Mary Kay

03:19 pm: (Mostly) Whine Free Update
Well, I went to my appointment with the hand/wrist guy. About 10 minutes in, it being clear to me that he wasn't listening to me and didn't like me asking questions about things I didn't understand, I informed him that I wasn't going to take that behavior and took my test results and walked out. Arrogant condescending jerk.

I called my primary care doctor and made an appointment to see her. She agreed with me that sometimes that particular doctor could act that way. We also decided that right now I probably didn't need surgery. I had been wearing the braces faithfully for 2 months and had left them off for several days before the appt. And had, in fact, only a little pain. So I'm going to wear them when I sleep and drive and whenever I'm doing something that stresses them. I only need surgery she says, if I start getting muscle wastage. So there's that decided.

She was fascinated to hear about the joint hypermobility syndrome though she didn't know much about it either. I'm going to talk the rheumatologists office to see if they have PTs they recommend for it and then she'll give me a referral to them. If they don't have any names, I'll start calling the folks I used for my knee and recommendations I've had until I find someone who has experience with JHS.

I'd been having a good week so I spent yesterday doing housework and laundry. For the housework I used the 20 minutes of work/20 minutes of rest scheme. I managed to get the ground floor of the house tidied and the kitchen cleaned up. There still needs to be dusting and serious cleaning. Then I spent the evening from about 5pm on doing laundry. Which of course is short bursts of activity interspersed with long bouts of waiting. Most of which I spent watching tv. (The laundry room and tv room are separate ends of a very large room in the basement.

Unfortunately, I must have got carried away as everything hurts today. Sigh. To sum up: Prescription meds are Cymbalta, salsalate, levothyroxine, (weekly) B-12 shots, and trazodone. OTC meds and supplements include multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplement, B-100 (multiple vitamin Bs), 2000 IUs of vitamin D, 1200 mgs of calcium, plant sterols, and Prilosec. Ibuprofen as necessary for osteoarthritis (hands, right knee, ankles), mysterious aches and pains, mostly in glutes and quads, and trochanteric bursitis Also wearing custom orthotics (and why did I wait so long to get those!).

It's very startling to me just how suddenly all this began. As nearly as I can tell it mostly started to go south in Sept. of 2006. That was Dominic's last full month so there was that stress. Also, interestingly, it was the month after my very last period ever. Man, Nature is brutal. No longer fertile? We don't need you any longer, buh bye! And you start falling apart.

And soon, it'll be time to get out the light-boxes... Right now, though, I'm supposed to be writing fiction so I suppose I'd better go do that.

Tags: health, medication

03:02 pm: Further Aventures in the Health Industry
Well, after a really unsatisfactory interaction the hand and wrist guy ordered a test to determine if I really have carpal tunnel syndrome. That was this morning. Unlike most of the people who do medical tests he was both willing and able to tell me the results. I do indeed have moderate carapl tunnel on the right and mild on the left. He said that usually they recommend wearing braces and changing egonomics and mild NSAIDs for this level for a couple months and if that doesn't work...

That was the point at which I Interrupted to tell him I'd been wearing the braces for 2 full months and being careful about ergonomics for the last year.

So then I'll set you up an appointment with one of our surgeons, he finished.

I see the surgeon on Wednesday. Apparently the surgery for this condition has improved immensely in recent years. They may even be able to do it on an outpatient basis. We'll see, but it looks like at least the right wrist is going to have to have surgery. I am, of course, EXTREMELY right handed. The handout he gave me says it can take 3-4 weeks to be able to write or type comfortably, and you don't get full strength back for 10-12 weeks...

Tags: carpal tunnel, health

08:52 pm: The Infamous Catchup Post
Four Hugo ballots received after the deadline. One category was so close we hand counted it to be doubly sure everything was copacetic. Came out exactly right though. So BWAAAHAHAHAHA -- I KNOW WHO WON THE HUGOS AND YOU DON'T. (Hey, we've done a lot of work. We deserve a little fun.)

Additionally, saw a podiatrist last week. Ordered custom orthotics. And, according to his standards, at least 90% of my rather extensive shoe collection is 'unsuitable'. Meaning they bend....

Have had a couple of bad pain days recently. They seem to come at the end of the week. Which is a bit odd as I don't work outside the home so that one day is pretty much like another. Was quite disheartened yesterday. I had signed up for a class at the Puget Sound Bead Festival. However it turned out to involve a lot of hand manipulation of wire in very tight spaces which didn't work very well and definitely left my hands achy.

We went to see Hell Boy 2 this afternoon. As others have said, it's a visual delight, but the end really really really pissed me off. ( spoiler behind cut tag )

Did not dissolve in tears once all week, but am still having rather unpleasant fits of temper at unpredictable times.

