Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Clear and cold, headed to the 50's

Shaking - 5

Neck Pain - 3
Upper Back Pain - 5

Fatigue - 4
Foggy Head - 5

Tinitus - 4
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 9

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 4

Sleep Kick - 0

Main problem is with stomach. Was sick last night and had to take imodium to get to sleep. I seem to feel OK right now. I have to get back to making 2 entries here today. Back pain is up, so is balance problems. Should be and interesting day.

Freeman this morning, then Demo of the paid programing project this afternoon. A lot of work to do there. That's my focus for today and the weekend, along with biz registrations and setting the foundation for marketing of the price leader product.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - 50's and sunny

 

Shaking - 5

Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 2

Fatigue - 7
Foggy Head - 3

Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 4
Hand Numb - 0

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 9

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 4

Sleep Kick - 0

 

Last night was sick with gastro stuff at midnight after liaz.

 

Today's site visit went well, but was exhausting. Only 7 hours production. But given the problems with gastro and the fatigue, I did pretty well. Appt with Freeman tomorrow morning. Wonder how I'll feel.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, Raining Again

Shaking - 4

Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 4

Fatigue - 6
Foggy Head - 4

Tinitus - 4
Ears Full - 4
Hand Numb - 0

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 6

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 2

Sleep Kick - 3

 

Not a bad day, considering the rain. Conference call in the morning, then a marketing event (very successful). Then home to work tomorrows installation phase 2. Was really tired around 2pm when returning from the marketing networking event, but I got through it, just doing follow-up calls. Light day hour wise though.... 7.1 hours and no energy left. Given that I'm off site tomorrow, I'm not going to push it, but shut down.

 

Good progress on the paid programming job, culminating in a site visit on Feb 9th. Should be interesting. Got my first potential lead for a webex on Friday. I think the total market is around $900k. Also think our part of it is between $20-$50k per year. That would pay the bills.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, Threatening Rain

 

Shaking - 6

Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 3

Fatigue - 5
Foggy Head - 5

Tinitus - 7
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0

Spatial Orientation - 5

Gastro - 8

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 4

Sleep Kick - 5

 

Back to the full head, tinitus, spatial oritentation problems. Is it associated with the weather? Time to move to Arizona? Having problems with focusing already. But the plan is to push through it today. I'll try to make an afternoon entry to update how I did.

 

No energy yesterday, Could be I pushed too hard last week. BUT, I didn't do much on Sunday at all. Could have been a "focus on the job" thing. Will find out today as there is no slop in my schedule now.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, Sunny

Shaking - 4

Neck Pain - 1
Upper Back Pain - 2

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 3 (with headache)
Tinitus - 6
Ears Full - 3
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 3

Gastro - 6

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 4

 

Normal sleep. Site visit this morning, it went well. Problems yesterday focusing when at church. Problems with mental focus this morning, hoping to turn it around this afternoon. Going to bail on the charity programming job, need to focus on revenue producing activities.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, threatening rain.

 

Shaking - 5

Neck Pain - 1
Upper Back Pain - 4

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 5 (with headache)
Tinitus - 8
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 4

Insomnia = 0

Eye Focus - 5

 

Got 11 hours of sleep. Feel very loagy and unsteady. Tinitus is really bad. Frontal headache. Back pain evident again. Took 2 Excedrin Migrane first thing this morning.

 

This morning was the last of the oral steroids (yea!). I've got an active day planned, but it probably includes some rest to get ready for next week. Only 3 weeks left to my 2 custom programming deadlines. One is about half there, the other is no where near the finish. Should be interesting

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and mild.

