I forgot to tell you guys I went to the rheumatologist right before Christmas.  I do not have RA, thank goodness.  However, she did say I’m “double jointed”, the non-technical term for joints that hyper-extend further than they’re supposed to.  Athletes and gymnasts are well-known to be double jointed to do the things they can do.

What does that mean?  Well, it means hyper-extending a joint can do more damage to the cartilage/ligaments than it might a normal person.  So when I pushed up off my cushy couch over a year ago and twanged my ligaments that lead to the TFCC tear, they most likely hyper-extended and “laxed” a bit.

She mentioned to make sure I keep my muscles toned, as a tighter muscle pulls on the tendons/ligaments and thus reduces this laxity.  What does that mean in the long run?

According to her, wear my brace while doing heavy lifting or more intense chores, or whenever my wrist hurts.  Possibly at night when I sleep, too.  And tone my arm muscles more so they pull tighter on the ligaments.

Basically, thank you, drive through, and welcome to the rest of your life.

Now, there’s not much I can do about my wrist other than wait and see if some new problem pops up.  Which will most likely be arthritis.  I always knew I’d have problems with this wrist one day.  Looks like my time of just sucking it up and living with it has come.

It’s not gonna keep me from writing, tho.  No sirree.

~~Becka

If you want to get your hands on Tariq Sayed or Mackenzie Bishop in print, now you can.  Carnal Passions and Champagne Books have both released print versions of these two books!

You can find THE VIPER PRINCE print here:

http://www.carnalpassions.com/store/product.php?id_product=67

And MARK OF THE B*E*A*S*T* print here:

http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=390

Woohoo!

~~Becka

The cover art for Book IV of my Desert Princes series, THE SPIDER PRINCE, has been revealed on my Desert Princes blog!  If you’d like to see the Spider and his wicked awesome black and silver cover, hop on over to:

http://desertprinces.blogspot.com

and have a gander!

~~Becka

DH and I were a little “late” doing our Christmas cards this year.  We usually like to get them out by the 15th of December, but this year we were lazy/busy and didn’t get them done in our usual timely manner.  But, since we know friends and family love to have pictures of the kids at least once a year, we knew we had to do them.

My hubby has a nice camera, so we got everything ready and took photos of the kids.  After he put them on an SD card for me, I was on my way to get them processed for our Christmas cards.

I had some grocery shopping to do, as well as some Christmas shopping, and I had to get the photos printed.  This past summer, Walmart just opened a Super Walmart in my neck of the woods.  I love Walmart, and since I could do all three of my errands in one place, I decided to do a one-stop-shop and go to my local Wally’s.

One hour photo was great.  I chose what I wanted and selected my prints.  Did my shopping, got my pictures after an hour and was on my way.  I should have looked at the photos before I left the store.  When I got home, the group shot had the kids’ foreheads chopped.  ACK!!  Are you kidding me?  The pics were perfectly cropped on the SD card, why were they weird in the prints?!

SIGH

This means I have to go back out to Walmart.  And it’s not that close, it’s about 5 miles away.  Okay, well, DH has a prescription to fill and I did want to get some Christmas gifts for the kids while they’re hanging out with Daddy.  So, later that evening, I go back out to Wally’s to get these other errands done — and to have them fix my prints.

Bad idea.  BAAAAD idea.  See, I probably would have gone to Target or Costco to get it done (they’re both closer) BUT, I spent too much $$ on these prints AND I couldn’t find the damn receipt.  *sob*

So I get there, and the lady informs me she can do it in a few minutes.  But while she puts my bad prints aside, someone comes up to the counter with a request to pick up a package at the site-to-store counter, which just so happens to be — wait for it — the one hour photo counter!  Ding ding ding!

So the ONE lady working the one hour photo goes in the back to look for this person’s package.  She’s gone for a good five minutes.  While we’re both waiting, a line begins to form.  The lady comes back, and begins helping all these people in line, who all just happen to be — wait for it — site-to-store customers!  What does that mean?  It means they order something online, and they pick it up at the store.

