Face-Planting

I am the world's most uncoordinated person.  I don't dance because I probably look worse than Elaine does in this video:

So, one of the things that we work on in the gym is my coordination.  And to get better at that, I need to get my 'core' stronger--and The Trainer has some interesting things at his disposal for me to try.  We usually have to go very slowly, because I come close to face-planting on a regular basis.  The first day he had me try this, was one of them:

Yep, I was put on a skating slideboard and told to 'go for it!'  To say it took me some time to get the hang of this thing is putting it mildly.  The only way I can describe this is for someone to pour pure olive oil all over a linoleum floor and try to walk from one end of the floor to the other while wearing wool socks.  NOT an easy task.  The first time I was on the slideboard, The Trainer had to hold the back of my shirt to make sure I was able to stand upright.  On Monday, not only did I perform well, I was given an extra task to do--when I hit the side board, I had to tap the top of an orange cone with my opposite hand before sliding to the other board and doing the same there.  Not only is this quite a workout, but I actually found myself having fun while doing it!  Six months ago I would have said you were crazy if you told me I would be doing this--and I would have said you were certifiable if you told me I would be having FUN!  I'm amazed at how quickly things are changing for me.

Let's Talk Meds

We are told that generic drugs are no different from the brand name ones.  I guess this is true, but in at least one instance, this is not--and doctors and pharmacists agree.  When someone has hypothyroidism, the drug of choice--or the name brand drug of choice--is Synthroid.  Over the years, the patent on Synthroid has expired and we now have quite a few different meds to take care of this condition/disease.  After being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, I was put on one of the meds to control my condition and over the course of time, things got better.  I was relieved when we got to the dose I needed and everything was stabilized--and it all came to pass with the drug Levoxyl, a generic thyroid supplement.  All was going along fine until the day I went in to pick up a refill of my meds and the pills looked MUCH different from what I was used to.  Levoxyl looks like this:

And I was given pills that looked like this:

Same color, VERY different shape.  But, I was told both pills/meds are equivalent.  And I was okay with that until I had my next blood work done--and my blood levels were unstable, again.  It took me another round of blood work a few months later before I realized that my new problem was tied to the change in my meds--and I was correct.  After discussing this with my MD, he prescribed Levoxyl, no substitutions, and my levels have been stable ever since.  Another lesson learned.

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A few months back, K saw his doctor and pointed out a bit of a rash/dry skin that he had behind his knees. It was diagnosed as a kind of dermatitis and a prescription for a lotion was written.  K filled the prescription and his rash was taken care of in good time.  The other day, he brought the bottle to me and asked if I would order a refill for him.  The name of the medication--mometasone--seemed familiar to me, so I had to look it up.  As it turned out, K's lotion for his rash is the same medication that I use as a nasal spray for my sinuses, Nasonex.  Same drug, different forms, for two quite different problems.  Interesting.

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A while back, I wrote about a friend of mine who was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia.  He ultimately decided to have a bone marrow transplant and has had some set-backs and side-effects from it.  He wasn't tolerating a medication called tacrolimus--which is given as an immunosuppresant agent for those having transplants--very well and the doctors were needing to do some adjustments.  The name of the drug sounded very familiar to me, but I put the thought out of my mind.  After all, I knew of no one else that had received a transplant of any kind, so I shouldn't be familiar with the drug.  And then one day, I reached for one of my many lotions/potions/ointments that I use for the psoriasis I still have and there was a tube of Protopic, which is the ointment form of tacrolimus!  I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, as psoriasis is an auto-immune disease and the immune system needs suppressing in order for the skin to heal, but it stunned me, nevertheless.  It's hard to wrap your mind around two such different uses for the same drug. 

With these three examples alone, I can't imagine what it takes for doctors to 'get things right.'  And 'get things right' is what they do more times than not.  While their mistakes can, and often do, have life-ending consequences, it still is a wonder that more mistakes aren't made.  Whenever I think about it, I have a new respect for doctors and all that they know.