 

Shaking - 6 (evident putting the printer ribbon in, shaking in front of the client)
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 3

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 4
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 5

Gastro - 4

Insomnia = 7 (took single benedryl Thursday night)

 

Heavy work, 11.9 hours. Orientation and shaking problems, got better as the day went on. Since I was on site with a client, I made sure I moved slowly and deliberately. Finished the on-site around noon, home around 1. Very tired, but very satisfied. Slight back and neck pain started, the neck probably due to stress. But I was in euphoria of actually putting in what I thought to be an "acceptable" week of 50 hours. If you follow the "set number of beers" philosophy of Multiple Sclerosis, my weekend is going to be trashed. At this point, I don't care. I need to keep pushing as I'm up against it with 3 clients. Either I can pull the load, or it'll break me..... neurology consult next Friday.....

 

Updating this a day late because of the installation at the client. Basically, I was in "overdrive" mode, with almost 12 hour in. I under scoped the amount of data I had to comb for the database import. Got all the PN's in, but didn't have the BOM loaded or the portable tested. When I got there, he had a single Window's laptop, and 2 macs running XP in the Fusion emulator. Hoo boy. I thought I was going to lose the account. Amazingly, everything installed, and as I played it for the client, he was happy. End of the day felt victorious....heard from another client who wants some mods on something I did 4 years ago. He's running it every month and it runs like a champ. Gives me reason to contact the Hobbitzes again.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Clear and cool. Sunny and 50 degrees predicted.

 

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 4

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 5
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 5

Gastro - 5

Insomnia = 0

 

Missed the entry yesterday, was incredibly busy trying to get things stabilized with the 3 projects I'm working. Good production, almost 10 hours. Toward the end of the day my uppper back became sore, and I got the "head full" feeling. Some problems with spatial orientation and mild vertigo. A second or 2 or disorientation, then back to normal.

 

This morning I'm back to the classic moderate hand shaking, mild fatigue, upper back pain, and full head/tinitus/ears full stuff. Got a full day prepping for tomorrow's installation with additions to the distributable as time and energy is available. So, I'll be pushing hard. Maybe I overdid it - shoveling snow yesterday, shoveling / walking on Tuesday. Good nights sleep last night. I'll take it easy physically today, with a rest in mid-afternoon if required.

 

Worried about the 9th through the 16 of Feb. Out of state site visit and the charity job heavy system use.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Snow and Cold. Possible flurries today
Shaking - 2
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 1

Fatigue - 2
Foggy Head - 1
Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 2
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 3

Gastro - 5

 

About and inch of snow on the ground, with another 2" expected by noon. Beautiful outside.

 

Yesterday, I had a superior day. After 12 noon, I felt completely normal - the first time since all this started in late May. No coorelation to any event, just the peak of the steroids?

 

9.9 hours in. Most of it on the paid programming project. That's starting to be a bit of a toil...a lot of work on a "fancy" form yesterday, with 3 or 4 report and email action forms on tap for today. Tomorrow is getting the inventory installation straightened out. Lunch with the guy who wrote it tomorrow. But today, I'm optimistic about prospects. Really feeling better. Slight problem in there are no publishing sales, nor are there any prospects for revenue in February. Should be interesting.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Damp and Cool. Possible flurries today
Shaking - 5
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 1

Fatigue - 4
Foggy Head - 4
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 4
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 7

 

OK. This entry means I'm caught up again. REALLY behind the ball with work, but hopeful to be able to dig out today. Kids have the day off, so its going to be hard, I have to set up Chip's basketball net thingy for him.

 

Good night's sleep, with an angel visiting to give me meds at around 2am. Didn't get awakened by cramps. Feel  "normal" today vs yesterday. The majority of my problems was the stomach bug, and it seems like its moving on today. I'm hopeful, at least, about getting some heavy programming work done today. Last week's production 35.6 hours, down from the week prior. But there was the cognitive testing and the stomach bug. Ugh. Is there any hope for me being able to make it?

 

I'm optimistic bout this week though. Have to be, or I'll get buried.  Maybe I'm buried already but don't want to admit it......

