Lighten Up

The weather around here has just been all over the place lately, much like my thought patterns.  I have managed to get it together enough today though, to scribble out some kind of post.  Actually, I have some updates on some things I thought some of you might be interested in.
As far as the weather though, one day it's a nice sunny day near 60F and the next, like today, the temps are falling to near freezing and were got a few snow flurries.  Can't complain though.  This winter has been rather mild so far with a number of sunny days.
The girls certainly enjoy and take advantage of the nice days.  I think I took these photos Saturday when they were all out having a good time bathing and grazing.

In one news, over a week ago I went to my appointment at the UAB Pain Clinic to see if they could offer me any other alternatives to steroids for my SI joint.  The BFD got me into see these people and I'll admit, I didn't have a lot of hope going in.  However, I was glad I went anyway and it just goes to show that you never know unless you go! or ask!  At first, it didn't look too good after talking to the first doctor (who turned out to be a resident actually).  He said he only knew about the steroid procedure but did admit he could understand why I did not want to continue that.  Second doctor came in later though and had some very interesting information.  He also understood why I was refusing the steroids and admitted they often put some patients on Valium to get them through the initial treatment.  I just can't do that.  Anyway, he recommended physical therapy for 5 weeks and then if no improvement was made they would consider doing a nerve ablation.  Basically they fry the nerves going to my SI joint and you have almost instant pain relief for 5-6 months.  Of course, there are varying degrees of success with this but that is what they consider a best case scenario.

There is no guarantee it would work that well for me but I think it's worth a try if the PT doesn't work.  Even if I only had it done once a year we would have 5-6 months we could go places and I can handle it here the rest of the time.  So, I've been doing the PT for about 10 days now and I can't see really any improvement but I wouldn't really expect to so soon.  I am however, very sore from the therapy! so maybe it is an indication that those tendons are so tight and bound up it could be causing some pain.  At first I didn't really understand how PT could help but when you see how much tendons and ligaments hold our bones together it makes a bit more sense.  So, hopefully something good will come from this.

I have also continued my workouts at the gym and around here and that is going really well.  So far, I have lost at least 15 pounds, maybe more!  I'm very excited about that.  I hope to lose about 15-20 more and really lighten my load!  My feet still hurt... but maybe not quite as much.  All of these things are contributing to me being able to do a few more things around here lately.  If nothing else, the consistent exercise really does seem to help my mood and that makes you more eager to work on stuff.

So, in other news the girls are laying more and more.  We are getting 3,4-6 eggs a day.  They all seem to be doing well. 

Big T continues to learn about roostering and he's doing a pretty good job.  I had to laugh though, when the other day, two of the hens got into a real knock-down-drag-out.  T ran over and jumps right in the middle to break it up, flapping and scolding them thoroughly.  To which they promptly jumped all over him!  He did however, stop the two hens from fighting each other.