De Quervain's Tenosynovitis

After several days of pain/numbness/tingling/burning sensations in my left wrist, I reported the injury to my supervisor at work. I'm a stubborn person when it comes to pain; living with chronic back/neck pain has made me a pretty tolerant person when it comes to dealing with pain. This wrist pain, however, was no fun at all. Mostly, it was the burning sensations and the numbness that concerned me; these symptoms flared up at work and carried over to my home and social life. I mean, I couldn't even twist the cap off of a milk jug- how sad is that?

So my supervisor, who was just recently promoted to said position, got to share in a fabulous Work Care adventure with me. I had been to Work Care once before, so I knew what to expect. I saw an extremely butch woman there, and we exchanged the universal gay nod before we proceeded to ignore each other. My supervisor fidgeted and looked through a parenting magazine with me, where we mocked unusual toys such as the "placenta teddy bear" (I'm not even making that up). When I was called back to see a doctor, I just answered a bunch of questions and succumbed to the usual exam. When the doctor informed me that I had "de quervain's tenosynovitis", my first reaction was to say "gesundheit." Then, when I realized that she had actually stated the medical name of some condition, I wondered if she had just made it up. She explained everything to me, and I was given a brace to wear for the time being. The brace is incredibly annoying, as it prevents me from moving/utilizing my thumb. Since what I have means that the tendons attached to my thumb are horribly inflamed and not functioning properly, the brace is doing the right thing; still, it's frustrating because I'm so used to being able to use my thumbs for everyday tasks. It's also bulky and likes to get in the way of everyday activities.

So, the doctor at Work Care also said that I shouldn't be using my left hand at all. It's been a whole day and work still hasn't decided what to do with me. I hate the way that people make you feel at work when you've been injured. They look at you like you're trying to scam them, or like the injury is your fault. It's not my fault that I'm injured- I do everything that I'm supposed to: stretches, ergonomics, etc. It doesn't help that the new head of HR doesn't like me very much, so that's just been adding to my stress.

Needless to say, it's been a crazy week. I'm ready for my long weekend. I can't believe that I'll be turning 28 soon. Time has been flying by... Where will my next adventures take me?

So Long, Oprah...

I hate to jump on the proverbial bandwagon, but I'd feel somewhat remiss if I didn't say something about the end of an era. Her first show aired in 1984; the last aired in 2011. I was less than a year old when she began her television career, but I remember her presence in our household throughout most of my life. Although I liked to tease my mom about her love of Oprah, I had to hand it to her... she fought hard to overcome adversity and wound up building a veritable empire for herself. It's a little weird to think that her talk show won't be a part of my mom's routine anymore: no more stories about what she saw on Oprah, or any nagging tips based on information she received from the latest episode of Oprah.

I'll admit that I enjoyed watching Oprah's giveaway episodes, as well as the episodes where she and her BFF (Gayle) did random things (like embark on a cross-country road trip).

Apparently, her last episode was "uneventful" in that it didn't feature any special gimmicks or focus on celebrity appearances; rather, it was centered on Oprah delivering a heartfelt "thank you" to the audience that's followed her faithfully over the years. Her final words?

"I thank you for sharing this yellow brick road of blessings. I thank you for tuning in everyday... I thank you for being as much of a sweet inspiration for me as I’ve tried to be for you. I won’t say good-bye. I’ll just say, Until we meet again. To God be the glory."

Although I have no interest in being a talk show host, I have to admit... it would be pretty cool to have as much of an impact on people as Oprah did. I'm sure that she'll continue to be influential and successful in whatever she does next. Thanks for the memories, Oprah... my mom, for one, will definitely miss you!

AFLAC!

Maybe it's my love of ducks, but I'm a little obsessed with this new commercial...

Aflaaaaaaaac!

It's the End of the World As We Know It

...and I feel fine.

Assuming the rapture doesn't occur tomorrow, I may actually sit down and write something of substance. Hopefully, the fact that's been raining all week isn't some sort of flood omen. I didn't have nearly enough time to build an ark.

Home Grown

It's FINALLY starting to warm up in Utah! One of my favorite things about this time of year is growing my own vegetables. Well, I live in an apartment right now, so technically I borrow my parents' yard for my agricultural pursuits. My parents have more time to spend on gardening, but I like to pitch in whenever I can.

For the past few years, my parents have experimented with growing a variety of vegetables. My favorite? The tomatoes. Their tomatoes taste so much better than the tomatoes we buy in the stores during the rest of the year. Maybe it's the lack of pesticides, maybe it's because they were planted/tended with a little more TLC, or maybe it's a combination of both. Whatever the reason, I can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen.

It's the little things...

It's Been Awhile

Wow, I have a lot to say. I also need to finish up a few blog posts that I've saved as drafts. Maybe someday I'll actually have a few readers! One can dream, eh?

School has kept me busy for the past few months. Now that I've completed these classes, I can apply for the graduate certificate program, which is a prerequisite for the master's degree program that I'm interested in. So, it looks like I'll be taking three or four classes next semester, but at least this time I'll qualify for loans and grants. School definitely isn't cheap... sad but true.

Work is still work... boring and slightly irritating. Oh well, another day another dollar. At least I have a job. It's our slow season right now, which is good and bad. Good because it gives us more opportunities to leave early, and bad because I wish they were offering overtime right now. It's been hard to put a lot of money in savings when I have school bills to pay. It's worth it, no arguments there... just frustrating at times, because there are other things that I want to do, too.

Speaking of which, I sure wish the weather would improve. We had a few days of summer weather before the nasty winter weather popped up once again. Utah has only two seasons, I swear... summer and winter. I'm ready for the summer! I want to be outdoors. I want to go fishing, camping, shooting, and hiking. I'd also like to go boating and maybe even tubing. I have a few short road trips in mind, too, if I can hustle up some cash. I'd sure like to go hiking around Moab or the Grand Canyon... it would also be fun to visit the Coors factory in Colorado. Just sayin'.

Oh well. Enough rambling for tonight; I'll finish some older blog posts tomorrow and we'll go from there...!