April 26, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Well, Dagan and Leah were down last Sunday.  Dagan cleaned my bathroom, the floor, vacuumed, and washed the bathroom rugs.  Leah attached the tall furniture to the walls in the living room, put bumper tape on my end tables where my laptop table leg rubs against them, adjusted ceiling vents, and made me dinner.  

I had ordered Allie a new cat bed with a removable cushion.  We were shocked at how small the box was.  

I promised Liam I wouldn't cut it open until he and Ian could be there.

Was pretty funny and not easy to pull out of the bag!

The cushion flew away--lol!

Did Allie like it?

She refused to step in it--lol!

I did moved it on the floor behind her red chair and have caught her smelling it a couple of times.  

Sunday night...sudden rash under one boob.  Google to the rescue.  Some people develop rashes from being on steroids.  My luck, eh?

Monday.  Other boob got involved overnight.  Called the eye center.  My steroid luck had run out.  Phone tag.  Weaning me off of them in six days--by tonight, actually.  

Leah's meeting tomorrow was cancelled, so we are good to go...if my guts are okay to leave here. 

Tuesday.  Red, burning rash now top of legs and in delicate places--lol!  Told me if goes into mouth or eyes go into emergency.  

Allie loving leaves on a windy day.

Wednesday.  87 degrees so cranked open the window.  The whistling wind scared Allie to death and she hid in the studio almost all day.  Such a silly cat.

Started the gut-numbing pills to end the diarrhea.  Fingers crossed they will work.

Planning what I want moved around for temporary storage.  

Friday.  I moved the glass folding tables into the laundry room.

Got Dagan to grab me that taller one, too, from the studio.

Need a place to store the small appliances that belong in the pantry.  Stuff on the red-legged table and from underneath.  Then they can take that table apart.  I love that little red-legged table but no room for it anymore.  

Going to use the top of a dresser in the living room...

...to hold all these plant pots that have been sitting on the floor outside my door all these months.  They are from IKEA and will have fake plants in them just for some greenery.  The two bags on top of the dresser are full of the fake plants, I believe.

And I made a spot in the laundry room to move the stack of shower curtain drawers.

We need to get rid of all those moving boxes stacked here and there...and boxes full of packing paper...and the top pieces that won't fit the bookcases.  Get it all out of here.  Recycling or whatever.  Need to make space so we can even move things around down here.  

Saturday.  Very sad.  Besides the rashes...woke up to my normal looking hand not looking normal again.  Joint swollen, turning red, and more painful again.  Toes stiff, knees swollen, sinuses a bit clogged again, stiffer all over.....and I am not even finished weaning off the steroids until the last one tonight.

I quick took a picture in case the eye doctor wants to see how quickly things change.

So...the strict diet has had nothing to do with anything at all.  Was just the steroids that made any real changes to the inflammation.  Now that is no longer an option.  I am back to square one on testing foods and eliminating foods that might be an issue for me.  

Tomorrow is the appointment with the eye doctor.  If they are going to be able to do surgery it will probably have to be ASAP.  Obviously.  The inflammation appears to be coming back with a vengeance...even adding special touches like burning rashes where the sun don't shine.         

Man!  Do I ever need to see some progress made on the apartment today.  I really, really, really do.  Waking up to my swelling hand hurting more again out of the blue...that is worse than the blind eye, to be honest.  Never expected that.  I am not even off the steroids yet!  To say that took the wind out of my optimism sails is an understatement. 

Sorry.  I am very sad this morning.  

Exhausted.  

I will know more tomorrow...good or bad news.

Will deal with whatever I have to deal with.  As we all do.  

Thanks for every prayer, healing thought, good wishes.  I've always felt your support.  Love you all!  Positive thoughts.  

