Saturday, June 14, 2014

Wrist Action

REJOICE!!  I can sculpt again!!! I missed mooshing clay so much with my wrist being hurt all this time. Hadn't been able to do much of anything art related or otherwise since back in Nov 2013. Hopefully the steroid shot will last. So excited I can finally get back to creating things!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Rheuma-Fail

The Rheumatologist appointment Friday left much to be desired. The doctor was in a hurry because they were busy, and his bedside manner was horrid. He didn't even do a full body exam ( me being a brand new patient he'd never seen ). He was dismissive and condescending and didn't listen to anything I had to say. My mother was with me and she tried to keep interjecting as well. He handled me very roughly the whole time, despite realizing as a Fibromyalgia patient I experience a lot of pain on top of normal pain people feel. He wasn't taking anything seriously, and it wasn't until I insisted he look at my feet, took my shoes and socks off and he saw my feet and ankles and how bad they were that his attitude changed at all.

He ordered autoimmune bloodwork, but I am worried some of it is the same testing I have had done a million times before, which will come back negative as the belief is I am sero-negative. I expressed this concern to him asking to go right for the biopsy instead because I know bloodwork will come back negative and because I am paying out of pocket, NOT through insurance, I am trying to save on costs of unnecessary testing because that is all I have dealt with for years. I am sick and tired of being ignored because bloodwork "looks okay" yet present multitude of symptoms that do not improve, but have only gotten worse over time. He brushed off my concerns and said we had to do those tests first. I am waiting for the results, should have them next week. If they are "okay" ( which is typical of my bloodwork over years of dealing with this ), then my next appointment isn't for another 3 months. Otherwise they want to refer me to a dermatologist for my skin issues. I am hesitant to think anything helpful will come from it.

The only remote good thing of the whole experience is that I was right on one self-diagnosis all along. I have De Quervain's tenosynovitis in my injured wrist. He squeezed it and it hurt so much the way he did, I saw red and it started to trigger my pre-syncope symptoms.

He'd actually gone on with the other stuff at first and not even bothered to tell me anything about how to treat my wrist and had ended the appointment before we were even finished, and we had to call him back into the room and say "Okay, well what am I supposed to do for it?" He tells me do do the same thing I have been doing for months, and at this point I am furious and frustrated from his dismissive attitude during the rest of the appointment and I snapped that I *HAD* been doing that with little improvement and was sick and tired of not being able to function with that, on top all the other crap I deal with.

He finally decided to give me a corticosteroid shot into the wrist / tendon sheath and oh my gods did it hurt from the pressure going in, but it had a numbing agent mixed in, and after the initial jolt my whole hand went numb. Was told not to use it for up to 48hrs. Easier said than done, but I have taken it easy since.

I am really of the mindset to file a complaint about how poorly I felt treated as a new patient seeing a strange doctor for the first time, but I am not sure who to file the complaint with. I only saw him specifically because a friend recommended him and liked him, and since she is sero-neg I figured he might have further insight and actually be able to help me. But all he succeeded in doing was upsetting me more than I was already upset to begin with.

I'll wait and see what the test results say this week, but I am feeling like it was a waste of time and waste of money that could have been spent with a Rheumatologist that would actually listen to everything I had to say and give me a proper exam, since you know, I am *paying* for it.

So now I need to probably find a new Rheumatologist that I can go see. It's really infuriating having to "shop around" to find a good doctor and not have medical coverage, because the cost of appointments on top of actually waiting for appointment openings is insane.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Puppy Progress - 5 Months
























Journey and Ember napping.


With all the bad stuff that happened last month, haven't had a chance to really sit and recap on Journey's progress during the month of May until now.  He made 5 months old May 4th.  He'll be 6 months old tomorrow.

This one will be a little short, as I am going to do a more detailed update within the next week or two for the 6th month old mark.

In May Journey went to a dog park for the first time and did amazingly well. His leash-less long distance recall was flawless ( which makes me SO HAPPY I cannot describe the happy ) coming back to me every time I called him back, even when there were more interesting things ( running dogs, running kids, and even a mild scuffle that broke out when some dogs got to rough across the park).

We also took an intermediate education class, which he passed and graduated from in the middle of the month.

Journey has also shed all of his puppy teeth!  They started appearing and I started collecting them. I'll have to do a count to see how many I have, but I did manage to get both eye teeth!  Puppy teeeeeeeef arremmmgawds. I may have missed a few, but I got most of them.

He worked on down / stays and sit /stays with distance and duration and before I had totally proofed it, I had to run out of the room in a rush at one point and gave him a down /stay command and figured he'd be following right after me as soon as I left the room and was gone for more than a minute. BUT HE STAYED!!!  Oh my gods when I went back in he was laying there waiting and he got soooooooo much praise I think he exploded.

Those are the main highlights I can think of. Will discuss more in the next update.

