Monday Check-In....

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is having a good day. The past two weeks have been horrible with excruciating pain and sleeping only two hours. Last night I had hubby put the foamies from our son's bed (he grew up and moved out a while back) on to our bed and oh my what a difference it made. I was actually able to sleep for 7 hours. Of course this meant that I slept too long and woke up in pain but nothing like I had been going through.

I definitely have to say that how much or how little sleep I get always has an impact on how my pain levels are. I'm still waiting to hear from the neurosurgeon and I really hope it's not too much longer. For now I just take it hour by hour and try to relax as much as possible. Thank goodness for cross stitch. Anyway, not much planned for the week other than resting and stitching.

Have a wonderful week everyone!
Lynn

Hope everything is going well for everyone. And if you are having a bad day, I'm sorry!

My weekend was uneventful. Toughest part was going across town to help my mother shop for new tile as she is having my brother re-tile 3 of her bathrooms in a couple of weeks. Extremely boring and I was on my feet and walking around much longer than I am used to, so the pain was bad last night.

Not much else going on. Just having some parenting time issues that I am trying to resolve with my ex-wife. Everything was going well until she found out I was on fentanyl patches, and knowing her as well as I do, she probably googled fentanyl and found out how strong it is and how many people have died from it. She immediately (as of last week) stopped allowing me my designated parenting time according to our court order. I have done nothing wrong and I am very aware of my surroundings especially when I am with my son while I am using my patches. I don't even use my BT meds when I am with him.

So long story short, I filed several motions against her, and just got a document back from the judge saying we need to get into mediation over this dispute within 60 days. If we cannot agree, we have to go back to court to let a judge decide. I'm just really upset about it since I haven't seen my son for over a week and have not been able to have my phone calls with him nightly as my ex-wife is not even letting me do that. My birthday is tomorrow and I am supposed to have him for the day. I am not sure if my ex-wife will drop him off or not. I am about 50% sure she will but then again, she probably won't.

Sorry for ranting. Its just aggravating given that after 1.5 years of going through a divorce and getting it finalized, she decides to go against the court order and do what she feels "is best", even though everything has been signed. Now I have to jump through hoops to even get a judge to look at the case. Worst case scenario is after 60 days and mediation, I have another 7 days to wait to see a judge to see my son. I have never been neglectful or harmful to my son. Far from it. I just want to be there for him so he knows who his real dad is (my ex-wife is seeing someone else and has my son calling him "dad" and me by my first name).

Sigh.

Sorry every having such a hard time and I hope you all get some resolution soon.

Brett that's ludicrous and I hope the judge has enough sense to see her ploy for what it is,a control issue,and charged her with custodial interference.

It makes me so mad to see a dad trying to do the right thing and Moms who otherwise wouldn't know "best interest" if it was her name uses it as an excuse to not allow them their rights.

If it was you violating that order and refusing to let her have him back out of best interest,you would be charged with kidnapping.

Hoping she realizes shes hurting her son too and how's that in his best interest?

Not much other the an eye doctor appointment this week and otherwise just trying to stay warm.

Vickie

Hi all,

I haven't checked in a while, so I thought I'd pop in and say hi & give everyone a bit of an update!

This is my last week of class, then we have finals all next week, followed by spring break! We have a vary odd schedule that is not semesters, trimesters, or quarters. Essentially, the school does whatever they want, and each year in the program is slightly different schedule wise. It is grad school, and the school basically owns us for 4 yrs, so they can do whatever they want. After spring break, we will start a new set of courses that run through the end of May.

Pain has been way up (today has been an especially awful day for me). I know it is from all the reading and studying, but the stress of exams & not sleeping also aren't helping things. Plus I'm still recovering from a nasty respiratory, sinus, and ear infection that I had a few weeks ago (my eyes get worse when I am sick). I basically see all my docs over spring break, so we'll undoubtably be having chats about my present condition, and where to go from here. Honestly, I know what they are all going to say, but we still have to have the conversation -- even though it is the same one that we have pretty much every visit (aka there is nothing more that can be done other than play with the pain meds a bit, but we are quite limited in what I can take due to my metabolic disorder).

Vision is also worse, but again, that is no surprise. My eyes have also been noticeably more dry the last few weeks, which is due to progression of one of my autoimmune diseases of the eyes. I'm not happy about that, but I know there is nothing we can do at this time. We've basically just got to let this thing ride itself out over the next couple years, and then maybe there will be some treatment options. I'm just hoping they don't find any new problems, as it seems they always do...

Anyways, I've just got to get though these next two weeks, and then I'll get a little bit of a break. Maybe then the pain will calm down a little. It just doesn't have a chance right now, as my eyes get no break. I am usually doing some form of school work (in class or studying), and thus using my eyes heavily for 18 - 20 hrs every day, 7 days a week.

"One day at a time..."

Skeye

Brett - I'm sorry for all of the things you are going through w/ your ex-wife and so forth. That's awful.... It sounds like she is just doing all of this out of spite.... and like Vickie said - that ultimately hurts your son :( I hope this all works out. Please let us know....

Skeye - Yep - "One day at a Time" :) That's the only way that I survive my life, too. Just wanted to say that I'm proud of you for doing so well w/ school....! I really am. You aren't letting things hold you back - and you should feel really good about that. Good luck on these next couple of important weeks - and then, yay! - spring break :)

Take care everyone. --Tina

Laura!

That sounds so painful and awful :( Praying that this eye situation heals up quickly.... with no long term vision issues. Maybe you need some IV antibiotics? Sounds like they just went w/ oral or topical ones?

I'm sorry for this new thing that you absolutely did NOT need. :( Feel better, my friend.... Love, Tina

Thanks, Tina! I'm very proud of how far I've gotten despite all my problems. It has certainly not been an easy road getting here. Many days are rough, but I do my best to push through. You have to accept that you can only do what you can do. I definitely have limitations, but I'm trying to make the best out of my situation. Some days I lose sight of that, but most days I muddle through. Only 3 1/4 more years to go! Lets hope I'm able to keep this up!

Skeye