Been Home Too Long? Cabin Fever???

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, for an extended period. Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping. The phrase is also used humorously to indicate simple boredom from being home alone.





I've been doing more so naturally I'm more tired. I'm finally able to get myself in and out of bed and the car with minimal assistance. It's so physically daunting, heck even getting dressed is difficult. Even with mom's help, it's still a 30 minute production to get underwear and pants on. lol. An atrophied body is just an insult to injury. I'm trying to get out more because being at home can get boring. and it's better than physical therapy. You can only watch so many movies whether they're on cable or on dvd. In the hospital there were about 20 cable channels consisting of mostly reality shows, reruns of movies and paid programming. It became a guilty pleasure to watch these shows, but I'm now recovered and watch more comedy and science just so I can improve my snapple-cap knowledge. I do love some cable shows like Dexter, U.S. of Tara and a new fave, Nurse Jackie. I love anime so I've been catching up on 3 months of my beloved anime. This love, along with an interest in Japanese food/culture, makes me want to learn the Japanese language so I've got a few books, some beginner cds to play "listen and learn", and my brother's friend who teaches English in Japan to students which would be an AWESOME AWESOME job. While visiting my coworkers last Tuesday, I met a new tech named Yuki who speaks Japanese so I'm going to coerce him to teach me a little too, but it'll take awhile because learning Nihongo is not easy! lol.

My friend has been unemployed for just over 5 months and is going through some of the same anxieties, and feelings of "dumbing down", a.k.a. cabin fever, as I have. For me, a lack of sleep combined with online amusements such as gaming, Facebooking, shopping, and blogging pretty much tire out my eyes making it difficult to read so I'm trying to alternate hobbies in order to be more regimented. I've even reorganized my entire I-tunes library, about 10,000 songs.

Going back to paid programming/programas pagadas, it's so ridiculous that sometimes my friend and I will call each other to briefly discuss pros and cons of a currently running infomercial or an item on QVC, and it usually worsens when the content consists of skin care products because we're both big on taking care of our faces, hence we end up buying something. We both love makeup as well so if we see sales online for products that we'd consider using, we email or text each other and consult on how great a deal it is, or if we're behaving we'll discourage each other from purchasing something we don't need with money we don't have. Ah, victims of capitalism and marketing.

I love to shop and am thrilled by a good sale, heck, I'm Filipino! I find several reasons to shop and because I'm not getting out as much yet, I shop online. I find medical/household items that I need, gifts for birthdays, and usually get sidetracked on Ebay, Amazon, or Slickdeals by good deals. I make an excuse that I'm treating myself to something small and have to contain myself because I know how easy it is to get into debt, bad. On a good note, I'm almost done paying off one of my credit cards. One down and one to go. Woo hoo!

Here's a story to finish this blog.

The friend I mentioned above had ordered a skin care product from an infomercial. Murad stuff, I couldn't blame her (bad friend, BAD friend). She was called from the intercom system on the front door of the building. Someone said they had a package for her which caused her to worry because her package wasn't expected for about 3-5 days. Her mind got the best of her and she panicked thinking it could've been some maniac scamming his way into the building to attack women. So as the "delivery person" made his way up, she went into self-defense mode and planned whatever she could to protect herself from this "psycho". She grabbed a pair of sharp scissors and tucked them into the waist line in the back of her jeans and firmly planted her foot behind the peek hole-less front door because it opened inward and just in case this "maniac" tried to overtake her by thrusting the door open, she would be ready. As the approaching footsteps got louder, she got nervous. Her self-defense training came back and she knew that she would open the door enough to see the person with one eye, plant her foot behind it to prevent an intrusion, and have a hand on her scissors in case she had to defend herself.....
As it turns out, her skin care products were delivered ahead of schedule and she averted a crisis which mentally escalated to a "code red" status due to cabin fever and probably several lifetime movies.

The end.