April 19, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Lots of random pictures this week...many of pen cleaning--LOL!  Obviously more for my delight.  ;) 

Played phone tag with the eye center.  Dr. Anderson finally called me himself on Wednesday.  He agreed that if the oral steroids are working to reduce inflammation in the rest of my body it is probably helping with the eye.  But while I am on them--can't leave the apartment to get into the clinic.  Could use more time on them and he didn't want me to stop, either.  The plan is/was for me to stay on them, made an appointment for Monday the 27th, and I am to start taking some kind of medication to slow down my digestive system for five days before the appointment so I can hopefully make it in so he can look inside my eye.  Talk about being between a rock and a hard brown place--LOL!

But then Leah has a meeting to run at work on that Monday so now I am playing phone tag again to try to change the appointment.  Anderson is out of town the week before that Monday.  And he's booked up and trying to fit me in somewhere.  We'll get it figured out this week, I'm sure.  Eye is the same.  Can't see out of it.  Has a bit more light sensitivity.  No clue if that is good or bad.  But my hand, sinuses, toes, and general stiffness all over has been improving!  Whoohoo!  

So funny...the boys were at Plains Art Museum one night during the week for a felting class and Ian found his misplaced Christmas pottery!  Had been sitting around over there all these months.

They went to a class where they did felting.  ??  Using wool, water, and glue?  Never heard of this before.  (Well, Ian went--Liam didn't bring anything down to show me, but he was probably there, too.)  Ian made a mountain scene.

)

These are out of order but I don't feel like fighting with Blogger right now--lol!

Ian had two more little bowls to add to the collection he wants to display in my studio one day.

He made a good sized bag or pouch in that felting class!

The bag is pretty impressive!

Me.  Worked my baby steps to finish cleaning and filling the fountain pens.  Allie didn't pay attention at first.  Too busy.

What?

Watching CatTV--lol!

Took me till Thursday to finish them all.

Just kept plugging away at it.

Me standing at the sink flushing pens...boring to Miss Allie.

Two trays down.

One evening I couldn't find Allie.  

I had tossed the big memory foam cushion and her blue blanket into the studio along with so much other stuff...and she finally noticed it, I guess.  She has slept on it several nights.

Windy days blow leaves around in the window well.  Was 80 degrees on Thursday and we had snow flurries on Friday.  

Filling pens at the table...now that got Allie up to watch almost every time--lol!

Had to ask Dagan to open the four new little bottles as I have very little grip still.

Filling in the little binder to I know which ink is in which pen.

I did interesting things like miscalculate returning ink to a sample vial and squirting ink all over the table three times with my bad depth perception.  I got ink all over my fingers and hands more than I ever have. 

Allie seemed delighted with my frustration, exciting expletives, and sudden agitations.  

Normally this human is pretty dull to watch--lol!

Finally!  All three trays cleaned, filled...

... and the little ink color binder filled in fresh and clean.

Was a bit more challenging than usual, but still genuinely fun for me.  I am one happy camper!!

Life feels so much more normal!!  I am all caught up with writing letters again.  I can type--even if I am constantly hitting the wrong keys and my spell check quit on Blogger for some reason.

Dagan and Leah are supposed to come down and attach the tall furniture to the walls this afternoon.  I didn't have any appointments to go to all week.  (Or couldn't make them, I should say--lol!)  The diarrhea seems to be worth all the trouble and grief.  It was even easier to bend over to put socks on the past few days--whoohoo!  Little things like that...man!  You realize how bad things have really been.  I am very good at body-detachment after all these years.  You learn to ignore pain and limitations to survive and enjoy what you can do, you know?  

So, despite the one eye and no-warning-diarrhea...life has quite improved the past couple weeks on the steroids.  And the plan is to just leave me alone with steroids and diarrhea for a while, too.  I'll take it!  Delighting in being to write and type more...in using my fountain pens.  Maybe this week I can get back to making a few blog comments.  If Blogger doesn't mess with me there like I have heard several people complaining they are unable to comment on blogs all of a sudden.  Good grief.  Well, it will be nice not to have to struggle so much to get my socks on, anyways.  The little things.  Till next week...