Missed updating over the weekend. This is a catch-up. Values are combined over the 2 days.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Rainy and Cold
Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 1
Upper Back Pain - 2

Fatigue - 6
Foggy Head - 6
Tinitus - 6
Ears Full - 6
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 8

Gastro - 9

 

Very disappointing weekend. Got about 1.5 hours in on Saturday morning. At Chip's game, I was having problems focusing my eyes and had to really concentrate to see what was going on with the game. Saturday night, was awakened by abdominal cramps - I think it was a stomach virus.Between the weather change Saturday afternoon and the bug, I was completely debilated Sunday with cramps and a killer headache. To bed and asleep by 8pm both days. Sleep on Sunday morning for 2 hours in the morning in the chair. No energy. Constant and persistant cramps. Wifey got me child tabs of ibuprofin on Sunday afternoon and that helped with the headache. Good sleep on Sunday night.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and Very Cold

Shaking - 4
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 1

Fatigue - 1
Foggy Head - 4
Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 3
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 6

Gastro - 6

 

Generally, I feel "foggy" this am. No benedryl, but I only got 7 hours of sleep, and have been short sleep all week. At least I'm motivated to get up early to get at the day. Most of the reason is the uncertainty I have every morning of getting through the day without having to rest. Ah, the joys of MS.

 

Couple of notes from yesterday. Went grocery shopping, and got emotional about having to use the "self check-out" line. I don't know if it was that or the problems I have navigating when I'm out, but when I got home I was exhausted. Good work production. Got project research done, the canned inventory program installed and started my familiarization, and got draft work done on the custom programming job. Not the kind of progress I'd like, but I can't argue that I'm getting the hours in. I've got to try to limit the loss of "multi-hour" blocks of time. This week was the 5 hours for the cognitive testing, then 2.5 hours yesterday for the groceries and exhaustion after.

 

But, I feel like I'm making progress. I'm also rapidly concluding that what I'm trying to do might be too much for anyone, and that the old company was due to "right place right time" stuff, not on my ability to put in massive hours - I didn't. I've never really been successful at the building a local business thing, was marginally successful at the distributable software thing, and moderately successful at the web sales thing. Unfortunately, the latter isn't going to happen for a while yet. Got to figure a way to be successful at the other 2, and the clock is ticking.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and cold

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 1
Upper Back Pain - 3

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 3
Tinitus - 2
Ears Full - 2
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 5

Gastro - 2

 

Way behind so this will be a short entry. Spent most of the day doing variety stuff. Paid bills, client conf call, worked biz registrations, did some SEO linkbuilding tests. That was about it. Had a good day, and felt like I accomplished something. But now its crunch time on the programming. Hopefully, today will be productive.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and cold

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 2

Fatigue - 5
Foggy Head - 3
Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 4
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 4

Gastro - 4

 

Not very much production yesterday, only put in 3.7 hours as I had the cognitive testing from 8am to 1pm. The tests were comprehensive, and I got exhausted both paying attention to the tasks, and dealing with the losses I perceived as the tests were going on. Most of the losses seemed to be in simple short term memory stuff. Repeating number sequences back. Telling back a story.  Naming different animals. Things that start with the letter "S". It was humbling to say the least. But, I have to prepare myself for the results to say that I'm normal, have losses, could have always been that way, psychologically created the losses. I gotta tell you, this really stinks.

 

I sat in the recliner for around an hour after I got home, and concluded that I wasn't going to do anything else for the day. But the hour made all the difference in the world for stamina. I didn't do any other work later in the day but felt that I could have. I just took Chip to BBall practice and then watched 2 hours of American Idol (a family tradition). Hopefully it will be better today.

 

The list stays the same except that I made the hardware shipment. Have a conference call with #1 this morning, but nothing to report and won't have anything for a week.

