Truth or Die

I saw my Ombudsman again today. Same one. This time she told me I'm not eligible for physical therapy beause there is a law on both the state and federal level that only people who will be able to walk again can qualify for PT. That sounded goofy to me, so I called Medicare and asked about that. The person I talked to took awhile looking, but she said she couldn't find anything like that and that I should qualify, once I've jumped through all the hoops they present.

So I called the state office and told them I couldn't get anyone here to work with my legs, and that my doctor is completely nonresponsive when I ask to talk to him.

The Ombudman also told me that Medicaid pays for my costs and Medicare picks up the rest, which is completely backwards. I have absolutely no confidece in this woman. I think she's giving me misinformation, but I don't think it's intentional. She just doesn't seem to know what she's talking about. So far she's done me more harm than good, because I'm always upset and discouraged after she leaves.

Plus, she spent more time prosylitizing her Christan viewpoint than she did helping. I listened for awhile, then told her I appreciated her advice, but praying wasn't going to resolve my current situation. It needs action, not hoping for the best. So she gave me some phone numbers to call and I did.

Meanwhile, I'm still at the novel writing. Here are my stats so far (I don't know what the wedgy thing at the bottom is for. I just could't make it go away):

Your Average Per Day

1,903 

Words Written Today

2,070 

Target Word Count

50,000

Target Average Words Per Day

1,667

Total Words Written

15,230 

Words Remaining

34,770

Current Day

8 

Days Remaining

23

At This Rate You Will Finish On

November 27, 2013

Words Per Day To Finish On Time

1,512

Oh, joy, oh frabjous day!

Nothing to report on the getting up in my new chair saga. Pffft.

My NaNoWriMo story is up to 7,407 words, as I recall, though my memory for numbers stinks out loud. On a daily average, I'm still ahead a little tiny bit on the daily average I need.

Anyway, I'm having fun.

Wait a minute I'll go to their website and check out what the real number is.

7,843. I underestimated. I've spent 3 hours a night writing. Not bad for a person who has to poke at a keyboard with a stick. Of course, I do have the time whereas most people have to fit writing in between doing other things, like having a life.

But, as I 've said, writing makes me happier than just about anything in life, with the exception of my children and grandchildren. So I'm in a great mood.

I hope you all had frabjous days, too. Maybe tomorrow I'll get up in my chair and I can shout Callooh, Callay!

Happy days and dream filled nights of joy, my wonderful peeps.

OMG!

I had no idea how much time it would take to keep up with my NaNoWriMo novel. I started late. Then my app proved to be a piece of crap, so I got another app. That worked fine, but once it was closed it didn't want to open again. So I got another app. Then, after more than 10 tries, the second app finally opened so I could copy my text and paste it into the third app. So far, so good. I have caught up now. I'm supposed to write 1667 words per day to reach my goal of 50,000 at the end and I have averaged a bit over 1700 per day. You know, even with having to tap an online keyboard one letter at a time, I might just complete this task. And it might even be semi-coherent. We'll see about that, though. I'm writing in first person narrative, in the voice of an old woman reminiscing about her life and what she's learned from it. It's really my life, but since I am writing as a fictional character, I can make things up, too! Ha ha!

No news on the chair front. Haven't been in it since last Thursday. As for the mystery infection on my back, a "knot" has formed that wasn't there last week. My wound care doctor actually made an appearance, felt the knot and decided to extend my round of antibiotics.

Did I tell you my wound care doctor has grown a full beard? He doesn't look 12 anymore. He looks more like he'll be eligible to vote next year. I'm sorry. I know I'm being snarky, but give me a break. I'm old! Anybody without grey hair looks like a teenager to me.

Anyway, Dr. Cooper, his actual name, wants to talk to the neurosugeon who did the original surgery on my spine in 2010 and see the files from then. I don't know what this means, except that one of the wound care nurses mentioned that he wants to know if the knot is a natural growth and is an actual part of my body. Let's see. Hmmm. It wasn't there last week or ever until this week. What are we to think? Hey, maybe it's part of my backbone which has suddenly become larger in that spot! Maybe not.

Worrisome stuff. I don't want more surgery. I don't want to go to the hospital. I want to stay right here, in my home away from the home I don't have anymore. I have a minifridge here. They pop me popcorn  when I ask them to. This is my nest.

The saga continues. Meh.

Here is a random photo which has absolutely no relevance to this blog entry. Hope you like it, whatever it turns out to be. Peace.

Mental Diarrhea

My eyes are squinted in disappointment because I didn't get up today. I told everyone I wanted to get up in time for my session with Therapist Mike and was paid absolutely NO attention. In fact, no one got me up at all. I are not happy.

I am inevitably reminded of how helpless and ineffective I am. This is one of those times when I hate my life. I am constantly at other people's mercy and whim. I have no control over my life; not even a smidgen of independence. 

I have to wonder if my life will be like this until I die. What a horrible thought. If I can't make progress toward at least a modicum of independence, then what's the point?

I've decided to give NaNoWriMo a shot. It's an exercise done every year where the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It started today and ends November 30.

I got a really late start. I just decided to join today and didn't have a good word processing app, so I bought one. What a piece of crap! My text, once it got long enough, disappeared behind the onscreen keyboard. So I scrolled the text up so I could see what I had written. Except that the text wouldn't scroll. I spent at least an hour trying to make it work, all for nothing.

So I sent them a review titled "I want my money back!" And downloaded a free app that works just fine. But I didn't get started until late evening. Since I use an iPad on-screen keyboard, and have to tap each letter one at a time, I didn't hold out much hope.

But I started typing the novel. Two or so hours later, I stopped so I could write this entry, but first I checked how many words I'd written. I was surprised! I had written 1,120 words. Yeah, that's a lot less than the 1,667 words I need to type every day to keep up, but I spend most of my time alone so I doubtless have more time than most. Besides, once I get my mind rolling, it doesn't want to stop. I tend to be very wordy when I write, as you may have noticed.

The working title, so far, is Forevermore. It's the thoughts of a self-educated old woman who now lives, bedbound, in a nursing home. Write what you know, right? I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but it's fun to try, and it gives me something to look forward to. I like writing just about more than anything. It makes me happy.

It's not too late to get in on this exercise, peeps. There's no prize, but if it catches someone's eye, you might get approached by a (legitimate --watch out for the ones who want money from you up front) agent or publisher. Who knows? To do this you have to be a dreamer, so why not dream big? Just go to NaNoWriMo.org and sign up.

Sweet dreams to all of you. May your good dreams come true.