It's Here

At long frigging last people!!

Argos delivered my Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight today along with the Argos order I placed for my Mum on Sunday. Argos must of decided to deliver both orders at the same time, the second order's delivery scheduled day. Pity they didn't figure to inform me of the change of delivery date for the Nook when they did that and I wasted an entire day waiting in and looking out for a delivery van arriving. I had my blinds open till quarter past eight last night without reason, we prefer on cold dark nights to close them darn things and try to ignore the approaching winter season as much as possible. We feel the cold we don't need to see the accompanying darkness.

Idiot Liars

After waiting in for hours, and making sure my Dad was on hand and vigilant on the two occasions I had to leave my home today the tracker with TNT says that I was unavailable to receive my shipment and it's now it's status is marked as 'Exception' whatever that means.

So God only knows when the are going to get around to delivering it, I won't say redelivering it as they never attempted to deliver it at all today. I hate when courier companies think it all right to outright lie to and about customers. Also for a courier that was supposed to be delivering up to six pm he managed to scan my package in quite swiftly at barely 6.13 pm. Last *ahem* delivery must have been pretty close to the depot there?!

Right Blog This Time

Well I've finally remembered to post to the correct blog this time around. I intended my last three posts on my Invisible Me Blog for this one.

Well, my saga with PC World, has entered the next phase.

To recap:

1 - July 29th placed order for Google Nexus 7 Tablet on pre-order when it was due in. At that time the estimate for stock was the 10th August.

2 - July 30th order processed and money charged to bank account.

3 - July 31st money paid to PC World from bank account.

4 - August 2nd 'in stock' on website for immediate delivery/pick up.

5 - August 3rd contacted PCW because item had been 'in stock' for almost 48 hours and no update to estimate for dispatch/delivery, still showing 'out of stock' on order page in My Account section.

6 - August 4th, order page changed to delivery in 3 - 5 working days. Mon 08/09

7 - Got phone message (and email) from customer service saying tablet would be with my this week, dispatch on Monday.

8 - Monday no change, Tuesday no change, Wednesday morning no change.

9 - Wednesday afternoon receive email with tracking number for Royal Mail, dispatched this afternoon. 8th not 6th. Just took a week since stock came in to dispatch, is that really, 'as soon as stock is available' that my order page has stated since the 29th.  Also dispatched the 8th not the 6th as my order page still states.

10 - Delivery? Who knows. Could most possibly be next week now or Saturday if RM is quick from depot to here.

I have bought many items from PCW in the past ten years or so but this is the first time I've dealt with them online. I prefer in-store at the moment.

Cream Crackered

Well, it's official I am cream crackered. Today was along, sore and not to forget tiring day. I had to get up early this morning to get my Dad's sister June to the hospital for her wrist operation done. Only it wasn't our hospital but the one a city over instead. So instead of a quick ten minute trip there and back, traffic lights permitting, I had two round trips today amounting to over 100 miles. I'm totally sore and everything hurts. I had to get gel put onto my bad shoulder prior to both journeys. So I could get through them at all. Now I find that this is the first of two wrists that needs this surgery. So I might have to do the same 100 plus miles round trips sometime in the next few weeks again. Sucky to say the least. Also tomorrow is another early morning as my Mum is due at the dentist's at 9.30 to see about a filling she lost which is causing her a lot of pain and discomfort. After the dentist she wants to go into the city centre to go to her building society and hit a couple of shops. So another tiring and early day tomorrow. Not as bad as today thankfully but still an early bird special.

Walking

I've come to the conclusion that my Dabs order is obviously walking up to Scotland from Wednesbury. The parcel left the Wednesbury Hub at one minute after midnight on the second of March and it's now almost ten past five pm on the third of March. Yup ... 41 hours and 7 minutes after it left depot and no update.

Just a quick post to vent ...

My three nephews have just been picked up about half an hour ago after being here since early while their parents went through to CostCo.

Not much to say. My hands were pretty sore this morning as was my wrists so I'm not up to typing much. Sorry!

A Break

No I'm not taking a break from blogging, I am finally getting more than a couple of weeks intervals between therapy sessions. My physiotherapist on Wednesday has given me a month's break before my next check-in with him. He also said if I don't deteriorate any when I come he will probably discharge me with my regime of physiotherapy.

So good news there. My OT which I attended on Thursday wanted to see me in 3 to 4 weeks but said she was booked solid for the coming month as far as she knew so it would probably be around 5 to 6 weeks before I got a appointment to return.

