Feel Like I'm Back Twenty Steps

Finally I am feeling better and my post surgery recovery seems almost complete. The signs are there because I actually felt able to bring in the empty trash barrels and recycling bins (put everything in the big barrel and wheel it down the driveway). This is the first time since early October I have felt up to that. My husband even noticed.

I was all set to go to the gym this week for the first time in months but I woke up Monday with a temperature (101.5) and thought I had the flu. It wasn't the flu. It wasn't an ear infection. It was just your basic run of the mill cold. It set me back - I postponed everything from this week to next week and am still dragging around some.

However, I do now feel better but feel horribly out of shape. I lost weight after sitting around for a couple of months and now have a fatter gut. I get tired easily - probably because:
I'm out of shape
I'm recovering from surgery
I'm out of shape
I'm getting over a cold
I'm out of shape
I've sat on my butt for more than 10 weeks
I'm out of shape

But now my goal is to work on getting back in shape. I really need to.

When I was diagnosed with RA and fibromyalgia, I was very pleased at the fact that I had been working out regularly and was in relatively good shape and was better off than many others when diagnosed. Now I feel twenty steps back from where I was. I am not in shape now. It will be ten times harder to get back in shape than without RA and fibromyalgia.

So Monday I go to PT for the second to last time. Tuesday I go to the gym for the first time in 2.5 months. Then with any luck, I will be back to regular gym visits and work on slowly getting back in shape. The key word is 'slowly' but I'll work on getting back those 20 steps.....

A Long Day At Doctors

After all my traveling, I realized that my body was not being very cooperative. I have increased knee pain (in the new bad knee, as opposed to the old bad knee), I have new back pain higher up than previously (it came and went for a few years but is not more there than not), and my neck and right shoulder have been giving me lots of problems.

So after waiting around for a few weeks, it became time for all my appointments. I had three different medical appointments, in two different facilities 30 minutes apart, yesterday. I started at physical therapy about my neck and shoulder. After speaking to the therapist, he did some stretching on my neck and gave me a  whole bunch of exercises. I will go back and see him twice a week for the next six to eight weeks. And its not that convenient a location.

Next I saw the nurse practitioner of my pain management doctor. She talked to me and pressed all sorts of painful places on my body. She upped my medications and sent me for x-rays. I am supposed to go see her again in three week to see where we are and see if I need an MRI or other imaging. I haven't had a spine MRI since around January 2009 and the question will be if my insurance will pay for it, if I really need it. 

I am kind of fed up with this doctor. He has said to me that even though he has been treating me for nearly 7 years, he does not think there is a need for any new imaging. Any new pains are only caused by my existing conditions. If I don't get anywhere with this NP and doctor this one last time, I will probably find a new one. A friend of mine also saw him for  years and then went to a back surgeon who told her she should have had surgery a long time before. This does nothing to my comfort level with him..

Then I went to X-ray for five pictures of my knee, four pictures of my thoracic spine, and three pictures of my lumbar spine. That was lots of fun. I am not good with the contortions required for some x-rays.

Finally I saw my orthopedic surgeon. My knee was back to its throbbing at night that I had experienced last winter and spring before he injected my knee. I hoped for a new injection which is what I got. But it made my knee really sore and I hobbled out to my car. I went home and took a 2.5 hour nap. I think I was a little tired.

Overall it was a good day, just very long for me. I am not sure I am up for a long day like that again. 

This is just a bit of my life with millions of doctors. At least I didn't see any oncologists. That part makes me happy.

More Needles????

I hate needles. I really hate needles. If a needle is near me I can't look. If a needle is near anyone else, I leave the room. (Actually sewing needles and knitting needles are fine. Its those icky medical ones that cause me problems.)

Now it looks like more needles are in my future. Ick. Double ick!

Yesterday I went to see neurosurgery because of increasing pain in my neck. Real pain in my neck, not the literal kind. I do have to deal with the literal pains in the neck (like insurance companies, hospital billing departments, and poor bedside manners). Back in 2014, I was having problems with my right arm. I was sent to see a neurologist to see if there was something going on back in my brain to cause this. (A subtle way to see if there was a 'thingy' in my brain.)  There wasn't anything in my brain (except my brain) but there were disc protrusions and bone spurs on my neck.