Thundercats Alive and Well

Friday, November 12, 2004 Thundercats.......alive and well...LOL OK, so for those of us old enough to remember the Thundercats cartoon, you'll laugh at this one. I'm on the freeway driving my boat and behold this tiny little car, like an old Datsun or sumthin', enters the freeway. the driver's window is completely yellow, and I'm thinking it's the sun reflecting or something obvious, but as our cars get closer together, I realize it's this woman's hair! It's so big and teased out that it's actually PUSHING against her driver's side window as well as the roof! LOL thunder, THUNder, THUNDERCATS! HO! ho ho heee hee ooo heee haaaa LOL.

Space Dream

Monday, March 19, 2007

Neptune broke in half and had the center of a cadbury egg, except the core was blue. That's the dream I had. I saw the sun, the moon, and 2 planets in the sky, and when looking inward from the outside of the solar system, I saw poor neptune broke in half. I feel the same way. Call it what you want, but I feel broken, blue in the center and way out. Mouth twisted up and lips like coal, but wherever I am with you, I belong.....so says the song. A few things happened the other day that made me feel forgotten/stupid/...boo hoo...pity party....I keep telling myself to get over it, but when IS it o.k. to feel bad? I think of one incident, and I'm completely mortified by myself, I think of another, and feel soft, vulnerable, and beautiful. Conflicting feelings resulted in me falling asleep with a wet face and poofy eyes this morning. These are the times that I wish that my other half would be made known to me. sigh..... And life goes on, right?

Old post about the dentist 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

Dental Exam Current mood: groggy So I went to see my dentist yesterday to have a crown replaced. ( 18 Lower Left side.) My dentist had to saw off and remove the old crown, so it got a little nasty between the bloodbath in the "spit sink" and the smell of burning enamel. During the small periods of time where he would turn around to grab "this" and "that", I would make musical noises and rhythms with the vacuum tube. Maybe it's a nervous twitch, but it made me laugh. He thought I was listening to a comedy bit on my ipod, and I let him think so because I didn't think that it would've been as funny to him as it was to me that I was making a mockery of the very instrument that was saving me from dying in a pool of my own saliva. He was getting pretty aggressive with his work and I ended up getting wedged in his chest. I forgot what it was like to be so close to a man and it reminded me that human touch is important. It brings a sense of relief, security, solidarity and trust. Enough of that. So now I'm eating pistachios, yet I forget to only eat on the right side. Did you ever notice that If you suck on a (flavored) pistachio that it gets all gross once you open it? The meat inside looks like an extraterrestiral alien egg, just like in the movie "Aliens". (Aliens -part 2- was my favorite in the series.) Try it and you'll see that I'm right, that the saliva covered pistachio resembles the alien egg bursting forth. LOL! VIVA random thinking!! Here Here!

Some Things Will Always Be Annoying

I have been receiving home health services for nursing and therapy. I think the physical therapists are just over paid glorified baby sitters. That's a good thing though because it means that my hospital therapists did a good job on educating and strengthening me and that I'm strong and functional on my own. Out of 8 physical therapist visits I've learned NOTHING new. On top of that I pay a $20 copay for every person that comes to see me whether it be 5 minutes or 60. I should just give my mom money everyday because she does more and always goes over and beyond without ever complaining. Ever. EVER.

I've been holding on to the invoices until the services are terminated so that I can pay them in one payment. (Save a tree, right)

Hold on....fig newton break...only 1, I promise.....yummmm..fig newton..

Last week, I received a statement from Blue Cross describing their payment to the Home Health offices and I noticed 2 services billed for that were never done. Additionally I was scheduled to have 9 sessions with a CNA to help me bathe during my first weeks home, of which 8 were used because the last one was canceled due to a Dr.'s appointment. So now I have to make a bunch of phone calls trying to prove that I didn't receive that last treatment.

So I'm essentially annoyed at the mistakes made in the billing, especially because I do medical billing and I'm annoyed if it's not right. If people would just double check and not count on the client to catch their errors. YEARGH...FKFJKFJ;AJFDJFDJF ....I'm annoyed.

The other bothersome thing is that I have to do the legwork to prove that I didn't receive a service. They're telling me that they have the papers that I apparently initialed saying otherwise. Hell hath no fury sometimes. lol. This would be a lot funnier if we were speaking face to face and I would've told you all of this in about 2 minutes with funny faces and sarcastic overtones. ha ha.