As the receptionist who makes the appointments had left for the day by the time I walked back to the reception area we pushed the sheet the therapist gave me through the glass windows for her to get the next day and send out an appointment to me for my next OT check-in.

I have gotten myself a small pocket camcorder, a Kodak PlaySport ZX5, which Amazon had on sale for amount 40% off RRP. I also bought a 16GB SDHC card, a tripod (gorrilla pod), a pouch as well as a remote control (which is still to arrive, next week sometime according to seller).

So I seriously using my cam to do a video diary of my Fibro/RA/Carpal Tunnel etc., so that when I return to the OT I can accurately tell her how I got on with the hand splints she gave me as she asked me to last time. As I have extreme difficulty writing or typing I find that either audio or video records to be the easiest way to adequately keep track of my various aches, pains and difficulties.

I also got the cam to allow me to vlog my book reviews, this was my main reason for wanting one to be honest. I have fallen terribly behind in my reviewing as I couldn't handle the hand and wrist pain that typing up reviews was causing me. So I thought I could record my review, upload to a free service like YouTube and embed the review in a blog post.

I'm still learning to use the cam and trying to find the best quality, ease and resulting video at the moment. I'm using the health diary I am recording for myself as a way to get used to recording videos. I have found that I have extreme difficulty keeping my eyes trained on the camera lens and not wandering all over the place. That said I do this is real life and find it hard to look directly at people while speaking to them, so it's not just a video/cam problem, it's something I do a lot in real life.

It's actually a form of fibro-fog as I struggle to concentrate.

Well, my hands and wrists are starting to hurt again to I'll sign off here. Maybe I'll even post a vlog post here, who knows?!!!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Yes, it's happened yet again! I have a tentative diagnosis for yet another condition to add to my ever growing list.

I went to the OT at the hospital, yet another hour spent feeling less than optimistic about not only the present but the future.

The OT was thrilled and pleased about my 'supposed' marked improvement of my hand strength. I now according to measurements taken today have 150% on one hand and 100% on the other of increase of strength in my hands. That said, I had less than 10% three weeks ago at initial assessment. So to put into perspective I have around 25% - 30% on the minimum strength I should have in my hands for a female of my age.

She was shocked at how less than impressed about this improvement. As my pain in my hands and wrists has gotten more than 200% worse than it was previously there is also the fact that over the past few weeks I have begun to seriously drop objects I'm attempting to pick up or hold. As well as experiencing a lot of difficulty actually gripped any object, painfully difficulties, all in all for me personally on a day to day basis I have less functionality in both my hands regardless of what strength tests results I have. That only shows that when I squeeze as hard and as painfully as possible on the grippers I can on the 3 occasions I get each hand tested manage to hold the grip at a certain strength.

It's the same as saying that my PT can manipulate my shoulders to complete certain movements I can't personally do so repetitively. Unless I can do an action several times in row within a specific period of time being able to have another person manipulate said joint once under their own strength these results have to real impact on my daily functionality when all is said and done.

It seems the added pain and the dropping problems I am experiencing, as well as the lack of sleep I am getting due to severe hand pain, is caused by something called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I was given two sets of splints for my hands/wrists, one to use during the day when doing any activity where I need to grip anything, so basically most of the time, and another to wear at night.

I have to come back in 3 to 4 weeks, I'm not sure when as the receptionist had left for the day when I got back to the entrance so I had to put my sheet with the time frame from the OT through the gap between the closed windows and hope the receptionist gets it OK tomorrow and sends out an appointment to me. The OT said although she wants to see me within the month it will probably 5 to 6 weeks as she's booked solid for the next month.

I'll have to stop here for now as even with my hand splints on my hands and wrists are becoming very painful, too painful to continue on for now. I'll post tomorrow about my next step in the shower saga, it's not good news at all!!

Camera Here

Well the Kodak pocket (handheld) camcorder I bought arrived today, along-with the tripod I bought but the memory card I ordered at the same time has only just now been dispatched from the Jersey 'partner' of Amazon and estimated delivery not till Saturday at the earliest. As the internal memory in video mode is only 12 seconds - yes you read right seconds, not minutes - I can't really test it properly until the sdhc card arrives.

I've completely charged the device which took around 3 hours to do roughly, set all the relevant details into the settings and checked it sits on the tripod correctly. But unfortunately 12 second recordings can't really allow you proper testing time.

So my practice with my camera is on hold till the 8GB SDHC card I bought with the camera arrives from IndigoStarfish. Something I've found with this 'partner' company is that any orders sent to them even when an item is in stock takes at least 24 to 48 hours to be dispatched and several days to actually arrive. Rather false advertising to say next day or 2 day delivery on items farmed out to them on the order pages.

