House Hunting, Still !
First off I should tell you that I am in a bad CFS crash , worse than I've had in a long time. Probably from the trip yesterday partly...?
Honestly it's been a miracle that it didn't happen sooner considering what all we've been through in the last year plus, huh?! But, oh, the timing sucks as I have so much I must do this week! Anyway, if this post doesn't make sense you'll know why :) Please decipher best
as you can LOL
Our trip yesterday was more than trying. We had so much to do and typically, at best, I can only handle a couple hours max of doing anything and this took over 9 hours.
Our car has a bad exhaust leak. That never helps! I need the windows down so I don't get brainfogged while driving but that drives dh's ears and other things nuts. Ugh. We knew the car was running poorly but had no choice. We found just how bad it is, but it could have been worse I'm sure. We barely made it up a few hills. The traffic didn't help and there was no place to pull off the road. No shoulders.
Top that off with it being one of the worse couple days of allergies I've had so far. Don't know what's in the air but it's really doing me in.
The leaking oil from the engine didn't help MCS stuff at all and the car made enough bad noises that i was afraid we might end up stranded.
I found out on the way back that one of the noises was a rusted piece was flapping in the wind against the tire...from the fender in front of the back wheel. (it's rusted badly everywhere and full of holes). I broke that piece off, fearing it might puncture the tire and we had one less noise after that :) The speed limit on that highway is 90km an hr but the car wouldn't do over 70 or so which did not seem to please the cars behind us.
That 45 min (probably took longer as that is what it takes when you can drive the speed limit) seemed to take forever and by the time we got to town I was already exhausted from all the tension etc. And I couldn't breath. The air looked, hmmm, dirty? and my chest felt real heavy. That made every physical movement feel doubly taxing.
I had assumed that this town being so much smaller, 25k pop vs 150k here, would be more peaceful feeling. It sure wasn't! There was traffic and noise and people on every street all over town. Of course it can be fun trying find your way around a strange town with many one-way streets but with the circumstances, being wiped out tired etc it was doubly hard. I wasn't surprised that all the noise and sensory stimulus bothered dh because it was driving me nuts too!
We got there about ten minutes too late to be the first appointment to look at the house we'd gone to see so had to wait a bit over an hour until two other parties viewed it first. That was ok as I wanted to drive around and familiarize myself a bit more with the town and get the feel of the place. We'd done a job there a few years ago and driven through it a couple of times years before that. Dh worked in this town before he got sick, but that was many, many years ago :) He found that the town had grown considerably (found out later that it is one of the fastest growing areas) and now most of the major stores, Staples, Home Depot and Walmart are there.
Finally it was time to meet with the landlord and look at the house. One reason we wanted to see this house is because it was the cheapest we had seen advertised that was a single family home, a small yard, allowed pets, and had a small detached garage...all things we could really use! The rent was no more than an apartment, which is terrible when you have MCS and problems walking (dh) in this town. We knew it was an old, small house before we went and hoped there was no mold etc.
Turned out that the house was in a sort of industrial area. MCS rating - Strike one. There was a waste treatment place about 200 ft away. MCS rating - strike two. There was a two story building right on the back fence line which apparently housed some people (it was more like a garage and there was another house there too) where a man and his girlfriend were sitting at the top of the steps which peered into the back yard... and, well the neighborhood didn't look exactly safe ? Found out later when I asked several different people, "what area of town would you NOT want to live in here and why?" that it was a high crime area that no one wants to live in. That could have been strike three but we hadn't gotten to that point yet. We were still at the house.
Then when I asked about heat he told me there had been oil heat but now they were just using those radiant space heaters. The stairs to the basement where the laundry hookups were (no washer or dryer just hook ups for them) was extremely step, small treads and high risers. Dh could never help with the laundry because he can't do a flight of stairs. (I had that situation at the old house too), but it worried me even for myself as I tend to fall down stairs - sprained ankle three times at the old house remember? - as my feet seem to do funny things when descending stairs. But we still weren't at strike three yet...
Strike Three came when he said, "Don't remember if I told you that there's another section of the basement that had an old man living in it. I'm going to remodel it and it will be rented out to another party". What??!!! Why didn't he tell me this during one of the multiple calls I made to him before we drove all the way over there to look at it??!! Turned out he planned on drywalling, taping, painting AND putting down tiling, as in the type that you use glue for. UGH! Suddenly that cheap price became overly expensive as it was a shared house.