I was looking forward to doing some fiction writing on Thursday -- first time I've felt like it since Wiscon and 30 minutes before I left the house, my computer quit. It has this connection that keeps coming loose. Jordin can fix it, but it involves taking the computer apart which is not something I'm up for. So I did some outlining and notetaking instead. Also wrote a couple of short essays I'll be posting here on LJ in the upcoming week.

That night as I was lying in bed thinking about the kids in the novel and the things they had to go through to get from here to there, I was suddenly gifted with a structure to hang the middle on! I know the shape now so I can write it now. Yay!!!!

Also, farmgirl1146 and I have formed a pact. Every Wednesday we ask each other what we have submitted since the last Wednesday. Last Wednesday I submitted a piece of humorous flash fiction to Escape Pod. I've just found a new market that I need to check to see if I have anything appropriate for and send them something this week.

Tags: health, hugos, movies, writing

05:51 pm: Well, it's kind of a long story
So I'm going to put it behind a cut.
( click )

Tags: carpal tunnel, health, hms

07:37 pm: Make My Day
In addition to the death and despair, I came home from Wiscon with a cold. (Everyone else got the norovirus, but I just *have* to be different.) I thought I was better yesterday so I went out and did stuff. And woke up this morning feeling just awful. So I'm lying on the couch alternately surfing the web and reading a book and wondering what I'm going to do for lunch.

Help me out: tell me something interesting or give me a link to something interesting or funny.

Tags: grief, health, wiscon

04:10 pm: Effin' Gorram Hormones
Right. Look, the issues I talk about in the previous post are real issues in my life, and things I struggle with, and have for much of my life. However, I woke up this morning with a revelation whole and complete in my head.

'Long about February, my hot flashes faded into insignificance. They didn't go away completely but fell below the threshold where I didn't much notice them. They've resurged into prominence again lately, and that surge correlates with my utter misery. Hot flashes and mood swings. This is -- annoying. It's been 20 months since I had a period. When do these things stop? Yeah, ok, they're getting less frequent and milder but ready to stop now.

I'll be working to put things back into some perspective, and there's a fair number of them and they're way out of perspective. Your patience is requested until normal operations recommence.

Effin' gorram hormones.

Tags: health, hormones, menopause

01:48 am: Playing catch up
I've been very busy, I have. I'm this year's Hugo administrator so tallying up all the votes and putting out the ballot and stuff has been *way* more time consuming than I previously dreamed. However, I think we've now caught all, or most, of the spelling, grammar, punctuation, et bloody cetera errors. My ghod, the detail is staggering. Even after 2 of the best editors in fandom proofread it, there were still all these bloody little missing periods and extraneous commas and whatnot.
.
Also, Potlatch was in there. I was running programming, getting the last of the Hugo nominating ballots (roughly half of all ballots came in the last 2 days), and I had a nasty cold.

Also, Clarion West workshop stuff which got more exciting than it needed to be. Also CW 25th anniversary stuff and running an info table at Norwescon. (And now I need to arrange hosts for this summer's parties and re-write the party letter by the beginning of May.)

Let's see what else am I up to? Since the light came back and daylight savings time started I've had oodles of energy and have been trying to channel it usefully. I've made 2 necklaces and have another laid out on the workbench. I'm learning to make bezels. I'm being slowly but surely sucked in the direction of mosaic work. (I'm planning to do a mosaic clock to match the new tile in the bathroom. -- Oh, right. They start on the bathroom on Monday.) I've been working on a story sparked by one of elisem's necklaces, Brother Moonlamp Courts the Alchemist. I worked some on it this afternoon in fact. I have the beginning and the end so I know what happens in the middle -- I just have to figure out how to do that...

Also on the spring front, the crocus have come and gone. The grape hyacinths are in bloom, and the tulips are coming up. I'm getting a lavender bed with added rosemary and getting rid of the ivy.

I saw the doctor about my insomnia and arthritis and stuff. And was informed that I do not have arthritis in my hips -- I have way too good range of motion for it to be arthritis. It's trochanteric bursitis. Which is much more treatable and much less crippling than arthritis so that's good! She gave me exercises which I haven't started yet, because I got that really bad cold right after she gave them to me and then I lost the papers. But now I have energy and the papers and no cold, so maybe I'll start tonight. What I have in the fingers and wrists is osteo-arthritis for which there's little help. Take NSAIDs and use wrist braces -- because the wrists are the worst. They do help when I remember to wear them.

ETA: Oh, and she gave me stuff to help me sleep. It's a very old anti-depressant (whose name I forget and the bottle is upstairs) in a tiny very subclinical dose. It does seem to help, but since I have to take it every night, we'll revisit in 6 months or so.

