What's up in Utah......

Image: A sunset in Utah. Taken by my friend Jan.

So what is up these days? Now that I am on Facebook, I feel no need to blog much.

Still, it is a good outlet for letting off steam once in awhile.

I have been off pain medication for 22 days now. It's been tough because I still have the pain, but I am trying to learn to ignore it. Not easy. I went through a couple of weeks of being extremely irritable and cranky. I guess that is part of the withdrawal. Now, don't get me wrong... I was NOT addicted to Lortab. I never, ever abused it. I never took more than I was prescribed (which was 2 per day). In fact, I only took one per day for most of the time.

But I was "dependent" on it. My body was used to it (which is to be expected aftering being on it for more than 5 years) and a couple of things happened. One, it didn't really help with the pain that much anymore, and two, if I didn't take it, I got REALLY irritable.

So, I quit taking it in July after cutting the dose down to basically nothing over the previous month. I do take over-the-counter stuff which doesn't help with the pain, but it takes the edge of slightly.

I'm about to make a lot of changes in my life. I am a couch potato. I come home from work and I am tired and all I want to do is sit and watch game shows. All weekend, I watch game shows. I LOVE game shows. But I get NOTHING done.

I need to save up money for a down payment on a car. My cable/internet/phone bill is $150 per month. I do not use the phone because I have a cell... and right now I haven't got a computer so I don't need internet. And if I cut cable out... I will watch LESS tv and the programs I am hooked to like Lost, Greys and House, I can watch online or something.

It's not forever. It's just to save money for awhile. I think it's a good idea. But I have to make sure my new glasses are the right prescription so that I can do some reading instead of TV.

Either way, I have a zillion dvds so it's not like there is nothing to watch ever.

But I need to get off my duff and start taking care of stuff better. I'm getting fat and lazy.

I have to get surgery for the glaucoma. I have to get to an Ear/Nose/Throat doc and find out if I have polyps in my sinus passages because I can't breathe well and it feels to me like I have rocks up my nose. If so, I need surgery for that.

I need a new car. A gently used one, but I don't feel safe in my Cavalier anymore. And it's costing me too much in maintenance.

Baby steps. It's always about taking small steps. Small steps can bring big changes and I cannot change everything overnight. But I can see progress.

Oh, and I stopped taking Protonix (for my reflux) because the pharmacy/doctors office was messing up my refill, so I ran out, and I have not had time to go over and see if they filled it. So I have been off that for a week. So far, I am doing ok without it. So maybe I don't need that anymore. Yay.