But nothing to be done for that. The price alone for the right class of card, and avoiding buying a cheap knock off from a less than scrupulous seller, I figure waiting 4 days at least for the card from Amazon themselves is better than chancing spending the same price on what could possible not to be the correctly provided card type or size. Something I've seen happen to many people buying memory either through sellers or on ebay.

I got a month before I'm due back at the PT and if I haven't deteriorated, stayed the same or even slightly improved, the PT says he will discharge me from regular check-ups for now with the exercises I have been given for my shoulders.

PT today

Well I have my PT appointment in less than 2 hours time which marks my first of two therapist appointments this week. Tomorrow I have another therapy appointment at the main hospital which coincidentally charges for parking in the disabled car park. That's if I manage to get one of the limited disabled spaces as my appointment is at 3.15pm just around the beginning of visiting hours so there is a massive increase in demand for these parking spaces at that time of the afternoon. Originally I had a 2.45pm appointment which meant I would have to be there not long after 2pm, an hour before visiting starts, that was more likely to have an disabled space at this time. Unfortunately my appointment was put back two days and moved half an hour later.

I will have to arrive even earlier than I would normally need tomorrow in  case I have to park out-with the disabled area, generally prior to receiving my first blue badge I generally had to park at the farthest out of the car-parks our hospital has and walk into the main entrance from there. At that time it took me around 15 minutes (originally) to about 30 minutes that it was taking me to get to the hospital itself prior to getting my first badge through.

So fingers crossed I will get a disabled parking bay tomorrow as I have a long enough walk in from the entrance to the PT department and another from the reception to the OT's office.

As my hands are beginning to hurt again and I need to try to eat something for lunch and take my second doses of medication prior to leaving for my appointment at around 2.30pm I'll sign off here.

Wish it was Friday

I really wish it was Friday already, I can tell you, I've got the Physiotherapist tomorrow at 10 to 3 in the afternoon, this time only 2 weeks between appointments. I've always thought that stupid, given my degenerative condition not much improvement can happen in barely 2 weeks. I've had no real improvement since my initial assessment in December so shortening my appointment from 3 weeks to 2 weeks wasn't a welcome move for me. Especially given it's the day next to my Occupational Therapist's appointment at the other larger hospital which is on Thursday (changed from Tuesday/Today) at 3.15pm. Also that one means paying parking to park in disabled area if I can get a spot then as this is smack dab the start of afternoon visiting hours which I know is hard to next to impossible to get a disabled spot due to the major influx of visitors for the start of visiting time.

As for the Physiotherapist deliberately making my next appointment the day after (at that time) my OT appointment for some reason which I don't look forward to at all. At least in January I had about a week long grace period to recover from my OT assessment till my PT appointment. Any appointment, but most especially one to the hospital given the long journey and long walk into the PT department, is exhausting for me not to forget painful as well, so I like some recovery time between them to y'know recover!

So needless to say I will be glad to see Friday arrive, and fingers crossed - if I could manage to cross my fingers which I can't currently given the degeneration in them - that they go back to not separate weekly, or at least a day or two grace between them and more importantly back to three week intervals at least.

If nothing else the cost of travelling to both hospitals on a fortnightly basis and any parking charges is a good reason to want them spaced further apart both in appointments and from each other.

Confused

So my Dad has been speaking to relatives who know of disabled people who have had walk in showers in upstairs bathrooms and can't figure out how the OT told this morning that they don't.

Leaving me with two options, move house to a place where there is a downstairs bathroom or attempt to get planning permission from the council to install one. Both very expensive options that are beyond our grasp.

I believed a split level shower is just a fancy say of saying walk in/sit down shower in one of those little cubicle's you see in all the advertisements.

So, I'll just have to see what my OT @ the hospital says. Maybe she'll know how a 'split level shower' is different from a walk in shower that has been installed in many an upstairs bathroom in my area according to those who actually had it done or know someone who has.

Knew It Was Going Too Well

I knew things were going my way a bit too much, after months and months of struggling I finally had my Occupational Therapy assessment last Tuesday, she sent an urgent fax to the OT from the council to come see to the adaptations I need to continue living independently.

It's gotten so bad that I haven't able to use my over the bath shower that the OT had installed for me just after we moved into this house about 8 years ago.

So both she and OT at the hospital say I need a different shower that I can walk into, the hospital OT called it simply a walk in shower the OT today said I needed a 'split level shower' given the degree of my disability now due to the degeneration of my lower limbs.