April 12, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

I'll make it quicker this week.  

Monday.  JetPens order arrived of various pen refills I now needed that are packed away somewhere.  Thus began the reorganization of my fountain pens, also.  Even though almost every refill was for a gel pen--lol!  I knew it was time and would take me forever, so I even cheated and ordered a couple small boxes of cartridges for my pilot explorers.

Tuesday.  A robin flitted down inside to sit on the "step" in my window well.  Looked the window well, me, and sleeping cat over but flew away before I could get a picture.  Spring?  

Wednesday was my eye appointment.  Never made it there.  Remember I confessed that oral steroids give me diarrhea?  Well, they really kicked in by Wednesday--lol!  Cancelled online, but haven't heard anything yet about rescheduling.  Can't tell yet when I can or can't leave the house anyways--lol!

Meanwhile, I have the new rheumatologist appointment on Tuesday.  Hope I can make it there.  Time will tell.  I was ready to quit taking the steroids.  Just fed up and overwhelmed.  Leah reminded me that I can't get the eye surgery until my eye is better so I needed to keep taking them because they are helping my hand get better faster so probably the eye, also.  (Eye is the same to me.)  I knew she was right...but no one wants to put themselves through the throne routine.  *sigh*  Plan of action?  Mega doses of probiotics instead of just a couple capsules a day.  Fingers crossed I can leave the house this coming week.

Thursday.  Started working on the fountain pen cleaning and filling project.

Baby steps.  Just getting ready for the standing at the sink part--lol!

Windy off and on.  

Allie watching leaves blow about in the window well.

You may recall my fountain pen trays.  Last time I filled them all was maybe somewhere around a year and a half ago.  Eight trays I rotate through for letters and journaling.

Was down to one tray of FPs with any ink left in them.  Not much left in them and too many red and orange inks.  (Not my favorite colors to use.)  Decided to just clean the rest (except the few TWSBIs which still had a good bit of ink in them).

Buried under some paraphernalia in the black rollie cart I rediscovered the ink sample vials from that last time I went through all the FPs long ago!   

Whoohoo!  More colors to choose from!  Even if there are small amounts in those vials, I am happy to see them!

I also have the four small bottles I got myself for my birthday in March, so I am all set!

There are the four TWSBI ECOs that weren't empty yet.  (They are great for not drying out and writing every time.)

I picked out my favorite pens (TWSBI ECOs, Pilot Explorers, and Platinum Prefontes) and began to clean them out one or two at a time.  Whatever I could manage.  Then I leave them to dry overnight.

Been doing those baby steps when I can.  How many are cleaned and inked so far this past week?  Two.  LOL!  And these were cheaters using cartridges--LOL!  But there are two freshly clean and ready to go!  Exciting to nobody but me...but it is truly spirit lifting for me, I assure you!

Obviously being able to use my hand and an eye patch to write letters again fairly well has gotten me enthusiastically writing and trying to catch up on correspondence while I can.  Still quite behind but making progress.  (Who knows if my hand will flare up again when I go off the oral steroids, right?)  I have missed my paper-chats!  :)

Using my good-hand-time for all the usual (laundry, food, showers) plus working on letters, some emails, and cleaning pens...well, I have nothing left over for writing blog comments.  Sorry.  But I am reading you all.  Soon hand will improve more also, I hope.  Time will tell.

Meanwhile, TMI...the mega probiotics caused everything to halt.  So I am merely waiting to see if I am better, same, or worse?  Lord knows.  Don't care for personal suspense mysteries or unexpected bad surprises.  Oh well.  I have a few days.  Nothing seems like it is under my control anymore.  Nothing.  What can one do?  You just keep on going, try to be hopeful, and spend your time doing things you love if you can.

I managed to work on this early and finish (Saturday).  Don't try my hand or eye to hold out and some days are better than others.  Today was a better day--so early post!  Till next week...