 

1) Paid programming revisions and new module - can't get it done on time

2) SEO

3) Distributable Marketing

4) Up to speed on next weeks installation

5) Woman owned business registration start

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and cold

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 0

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 2
Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 3
Hand Numb - 0 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 2

Gastro - 6

 

Good day yesterday. I had to take an hour break at 1pm as my upper back was so sore I couldn't concentrate. I took a walk, then took some ibuprofin and reclined in the chair for a while. Didn't sleep but the time there and the meds improved how my back was feeling. Good production yesterday as far as time put in - 10.5 hours total. Early start this morning as I have cognitive testing at 8am and had prep to do for a hardware shipment. Here's what's pressing and behind on my list:

1) Paid programming revisions and new module - can't get it done on time

2) Make the shipment

3) SEO

4) Distributable Marketing

5) Up to speed on next weeks installation

 

In general, I still feel like I'm doing pretty well at this baseline after the oral and IV steroid treatment. From what I remember last time, I'll have about a week of this, then it will degrade a bit to the 85% baseline. Unfortunately, I have to make money and progress on the business so I can't dally analysing it. Going to cut down the entries here to 1 per day as I'm feeling better, have a full plate work-wize and have some hope of getting some of the work done this week. Since the weekend wasn't very productive, I'm now playing catch up.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and cold

Shaking - 5
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 1

Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 2
Tinitus - 2
Ears Full - 1
Hand Numb - 2 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 3

Gastro - 9 (Since being sick at Dicks yesterday around 5pm)

 

I still feel like I've improved, but its not a steady baseline. Yesterday was a very bad day - from the start I was shaky and unsteady. In the beginning of the day there was a fair amount of fatigue, and it was difficult to get a start on anything. Did some business support stuff early in the morning, then went to church. After church, Razor blew up. The upheval of that pretty much blew the rest of the day, although I got an hour in on "list organization" - getting all my ActionItems listed in Phatnotes and organized by a color priority. I needed to do that as I had 3 separate sets of lists. Now they're all in one place and all I have to do is be disciplined enough to use Phatnotes to keep track of them. The complete compiled list has 90 entries going back to September (the last time I got to "reset" with the IV steroid treatments). So I'm ready to go again.

 

This time I'll make my plans based on 6-10 weeks of relative stability, and plan nothing heavy after that point. I don't know if its realistic, but I have to lay in some kind of plan so I can project where I am.

 

Worried about sales of the printing product. 12 days elapsed this month, and only 1 base sale. Its nothing like it was last month. Oh well, I've got some local prospects and projects for 2 web based customers to finish this month which should give me base revenue.

 

 

Not very good this morning.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and Mild, changing to rain tonight

Shaking - 7
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 6

Fatigue - 6
Foggy Head - 5
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 1 (but from running the leaf blower)

Spatial Orientation - 6

Up late last night. I don't know whether it was the physical activity of leaf blowing, the change of the weather to rainy, or allergies. I took 2 benedryl. Didn't get up until 7:15 this morning. I have some swelling at the dental surgery site to the front of the mouth. I've been using it more and I tend to grind my teeth when I sleep, so that could be the problem there. I have a follow up with the oral surgeon this week, so I'm hopeful that if there's a problem he will catch it.

Very fatigued this morning, not better with time or coffee. Feels like a week ago. I have to get programming and organizational work done today, so I'll be pushing to focus. Today should be interesting.

TO DO Notes:

1) Put in Predinizone schedule

2) Put in History of latest multiple sclerosis exacerbation and treatment

3) Graphs of the numeric values above.

Was looking at the site stats last night, and I can't put off link building any more. I have to devote 10 or so hours per week to it starting this week. Critical, cause I only have one sale in the first half of this month.

Chip did great at basketball. Had his first Upward game today. I'm always impressed with his ability to grasp the "team" part of things, and this was no exceptions. Wifey sees that he has potential, that he is athletic. And he scored 2 baskets. We're so proud of him. Tomorrow, we go to try to find him a hoop we can hang on the side of the garage, so we can work on his technique. But, uh, I was getting a little too into in...like a typical competitive parent I guess. With things being so crappy for me lately, I'll take it.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Sunny and Mild, changing to rain tonight

Shaking - 5
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 4 (6 before Advil) 
Fatigue - 6
Foggy Head - 3
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 0

 

Pretty good day. Got caught up in finishing setting the security camera system in place, and that led me to consider cleaning the office because I had to blow out the main PC anyway. I'm always amazed at how dirty the office gets. The one at the old house could go for 60 days without a cleaning, where this one is being cleaned all the time. Is it the dogs? That its more central? The shredder? I don't know but I'm going to have to come up with a solutions.

