was not joining in on the running around I think. I have to ride Lady this weekend if weather and my head will allow and try to do some experiments to see how she reacts to things a somewhat novice rider might do --gripping legs, high hands on reins, etc.

I hope I can focus enough to get things done at work. Lots to do. The good thing is I generally welcome the distraction when I'm a bit sickly and sometimes that even helps me be more effective. Of course sometimes I cant keep my mind focused at all, just have to see what I get today. I need to buy some mucinex and a humidifier today to help prevent stuffed up nose and some of the pressure/headaches.

**I got my target run done, even remember to buy myself a new windshield scraper/brush since I cannot find my old one. I wonder if I put it in my pickup or maybe mom's car sometime I borrowed it? anyway it won't hurt to have an extra one. Am not accomplishing a lot at work but am plugging away at some routine things. **

Wheendy ride

I love to ride Shade in a good breeze. She is so up, occasionally bordering on stupidly so but usually just a fun amount of energy that makes me feel ALIVE :)

Sinus infection seems to be reduced too. So unless I feel like its worse tomorrow I will of course seize this as a great reason to not make any acupuncture appointment and will only ask my dr's office to change my nasal spray as the generic flonase isn't working well. I want to go back to generic naseral. Oh fie spellchecker I am not capitalizing them and if there is a way to get a trademark symbol its not just sitting there available on my keyboard.

Sun is shining and I'm on the couch

I think I will get out and ride one of the older horses sometime today. The stupid sinus infection is back. Yesterday I took the hot sauce cold remedy to work and I felt pretty good, so when I woke up a couple hours ahead of my alarm I gave in to temptation to sleep flat and let gravity work kinks out of back and neck muscles for a bit. At least I seem to be tuned in to the pressure now and woke up before it was painful. BUT I feel like my balance is not 100% so I aint getting on Ms Sadie. The arena is still full of snow anyway. I guess I will have to pursue either more antibiotics or acupuncture/chinese herbs. Thursday I called the place I think I used 5-6 years ago. Got an answering machine, didn't really sound like the same business name, I just left message and didn't get a reply so I will have to seek out a new place if I don't just go back to Kaiser for ABs. I sure wish they would have given me a decent length course of antibiotics instead of the bare minimum that might work. I guess I should have held out on starting them so it would be a business day when they were finished up so I could at least have tried to get more without a big time gap.

I was hoping that even though I could still sense I had some infection the antibiotics had weakened it enough that my body could mop it up, but this morning I am not feeling too optimistic of that. I think I may have failed in trying to walk the line between being too quick to run to the Dr asking for 'magic pills' vs. just hoping something will go away. Oh well, this too shall pass, and I should be more grateful that I haven't been getting the screaming pressure bouts since the antibiotics/sleeping on a wedge. I hope that the wedge foam pillow will keep both my sinus cavity and back/neck happy when it arrives. I got an email it shipped but if its USPS it will take an extra day with MLK day on monday. If P hadn't dropped by yesterday at work and reminded me of it I would have forgotten we had a holiday. Well I probably would have gotten it by sunday night from dad's tv viewing.

At least some heartening poll result

Most people polled about the awful mass shooting in AZ at Giffords meet and greet event say that political rhetoric was unrelated. No surprise that my local MarxSpew tv channels had quotes from Dem congress critters saying that rhetoric did need to be toned down though. Helloooooo, the election was 2 months ago and any heated comments on talk radio or blogs have been for the RINO's laying down and letting the lame duck dems continue their agenda. Thankfully some of their worst items didn't get through. But it is just about trying to neuter opposition to Marxism when DeGette says that people need to consider how their words may affect some psychotic nut job, not how normal people would take them. If I had the energy I would be incensed at the TV anchors encouraging such BS instead of calling it but I just tune them out and hope more and more people will come to realize they are being fed propaganda pure and simple.

This should be the poll, I refuse to go to CBS myself even if they are releasing poll results that show a majority of non dummiecrats see through their PR attempts for the commies. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20028105-503544.html I just read a few highlight results at ace (dot mu dot nu)

Mia looked like she was shivering this morning but wouldn't come in until I grabbed her collar and encouraged her to get up after I finished feeding the horses a first bit of hay and fetched my snow tires around handy to throw in my car trunk. Horses seem fine as I expected. Mia's coat has too many matted bits where a seam of skin is exposed but trying to get rid of the mats would remove hair overall and she protests so I've been lazy. Plus she doesn't have the body mass of a horse, nor the heater effect of digesting hay. If her coat was in great shape she would probably be ok even in temps below 0 Fahrenheit but at least she is snoozing on the couch now. She will come in (although not stay in all night) when its wet out so I guess she wasn't uncomfortable last night when I went to bed after asking her didn't she want to come in.