Sigh.
That was a waste of many hours that we are so short of these days. Next we drove around town to some other locations, without exact addresses, of where other rentals were. But by then it was evening already and too late to be making phone calls.
After grabbing something to eat we made one last "drive by", to the walk-in clinic where the doctor was that we saw here at our doctor's office when he was out on medical leave. One of the reasons we thought moving to this city would be good is that a dentist my dd found that will fix her teeth with her health care coverage (here they won't) and this GP we liked were both there.
We found the location fairly easily and I was surprised to see that the clinic was still open as it was nearing 9 PM. They were open from 9 - 9. So we went in. Dh was stunned to see how many security things are in this town. For instance this clinic had acrylic 'wall' separating the waiting room from the receptionist. He remembered later that there had been two murders at the park across the street several years back. The receptionist informed us that they weren't 'registering any more patients that day' and we told her we weren't there to have an appointment, just inquiring about that doctor.
Turns out that the young doctor, who may be an immigrant btw, "floats" between various clinics, which is how he happened to fill in for our dr, and didn't work there anymore, or at least wasn't on the chart to be there for the next month or more.
That was Strike Three. Between the noise, traffic, air and just not feeling good there at all and now no doctor we chalked it up and left. It was well after nine as we headed home.
By this point I was so exhausted and sinking more that it wasn't safe for me to drive. Dh hadn't driven except for a block or two twice since a year ago March but he thought he was ok enough to do so. I prayed he was. His problem with driving is the overstim and his ears and lately at times his eyes. But as it was dark already and less traffic, we thought, on the highway he thought he was ok enough to try. I can have those same problems so I knew that it's often easier after dark when there is less sensory stimulus and less traffic. But I worried more about his suddenly loosing control of his legs. That was the main reason he was told not to drive, last year. It happened always unpredictably. However he informed me that the two times he had fallen since we've been at the motel have been from balance and not his legs and it had been quite a while since his legs have suddenly 'disappeared' on him. So I prayed and figured since he cause see better than I was at the moment he might as well try for a while.
Thankfully we made it home in one piece - but still with no place to move to.
[end of part 1]
Zona
Honestly it's been a miracle that it didn't happen sooner considering what all we've been through in the last year plus, huh?! But, oh, the timing sucks as I have so much I must do this week! Anyway, if this post doesn't make sense you'll know why :) Please decipher best
as you can LOL
Our trip yesterday was more than trying. We had so much to do and typically, at best, I can only handle a couple hours max of doing anything and this took over 9 hours.
Our car has a bad exhaust leak. That never helps! I need the windows down so I don't get brainfogged while driving but that drives dh's ears and other things nuts. Ugh. We knew the car was running poorly but had no choice. We found just how bad it is, but it could have been worse I'm sure. We barely made it up a few hills. The traffic didn't help and there was no place to pull off the road. No shoulders.
Top that off with it being one of the worse couple days of allergies I've had so far. Don't know what's in the air but it's really doing me in.
The leaking oil from the engine didn't help MCS stuff at all and the car made enough bad noises that i was afraid we might end up stranded.
I found out on the way back that one of the noises was a rusted piece was flapping in the wind against the tire...from the fender in front of the back wheel. (it's rusted badly everywhere and full of holes). I broke that piece off, fearing it might puncture the tire and we had one less noise after that :) The speed limit on that highway is 90km an hr but the car wouldn't do over 70 or so which did not seem to please the cars behind us.
That 45 min (probably took longer as that is what it takes when you can drive the speed limit) seemed to take forever and by the time we got to town I was already exhausted from all the tension etc. And I couldn't breath. The air looked, hmmm, dirty? and my chest felt real heavy. That made every physical movement feel doubly taxing.
I had assumed that this town being so much smaller, 25k pop vs 150k here, would be more peaceful feeling. It sure wasn't! There was traffic and noise and people on every street all over town. Of course it can be fun trying find your way around a strange town with many one-way streets but with the circumstances, being wiped out tired etc it was doubly hard. I wasn't surprised that all the noise and sensory stimulus bothered dh because it was driving me nuts too!