Toothy Thoughts

Tomorrow I return to the dentist's to see if my tooth will be refilled or extracted. I went to my check-up yesterday and told my dentist that I have two missing fillings. One in a tooth that keeps loosing fillings regularly and the other I believed was in a tooth filled last check-up time.


The dentist said the hole/chip was in the tooth next to the two that were filled together last time but looking at my trouble tooth she thinks that it is too deep to successfully keep a filling in place so might be better to extract it. Something I've been secretly wanting for a few years now, as a have had to have it refilled at least 4 times in the last five years or so and the last twice it took more than one attempt for the filling to stay in.

Panic Stations

Well we've just spent the last 20 minutes hunting down my letter with the correct time, department and therapist for tomorrow. As this is my first Occupational Therapy appointment I really need it to make sure I get to the right area at the right time tomorrow at the hospital.

Finally after that brief panic I figured my Father had moved the letter and not told us, needless to say he had forgotten all about moving it let alone where he had moved it to, I just took a chance figuring as it was sitting under my Kindle on my bedside cabinet since it arrived that he might have moved it to where he has habit of moving my Kindle when he mucking around with the stuff on my cabinet.

I must admit not to being looking forward to my OT appointment, mainly for two reasons:

1. I'm suffering from a cold and the freezing temp - snow expected by this weekend - isn't helping. So I'm feeling more listless, stiff, exhaustion than normal.
2. This appointment being the first can last up to an hour like my first PT appointment just prior to Xmas and also it's at the main hospital which results in a long long long walk in from the main entrance compared to when I attend my PT. Even though the room my PT uses at the clinic is quite a distance from the reception it's nothing compared to the distance I have to transverse when attending the main hospital for appointments.

Shh ... trying to sleep here

Well, I'm exhausted and it's not even 7pm. Nothing unusual for me normally but at have just cause today.

After getting up slightly earlier because I knew I would have to take my second round of medication prior to doing the nursery run because I wouldn't be back home in time for when I usually took them.

Assessment

Well I'm not long back from the hospital where I had a 45 minutes assessment with my physiotherapist. First major shock ... it wasn't the female therapist I saw at the hospital who I was supposed to see in conjunction with the occupational therapist I was referred to at the Rheumatology Clinic.

This time a unknown male physio went through a assessment which took 45 minutes to do. I was a bit uncomfortable to be honest I was expecting the female I saw at the hospital who was supposed to be my therapist along-with the OT who brought her into the case.

He asked a slew of questions and did a routine examine which showed basically what was already known. I had no swelling around any joints but that doesn't say I don't feel pain non-stop from them. At least there was questions about pain levels which I stressed were always on the very high end of the scale.

He asked if I had seen a OT, which I said I was referred to initially and it was her who brought in the physiotherapist which triggered the referral to the appointment I was attending but I hadn't got an appointment through yet for the OT. This I find disturbing as I was referred to OT not PT but this is the only assessment/appointment I've been to.

I was given three exercise for my left shoulder which was badly affected and little to no mobility and told just to keep doing my other exercise given for my spine/RA joint problems. So the PT is concentrating on my left shoulder joint and regaining mobility with it.

My entire body is hurting all over now and I'm in even more pain and more exhausted than I was before I went.

I have an appointment three weeks from Monday with the same therapist so see my progress with using these exercises at 3 to 4 times daily in sets of 10.

But then the same problem occurs my other joints are able to be manipulated easily by therapists/doctors but that's not to say I can do the same moves independently and without pain. There seems to be this belief that if there is no swelling it's OK.

I explained how my hips/back/knees were worse now than before and my severe loss of balance even worse than before and the therapist explained that my body has been dealing with RA putting pressure on these joints since day 1 and now 12 years on this is be expected. So that means my knees/hips will never get better than they are now which is quite a degeneration on when I was diagnosed 12 years ago.

He asked if I was working! I doubt an employer would take me. I don't sleep at night which I explained, wake up more tired, stiff and in pain that the night before, and it takes at least an hour to an hour and half before I have able to get relief from the extra stiffness/pain and go back to the continual stiffness/pain that stays with me all day. Standing/walking puts a lot of pressure on my back/hips/knees which make my pain worse which he accepts and understands. While sitting isn't as bad as the pressure is off these joints I can't sit comfortably for long and have to use my leather padded adjustable chair.