Jump ahead 2.5 years later and I have increasing pain in my neck, shoulder, and arm. My primary care referred me back to neurosurgery. The neurosurgery physician's assistant said the following:

• Your body may reabsorb disc tissue but will not reabsorb bone so its not going away anytime soon, probably not ever.
• Physical therapy may help so we are going to try that.
• They want a new MRI of my neck (and brain) to get another picture of what's going on and see if there are any changes (read that as growth).
• The next step is needles in my neck sort of like what I get in my spine.

I am overjoyed. I can't wait. But I guess I have to realize that I can force myself to deal with needles if it means the pain might go away lessen. That is my dream actually for a pain free, healthy body. So I guess I have to stick with needles (that is such a bad pun I have to leave it even though its not what I meant to say. What I meant is I have to cope with needles.).

Physical therapy

This morning I finally will start physical therapy for my knee, nearly four weeks after falling. I have opted to have my PT at the gym instead of through the hospital. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, after my initial appointment, I can do my PT on my own instead of having to juggle three more appointments each week. I just don't have the patience for that. When I have PT, I do my exercises every day. Most physical therapists have told me many patients only do their exercises at their sessions.

Second of all, its free. I won't get three sessions each week for free but I will get a session every week or two, and free advice when I want. Yes I have health insurance but I can save the copays, and save my insurance company their share. This makes it a win-win (I hate that term) situation as far as I am concerned.

Last of all, I have had PT for my knees several times so I am aware of what to expect. I know my biggest problem won't be which exercises to do but which ones I am able to do. Between my back issues and hip bursitis, I physically can't do many of the exercises.

So much fun, more than I deserve.

I Think Technology is Winning

A few weeks ago a friend sent a bunch of us an email. I got my other friends' reply to it before I received the original one. Last week, another friend sent an email, which I never received. Then just the other day, another friend sent me an email that showed up a couple of hours later. Even though other emails she sent me arrived in a timely manner. What does this tell me? Either there is a giant conspiracy against me and I need to develop a massive insecurity complex so I can deal with it? Or technology simply surpasses my understanding? Or there are some really slow servers out there? Or that the email is no greater a means of communication than a phone message or a fax - where you never really are sure they get there but assume they make it?

Personally, I think I shall develop the insecurity complex for now. Its better than thinking about health issues and back pain which kept me up most of last night. The back pain kept me up, not thinking about health issues. Eventually I gave up and took a pill. I am trying not to take the pills every day. However in the interest of crabbiness prevention and marriage preservation, I do take them when I can't sleep.

However the question of the day? Does this little Lego man in any way resemble the former governor of IL? Please note the hair style similarity. I read this somewhere online in the media coverage of the impeachment circus that the hairstyles are very similar. I do have to agree.

Anyway, in addition to developing an insecurity complex, I have been busy because I overscheduled myself. Yesterday I met a friend for coffee, met another friend for a walk, and went to work. Today I am doing work from home, getting a manicure, meeting another friend for coffee, going for a walk, doing more work from home, and then going to work. (I need a vacation!) This is getting stressful. In case you were concerned, this is what I get for coffee where ever I go: a medium or large decaf with skim milk. I don't use the fancy names, even at the trendy coffee chains, I just order a decaf in medium or large. I do admit to adding nutmeg and cinnamon to my coffee once in a while but have successfully ended my previous addiction to lattes.

Yesterday I finally set up my physical therapy. I will begin a week from Monday, the day after we return from our snow shoeing adventure in the Adirondacks. I am sure I will have lots of aches and pains (and general whininess) t share with the physical therapist. In the meantime, I will just be patient for another week before it starts. Actually I was thinking about it. I called the doctor on December 22 while I was away. They fit me in on the 30th. I couldn't get in sooner because we were away. I saw the specialist on the 20th. They offered to have me come in and see the nurse practitioner earlier but I opted to wait to see the doctor. Then I had an MRI on the 26th and a follow up on the 27th and physical therapy begins Feb 9th. That's not that bad a time frame because I opted for the delays. However, I am still working on being a patient patient. Someday perhaps I will perfect this but in the meantime I can be crabby and whiny.