We got there about ten minutes too late to be the first appointment to look at the house we'd gone to see so had to wait a bit over an hour until two other parties viewed it first. That was ok as I wanted to drive around and familiarize myself a bit more with the town and get the feel of the place. We'd done a job there a few years ago and driven through it a couple of times years before that. Dh worked in this town before he got sick, but that was many, many years ago :) He found that the town had grown considerably (found out later that it is one of the fastest growing areas) and now most of the major stores, Staples, Home Depot and Walmart are there.
Finally it was time to meet with the landlord and look at the house. One reason we wanted to see this house is because it was the cheapest we had seen advertised that was a single family home, a small yard, allowed pets, and had a small detached garage...all things we could really use! The rent was no more than an apartment, which is terrible when you have MCS and problems walking (dh) in this town. We knew it was an old, small house before we went and hoped there was no mold etc.
Turned out that the house was in a sort of industrial area. MCS rating - Strike one. There was a waste treatment place about 200 ft away. MCS rating - strike two. There was a two story building right on the back fence line which apparently housed some people (it was more like a garage and there was another house there too) where a man and his girlfriend were sitting at the top of the steps which peered into the back yard... and, well the neighborhood didn't look exactly safe ? Found out later when I asked several different people, "what area of town would you NOT want to live in here and why?" that it was a high crime area that no one wants to live in. That could have been strike three but we hadn't gotten to that point yet. We were still at the house.
Then when I asked about heat he told me there had been oil heat but now they were just using those radiant space heaters. The stairs to the basement where the laundry hookups were (no washer or dryer just hook ups for them) was extremely step, small treads and high risers. Dh could never help with the laundry because he can't do a flight of stairs. (I had that situation at the old house too), but it worried me even for myself as I tend to fall down stairs - sprained ankle three times at the old house remember? - as my feet seem to do funny things when descending stairs. But we still weren't at strike three yet...
Strike Three came when he said, "Don't remember if I told you that there's another section of the basement that had an old man living in it. I'm going to remodel it and it will be rented out to another party". What??!!! Why didn't he tell me this during one of the multiple calls I made to him before we drove all the way over there to look at it??!! Turned out he planned on drywalling, taping, painting AND putting down tiling, as in the type that you use glue for. UGH! Suddenly that cheap price became overly expensive as it was a shared house.
Sigh.
That was a waste of many hours that we are so short of these days. Next we drove around town to some other locations, without exact addresses, of where other rentals were. But by then it was evening already and too late to be making phone calls.
After grabbing something to eat we made one last "drive by", to the walk-in clinic where the doctor was that we saw here at our doctor's office when he was out on medical leave. One of the reasons we thought moving to this city would be good is that a dentist my dd found that will fix her teeth with her health care coverage (here they won't) and this GP we liked were both there.
We found the location fairly easily and I was surprised to see that the clinic was still open as it was nearing 9 PM. They were open from 9 - 9. So we went in. Dh was stunned to see how many security things are in this town. For instance this clinic had acrylic 'wall' separating the waiting room from the receptionist. He remembered later that there had been two murders at the park across the street several years back. The receptionist informed us that they weren't 'registering any more patients that day' and we told her we weren't there to have an appointment, just inquiring about that doctor.
Turns out that the young doctor, who may be an immigrant btw, "floats" between various clinics, which is how he happened to fill in for our dr, and didn't work there anymore, or at least wasn't on the chart to be there for the next month or more.
That was Strike Three. Between the noise, traffic, air and just not feeling good there at all and now no doctor we chalked it up and left. It was well after nine as we headed home.
By this point I was so exhausted and sinking more that it wasn't safe for me to drive. Dh hadn't driven except for a block or two twice since a year ago March but he thought he was ok enough to do so. I prayed he was. His problem with driving is the overstim and his ears and lately at times his eyes. But as it was dark already and less traffic, we thought, on the highway he thought he was ok enough to try. I can have those same problems so I knew that it's often easier after dark when there is less sensory stimulus and less traffic. But I worried more about his suddenly loosing control of his legs. That was the main reason he was told not to drive, last year. It happened always unpredictably. However he informed me that the two times he had fallen since we've been at the motel have been from balance and not his legs and it had been quite a while since his legs have suddenly 'disappeared' on him. So I prayed and figured since he cause see better than I was at the moment he might as well try for a while.
Thankfully we made it home in one piece - but still with no place to move to.
[end of part 1]
Zona
posted by Zona at 2:06 AM
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