 

Part of the problem in the office today was that there was a bunch of stuff that wouldn't fit in the book cases, so I cleaned them. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had and hour in the system and 4 hours in cleaning. Good news is that its done. Started to get fatigued at the end of the day, but went out and blew leaves for an hour and a half so I could check SOMETHING off my list. Currently, I'm tired and I've got some back pain, but I still feel good. The challenge will be tomorrow, where I have to go "heads down" on programming for 4-6 hours. Should be interesting.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool and Clear

Shaking - 7
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 2
Fatigue - 0
Foggy Head - 3
Tinitus - 3
Ears Full - 3
Hand Numb - 0

 

 

Call the baseline after the steroids at 7 days. Jan 3 was last IV. Yesterday was the first "normal" day.

If yesterday was the "good" baseline, then today is a bit of degredation from there, mostly on the shakines and fine motor skill areas. It feels like I took benedryl to sleep last night, although I didn't. No problems this morning with fatigue at all, couldn't wait to get started on the day. Note the emotional shock of losing the CD last night (its found now-was on the old PC between the covers. Right where it should've been, but I thought it was supposed to be in the bag of software on top of the PC). Humorous moments with Wifey when she suggested that we look for it together. The problem was where to look. If you abandoned the assumption that there was some logic to where I put it, then you might as well start looking behind picture frames and under the rugs, 'cause I could have just as easily concluded that that was the logical place to put it.

 

VideoPC up and running. I AM THE KING!

 

Should be a very active day. BBall game this morning. Then leaf blowing. Then box. Then programming. Then anything else I can get to on my list. I'm optomistic about being able to get through the day. Yesterday, I logged over 8.5 hours of work (light on the programming as where I'm at on the charity job has me in a logical rats nest). But the good news is that I hung in there and kept working until 9:30 pm, I had stamina, and my brain was working!

 

I'll let you know.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool and Clear

Shaking - 5
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 5
Fatigue - 5
Foggy Head - 2
Tinitus - 2
Ears Full - 2
Hand Numb - 0

The consensus is that I'm improving. Full day today, with plenty of energy. Very little programming, but finished the proposals and did some networking with no problems.

 

BUT, I lost the camera software for the new PC that came today. It was in my software box, and I pulled it out and put it in the bag with the copy of Windows XP for the dead machine, knowing that I'd need it to put on the new machine. I loaded the OS tonight, but there's no software in the bag. Its been sitting there since I ordered the PC on Monday, and the CD hasn't shown up anywhere near my desk through the week.

 

This stuff really sucks bad.

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool and Clear

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 1
Upper Back Pain - 4
Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 3
Tinitus - 4
Ears Full - 4
Hand Numb - 0

I feel like I'm improving, regardless of the pain meds. The symptoms aren't as severe. Can it have something to do with the change in the weather? Am I going nuts? At some point, I'll graph the numeric data with the weather and the other benchmarks to see if it coorelates. That should be interesting to hand to a neurologist.

No posting last night, as I got tied up in proposals (felt like I wasted a bunch of time) and had to take Razor to his final class for Teen Court.

The GP called yesterday afternoon. Spoke with Bowman. Nothing changed, although from the tone of her voice she was proud of herself. "I''ll see you in March and we'll discuss it then". hahaha. So I only have to make it to March, huh? Did say that Bowman still "suspects" that I have Multiple Sclerosis. Nothing in her message about his "treatment plan" for me. Ugh. She said he wants me to fax over the BCBS list of participating psychiatrists so he can "pick" one. I'm thinking "screw that". Why would I go with his choice - because of his unerring judgement so far? This is so flummoxing and frustrating.