Better Things

This month has already started out better. Spent yesterday and most of today hanging out with a friend I only originally knew online and really connected with her and those around her. Had one of the most welcoming experiences I have in a long time. Sava, thank you and Tak for letting us stay the night when I had my "spell".

Stopped in Slidell today to get some supplies so I could get those commissions I have pending turned out ( finally! ). My wrist popped the other day ( hurt like a bitch ) and some of the pain and tension is less than it has been for months after continuing with PT exercises. It still hurts to grasp/twist and move it certain ways and lift heavy objects, but some of the range of motion is better. Hopefully if I am careful, it'll behave and let me get these sculptures and a few other things finished, and move on to other things I have been wanting to do for months.

Saw Delta Pet was still there. It's been sooooo long since I had seen everyone there. I have been shopping with them and known them all since I was a little kid, but lost touch after Katrina and moving away. Wanted to say hello and catch up with them all. Was really wonderful seeing them and how the store had changed. Chatted with them about the animals and stuff in general, and Mr John the owner wants me to bring in some art and displays and we're going to try to figure out where to fit them in the store! Soooo excited and feeling so blessed by the generosity.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Poor Possum

Coming home tonight, about to make the turn to come back to the house and see something on the curb of the median. The car in front of me hits it. It was a possum. I managed to miss it and so did the car behind me because I slowed down and breaked suddenly and swerved.

Ran inside after I parked in the driveway, grabbed a broom and large upright/stick dustpan and ran back out with my aunt looking at me like "WTF are you doing?" and me calling back that I'd explain after.

I ran back across the street, managed to find it, still alive but hard to tell how badly hurt. There was some blood but otherwise nothing ripped that I could see and nothing dripping all over. Tried getting it on the dustpan with it hissing and chorking and making horrid angry noises. Managed to scoop/guide the possum up onto the median. The road is 4 lane divided by median, 2 lanes each side.

Dustpan broke when I tried to pick the possum up in it because it was so heavy... ran back across the street and grabbed the only thing I could... old jaw action poop-scoop my aunt has off to the side and is actually pretty clean ( it is old and not used much )... run back across the street, put the jaws on either side of possum and scooped it up, and proceeded to carry it back to our side of the street, set it down a time or two to rest. Managed to get it back to the dark alley on the side of the house and placed it by a bush, which it crawled under. It was snarking at me the whole time and despite a slight limp it looked okay and moved okay.

My ankle is *screaming* at me for attempting to jog/run on it when it was already very angry.  But at least the possum is away from the road now.  Hopefully it'll recover and move on its way overnight.

Blah, Good, Rheumatologist Appointment

This has just been a rather crappy month for me and everyone I know. Still not really okay with stuff that happened, but can't dwell on things I can't change.

Found out on the 23rd ( week of other real bad stuff ) that the court hearing medicaid appeal thing I went to was denied. Which, doesn't surprise me. Considering the idiots set a court hearing for an appeal for a program that doesn't even apparently exist anymore and no one bothered to tell me so till we were there in court. It doesn't surprise me one bit. But with everything else that week it was like acid and salt in raw wounds. Makes me more hellbent and determined for the next battle.

The little spark of good news, I *finally* managed to get an emergency appointment with a Rheumatologist. I will have to pay a small fortune out of pocket since I don't have medical coverage, but hopefully this doctor will be able to help where others have not.  I see him on June 6th.

Part of the reason I wanted to taper off the Cymbalta before seeing this new doc, aside from the insane price OOP monthly, is because I got to wondering if it was "masking symptoms" because it was blocking the pain and also as a result possibly blocking inflammatory markers that might show in bloodwork.

Along this same line of thinking, realizing I have been taking Aleve every day now at higher than normally recommended doses, it made me think the same thing.  Swelling / inflammation, low grade fevers, etc might be masked by the amount I have been taking.

So, this week I decided to attempt... and I say that laughing... to not take any pain medication all week long, whatsoever. So far, I have managed. But oh gods does it hurt sooo much. I have used topical creams and my TENS unit to try and help make it more bearable. Mind over matter, mind over matter I keep telling myself. Tomorrow will be going into week 2 of no pain medication. Hoping I can last till Friday and the appointment.

Since I am going to this new doc and expecting bloodwork, etc. I don't want anything being "hidden" inadvertently. I am starting to think that may have been part of the problem all along.

Hoping seeing this doctor will also tell me something about my wrist, since he specializes in the condition I think I have. I have been doing physical therapy with it every day, and slowly, sooo agonizingly slowly, some more range of motion has returned. But it is still tender and hurts to grasp, turn, or lift weight with it.  After MONTHS ( geeze since Nov 2013 ) of not being able to work on any artwork, I am about ready to gnaw the damned thing off and replace it with a hook.

Then everyone can call me Cap'n Lhunie.  YAARRRRGGGGG!  ::Drinks some rum::

Anyway.  Happy to move forward and hoping next month will be better than this one was.