The "real" pain scale..

The author of "A Girl With Arthritis" was talking about the question many of us hear every time we go to the Doctor.  "how would you rate your pain based on this 1-10 chart?"  The chart every doctor I've been to really doesn't give much in the way of real life detail.  Here is the pain chart that doctors should use.

Hello 2013!

I hope everyone had a safe and festive New Year celebration!  I've made a few changes on the blog today.  I've added an email subscription option, made it easier to follow the blog through google+, added a share feature with several social networks, and changed to look a bit.

I've done some thinking today about how to proceed with the blog this year.  I tried to sign up for ad-sense before I left on vacation, and was denied.  I was looking at it as a possible way to bring in a little extra money, but after having some time to think about it I'm glad I was denied.  Yes I could use some extra cash flow, who couldn't these days, but I also don't want to promote products or services that I don't have first hand knowledge of or a reliable source as to their quality.  I do plan on trying and possibly promoting products this year, but anything I promote will be something you can trust either I or someone I trust has tried first hand.  I may at some point add a products I love page to the blog if I get enough things sampled and approved.

I know the last few months I haven't been very active.  I hope to improve on that this year.  I have several projects I want to do this year, including moving to Phoenix, but maintaining the blog is a priority for me.  I will be heading back to DFW Thursday.  Once I get home I'd like to make my goal to be 2 blogs a week minimum.  I know everyone will understand if once in a while I don't hit that mark, but that is my personal goal.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions, products you love that I should try for a review, questions, recommendations, or just drop an email or comment to let me know how things are going.

Good luck and good life to everyone in 2013!

OH MY GOSH I LOVE CABLE!

I've been offline a few days because I was in between Internet providers.  I could have blogged from my "smart" phone, but arthritic fingers and touch screen typing on a more than twitter length entry is just NOT going to happen.

I had my appointment to get Internet AND cable with Time Warner Cable.  Let me just say that I remember why I left them.  My appointment was 8-12.  It seems that the cable company can't commit to a tighter time frame than 4 hour chunks of time.  As it turns out they can't even keep that commitment.  A bit after noon I got the call that there had been a vehicle breakdown, and my technician would be by before 1.  Around 1:30 I was getting REALLY irritable.  A storm was coming in so in addition to my generally impatient self I was having steadily building pain and swelling.  I called customer service to find out where exactly was this tech and when exactly would he be arriving at my home for my 8-12 appointment.  I was told he would be there by 2.  The tech pinkie promised it would be so.  At 2:49 the knock FINALLY came.  He didn't have the right modem, and I misunderstood the channels I was getting.  The tech "didn't have time" to upgrade my channels, but he happened to have the right modem in his truck.  Needless to say I was still a very angry, in pain cranky pants.  I did some errands and cooled off a bit.  I decided since I had experienced 2 of Time Warner's forms of service and been astounded at the level of crap it still was I would try the third.  Internet chat customer service.  I'm pretty sure the first person I chatted with was in India.  She wasn't bad, but pretty minimally basic in her responses and the typical typographical errors you see in people who are not native English speakers.  She decided to send me up a level.  The next person I spoke to was AMAZING!  She restored my faith in humanity.  In 20 minutes she had me upgraded to the right stations, threw in a year of Showtime for free and said she would forward my complaints to the local offices responsible for my issues today.  Do I really believe she'll forward my complaints? no.  Am I watching free Showtime right now and never leaving my couch ever again? yes!  I didn't even have to pull out the service connected disabled girl card!

Now on to psoriasis stuff.  I took my last shot of Simponi on Thursday.  I see no improvement anywhere.  My hands itch like crazy and are cracking again.  SO attractive.  My feet have gotten more pustular spots, but luckily the majority aren't rupturing.  They burn and itch, but the danger of infection probably isn't worse than usual with the regular plaque psoriasis I always have on my toes.  I've found if I waddle on the outside edge of my feet it doesn't put as much pressure on the actual pustules   Of course my ankles are not happy with that, but I told them to shut up and suck it up for the team.  The Dr prescribed me Arava, and once I get the results of my Hepatitis screening I'll give that a try.  I'm a bit scared of it so this is why I am using my hep screen as an excuse to wait to try it.  I should be started by midweek and will be sure to give you all the side effect breakdown as it happens.

I think that gets us up to date after my little forced hiatus.  I'm off to go watch some more Showtime and read up on Pintester so as I look for things on Pinterest to entertain me while I'm on medical leave, I don't do the disastrous   The Pintester "fucks up pins so I don't have to" and I will be eternally grateful I didn't try the strawberries & cream mug cake. See her facial expression below.