All in all a mixed result for me. I would a whole lot better if I would get my OT started as I belief that that will be more important the PT for my condition. He started asking what my usual day was like but I got as far as getting up and the extra stiffness/pain wearing off to allow me to go out if I need to go shopping but he didn't ask about tasks like cooking, making a hot drink, and so on that the OT mentioned, the only daily tasks he covered was getting up out of the bed when I explained my difficulties with that and showering which I said I needed help with as I couldn't get in and out of the bath safely, and help with my back and other parts I couldn't reach/do myself - the same with drying myself.

Must be the OT job to help with these tasks as they weren't covered. Only the showering problem I have was covered. Along with my problems getting in/out of bed.

Also very disappointed as the original therapist I was supposed to see was a specialist with fibromyalgia as well as RA and he didn't ask/mention anything about my Fibro and the problems it causes. Only my difficulty sleeping was covered because he asked about my tablets.

Frustrated

Between lying courier services who say they attempted delivery two days running when they didn't and I have at least 3 adults to prove so and relatives who expect me to drop everything and act as an unpaid taxi service I am frustrated and totally fed up.

Christmas Deliveries

I really hate shops, sellers and courier services who say they will despatch/deliver in a particular time slot/date and your orders sit stationary for days. All the while promising delivery for Christmas.

I ordered three shake and go cars to go with a present we bought Friday for my youngest nephew as the shop didn't have any available. I double checked before placing my order that I would get the delivery before Christmas and even paid for expedited despatch/delivery and my order has sat on Despatching Soon since Friday afternoon and here we are Monday afternoon and my order which I paid extra for quick despatch/delivery is still not been sent out and it's stating delivery estimate on the 20th which is tomorrow and still haven't despatched the order.

Frustrating to say the least. If I don't get my order through by Christmas which I paid double postage price for I will not be a happy camper.

Another order sent out Friday for next day delivery from City Link is still on it's way from the collection depot and not further update since Friday night when it was sent out to the collection depot. It must be walking to the local delivery depot that's all I can say. So next day delivery - total fail.

My last order - of the three placed last week - was split in two my Amazon and has been despatched by Royal Mail. I wonder if those two parcels will beat the two expedited ones!

Grrr....

My father who was supposed to only be going to his sister to pick up a letter to hand in at her doctor's practice and left here over 2 hours ago to do this, is just now on his way to do this. Frustrating as we told him due to the fact we were waiting at my brother's house for his old suite to be picked up he would have to do this and come straight back here to let us away to do the school pickup. And only now an hour and a half after reaching his sister's is he now going to hand in the letter, and he wonders why we were upset that he isn't already on his way back to cover his house while we go to the school.

I have to leave no later than quarter to three to get across town to the school and here I am with only a half hour to spare till this time and he says he is only now heading over to the doctor's surgery, then he will have to get a bus and walk in from wherever he gets off the bus to my brother's house as it's a fair distance away from any bus stops.

And he's surprised we're upset!!

Grr ... and they wonder why there is so much domestic problems when men don't listen, no offense to any men who actually listen and do what the say they will when they say they'll do it.

GRRR...

My mother who is attending this stupid WFI with me first thing Monday morning is insisting on washing my hair tomorrow so I can be 'all neat and tidy' for my appointment.

I'm not so fussy to be honest. My hair is clean and non greasy and doesn't need it in my opinion and as I pointed out to her the more effort and dressy I attend as could backfire badly on my claim as I can't do this for myself, let alone on a daily basis as mentioned on my claim forms and turning up like I'm attending a job interview would be misleading on my actual circumstances.

But she's insisting that's better than showing up scruffy - which I assume she's saying my normal appearance is - will make my advisor think I'm too lazy to dress as I should when attending appointments.

Can't win, can I?

As I am relying on her to accompany me as a witness as well as support I have no chance of changing her mind. I will get my hair washed regardless of my physical condition tomorrow but I am intent on dressing only in my usual comfy clothes as regardless of the terminology my mum uses this isn't a interview that I see necessary to dress up for.

Especially if I can be expected to sitting in an uncomfortable chair for an extended period. Something I am unable to do in the most comfortable of chairs let alone those found in JCP offices.

Well I've moaned enough about my appointment on Monday for today, one last thing to mention before ending my posting for today. I got an appointment through for the physiotherapist today, no sign of any for the occupational therapist yet. Rather stupid to send a physio one through before I'm fully assessed which was supposed to be this month in a dual appointment with both therapists together where a therapy course would begin to take shape before I started the actual therapy courses.

But then this first physio isn't till December the 22nd so there is plenty of time for my dual assessment appointment to be sent through before my first physio date arrives.