There are 3 troubling aspects to all this:

1) There's no way to expedite the process through the neurologists. She was going to try to pull up the appointment with Bowman's associate, but didn't mention anything about it. So the schedule that Bowman set is the schedule and there's no changing it. Cognitive testing on the 13th. Second opionion on the 30th. Set in stone. Go fish! (I'm secretely hoping one of them gets some fringe disease that throws their lives in limbo where they can't effectively work and they have to rely on the complacency and ambivalence of medical professionals to help them as their lives fall slowly apart!) ooooh that makes me feel better now.

2) The psychiatric component proposal, although it may be effective, seems counter-productive. If you have neurological stuff going on that you can define and are hesitant to treat, isn't using psych med treatments going to stir the pot and make the neurologic part harder to sort out? Doesn't make sense to me unless you're in the "treat the symptoms" mode. I don't have anything treating the symptoms because Bowman just "suspects" I have MS.

3) Basically, you're left on your own. Although the GP had a sympathetic bed side manner, nothing changes. Its amazing that the operators in the health care system have been reduced to having no curiosity, no initiative, no focused activity on the patient. 7 months, and no progress. No prognosis. No treatment plan. THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS? The human component is gone. See above #1 above for my secret hope for them.

Well, wasted enough time this morning. I'm actually doing pretty well with the amount of hours spent on work this week, although on Monday and Tuesday it was excruciating to put them in. More on that later.

Lets do some fun stuff first. I want one of those things! I love little PC's, having purchased a 1.5 pound JVC almost 3 years ago. I got tired of hauling a "regular" laptop around with me, and running our internet business, I had little choice but to be connected and working no matter where I went or what I did. I thought I was wierd, and was totally surprised by the popularity of the "Netbooks" of late. I think the swing point for everyone jumping on the band wagon is the pricing.... I paid over $2k for the JVC, but you can buy an Asus E for less than $500. The Vaio P has a hefty price, and there's no word of how comfortable the keypad is. So if the pricing assumptions I'm making are true, it won't be a big seller.

 

But alas, I'm not in the investment mode. From the business perspective (and what's going on medically) I need to keep spending to a minimum, and fight for every dollar of revenue. I did make some investments in the last couple of weeks though. A new Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 to replace the 3 externals I had on my desk because I was afraid I'd have them start failing. (I had an old Iomega network drive that failed on me 6 months ago, wiping out the "early" development work I had archived). I also purchased a Synaps 21.6" wide screen monitor to make my posting and devlopment tasks easier ($150 from Tiger Direct). Finally, with the weakening economy and living in an urban area, I decided to install the camera security system we used at the old house. The PC that drove the system got wet in the move (a long story), but still worked. When I hooked it up, I just couldn't live with the whine of the power supply and CPU fan so I tried to clean and oil them. It didn't work, and I killed the PC. So I got a cheap Systemax system for $ $300. I have all the software, and the video card was working, so the postulation is that I can upgrade the PC part of the system for a minimal amount of money.

 

And I have more laptops than you can shake a stick at. The JVC interlink is sitting around, the screen is too small to be effective at anything heavy.  I still use Wifey's Dell Inspiron 6000 (replaced with a Vaio VGN-CR220E last Christmas) around the house when I want to work but don't want to sit in the office. Then there's the Dell Latitude D420 - a super machine. I use that one for client calls and when I travel. Light, great battery life and durable. So you can see that I don't need any more laptops. Still, wouldn't it be nice?

 

Can you believe you can get a desktop PC for $300? Who woulda thunk? My gut tells me that its gonna get better too, as PC's rarely need to be replaced, and other than using them for graphics applications, there's no compelling reason to change out an older one used for general development with a more powerful one. I think we're going to go back to the way it was 6-7 years ago, where you upgraded the components - add a drive, memory, maybe a better processor - because you don't want the cost and inconvenience of buying and setting up a new system.

