Oh My Aches and Pains!

Bits and Pieces

2010-03-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Today I share a smattering of the thoughts that are running through my brain. Although let's be honest; bits and pieces probably describes the functional capacity of my brain right now! I'll know for sure when I get the results of the SPECT brain scan I'll be getting later today. I've already located some articles about how the brain of a person with fibromyalgia is different on SPECT than the brain of a normal person.

But I digress...

BITS and PIECES

Getting ready to leave the house begins 24 hours before the actual leaving. It is quite a production. For starters, I contend with figuring out 24 hours in advance if I can keep an appointment so I can always cancel 24 hours in advance and avoid a "missed appointment" fee. So you can imagine how miffed I was when I got 4 hours notice on Monday that my appointment later that day was canceled because my doctor called in sick.

My friend is upset with me because I decided to keep honoring the original No Phone Zone pledge I signed back in January 2010. She wants to start calling me again at midnight from her car on her way home from work. I worry about her driving distracted because of the other distracted, drowsy and drunk drivers she might encounter at that hour on her way home. I am keeping my pledge because I care about her, but I don't think she sees it that way. I want to figure out another time we can talk, but I know that is complicated by my sleep disorders. My skewed sleep schedule places me at 'just getting up' around the time she is 'just getting to work.'

Speak of cell phones, I just realized the my blog post title from yesterday was grammatically incorrect. *sigh* I changed it, but it has already gone out into the universe displaying my fibro-fog influenced writing style. You'd think I could at LEAST get the title correct...

I experienced a huge malware/spyware infection around the time I hosted the Patients for a Moment blog carnival back in February from which I am STILL recovering. I cannot believe how difficult it is to find solutions to my computer problems. I literally spent hours and hours surfing tech forums, posting questions and waiting for answers, and taking 'leaps of faith' downloading fix it programs and trying them out. I believe that it is only through my persistence that I finally found solutions to my problems.

Finally, I use a lot of Google products: Blogger, Feedburner and Chrome to name a few. And lately I have been having a lot of problems with Blogger, Feedburner and Chrome. So I go to the HELP forums, search for answers and, finding none, post questions. Why is it I never get a response? Which leads to the bigger question: How can a company as big as Google not have better customer service? So I put my question out on Twitter to @Google to see if I get an answer.

Beuller?

Let's see what my blog post tomorrow looks like after they inject me with technetium-99m this afternoon--SPECT is a nuclear medicine scan by the way. Maybe I'll glow-in-the-dark afterward. Wish me luck...

Did Oprah Change Her 'No Cell Phone' Pledge?

2010-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

O.K., so we all reserve the right to change our minds every once in a while. But after her landmark show about cell phones and distracted driving, it seems that Oprah has changed the conditions of her No Phone Zone pledge on her website and it's left me wondering why. Here are the two pledges:

The January 18th version:

I pledge to make my car a No Phone Zone. Beginning right now, I will do my part to help put an end to distracted driving by not texting or using my phone while I am driving. I will ask other drivers I know to do the same. I pledge to make a difference.

The current version:

I pledge to make my car a No Phone Zone. Beginning right now, I will do my part to help put an end to distracted driving by pledging the safest driving behavior I can commit to (you chose one):

I will not text while I am driving.
I will not text while driving and will use only handsfree calling if I need to speak on the phone while I am driving.
I will not text or use my phone while I am driving. If I need to use my phone, I will pull over to the side of the road.

Oprah, you have me scratching my head.

After all, the Washington Post reported on January 26, 2010:

Ten days after a national study found that cellphones and texting were to blame for 28 percent of crashes, a report released Friday concludes that hands-free cellphones are no less distracting than those held to the ear.

So did the Bluetooth lobby get to Oprah? Or did her staff rise up in mutiny when they could no longer make work calls from their cars? Perhaps we'll never know...

But Oprah's revision of her No Phone Zone pledge causes me some trepidation, because now my best friend Cyndie wants to resume her nightly cell phone call to me as she drives home from work. She promises to use her Bluetooth headset. But does she really need to call me from her car?

The bottom line is I feel obliged to decline her calls since I signed the original pledge, which means I don't talk or text on my cell in the car and I encourage others to refrain from doing these things too.

So sorry, Oprah, but I don't think you should have changed your mind on this subject. We need to put an end to distracted driving. Please don't give people an option to do this only halfway and half-assed. Go back to making the car a 100% Phone-Free Zone. Make everyone pledge: "If I need to use my phone, I will pull over to the side of the road."

ADVERTISEMENT: Please check out this link: used cars.

Comfort Food: Breakfast in the Crockpot

2010-03-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Who knew? (Not me!) I made breakfast in my crockpot last week.

The recipe below made enough for me to have breakfast plus leftovers in the refrigerator for several days last week. In fact, I had so much food that I actually froze several individual portions for use at a later time. I added them to my collection of frozen single-serve crockpot soups.

