Stacking the Shelves #10 - 10-23-15

                   Thanks to our Host, Tynga's Reviews

Welcome! Hope you all got some great books this week! I did! I have a little announcement of what' going on in my life right now.

Some of you may STILL be waiting on getting print books from me, or are even waiting to hear about WINNERS from other contests. I had an inquiry about a book one of you won, and I should have gotten in touch with you/her a second time after I knew I would not be able to go to the post office. For that, I am sorry.
Here is what has been up with myself:
I had some discs slip/flip-flop in my back. It was the WORST PAIN I have EVER felt in my back (the doctor is not sure exactly what happened, and has me going for an X-ray and I will be getting fitted for a back brace and will be able to ride out of the store wearing it riding out of the store in my wheelchair that very day as my husband pushes me out of the store on our way to the post office, finally!
Bummer. I hear those back braces are very uncomfortable. This 'whatever it was' definitely changed my plans on going to the post office that upcoming week, or for not being able to do much but read for a good month, and shamefully, I did NOT contact her as SOON as that happened because I was NOT able to do as promised, and that was to go to the post office that upcoming week, and I truly should have contacted her ASAP, and for that, I TRULY apologize.
I have to honestly say I don't want to have to put the responsibility of mailing out books to you onto my husband. He does so MUCH for me, sending out the books 'for him' is a LOT to ask for, so I do that on my own, with his help, of course!
I can't drive due to this neuro disease, so I rely on my husband for 'everything', and after the discs did whatever it is they did, I ended up on bed rest per my neurologist, (when I called the doctor, I told him when my next appointment with him was yesterday, Oct 22nd, so he ordered bed rest for me, and he felt that was fine until I saw him.) He is booked 1-1/2 years out into the future. It is so hard to get in to see him, so I always have a standing 6-month appointment with him because of that. He works out of so MANY hospitals, has 4 office practices now and teaches at Wayne State University's Neurology program. He is the Detroit area's number '1' doctor, (actually the group of 3 Neurologists is continuously awarded the number one choice in a medical magazine for physicians for the TOP NEUROLOGISTS! Unfortunately, though, I think ALL he does does get in the way of his patients at times. He IS stretched too thin, but he is SO good! THAT is the catch-22!)
I have not said anything to any of you because who wants to hear about someone's health problems? Boring!! However, you do deserve to know because this does impact the reason WHY some of you have not gotten your books lately, and why I am behind in getting some of those books out to you and getting winners chosen, which I WILL be able to do this upcoming week, finally! The back brace is supposed to help my muscles hold my skeletal system together, and I will no longer be on bed rest!!! I could go have surgery, but due to having Stiff Person Syndrome, it causes severe muscle spasms, and those muscle spasms cause damage to my discs. ALL SORTS of damage. You name it, it happens, not to mention the spasms could very well damage any corrective treatment (the surgery) before it heals. It's a catch-22. Get surgery to help what has been damaged and play Russian Roulette worrying if the spasms will damage what has been fixed, or just don't get any intervention, which HAS been my preferred method.
I've done a TON of research about back surgery. At the 5-year mark, most patients are back to where they were when they started. Even my ex has had back surgery, and HE is BACK to where he was prior to having back his back surgery. The other topper is this would be a continuous circle. It's the disease that is causing the damage. UGH!!!
When I saw the my neurologist yesterday, Thursday, Oct. 22nd, he would not speculate what could have happened until he sees the x-ray. I already have MRI's done, a LOT of those have been done. He doesn't feel a new MRI will tell him anything new, but he wants to see an X-ray of the discs to hopefully see where they are. I'm wondering/worried if he's looking for a fracture? He won't say. He tells me we take ONE step at a time, and I guess if you knew me, and my anxiety levels about this illness, you wouldn't tell me what you are looking for, either! LOL!
Anyway, this upcoming week I DO get my back brace, and WILL be going to the post office! (I NEED to get stamps.com and then I'll be in business!) LONG story short, our local post office had a pipe bomb go off in the front mailbox after hours, thankfully, so no one was injured, but my post office has put in force HORRIBLE rules we have to follow before mailing ANY packages out. We cannot package them at home, books included (which is one of the reasons it can be difficult for me to get TO the post office). We have to bring ANY package, including envelopes that will have just a book in them OPEN so they can see what's in the package. Once they see what is going in the package, THEN they okay the purchase of postage, we can tape up the package, they add the postage, then THEY take the package. WE STILL cannot drop the package into the 'Outgoing Mail'. It's a pain in the butt a group of teenagers put into effect for us ADULTS a while ago and makes it a pain for us to mail things out. This is one of the reasons I give out a lot of ebooks. It's easier, and you get them faster, but some of you LOVE print books, and I love to give print books for you true 'real' book lovers! Also, I am getting overloaded with print books and want to spread the wealth!

If you have ANY questions about books you have NOT received, please email me at laurieisreading@gmail.com and I will do my BEST to help answer your questions!

I have one book here someone won a WHILE ago, and I DID LOST YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS. It's called, "A Christmas Gift for Rose" by Tricia Goyer and it's a Christmas book one of you won a while ago, but I lost your address. If you are that person who won that book and did NOT GET IT, please contact me!

Thank you ALL for reading this!

Okay! Let's see what books I got this week! Thankfully, it's been a SLOW week as compared to ALL the other lately!!

Here are the books!

The Hundred Gifts by Jennifer Scott this book does have a very light print to the cover.
Release date: October 27th, 2015
My Review Date: November 27th!

Whispers in the Reading Room by Shelley Gray 
New Release due out November 10th!
My Review Date is December 11th

That is all this week! See you next week!