Apparently, site-to-store trumps reprinting my bitchy prints, because this lady keeps helping everyone in line, supposedly waiting for a break in the insanity.  But none comes.  Person after person is lining up for pick ups at site-to-store, and she disappears time and again for more packages, all the while saying, “I’ll get to you in a moment” or “I’m so sorry, I’ll be right with you.”

LIES, ALL LIES!

After about a 1/2 hour of waiting, I finally just say, I’m going to come back.  She looks relieved, still having a long-ass line to take care of for site-to-store.  I’m rather pissy, because customer service lady told me it would only be maybe 5 minutes to reprint my photos.  So I leave, do my other shopping, and return, only to have the lady tell me she couldn’t print the photos without chopping off the foreheads and she’d have to have her manager do it.  When does the manager come in?

The next day.

I take a deep breath, surpress my inner bitch (because I haven’t eaten yet, and anyone who knows me knows I will bite your head off and chew on your neck if you look at me cross-eyed when I have an empty stomach), and agree to the terms.  ONLY because I have to come back to Walmart the *next* day to pick up another prescription (they didn’t have it in stock) and to return a book I’d bought there previously.  And also because I understood the lady behind the counter wasn’t the brightest light on the tree.

“We’ll call you,” she said.  Lies.  All lies.

So the next day, I decide to call first, and of course, the photos desk doesn’t answer their phone.  I noticed this when the lady had been helping site-to-store the previous evening.  She ignored it.

I’m going in!

I get there, and of course, the prints haven’t yet been reprinted (it’s about 19 hours later, mind), BUT, the manager is IN.  Yay!  She informs me she can include the foreheads, but she’ll have to crop their chests.  UHM…no one effing cares about their chests — DO IT ALREADY!!!

And omg, more site-to-store people.  GO THE EFF AWAY!!!

Boss lady says, “This’ll take 5 minutes, just wait, we’ll be done in a flash.”

Lies.  All lies.

So I’m waiting.  The boss is looking for packages, it seems she’s training a newbie OR this person is a few weeks in, because they had a somewhat deer-in-headlights look about her.  After 10 minutes, boss says, “Sorry, we’ll get to you in a minute”.  After another 15 minutes, she explains, “I’m so sorry, but we had a huge greeting card order to print before I printed yours, and I didn’t know until it came through.”

WHAT?!  So tell me to go shop or something, don’t tell me to stand there and wait because it’ll be “5 minutes”.  But now that I’ve already waited this long, the greeting card order is now finished.  And the boss decides that’s a good time to… leave.  I don’t know where she went, but she left, she might have gone on break, decided to do something else, I don’t know.  But she left my reprints in the hands of deer-in-headlights lady.

I wait another 20 minutes.  And by now I’m right pissed.  With nothing else to do, I take one of their “suggestion box” slips and proceed to write a rant — front and back of the slip — of my saga.  I slammed Walmart for the bad prints for one, for making me wait for two, for lumping site-to-store with one hour photo for three, and telling them I will NEVER order prints from them again OR do the site-to-store option, because I also witnessed THOSE people waiting for 1/2 hour 45 minutes for someone to find their packages in the back.  I told them BOO, VERY BOO, Walmart!!  I even left my phone number.

I will LOVE to talk to someone if they call me.  I doubt they will.

I understand it’s Christmas.  I understand lines will happen.  But my GAWD, Wally, the Customer Service ladies were doing NOTHING at their counter, make THEM do the effing site-to-store!!!  Why does it have to be one hour photo that gets the shaft?!  And if the photo reprints were as easy as chopping a sliver of their chests to get their entire heads, then why didn’t the first lady know how to do that?!

It was an epic FAIL all the way around.  If I were a bitchier lady, I would have been vocal, I would have been ranting — in store — I would have demanded my money back, even though I didn’t have a receipt.  But I’m very non-confrontational, and I do understand when things get busy and hectic.

But I what I expect is some modicum of decorum from ANYONE involved in this debacle to tell me to go shopping — this will take awhile.  Don’t tell me it will be “5 minutes” and then leave for your g’damn lunch break.  Don’t tell me you have everything under control and then proceed to IGNORE me in favor of site-to-store.

