Billie Walter

Or have you forgotten how to dream?  Maybe you’ve just given up?

When I was a child I had many dreams.  I dreamed that my parents would not get a divorce, but they did.  When I was put into foster care and a children’s home, I dreamed that my father would come and take me home to live with him, but he didn’t.  Unfortunately, as children, we usually have very little control over the outcome of our dreams.

Continue reading Are You Living the Dream?

I suppose that no news beats bad news, but if you have good news to tell me, I want to hear it.  Loud and clear, please! 

I had my follow-up visit with my surgeon today to have my staples removed (Tom offered to do the job with his staple remover, it’s great to have a caring spouse) and to discuss the outcome of the surgery.  Yes, I know, last week the doctor told me that things went well, but I am sure that the first few hours after surgery is not the best time to give a patient bad news.  Of course, this gave me a week to conjure up all kinds of things.  Why was it so painful at times?  Maybe they forgot to take something out like a scalpel, gauze or perhaps a junior mint.  Did they do everything that they needed to do or did the doctor start thinking about how one more little surgery will allow him to get the hot tub to go along with his new swimming pool?

Continue reading No News is Good News!

On Monday night, I announced to the world that I would be going into the hospital on Tuesday to have spinal surgery.  I had two fears.  The first fear was of dying and the second fear was of being paralyzed.  Actually, being paralyzed was a much greater fear for me.  I am not sure that I would be able to handle being paralyzed, emotionally that is.

Continue reading SURVIVOR!!!

Well, not quite.  At least not for me.  For me it has been a pain in my arm and hand.  When I went to the doctor in December with symptoms of pain and numbness in my hand, carpel tunnel syndrome was what the doctor suspected.  After seeing two specialists and going through various tests, it was determined that my problem was spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal) and also bone spurs which were pressing on a nerve.  That was the reason for the pain in my arm and hand.

Continue reading Cervical Laminectomy, A Pain in the Neck!

Today we got up very early and headed over to Dave and Amy’s to hold a garage sale.  I can happily report that this garage sale was probably one of the best garage sales that I have ever had.  Not that I’ve held so many, but it still ranks up there in the top two.

So what made this garage sale so successful?  For one thing, we made some money.  It was certainly much more profitable than the swap meet.  We were able to unload quite a few things, which was the main goal.  Last but not least, we got to hang out with our friends, Dave and Amy.   They are both incredibly hospitable and fun to be around.  It made the time go by so much faster.

So what’s next?  Well, since we actually enjoyed our day so much, we decided to go back tomorrow and hold a second one.  Maybe we can get rid of the things that we didn’t get rid of today. 

It’s been a long day so I will say goodnight and go to bed early.

Two weeks ago I mentioned that I had a “Secret.”  I was hoping that by now I would be able to tell you, but life has it’s own rhythm and I am just going to have to go with the flow.  In other words, a crimp in the plan has caused me to postpone telling you my “Secret” until a later date.  I’m still hoping that it won’t be too much longer.

Now for the crimp!  About eight months ago I started having some pain in my left arm and hand.  I went through extensive testing and was told that I would have to have spinal surgery to relieve the pinched nerves.  At that time, I decided to put the surgery off and try some other alternatives.  Well, I tried a few other things and unfortunately they didn’t solve the problem.  I have now decided to go forward with the surgery.  It will be performed sometime on Tuesday of this coming week.  I will get all of the details on Monday.

Continue reading SECRETS, CRIMPS & DISTRACTIONS!!!

Last week I told you that I would give you a progress report on how my attempts to “dump my stuff” was going.  As you recall, the swap meet was a bust.

In the past two weeks, I have been concentrating on putting some things on E-Bay.  It’s a fairly easy process and so far quite rewarding.  I decided to auction everything and I managed to sell two out of the first three things that I put on.  Happily, both things sold for much more than I thought they would.  I have since added another eight things to my E-Bay selling list.  I will continue to add things as long as most of them sell at a decent price.

My next progress report will be about the upcoming garage sale that we will be holding at friends, Dave and Amy’s place, next weekend.  They so generously offered to let us use their house to try and “dump some more stuff.”  I just hope that they are still friends with us when the weekend is over.