Last week I acknowledged that my efforts to cook more and eat out less mean I am choosing to allocate my energy differently than I have in the past. Unfortunately, even simple crockpot cooking constitutes a large energy expenditure. I compensate by making other pursuits take a back seat on the days I prepare crockpot meals. I've also sadly noticed that the prep time estimates on the recipes I use are woefully inaccurate for a cook with fibromyalgia. As I have mention here before, life with fibromyalgia means increasing my time estimates by at least 3 times, and more often by 10 times.

On the bright side, all these crockpot meals have two nice benefits. First, for all my efforts, I wind up with several days of meals from most crockpot recipes. Thank goodness I like leftovers. Second, I stepped on the scale the other day and was delighted to find I lost 8 pounds. Amazing, considering that my previous efforts to lose weight have been wildly unsuccessful.

Maybe all those hot flashes burn calories...

CrockPot Breakfast Egg Casserole

serves 12

non-stick cooking spray
2 lb. bag frozen tater tots
12 oz. Canadian bacon, cubed
1 12 oz. bag frozen chopped bell pepper and onion mix
1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
12 eggs
1 cup whole milk
season salt and pepper to taste

Spray inside of slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place one third of the frozen tater tots in the slow cooker. Add one third of the Canadian bacon, pepper and onion mix and cheese. Repeat layers, ending with the cheese.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk, season salt and pepper until well mixed. Pour over the ingredients in the slow cooker, cover and turn on the crockpot on LOW. Cook for 8-10 hours, until casserole is set and eggs are thoroughly cooked.

Variations:

Substitute your favorites for the potato, vegetable, bacon and cheese ingredients, like:

hash browns or country potatoes
zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, diced jalapenos and tomatoes
ham, fully cooked breakfast sausage or meatless sausage
your favorite cheese or cheese blend

The casserole itself is not very attractive but tastes delicious. Consider dressing the final product with things like shredded cheese, scallions or chives and salsa.

Dreams of My Own 'Mar Vista Green Garden'

2010-03-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Image by MaureenShaughnessy (aka MontanaRaven) via Flickr

When I bought my home 16 years ago, I had no idea I was coming to live in a community that would become synonymous with 'going green.' Apparently many of my neighbors in my community of Mar Vista in the City of Los Angeles decided to conduct their own 'green' experiments. It's spured a whole Mar Vista green movement, which has really taken off in the form of solar panels, rainwater harvesting, low water gardens and lawn replacement. There is even a Mar Vista Green Committee that is part of the Mar Vista Community Council.

Last year marked the first annual Mar Vista Green Garden showcase with tours of about 55 local homes and community garden sites. I participated in the tour last year thanks to my hubby and friend Cyndie. I saw artificial turf, landscaping using native plants, a no-water front yard sustained by just rainwater and the learning garden on the campus of Venice High School. I took lots of pictures, business cards and quick notes about what I liked and wanted to include in my own front and backyards.

All that viewing got me dreaming about my own garden renovations. How I so want to ditch the plain concrete driveway with the strip of grass down the middle in favor of driveway pavers surrounding a strip of no-water artificial turf. Yes, I am dreaming of new driveway designs, and patio designs too. I would love to transform my front yard into a beautiful low water native perennial flower container garden with a winding paver walkway, artificial turf plots for my dogs and a fountain, all surround by low fencing.

Yes, I dream of my own front yard transformed into lovely fenced-in, private dog park.

The next Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase tour is set for April 25th and I can't wait. Since I only visited a handful of gardens last year, I am looking forward to visiting a new set of 5 to 10 sites that I didn't see last year. As for making my garden dreams a reality, I'm not sure how long that will take. But with a very modest-sized urban parcel of land to contend with, I am consoled that a green makeover won't cost me an arm and leg. Which, come to think of it, is probably how a lot of my neighbors can afford the costs associated with going green.

What are your green dreams? Share them when you leave a comment.

Tired on Top of Exhausted

2010-03-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Image by selva via Flickr

I sit here wondering why I am so much more tired today. More precisely, that's tired on top of exhausted for me. So after a minute of clueless wondering, I remember that I went grocery shopping with Robert yesterday evening, my first trip out of the house in two weeks. No wonder I am tired.

Of course, being sick for three weeks hasn't helped either. I've been starting to feel like a shut-in instead of a homebody. Now that I am feeling almost all better, the crawl back up to my 'normal' can start and my goal is to avoid a flare-up along the way. Grocery shopping is a good example of the slippery slope I face: my body doesn't respond until 24 hours later with the message, "Hey, you did too much!"

Time to make the Golden Rule of Chronic Illness my mantra: If I pace I can play, if I push I will pay.

Get your nationwide pre-paid wireless phone service from Tracfone, America's largest pre-paid cellular service provider. Visit Tracfone by clicking here: tracfone