The Slobby McSlobbersons Have Left The Building

*I write this post with a great deal of amusement and amazement--and NO amount of meanness is intended.  I have a lot of affection for the persons named.*

I have never raised boys, but I think I can say this without much worry:  While boys are messy--and dirty, at times--girls are the biggest slobs on the face of this earth.  I am totally amazed at how slobby girls are.

In the past, we have opened our home to young men to stay with us while they attended our local university.  The first time, G was trying to stay in school for one more semester.  He was having a great deal of financial difficulties, so we offered up our basement family room for him to stay in.  He was with us for only one semester and then he took a break from school, finally completing his education a year later.  A couple of years ago we had one of K's nephew's sons here for a semester.  Both guys were absolute sweethearts and didn't really make much more work for me than I normally had--extremely low maintenance.  And then, we had a couple of young women stay with us the last two weeks...

Another nephew of K's has a daughter who just completed her 3rd year of nursing school.  She was required to come to our town for six shifts at the local hospital.  Because she was only going to need a place to sleep for six days/nights, she asked if we would let her and a friend stay in our spare room.  This was a no-brainer for me and I said 'yes' immediately.  (I figure this is the generation that will be taking care of me when I'm in my dotage, so I better be nice to them.  :D)  Two weeks ago this coming Wednesday, the girls arrived.

Let me say this, whenever someone is a guest in my home--whether it is short- or long-termed--I try my hardest to not invade their privacy.  However, there are times when I have to go into their space, and it isn't always convenient for me to let them know ahead of time.  When the guys lived here, I had to go into their rooms a couple of times, and it usually was to get towels on laundry day.  Of course, the beds were never made and the guys had some personal items spread out, but for the most part, I 'spread out' much more whenever we stay in a hotel.  Not horrifying, in the least.  The girls?  A much different story.

On Thursday, less than 24 hours after the girls descended on our house, I had to go upstairs to close the windows.  They had left the windows open and the rain had started, so I needed to go up there.  O. M. F. G!!!!!  First, there BARELY was a path for me to walk from the stairs to the window.  They had, literally, dumped everything they brought with them onto the floor and spread it out from one end to the other.  Every flat surface, every inch of floor space, was covered with their stuff.  And I'm not sure WHAT they did to the bed.  I didn't even SEE the quilt or blanket that had been on it and the top sheet was in one ball in the middle of the bed.  I didn't know anyone could cause that much destruction in that short of an amount of time.  It just blew me away--but it was fine.  If they wanted to live like that, more power to them.  ;)  (At one point, the blanket found its way onto the curtain rod--I believe they were trying to shut out the sunlight so they could sleep during the day.)

The other thing that amazed me was the condition of the bathroom after it was used.  Now, the guys weren't great about cleaning up the little hair bits after shaving, but very rarely did they make the mirror unusable--at least, not like the girls.  After the girls were done in the bathroom, there was water and face-cleaner residue from one end of the vanity top to the other.  There were spatter marks on the mirror and other things I couldn't identify.  The room was just a mess.  And this wasn't just them being inconsiderate, because there always was an attempt to clean up after themselves--they just didn't succeed very well.  On first glance, things didn't look TOO bad--they took all of their possessions with them, as well as their wet towels--but things were FAR from well.  ;)  I still have a hard time believing what they did in that bathroom.

Part of me wonders if my OCD tendencies make me see some things as horrible, but are only 'normal' in other households.  When I was a teen, my room wasn't always neat as a pin, but I NEVER came close to these two girls.  And both of my girls were slobs, but not to this extent.  So, I don't know if these two are 'normal,' or not.  However, from talking to others, I think I can say with a great bit of confidence that girls ARE the Slobby McSlobbersons of the human race.



*And, to give these wonderful, adorable, sweet, and friendly girls their due, they wrote a marvelous thank you note to K and me and gave us a gift card to a local restaurant for us allowing them to stay here.  NOT something that we expected or needed, but a wonderful gesture on their part.  Still, I can't help but wish we had a guest bathroom that they could have used instead of us all sharing the same one.  :D