pyewacketsworld

Yes, this bit of news is really discouraging to me. In one of my former posts, I indicated that I wanted to explore the possibility of an acupuncturist for my health needs, as I’m just plain not too keen on the medication route that I just know my doctor would prescribe for me. I have to admit I’m fed up with my joint pain, yet in no way do I want to take the number one prescribed medication, Celebrex as it has a severe warning that it can trigger heart attacks…so do I want to take that? No way! Yes, yes, yes, I realize that the chances might be real slim of something like that happening to me, but why risk it?

So quite near me are a few acupuncturist, right? Within walking distance. Well, a few days ago, I emailed my health provider. Being on SSI I have both Medicaid and HIP…well, got an email back from them. It seems that I would have to sign up with this other company, but the bottom line is that NO…alternative forms of healing such as acupuncture are NOT covered. This other company might do some kind of discounted benefits to me, but I would still have to pay most of the visits and treatments out of pocket–how fair is that? No way could I afford it.

Okay bit of a rant here. It just goes to show you how the medical profession and pharmaceutical “industry” has a stranglehold on our health needs. It’s like our country sanctions the drug companies and is all too willing to shove prescription medications down our throats, in which many cases the medications can have serious side effects, but if we choose NOT to go this route and want a more natural means of healing ourselves, we can’t…How stupid is this? We even have to pay out of pocket if we prefer to use vitamins and herbal supplements.

Does anyone else see the stupidity of it all?

Anyway, I ordered a book via Amazon.com on Acupressure…sort of similar principles as Acupuncture but without the needles that are used and one can do the techniques themselves…as soon as I get the book, I’ll give it a go.

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

Well I happen to belong to one of the busiest discussion forums going, that is MyLot.  I’ve been there three years now and have bonded with a lot of great folks there.  We can more or less discuss anything there, that is news items we wish to share, bits of our lives, especially rants which is great for letting of steam, share our joys, triumphs, sorrows, fears.

In the past, there have always been glitches on and off, but this is the worst ever.  Beginning late Friday night, it was like MyLot became the Twilight Zone.  It seems we can PM each other (no problem), reply to older discussions that have replies on them already, give responses back to our friends who have replied to our own discussions, but new discussions??  Nope.   There are pages and pages of new discussions started by people but we can’t reply back.  Most of the discussions are about the glitch and since it’s the weekend the admin and moderators usually aren’t there to straighten things out–all of us feel kind of lost, like we’re having withdrawal symptoms since we can’t participate the way we would like to.  Sure hope they straighten things out Monday, in the meantime, I’ve been hanging out at Facebook, playing many of the games there that I’ve gotten addicted to and at least I can interact with my friends there…the vast majority being fellow MyLotters.

Will update this if MyLot is back on track..hope so!

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

I hadn’t realized how much time had passed since I did my last entry. Besides being busy with other things, I’ve been having a bout of bronchitis that I still haven’t shaken off yet. If you’ve read some of my previous entries you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of the medical profession, but the one thing I will accept as far as meds, will be antibiotics…or at least the penicillin type. My experiences with the non-penicillin type hasn’t been too stellar. I remember one time many years ago, my doctor prescribed Zithromax, and it was a one a day type antibiotic and about 400 mgs. but must have been a potent dose, since about 20-minutes after taking it, I really regretted it. Needless to say, I asked my doctor to switch the medication.

Well, it’s October…can you believe it? Where o where has this year gone to anyway? And as usual, at this time of the year when there’s a real chill in the air, my landlord hasn’t provided heat yet and it’s darn cold in my apartment. It doesn’t do any good to complain to him. Technically speaking by law, here in the NYC area if the temperature falls below a certain point heat is supposed to be provided by October 1st, but it seems our landlord for the building has his own agenda and never provides it until after October 15th. And yes, we complain each and every year at this time when it’s cold and we need heat but still he never provides heat. So this chill in the apartment doesn’t help with my getting over my bronchitis.

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

Maybe what they say is true, that is as one gets older, time goes faster.  Well if that’s the truth I’ve been old since  I was nine, since time has always seemed to slip by at a dizzying speed.  But this year particularly seems to have gone by faster than normal, and in my last entry I was complaining about the hot weather.  Well, thankfully we now are getting cooler, in fact, instead of temperatures in the sticky humid high seventies at night, it’s now actually chilly and dipping into about the 50s!  Soon I’ll be thinking of preparing for Halloween, then Thanksgiving and oh, my Christmas.