 

So that's it. Shouldn't have done it. I had a good December money wize and wanted to reward myself. Morale is everything!!!

 

Links to recent investments:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST903203FDA2E1-RK-FreeAgent-Portable-External/dp/B001FWBV1E Seagate FreeAgent Go 320

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4348152&cm_mmc=Email-_-WebletMain-_-WEBLET03ORDER-_-03order&SRCCODE=WEBLET03ORDER - Synapse 21.6" Widescreen Monitor

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4195811&cm_mmc=Email-_-WebletMain-_-WEBLET03ORDER-_-03order&SRCCODE=WEBLET03ORDER - Systemax Intel Celeron Dual Core PC

 

 

 

 

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool and Cloudy

Shaking - 7
Neck Pain - 5
Upper Back Pain - 8
Fatigue - 5
Foggy Head - 5
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 4

Good meeting with the GP this morning. She said that the last communciation that she had from the neurologist was December 5th, and it indicated a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. I went through the history, and how almost 7 months have gone by and there's still no treatment plan and the symptoms are still the same. When I outlined that the Dr. Bowman, the neurologist at Raleigh Neurology told me that it wasn't MS and that they weren't going to treat it as such, she said "Its time to get another neurologist". She mentioned that the conginitive testing that is scheduled for the 13th is critical to understand what's going on. Related that the testing was very elegant and can identify damage and impairment to sections of the brain and nervous system. It would have been nice if Dr. Bowman could have explained that to me, not just that cognitive functioning loss wasn't a key symptom of MS. Anyway, here's the plan that the GP is going to help with:

 

1) Will call Bowman to get his latest notes for my file. Will discuss the diagnosis. Will discuss trying to get the appointment moved up quicker from the end of the month with his associate.

2) Will try to line up a visit to a psychiatrist so we can get started on medication to help me with cognitive loss and the pain stuff so I can at least feel better. She said that the "disease" is probably causing some symptoms (like fatigue and inability to focus) that can be treated by a psychiatrist. At any rate, I'll need one involved at some point in the process to integrate the treatment.

3) Wait for the follow-up with Bowman's associate for an "in-practice" second opinion. She said that he'll either agree with Bowman or not. If he agrees, then she'll give me a referral to Duke. If he doesn't agree, if he thinks its MS, then he should treat it, and the related symptoms. If its outside his scope, then he'll probably give me a referral to Duke on his own.

4) Come back to her for a follow-up in the first week in March to make sure we're making progress.

 

Nice lady. I felt like she understood my situation and my frustration.

 

In the course of the discussion, it became apparent that this is going to take more time - significantly more time. I don't have a problem with that, as long as we're makeing headway towards a diagnosis and a treatment plan, and I can get something (anything) that makes me feel better. So right now, the best I can do is hold out for the meeting at the end of the month to get the second opinion.

 

Shit.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Rain and Cool (STILL!)

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 4
Upper Back Pain - 8
Fatigue - 8
Foggy Head - 7
Tinitus - 7
Ears Full - 7
Hand Numb - 4

The pain medication makes a definite difference. Took a dose at around 7:15. Back pain and fullness of head (problems thinking) were completely gone within 2 hours. Med benefits ran out around 12 hours later. As I make this update, I'm exhausted, with extreme upper back pain again. Won't take it to sleep as I have a GP appt in the morning. My conclusions so far are as follows:

1) There's something wrong as the spinal fluid shows antibodies

2) There's something wrong as I was in constant pain and didn't know it. The pain was taking its toll in fatigue and inability to focus. The Hydrocodone alleviates the pain and the confusion. Because it works by relieving pain by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord, the fact that it relieves some symptoms demonstrates that there is a problem there.

3) I have to find a neurologist that will be curious enough to follow me (and the symptoms) and try to figure out what is going on. Hopefully the GP will have suggestions about that tomorrow.