Moral of this story folks, because I gotta share this with you so you aren’t stuck in the same FUBARED SNAFU — NEVER get your pictures printed at Walmart, and NEVER do site-to-store.  I told you, Walmart, never again would I utilize you for these two services.  And now, I’ve educated my readers.  Hope you’re pleased with yourself.

~~Becka, who is NOW releasing her inner bitch

THE FALCON PRINCE, Desert Princes of Jikkar, Book III, is now available at Carnal Passions!

http://www.carnalpassions.com/store/product.php?id_product=68

Book III of the Desert Princes of Jikkar

He’ll teach her exactly how to please a man.

Zara Nedal is blind, yet through her magic, she can make stunning pieces of jewelry. In order to sell them, she must travel to Suridesh, but only a caravan prince can take her. And only one caravan prince will do–the Falcon.

I posted this news everywhere but my website. DUH, Becka, geez. LOL But my western romance, RENEGADE, has been bought by Champagne Books! This is one of my favorite westerns, even if it was passed over by a few other publishers first. This book has been looking for a home for almost a year and a half. And now it’s found it.

RENEGADE will be released in August of 2011. Sounds like a long way off, but don’t forget, you still have my Desert Princes to look forward to!

Here is the logline and the blurb for RENEGADE:

For the love of an outlaw, she’d risk her life to prove his innocence…

Ever since Olivia Hughes’ husband demanded a divorce, her father, Judge Hardison Black, disowned her. She now lives above the laundry shop and supports herself. Despite the disapproving looks from the townsfolk, a new start is what Livie desperately needs.

Thomas Langston is an outlaw, wanted for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s convinced Judge Black took a bribe to send him to the gallows and he won’t rest until he learns the truth. He kidnaps Livie to force the judge’s hand, unaware her father could care less. Now Thomas is on the run with a woman and no idea how to clear his name.

Livie is Thomas’s one hope for redemption. Before long, their mutual attraction flares into an all-consuming passion. But when Thomas gets caught, he’s at the end of his rope. Can Livie set the record straight before he swings at the end of a hangman’s noose?

~*~*~

Also, I’m working on another project currently entitled HEART OF A SCOUNDREL.  It’s the sequel to IN YOUR ARMS, and the book I’ve been threatening to write for years for Lissa’s shrewish younger sister, Shirley Bloom.  It’s currently about halfway finished at 22K, and it’s so. Much. Fun!!  I love writing sexy banter, and this one has it is spades.  It should be finished in no time!  I’ll be sending this one off to Champagne‘s sister company, Carnal Passions, since it’s erotic.  >:D

~~Becka

This blog is clean!

Good bad news?  What is that?!  Well, the short version: Doc didn’t find anything wrong.  Good news because nothing is wrong — bad news because nothing is wrong.  There is nothing further my doctor can do for me.

He suggested I go see a rheumatologist.  In his experience, patients who present with “phantom” pain are often diagnosed a year or two down the road with a condition that gives hindsight to the pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis.  Even though the bone scan showed no inflammation (I don’t understand how that’s possible), it is still in my best interest to get checked out.  There is no cure for RA, however, early treatment can work wonders, apparently.

The doc did give me a blood test back in May that came up negative for RA, however, he mentioned it’s not as detailed as a blood test a rheumatologist would give me.  And since my mother has it, there is a chance I could get it too.

I just think it’s so odd that nothing showed up.  A bone scan can see inflammation, hairline fractures, ligament tears, infections…  There was nothing.  It looked exactly the same as my “healthy” side.  Couple that with my doctor mentioning the cortisone shot I had didn’t do anything for me, he just has no idea what’s wrong with me.

I’d thought maybe my doc had missed something on the MRI, but you’d think whatever they missed would have shown on the bone scan.  I just don’t understand it.  I do have other aches and pains in many of my other joints.  My ankles and knees are stiff a lot.  My shoulders ache sometimes.  But I’m overweight.  I don’t have the best diet.  I do chores throughout the day.  I have five kids.  A normal person is bound to have aches and pains, right?