All my blood tests came back mostly normal although one of them indicates something mildly inflammatory is going on in my body -- which is probably the bursitis. The bone density scan says my bones are great! So I keep taking the calcium supplements and I win the argument on the thyroid meds for another year. That leaves the colonoscopy (which we're trying again next week) and the mammogram to be scheduled. Which I'll do tomorrow. Man, getting old is annoying. At least today's good news is that all that caffeine should be helping to protect me against Alzheimer's.

I spent today running errands and shopping. Left the house at 9:30 and didn't get back untnil nearly 6pm. Had breakfast, went to Target (lots of paper goods and a couple of cheap pretty t-shirts), Shoe Pavilion (new Clarkes black clogs and Naturalizer white sandals (both of which I needed) for about the price I'd expect to pay for the clogs), Office Max (business card stock for Jordin and Daytimer to better organize me), writing at Remedy Teas, some grocery shopping and home. Whew. I resisted the siren call of the bead store and the tile store.

If I were a real blogger I'd go hunt down the links on the bursitis and the Alzheimer's thing, but the new Asimov's came today. Also, I'm reading a *wonderful* collection of short stories by Theodora Goss. I wish I had written each and everyone myself, they're just exactly what I'd like to do! So I'll see ya later.

Tags: aging, clarion west, health, hugos, insomnia, jewelry, potlatch, writing

04:24 pm: AKICILJ
So it was time for that loveliest of medical tests, the colonoscopy. It was scheduled and I got all the instructions and bought the necessary and made arrangements. It was supposed to be 1:15pm tomorrow. Unfortunately a couple of hours ago I had to call and cancel. We've rescheduled it for very early in the day, but I"m not sure how I'm going to cope. Today was supposed to the all clear liquids day. Unfortunately almost all those things are very high carb -sugar - or no calories at all. By 2pm I was shaky, nauseated and could feel myself growing stupider by the moment. Hypoglycemic episode symptoms. More sugar only makes it worse. No way I could go another 24 hours.

Now I intend to talk to my doctor about it but how you guys? Any of you have blood sugar problems when you have to fast? What do you do to avoid and/or cope with them? I usually feel pretty icky when I have to fast for a test but I've never been this bad. My blood tests always come back negative for diabetes or hypoglycemia, but I've had hypoglycemic episodes since my teens.

I've now consumed mass quantities of protein, complex carbs, and fat so I feel much better now.

Tags: health

02:52 pm: I think I've said this before,
But I can't find it in the archives. Someday I should really put tags on things.

Okay I was wrong: There *is* a god and he hates me.

Yesterday was about as sucky a day as they get -- absent the death of a loved one. When I formulated that thought yesterday the nasty little voice in the back of my head said, "The day's not over yet." But it is now so I feel safe in saying that.

While I'm recovering my strength (part of the day was spent worshipping at the porcelain altar) I've involved myself in a mildly entertaining flame war on the SMOFs list. For edification and entertainment of everyone else, I'll offer my list of changes to things when I am God-Empress of the Universe. Only those prompted by yesterday.

1. Medication will not have side effects. Especially not ones that lead to people cycling between hypomania and depression. On a weekly schedule.
2. Brains will not have deficient biochemistry. Especially they will not get hypomanic so that you over-commit yourself and then get depressed so you can't do much of anything let alone the over-committed stuff.
3. Rain will be confined to night when the sun isn't shining anyway.
4. Credit card companies will be run *entirely* differently. Especially credit cards will not expire. And when replacement cards get lost in the mail they will not have to be cancelled because they will only work when handled by someone with the proper brainwaves or fingerprints or something. Also, credit card company account managers will not be allowed to be insufferable and condescending to their account holders when said account holders need their help.
5. Mail will never get lost. Especially credit cards.
6. UPS will deliver packages when they're supposed to. Especially Saturday deliveries that you stay home all day for. They will also realize that not everyone gets out of bed at the crack of dawn and might not hear them knocking if they're asleep when they *do* get around to delivering on Monday.
7. Husbands will not get so exhausted they mistake Your black cloth briefcase for their black leather briefcase adding a roundtrip to the farthest reaches of Bellevue to Your day.
8. Drugstores will be run for the benefit of the customer rather than the staff. Especially customers who have been trying to get a prescription filled for 3 days now.
9. Seattle drivers will all drive a lot better than they currently do. Especially faster on the highway.
10. Insomnia, jetlag, the common cold, and vomiting will all be abolished except, possibly, from My torture chambers.

I hope your Monday was better!

Tags: god-empress of the universe, health, medication, mini-rants