Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Sallie Mae will be the end of me

Okay, so this time last year, I was unemployed, planning on going on a mission beginning of September, getting ready to start a summer at EFY, and applying to defer my student loans (I have 2 from paramedic school). Sound familiar, that is my EXACT SAME situation right now. Why then, would it be so dang impossible to apply for the SAME deferment with the SAME credentials? I DON'T GET IT!!!! One of the loans was totally simple to apply for deferment. I logged in, clicked on apply for deferment, entered in the date my last one was ending and the reason I needed it. THAT'S IT! Sallie Mae...you need a degree from MIT to figure out their website, which by the way is "new and improved". So 1-website is near impossible to figure out unless you know EXACTLY what sequence to hit certain buttons. 2-I called customer service to try and ask an "expert" for some help. I would have really appreciated a person who even had the slightest clue as to what I was talking about and could speak UNDERSTANDABLE English. UGH! What is this country coming to? I just want to admit that I'm broke and need a little extra time to pay off the money I needed to survive the year of hell that I suffered to be a caring, compassionate, loving person qualified to save lives. UGH!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Progress!

So, I LOVE how I've recovered from this last surgery (the one on the left arm). This surgery has been SO much more "enjoyable" (I couldn't think of another word) than the first one. I did have a minor setback with my "some kind of reaction to something" but luckily, my surgeon and his PA are very aggressive in treating stuff like this. So, lots of meds later, it has almost cleared up. On April 1, I had my 4 week follow-up (yes, I was a little nervous about seeing a surgeon on April Fool's). He was very pleased with how much motion and strength I had. I have almost full range of motion, and I have strength with my arm in certain positions that I've NEVER had. YAY! He signed me off to start physical therapy, and referred me to the PT office in the same building that he's in. The best part of this visit? I FINALLY got to get rid of that big bulky sling that I'd grown so accustomed to wearing (I'd worn it 3 out of the last 5 months!). Hopefully, to never wear one again! Anyways, I've done one week of PT and I LOVE the new place. The facility has a lot of different type of equipment to use and the entire staff is just wonderful (i.e. not the h-e-double hockey sticks that the other place was). They were also excited that I already had so much motion. So, they are able to skip over a lot of the normal post-op beginning stuff (getting back your range of motion) and jump right into the good stuff (strengthening, etc). They are also working on posture...I've now been told by my surgeon, his PA, and 2 different PT staff members that they need to work on my back muscles and "fix" my posture. I guess my piano teacher was right, I need to sit up straight. Apparently this caused some of my shoulder problems, my shoulders are rolled forward quite a bit, taking out the main muscle support from my back, causing a ton of weakness in the back of my shoulders, which is where all my major injuries were. As the physical therapist put it "your shoulder blades are almost parallel to the floor. They shouldn't be like that." So that is where they're focusing now. My surgeon is great in listening to his patients, too, and saw how much PT I did on my right shoulder, and he said "you won't have to go as often for this shoulder, because you already know the exercises from the last time, so maybe 1-3 times a week just to get your exercises for that week" YAY!!! Overall, I've been VERY pleased with this surgery altogether. It's about time!