I think maybe, hopefully, my sinus infection is clearing out. I have got to get a bed wedge or something if I can't sleep flat all night though. Trying to elevate myself with pillows in a way that my neck and back will tolerate is allowing me to get some sleep but my arms, shoulders, back and neck are stiff and whiny in the morning. I've been choosing that as preferable to waking up with a pulsing pain below my left eye but the old bod can't take it long term.

random

Hmm, I thought I wanted to jot a few thoughts rather than face the depressing news of how the DNC and the MarxSpewMedia are blaming a horrible tragedy committed by a psychotic young man made more psychotic by his use of illegal drugs on the tea party movement and Sarah Palin's PAC "targeting" 20 D congress critters in districts where McCain won that district. I do have work to do anyway but darn I wish I could do something to counter the lies. Well at least there are good voices, ie Rush, and writers ie Ace and fellow bloggers, who are pointing out the falsehoods and crap, its just depressing to me that I don't know how to dissuade people who still swallow too much of what the marxists spew out.

I think I will have to go the the acupuncture/herbal place but I am reluctant to make even that appointment. Darn I wish Kaiser would have prescribed 5-6 days of antibiotic instead of just 3. My symptoms reduced greatly but I still feel some pressure and am taking maximum recommended daily amounts of sudafed and naproxen sodium with odd doses of acetaminophen if I feel pressure creeping towards becoming a pounding pain again.

Better living through drugs

The antibiotic must be working. I had to make a wedge of pillows to elevate my head a bit last night but no headache and things feel pretty good today. I sure hope the infection clears out this weekend. I am adding mucinex and nasal saline spray to the arsenal at the nurses recommendation. I'll stick with taking alleve and 2 doses of 12 hr sudafed daily for a while also. I want to counter inflammation as much as possible so the antibiotics can get to the infection and kill it and my body can expel the crap.

Well better heave myself off the couch and finish feeding the equines.

Joining the sick list

I just got a prescription from my HMO. They did it over the phone. Wow, last time I had a sinus infection it took forever before it was maybe bacterial rather than surely just viral. Well this time I did say I had yellow snot. Which I do what little actually comes out. The nurse also said I had refills for flonase so maybe I can get the nasal spray that will work but she probably doesn't know if the pharmacy is making substitutions or not. I need to be back on what I was before. The latest switch only seems to give my bloody noses, doing nothing to keep the chronic swelling down. Ugh I hate being sick and I knew that giving in to tears of frustration over P not feeding 1/2 the hay I meant to be fed while we were gone might push me into a full blown sinus infection; but I couldn't completely control them right away. I hope 3 lousy days of antibiotics will be sufficient, the nurse gave it because I had it before. That was my year of having a SI for several weeks. The usual SMZ equivalent didn't knock it so then they gave me what I think the nurse told me she prescribed now (Zethromax?? or something that sounds sort of like that) , which didn't work back then so then I had it again along with a steroid taper, had a few days of relief then relapse and then I went to acupuncture and chinese herb place rather than have NOTHING while waiting over 3 weeks for some fancy scan. The chinese herbs cleared up the remaining problem, scan showed clear --I did not cancel in case something came back again.

This time I will go to the acupuncture and herbs place as soon as I can get in if the 3day antibiotic doesn't clear things up. I hope I can get this licked quickly this time AND have another 5+ years before the next one. I am pretty diligent with preventatives and thought I had broken the cycle of having a SI every 1 or 2 years and had the trick(s) to preventing them. Hopefully I will not have them more than every 5-6 years anyways. I am having such a hard time focusing today and I am blaming the interrupted sleep and distracting, although not painful pressure I am feeling rather than vacation hangover etc. LOL, its good to at least have a good excuse.

grrrrr

P only fed the horses in the mornings! Why did dad even tell me this and upset me more?! And I am extra furious that dad is not a bit concerned himself about this. I SWEAR if I have to treat any of my horses for ulcers I am taking it out of their damn rent.

