A Nervous Day

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My doctor's appointment was this afternoon. So I was nervous most of the day. A little more than a couple of weeks ago I had epidural injection on either side of the L5 -S1 joint of my lower back. It didn't help my pain at all. In fact my pain got worse, but I'm sure the injections had nothing to do with the increased pain.

We arrived at my doctor's appointment 15 minutes early... my appointment was at 2:00. I purposely made the appointment first thing in the afternoon so the wait would not be forever. Frank signed me in and there is one person already signed in to see my doctor and his appointment is at 2:15. Yep... they took him first. It really irks me when that happens.

I saw the doctor at about 2:20, so the wait wasn't too bad. Frank swears it was not hot in the exam room, but it felt like it was a 100 degrees in there with no air moving... I do get a bit hot when I'm nervous :-) I fanned myself with a Sears sales booklet while waiting for the doctor and while talking with the doctor. I should have brought my fancy fold up fan... a bonnet and I would really have looked the Southern Belle :-)

There will be no surgery for now. I'm going to have injections in my facet joints on Wednesday morning. Hopefully this will do the trick and I will put off surgery for a while longer... maybe more years :-) The doctor also increased my dosage of Lyrica and that may help with the pain too. I will be yawning even more than I do now.

On to brighter things that make me calm and relaxed...

I took a picture of this pretty little lady bug yesterday.



Clicking on the picture will take you to a larger view.

She appeared to be grooming her face, but she might have been eating something I couldn't tell for sure. I say she... but it could be a he. I need to research if there is a way to tell if they are a he or a she without putting them under a microscope.

While I was taking pictures of the lady bug this tiny insect lit on a leaf just below the lady bug.



Again.. clicking on the picture will take you to a larger view.

I'm pretty sure the insect is a leafhopper of some type. If so this is my first picture of a leafhopper. It is a little bit smaller than the lady bug. I wasn't able to get really close to the insect, so the original image is cropped a lot.

I get excited over such things now. Several years ago I would have shrugged and said its a bug. But now insects amaze me. When I take picture of them and bring the image up on the computer screen I'm just amazed at what the insects really look like. This leafhopper is not very beautiful, but some leafhoppers have beautiful coloring and beautiful eyes.

I was a nervous wreck most of the day, but looking at nature has soothed me.

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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. -- Albert Einstein

A Lazy Day

I'm being so lazy today. I guess its okay to be lazy now and again.

Yesterday was suppose to be my day for sheet washing. I didn't do it because of all our errands. So this morning I was going to wash the sheets. I went to get the sheets and DH had made the bed... so no way was I going to strip the bed of the sheets after him being so kind as to make the bed for me.

DH has been helping me out a lot lately. I'm having problems with my back. Way back in 1993 I herniated the disc that is bothering me now. I had surgery back then and the doctor took out just a slither of the disc to relieve the pressure on the nerve. Now the disc has all but disappeared and there is pressure on the nerve. My back throbs, my right hip, thigh, calf and foot have pain running down them. It hurts to stand long and is torture to walk very far. About two weeks ago I had two steroid injection in the disc area in hopes for relief of pain and to avoid surgery. I go to the doctor Monday and I'm sure plans will be made for another surgery.

Back to something a bit more pleasant... being I was being lazy today I did have time to edit pictures I took the other day. I took more pictures of another Elephant Ear Bloom. I used blue foam board for a back ground and no flash this time, so the picture is more subdued than the last I posted.



For dinner (our big midday meal) DH cooked hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill. I heated up some canned baked beans to go with it and I fixed some baked sweet potato chunks. Just chunk some washed and dried sweet potatoes into 1 to 2 inch chunks. Mix a bit of oil with coarse ground pepper and cinnamon (I also added a bit of orange peel this time) in a large bowl. Add the sweet potato chunks and stir until well coated. Place on a jelly roll sheet (I line it with the no-stick foil). Bake in a 425° oven until tender and desired browness .. about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size of the chunks. Today I preheated the oven and used regular oven setting. When I use speed bake (some ovens call it convection) I don't preheat and the potatoes are usually done by time the pre-heat bell goes off. The amount of oil, pepper and cinnamon depend on how much you are making. For me and my husband I used two smallish potatoes (what we usually have for a baked potato serving... smaller than what they serve in restaurants). I used a couple of tablespoons of canola oil, but any oil can be used. I just did a few grinds on the black pepper grinder... set on a coarse setting and spinkled a bit of cinnamon in. There are enough hot dogs and burgers for tomorrow :-)

After dinner we watched tapes of the shows that we don't stay up late enough to watch. Then I've read blogs this afternoon. Such talented ladies on here.

I did make iced tea today. For some reason I've begun to like it. Things change...

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A heart that loves is always young. -- Greek proverb
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