 

8.2 hours production, with 5 hours of that on prospect calls. Had a hard time speaking firmly, and had to slow down to make sure I kept organized logically. Got the feeling that I was not connecting, not convincing. Good news is that I booked one, and got a meeting with the decision maker for the other one.

 

Only got about an hour of charity programming in. No new product programming or web page development or distributable familiarizations. Down 2.3 hours for the week, but have high hopes of being able to make it up tomorrow.

 

You've gotta know, this whole thing sucks really bad!

 

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Rain and Cool (STILL!)

Shaking - 5
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 6
Fatigue - 5
Foggy Head - 5
Tinitus - 5
Ears Full - 5
Hand Numb - 3

Well, this is a paradox. From the dental work yesterday, I was
prescribed Hydrocodone 10mg's for pain. Naturally, I took 1 after I got
home, and another for bed. The back pain and most of the ear problems
almost completely disappeared! At some level, it felt like I was normal
again. Have client calls this morning, so will take 1 with food in a few
minutes.

Yesterday's production was only 6.1 hours, so I have time to make up
already this week. Today's plan:

1) Charity Programming
2) Client Call familiarization - 1 hour
3) Client Calls - 3 hours
4) New product programming
5) Informational web page
6) Familiarity with old distributable programming project.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Rain and Cool

Shaking - 9
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 4
Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 2
Tinitus - 2
Ears Full - 2
Hand Numb - 4

Oral surgery 10-12. Slept for 2 hours afterword. Very shaky and unsteady
in fine motor skills.

The upper back pain I felt this morning was excruciating. No advil or
anything as I had the surgery scheduled.

5.6 hours in from early this morning. Accomplished charity draft and
page edit from what was listed in the prior entry.

Continuing to notice that I'm very irratable, with very little patience
with other people - like under the max steriods, but still happening in
the taper

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Rain and Cool

Shaking - 6
Neck Pain - 4
Upper Back Pain - 6
Fatigue - 3
Foggy Head - 5
Tinitus - 6
Ears Full - 6
Hand Numb - 4

Fell asleep at 10pm without sleep aides. Woke at 2:45 am and couldn't go
back to sleep. Still ramping down the oral steriods, 2nd day @ 40 mg.
Have oral surgery this morning, so no food from 4:30 am on.

Spent 1 hour this morning working LinkedIn email signature, and order
for SPSys. Then 40 mins for the morning surfing routine.

Morning Plans:
Pop web page edit
Donate programming work
Work new product pages
Work new blog format

Will be a bad day with surgery and court appt this evening. Pushing to
get my 8 hours in, along with a nap after the surgery.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, Damp and Rainy

Shaking - 8
Neck Pain - 2
Upper Back Pain - 7
Fatigue - 9
Foggy Head - 8
Tinitus - 6
Ears Full - 6
Hand Numb - 7

Feeling like nystagma is coming back...eyes having problems focusing
together but no blurring.

Got my 8 hours in today, and was relatively productive. Felt that I was
pushing it too hard though. Very hard to concentrate on programming
intricacies. No energy left to work on anything in the evening hours.
Used ibuprofen to ease the back pain.

Took 40 min walk at mid-day. Made it through the day without laying down.

Scale - 10 is worst

Weather - Cool, Damp and Rainy

Shaking - 7
Neck Pain - 0
Upper Back Pain - 8
Fatigue - 8
Foggy Head - 8
Tinitus - 8
Ears Full - 8

What I've been doing.....

Trying to stay focused and make progress in some freebie programming.
Hard to maintain focused plan, but part is due to the ambigiousness of
the specification. So far, of 6.5 hours of staying at it, I have 4 hours
total in. Interrupted for roofer quote, eat/personal, walk.

Background:

Started 60 mg Prednizone on 2008-12-21
3 IV Treatments - 12/30, 12/31, 1/2
On Ramp-Down Prednizone