Fill 'er Up! Living With A Pain Pump.

Went to the back doctor's office yesterday. (Monday)

Got my pain pump refilled.

So my surgically implanted tank is topped off with a very, very, very, very controlled substance.

At the present rate the pump bathes my spinal fluid in this extra liquid, I'm good until the second week of October.

But just to be safe they scheduled me for a refill at the end of September.

They don't want me to come too close to running completely out.

Running out would most likely put me in the hospital, so I'm good with their strict scheduling to ensure that I DON'T run out.

As usual, they had to stick the needle in and then hunt around for the small rubber fill port on the pain pump, but it hurts no more than a wasp sting, which, in turn, hurts infinitely less than my normal back pain.  So, no worries there.

They usually have to stick my arm two or three times to get a vein when giving blood as well, so I guess I'm one of "those people" to the phlebotomists of the world.

Anyhoo, it's good to know the pump is full.  When you get down to the last few days before it is empty, and we cut it close this time, you can't help but worry that something will happen to prevent the refill and it completely run dry.

But it's way better than the time-released oral medicines I used to take.  Easier on my liver and kidneys too since the pain pump dose is tiny compared to the oral dose I once took, and the pain pump medicine goes directly into my spinal fluid anyway so that's a lot of medicine my organs no longer have to process and yet I get better pain relief this way.

Picture Post, Sunday June 12, 2012

Personal Note: Been a long time since I've felt like doing a Sunday Picture Post, people.  I'm excited to have the correct frame of mind for enjoying blogging again.  The pace of blogging is much more my style than is the snake pit that is Facebook.  (The people on Facebook are great, but the program itself is the least intuitive piece of software I've ever had the misfortune to try to work with.  I invariably get irritated and leave Facebook after only a little while.)

This first photo was taken at Space View Park in Titusville, Florida.  Notice NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building across the water.  As a child I loved the whole "space" thing in America.  I still get a kick out of seeing stuff like this. At this park there are monuments to the different space programs, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, with a Space Shuttle Program monument under construction  They also have hand prints and signatures of all the astronauts who were still living when the park was dedicated several years ago.

This black and white photo was taken outside the fence of a beautiful, historic old home in Titusville, Florida.  The yard of the home was expertly manicured, while a few inches away on the outside of the fence was runaway weeds.  Total lawn care failure there, folks.

 

Colorful set of old buildings with hip, modern businesses in them.  Titusville, Florida.

 

 Lovely Wife watches the sunrise with me a couple of weekends ago.  Taken along the Crane Creek Promenade and Manatee Viewing Area in Melbourne, Florida.  We saw no manatees though.  The sunrise had to suffice.  (P.S.  Now that we have hot weather, the manatees have moved out of these creeks and such and into the Indian River Lagoon and Atlantic Ocean.)

 

I thought the "desaturated" look, applied to this photo looked better than my original color and later black and white tries.  The hand-made direction sign and the desaturated look make me think of old family 35mm slides.  Taken at the Melbourne Harbor Marina in Melbourne, Florida.

Y'all have a blessed Sunday!

Angel, My Own Cute Overload

This is Angel, my seven pound buddy.

She follows me around as if I'm the most interesting thing of all.