Now for some up-dates about things: I’ve had some disappointments as far as hunting about that acupuncture idea to help my health problems since I’m so anti-medication.  Since I receive Medicaid/HIP health coverage, I found out that acupuncture isn’t covered…I guess it’s thought to be too of an “exotic” approach and not mainstay medical, in other words the mind-set is to pump one up with medications that could have detrimental effects rather than a more natural approach with no side effects.   So anyway, I ordered a book about acupressure instead, as it works on the same principles as acupuncture but one can do the healing to oneself provided you know the pressure points to use, and without needles.  My problem is that the only time I have to read is shortly before going to bed…the problem?  I either fall asleep and wake up a few hours later with my face crushed up to the book, or if my one cat Pyewacket hops on my bed, deems that reading is boring and sits on top of my book.  Do I disturb him and chase him off?  Of course not…and only a pet lover will understand that.  One does not DARE disturb their furbaby.

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

Since June New York has been getting the weirdest weather.  Almost everyday in June it rained, wasn’t much better in July and the first day of August was a deluge also…then when we do get a sunny day, of course it’s a humid day that New York is “famous” for…I’ve never been a fan of summer to begin with…my get up and go and gone up and went, I get brain-fog, often feel completely drained, and it doesn’t help that I’ve never had air-conditioning—wouldn’t be able to foot the electric bill anyway, so I just have a fan, which as I sit here in front of my computer is positioned right next to me.

But yikes…it’s AUGUST!  Where the heck did this year go to anyway?  Before you know it, we’ll all be thinking of Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas–just what happened to this year, it’s going way too fast.  I’m still having problems with my strained wrist and might explore the idea of going to an acupuncturist as I’m none too happy with my doctor.  First I might look into acupressure though as it’s less invasive (the idea of all those needles used for acupuncture doesn’t thrill me) and from what I understand is just as effective.  I need something to help my arthritic joint pain in general but none too willing to use heavy duty medications.

Oh well…just giving a short up-date…and I hate, hate, hate this weather…did I mention I hate this weather?

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

Not being here that often.  To put it mildly I’ve been busy and occupied with other things that have been taking a lot of my time and at the same time dealing with my strained wrist that seems to be taking forever to completely heal.  I’m none too keen in taking medications or even get some kind of shots for it and am looking into the possibility of seeking out an acupuncturist.  There just happens to be two places within walking distance from me that are acupuncturists and herbalist, now just have to see if they taken my medical coverage.  Truth be told the idea of those  little needles being stuck into me gives me the willies, but from some of my email pals who have had it done, they say it works wonders.

One of the things that has kept me busy though is trying to figure out if there is some way I can get new kitchen appliances in my rented apartment that I’ve lived in for eons–AND to get them without my landlord slapping more  on my rent.  With my SSI benefits it would be a hardship for any dramatic raise in rent.  I had asked my putzy super how much it would cost me to get new appliances, and he said for a new stove, refrigerator and sink it would cost me an extra $30 EACH more per month…like no way!  So I’ve been busy looking all over websites on advice about this.

Well more tomorrow..I hope…looking all this stuff up has taken a lot of my time!

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

No I haven’t disappeared from the face of the earth again.  I’ve been trying in earnest to keep up with my blogging here and not doing so well as I still have my strained wrist injury that is seeming to take forever to heal.  Of course it doesn’t help that I keep re-aggravating it.  If I were smart I’d take at least one full week and not do anything to rest it….no cleaning, no lifting of things and of course, no typing but then I think I would go completely daft.

There are still a lot of continuing entries I want to make, such as continuing with my Bits and Pieces of My Life series especially to update that continuing saga of how things fell in place with my life.  Also, want to continue writing about my kitties in my life.  Hopefully I’ll do a longer blog entry tomorrow.  But just to let you know….I’m still here…uh, I think?

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

I decided to add a new category on general up-dates of things going on in my life.  I hope to continue some of my other blog entries, but for now wanted folks to know what was going on with me.  Not much.  Okay all kidding aside.  I’ve been having one of those lovely set-backs which explains why I haven’t been here all that much, in fact, looking at my very last blog entry, I haven’t been here for more than a month.  Wow, couldn’t believe it.  For some weeks now, I’ve had a double whammy.  For a long time, in the past,  I’ve had the “joys” of having carpal tunnel problems, but it seemed to go away completely until just a few weeks ago when it hit full force and bad, not only that but I seemed to have strained my wrist as well.  Needless to say, I haven’t been very active with writing in general which has been frustrating to say the least, as I also write articles for various websites to earn a little extra money, and believe me when your on SSI benefits any extra money earned is a God-send.

I’m actually forcing myself to get back into writing due to one,  I really do need the extra money, and two, to be honest I’m going out of my freaking mind NOT writing .  I was reading up on wrist strains in general and it seems they can last up to two months to completely heal…lovely…NOT as I’m not a very good patient and don’t have a whole lot of patience.  In fact, I keep re-aggravating my hand/wrist as soon as it feels just a tad better so no wonder it’s taking so long to heal.  I haven’t even gone to my doctors yet, and I’ll give the reason why in my next entry.  Much of it  has to do with my great-grandmother and her beliefs about doctors in general.

©2009~Melanie Neer aka Pyewacket