I'm still here!

Alright, so last time I left off, I had an appointment scheduled with an orthopedic surgeon to look at me knees. That was last Wednesday. I went to my appointment as scheduled and, basically this is what he told me:

1. I don't have Baker's Cysts like I (and my family doctor) originally thought. He said that since I don't have any hard lumps behind/in my knees, that ruled that out.

2. I definitely should not be as sore and tender around my knee areas as I am. He had some x-rays taken. The only thing they really showed was that I am a) knock-kneed and b) my knee-caps are not straight but rather are leaning "outward", if that makes sense (more on that later).

3. My (knee) ailments may be potentially caused by Rhumatoid Arthritis, Tendinitis or a combiniation of the two. He said that given the fact that I already have arthritis in my back, there's a possibility that I may already be developing it in my knees. I had blood work done to show/rule out any degenerative diseases and have to go back and see him on April 9th.

4. He wanted to me to go see a physical therapist, which was scheduled for this morning, to evaluate my situation and determine what I can/cannot do and how I can get back into a physical workout routine.

5. As a result of the physical therapy, I was given a TON of stretches to do for my hamstrings (they're abnormally tight, but they always have been) and my IT Band. The PT mentioned that because my IT Bands are tight, that is one of the reasons that my knee caps are being "pulled" to the outside. Hmm, makes sense...

6. I also was told that running is not an option for me at the moment and since my feet/toes go numb while I'm on the elliptical, that's out too. The only cardio I'm allowed to do is the bike, but no spinning as the "hills","climbs" and high resistance isn't good for the ol' knees. He gave me some leg exercises to do as well (using high reps and low weight - which is the opposite of what I've been doing! oy!).

All in all, the PT session was informative and I'm thrilled that I have finally found some stretches that I can do that actually stretch my IT band! Wahoo!! The only bummer is that the bike gets boring pretty quickly but I am sort of glad to have an excuse not to run. I was getting burnt out on running, anyhow. Now I really want to get bikes to ride this summer!! That way I can do my workout outside!

I have been sucking really badly at getting to the gym. Going in the evening is out of the question and I'm so exhausted from work that its really hard for me to get up in the mornings now. ~sigh~ Obviously I'm feeling pretty down in the dumps about everything.

While I'm still working the waitressing job, I'm still not sure if its worth all the time I'm putting into it. I think I'm going to average about $1000 more a month, which would be awesome to be putting toward our debt snowball, but seeing as how Jason is still laid off, that's not happening.

What's more frustrating is that the money I'm making also isn't going toward the things that Jason's unemployment isn't covering. The money just seems to keep disappearing. This past weekend, though, we acknowledged our mindless spending and agreed to get back to business. We still haven't sent in what we owe for taxes (I don't want to take that out of our emergency fund) so the next week or so all of the money I make waitressing is going toward the taxes we owe. We only have about $100 left to save up.

After that, I'm going to reevaluate our "Emergency Budget" (okay, so maybe I took a break from blogging and went and redid my budget on the spot.. so sue me) that we're following (I had to revamp our original budget since Jason's income was cut in half) and see where we can start contributing to some of the sinking funds that I eliminated when Jason got laid off. The big one I want to bring back is our "New Tires" fund. I know that Jason is probably going to need new tires by the end of this year and I don't want to scramble to try to find $600 to pay for them. Big ass truck tires are NOT cheap.

I think that I can at least "count on" making $600 a month at my second job. My checks are usually about $100 every two weeks and that's figuring that I would make at least $100 a week in tips. Six hundred dollars a month would allow me to: put our grocery budget back at $120/wk (which includes $20/wk for cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc...), put $125/mo toward tires, put $50/mo toward clothing, $75/mo toward vehicle repairs/registration, and increase our Pet Fund to $50/mo instead of $30. Anything extra goes toward debt! Period!

(I realize that (120x4) + 125 + 50 + 75 + 20 = 750... we had a little bit of wiggle room in our Emergency Budget that will cover the extra $150 and then some)

So lastly, I'm feeling really poopy. I've had a sore throat since Sunday and its not getting any better. I had some blueberries and yogurt for breakfast around 9:45 and I've eaten about a whole sleeve of saltines since about 12:00 (its almost 2:00 now), but I really don't think I can stomach the soup and salad I have here at work. I busted out the saltines because I was feeling nauseous and thankfully they made me feel better because I was pretty close to closing up shop and heading home but I really shouldn't miss any more work right now with all that I've missed from all of my doctor appointments. I might give the salad a go.

Well, I really hope my throat starts to get better, I can't even imagine being sick on top of everything else! Ack! Hope everybody is having a good week!

Until next time,

-Lacey