I'm right doggonit!

I'm F.I.N.E.

I'm a get-up-and-go kind of gal and though my mind is still in that mode, my body is not. For the past few days I've been dealing with the inability to just leave bed, whether it's to get a glass of water, or to do something on the laptop. I can't reach the light switch so I haven't been able to read in bed, so I default to watching cable. Thank God for Roseanne reruns lol. I had a fear the other night that someone was in the house because a rickety type of noise (like someone trying to jiggle something large and heavy open) woke me up. I could've sworn that I saw light, like that of a flashlight, dancing down the stairs and fluttering on the small accordion door in my living area. Most likely it was my cats making the ruckus and my eyes playing tricks on me. A fear of not being able to jump out of bed "just in case" really bothers me, but I'm proud to say that I can finally get in and out of bed with almost zero assistance.

The future is uncertain. I recall my pastor telling me that though faith and fear don't live in the same house, they have one thing in common. Neither one can predict the future so you can either have faith in what's to come or fear it. Relationships have been on my mind, old flames, future possibilities. I wonder who God will put into my life and how it will happen. Kids have always been in the picture, but I really considered adopting because there are so many great kids out there. I think about where I'm going to live, how happy I'll be when I figure "it" out, and get back to where I started so I can worry about little things again, like what time I'm supposed to meet a friend for dinner.

For now I've been ignoring phone calls, opting to text people back because I don't feel like putting up a good face or answering the all purpose questions as well intended as they are meant. I'm still me inside, yet I find myself reaching the extreme ends of the human spectrum when it comes to how I "feel". "How are you?" is an automated question rendered when we greet one another. But when is it sincere? People ask me this question frequently, and "Fine" is usually my answer of choice, but I've answered, "o.k." or "I've had better days" which are generally true. I can be pretty honest if I know you well, but sometimes I hate to explain what I'm going through because sometimes I don't know what I'm going through or I'm trying not to think of how I am.

A friend from my support group told me that "fine" stood for:

F - f'd up
I - insecure
N - neurotic
E- Emotional

I laughed. Thanks Jeanette.

I write more when I'm depressed or on my way to the dark side. Getting it out alleviates the physical feeling. Writing forces me to face myself. Today was hard. The pain is slowly subsiding, but as the days go on (2 months and counting since I came home) I find myself trying to find steady ground again. I'm facebooking more often, but keeping up with my friends' hourly reports results in me missing my old life and trying to understand what my life is to be now. I know there's a purpose, yet my anxious child-like self is getting frustrated while waiting. My brother and his girlfriend have birthdays coming up and as much as he wants to include me, I know there are some places I just cannot navigate. I don't want him to change plans just for me but it makes me yearn for my old self, when I could run around and put something together for him or help him plan his special event. He likes to have a party every year and this year he wants to include my homecoming with the birthdays. I feel odd.

My inability to do things the old way leads me to feel dark. This is how I used to feel when I used to drink more often. Maybe it's the idea of "Why me God", then I think it's the apathetic part of me that knows I HAVE TO do things a new way. It's not even a choice, I can't just try to do things, I have to do things if I want to get around, eat, do laundry, etc. There is no lazy day or night anymore. Getting dressed is a 40 minute ordeal, I have to wake up at night to turn myself, to empty my bladder to make sure my legs are alright. Ugh. But mom is with me everyday to help me and Ollie and Kat avail themselves if I really need them. What is it that Yoda says? "There is no try, there is only do." hmm.

The summer is here, along with all of the salsa congresses, dancing under the stars, outings with friends, trips, and things that were already rituals of my life. I've been telling myself to suck it up because life will get better. I know from past experiences that this is not the end. I didn't want any visitors at the house for awhile because of the adjustment period, yet I welcome them because these are the people who care enough to think about me, the ones who carried me through the last 4 months, through life.

My thoughts are random so I hope this wasn't hard to follow and I'm sorry if I've not returned your calls or have abstained from human contact. I just don't know who I am sometimes.