I ate too many almonds or something

So I'm not going to make it to the 9:30 talk at work. Oh well, its only brownie points. Ole is going to undo my chiro adjustment within a week if he doesn't get over wanting maximum contact all night soon. I didn't get any laser treatment from chiro, but knock wood I didn't get a sinus episode. Maybe what he did helped. I was worried all my teary angst over the horses would slide me into a full blown infection. Still could happen but hopefully I'll get lucky and dodge it. I better get out and finish chores. Its nice this morning and I should ride but with the cramps and too close to dire rear plus not expecting mild enough morning until tomorrow earliest I am not going to push it.

greeaaaattttt

I am trying to distract myself from my angst over the horses. Who are FINE, and when I'm ready to see the silver lining the weeds and brush pile reduction are good things.

But the progress I thought might be getting made wrt to people swallowing the MarxSpewMedia lies seems to have eroded. The GOP house does not seem like it is going to battle very hard to restore us to a constitutional republic. --in fairness the new people including tea party picks are not there yet, so all the go along get along stuff is the long time GOP people talking, but its still worrisome. Most worrisome is how many people do not seem to have wised up to the fact of the media providing free PR services for Obama and the Democrat party rather than reporting facts. Ugh.

Darn it

P has only been feeding my horses 1 bale a day instead of one bale per 2x/day feeding! I HATE THAT. The horses actually look OK anyway. These were heavy bales to make up for them not having grain and in case of cold weather WHICH THEY HAD, so they were getting about 65-70% usual hay rather than only 50% I would guess but it still makes me so upset I am tearing up. I didn't want them to have to eat every halfway edible weed and have the other group strip bark off half the entire pile of junk branches to get by I wanted them to be getting plenty of hay. I must get dad to communicate this to P as I am too upset. Stupid me only fed the horses 1/2 a feeding when I was showing him and told him *I* feed them the other 1/2 in a few hours. He only took in what he saw and spaced out what I told him. AUGHHHHHHHHHHH

****
Told dad as I was leaving to get to my chiro appt that he needs to educate P or I WILL NOT join the MaahDaahHey trail ride trip. Not like I really want to waste a trail riding trip babysitting my annoying parents anyway but I am sure as hell not going unless DAD finds a decent farm/pet sitter and instructs him to not short MY horses. If I can't trust that I will have to take all 4 of mine to go anywhere. I WORK and should not have been the one trying to show P what to do anyway. I am still so pissed about the whole mess I am about ready to cut all ties to this stupid life and start over somewhere.

I think all the critters survived our trip

I didn't even check on Lady, Sadie and CJ. Grey is not 3 legged lame and Shade looked sound from a very quick peek. Mia was out of dog food and cleaned up a 2 cup serving and some veg oil so I gave her more. She didn't feel all skinny when she greeted us and I was hugging her so I don't think she was getting shorted too much. Her water bucket was full but GROSS. I spilled water on the snow on the front step getting it dumped out so I could swish her bucket out and get her some nice fresh water.

Ole feels like he gained a few lbs. He may have had stimulated appetite being outside during the days in the chilly fresh air. Boots missed us but his coat is sleek as ever.

Took yesterday off

Off from time with the parents that is. They went to Dickinson to visit some relatives and old friends. I needed a break from them. I cannot handle too much time with both of them together. Perhaps one reason I have not sought out a long term relationship. Other than being so socially clumsy. I had considered urging to head home early but a local friend of N's want to see us today so I'll have to settle for pushing for getting going at a decent hour. I am almost eager to get back to the office LOL.

I should resolve to do more development on my WY land this year. Its tempting to just focus on getting to endurance rides instead but OTOH if I get the land developed I will have someplace to retreat to. Found out from N that the oil royalties were not split up yet. Nov check had multiple months for one (set?) of wells. Dec check is for royalties up to Nov. 20 so I have to call the management outfit and find out if Jan check will be divided properly. And the checks are not going to amount to a medium income wage like I had thought when I didn't pay attention and realize the Nov check had back royalties added in. Perhaps a sign that I need to suck it up and stick with the job I have. Well at least I had better have something lined up to do before I quit in this P/R/O economy. I think the only thing worse than the communists is the muslims who seem to have a lot of the same notions of holding down individual industrious and excellence unless their 'church' has sanctioned it. It might be just because they are working with the commies to weaken the west but if they really have those notions plus the religious cloak its scary. Thoughts brought on by my vacation reading. The second 3 book set from the Sword of Truth series. Terry Goodkind does a good job of writing an interesting tale while still weaving in the realities of how horribly the communist type model of society works.