Hello, dear readers! I’m sorry it’s been such a long time since you and I have chatted… Sadly, I haven’t been in the best of health these last few months. It seems quitting smoking and having much less nicotine than I used to has severely screwed up my system and I’m trying to get everything back to working the way it was. That’s what happens when you get old(er). You change one little thing and it throws a kink in the works and it all goes haywire.

But I digress…

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been laid up on the sofa with my back, that sacroiliac joint again. The pain was so bad, nothing, not even Vicodin, was helping. I couldn’t be on my feet 5 minutes without feeling I was going to throw up and would wake up yelling from the pain. I finally gave up and went to the ER Christmas Eve for pain relief. I also was referred to a spine doctor who is giving me an injection in a few days. Fingers crossed it helps…

But at least Christmas wasn’t a total disaster as I thought it might be… The hospital didn’t keep me as I feared and I was so overly medicated I didn’t feel too much pain for days (as you can clearly see by my face). And I got my blanket hoodie from the Big Blanket Company that I wanted! This is the most awesome thing ever! I know everyone wondered why I wanted it, but last year the power (and electric heat) went off for 17 hours over the 23rd-24th and it went down to -17 degrees Fahrenheit. The electric here goes out on sunny days for no reason, so yeah, it was a good investment. Plus it kept me warm and made me feel nice and comfy and secure while my back has been completely fucked. Plus it has a built in sleep mask! Seriously, this thing is fucking amazing! And I have decided that I live here now, hahahaa! No seriously… Unless I’ve has to go out somewhere, I haven’t left my blanket hoodie… It’s a really nice place to hide from the world.

All in all, it wasn’t bad… I mean, I couldn’t go anywhere, so everyone had to come here… But I got to see and hold my great nephew (he’s only 2 months old) and give him his present. I got to give my foster corgi, Roxie, her first holidays (and she just got to play in her first snow). I got some amazing gifts for people I couldn’t wait to see them open and I got some amazing gifts that I was more than thrilled with. It was all great, minus my not being able to move well and still being a bit stoned from the ER trip…

The only downside to this was my sister… Ever since the time around my birthday party, she’s been acting odd with me. She ignores my calls, my texts… Now I know her; if she’s pissed at me about something, she won’t tell me. She just won’t talk to me ever again and leave me wondering what the fuck I did instead of being a grown up and talking to me about it. And she’s 5 years my senior! In any case… I had been texting her (since she never answers her phone) telling her I did get gifts for her and her boyfriend, how did they want to approach Christmas? Especially after my back went out, there was no way I was going anywhere, they would need to come here. But I heard nothing. Not even my mother heard anything from her until Christmas Day. I finally got a text the day after suggesting 2 days later she could come up in the morning, but it would just be her because her doctor boyfriend’s schedule was crazy with the short week…

I’ve made some observations of her doctor boyfriend and none of them are good (the consensus of the rest of the family as well). He pursued her not long after her husband passed away, he’s the one that talked her into selling her house to buy a pretentious one that was more to his liking (as he was not divorced yet, he couldn’t buy shit). Last Christmas, he sat here at my house constantly checking his watch as if hoping it was time to go. He did the same at my 50th birthday party, was such a crab ass the entire time and was so rude to my guests. My sister said dit was because he was on-call and the patients were giving him a hard time. Then why didn’t he let her come alone so she could have fun instead of sitting there doing nothing like she did? And they left mad early… Now he didn’t come for Christmas and I’m wondering if he even knew she came alone…

I’ve never had a close relationship with my sister and, after her husband passed away, things were looking up. Now it seems that’s all shot to hell… Her boyfriend is a true narcissist. He’s manipulative, he’s isolating her from– well she didn’t have any friends, really– but from her family… That’s what they do so no one can warn the person of the type they’re involved with. Not that she’d listen anyway, but she should. I’ve dated around a lot, which I always thought was one thing she should have done and never did. She jumped into her relationship with her late husband when she was very young and he was 16 years her senior. It really wasn’t ideal like she thought. Now she’s with this asshole… Honestly, I’m of the mindset, “when in doubt, fuck”… There’s nothing wrong with casual relationships with no ties between consenting adults as long as you’re safe about it.

So, back to my back… I saw the spine doctor last week and I never wanted to punch someone in the dick more in my life than I did that day… I know you need to move things and push on my back, but you don’t need to push so hard you’re trying to push me through the table! Just 2 weeks before I was in so much pain I was yelling when I woke up and I was in extreme pain all the time and this assclown is pushing on my back that hard… Anyway, apparently there’s some abnormality in the surface of L3, probably chronic (no, ya think?! It’s only been going on for 12 years!!!) and I tested positive for this sacroiliac issue… I’ve done therapy, it didn’t help. Muscle relaxers do nothing because it’s not a muscle issue and the strongest pain killers do nothing (one of my psych meds is a pain killer, I didn’t know that). So the next step is an injection in that joint and we see what happens. I’ll know more after the 12th when I get it. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, while I’m sofa bound and weighing the pros and cons between getting up and sitting on the toilet (which really hurts my back) and peeing myself (which would hurt considerably less), I at least have more things to keep me occupied than binge watching TV. This was one of my Christmas presents! I’d been looking for this elusive version of this album (not the reprints) for decades! They didn’t print many as it didn’t do well, so trying to get your hands on one was damn near impossible. But someone finally ended my search! Look how beautiful! And the vinyl looks like it’s never seen a needle… Virgin vinyl! I literally squealed and freaked out for a good 15 minutes over this! It’s all mine!!!

I’ve been sitting on my ass too long… Since it’s the weight bearing part of my back, sitting and standing hurt. So I think I’ll put on my album, lay down and relax a bit… Happy New Year, dear readers!