Maybe this is a good thing.  Maybe this is all a symptom of something that has nothing to do with my TFCC.  But if the rheumatologist can’t find RA, I’m back to square one.   I suppose I could get a second opinion since all the various tests have been done, just to have another set of eyes on my films.  I don’t know.  I kind of feel defeated.  I feel like the RA thing is a red herring.  But I’ll do it, just to be able to say, “I did that, it’s not that.”

When/if that point comes, will I just have to live with this?  That…kinda sucks. 

~~Becka

I just so happen to have two Christmas novellas!

The first is my latest release, UNDERNEATH THE MISTLETOE.  It’s a light-hearted contemporary romp about a scrooge heroine and her hero who is determined to have himself a merry little Christmas.  LOL  It’s available now from Champagne Books.

http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=363

~*~*~

I also have an erotic historical novella from Cobblestone Press entitled HEAVEN SENT.  This one involves a lonely widower and the angel God gives him as a gift.

It’s also available now.

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/heavensent.htm

If you’ve been looking for some short, fun Christmas reads, I hope you pick up mine.  Let me know how you like ‘em!  I might put your quote up on my website. 

~~Becka

Wednesday was the day of my scheduled bone scan.  If you’re not familiar with a bone scan, it’s like the opposite of an x-ray.  Where x-rays send radiation into your body, a bone scan reads the radiation from your body.  How does it do this?  With a radioactive tracer they put in your body, of course!

Yes, I said radioactive.

I’m assuming it’s “safe” or else they wouldn’t do it, right?  Or at least that’s what I thought before I got the injection.  When it came to be time, I was given an IV into a vein in my elbow.  Then the nurse grabs a lead box.  Nestled inside was a yellow syringe, made of special leaded glass, he tells me.  It looks all awesome and old-timey.  Exactly what you’d expect something would look like that held radioactive goo.

“You won’t feel any different,” the nurse says to me.  “Perfectly safe.”  I was more fascinated than scared, to tell you the truth.  He says most people get freaked by the lead box.  Well, I did feel different.  I got a buzzed feeling and it stayed with me all day.  Not too buzzed to drive, maybe more like a foggy feeling.  I couldn’t concentrate, and it was kind of hard to think for awhile.  But the amazing thing was they put your arms on the scanner — it scans you from above and below.  Right after he injected me, I instantly saw dots of radiation on the monitor.

I told him I was surprised it spread so fast and he said, “Yes, once it gets in your blood stream it’s everywhere very quickly — your heart beats 60 times a minute.”

I had pictures taken right then after the injection, of my wrists, my elbows and my shoulders.  My doc had ordered a bilateral upper extremities scan, to compare and contrast the ouchy side from the healthy side, but to also see if there was anything else going on in there.  I had to come back 4 hours later after the radiation had been absorbed into my bones for more pictures of the same. (I know, folks, I don’t like typing that anymore than you probably like reading it. lol)

Anyway, even though I could see the images on the monitor, the nurse explained that I wouldn’t be able to see the finished films that day.  Apparently, they just look like a bunch of dots on a black background until the scans are sent through a special imaging program to read them properly.  He explained it should only take a couple of days to get the results and that I should be hearing from my doctor in two days (that would be today).  I haven’t heard anything yet, but Fridays are my doctor’s surgery days, so I don’t know if I’ll actually hear anything.  He did say he’d call me personally though, so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

And hopefully, I’ll be able to see these scans at some point.  I’m fascinated by it all.  I’m actually praying they DID find something of interest in there, because if not, my doc said there’s not much more he can do for me since the MRI I got didn’t show any other tissue anomalies, and my x-rays were clear, and if this bone scan is clear, then… Not much more he can do.

That’s going to suck if he says that to me.  I don’t have serious pain, I have full range of motion, but it’s stiff in there, and if I press on my hamate bone, that’s when it starts to hurt.  If I do too many strenuous things, it hurts.  And sometimes it just hurts for no reason.  That’s why I wonder if I fractured my hook of hamate — that non-union fracture can’t be seen on normal x-ray films and it seems to have the very same symptoms I’m having.  Treatment is extraction of the hook via surgery.  Of course I won’t know until later today if that’s what’s going on if/when the doctor calls.  So I’ll let you know what he says after I talk with him.

~~Becka