March 3, 2009

It’s been, what, over a month now that my meds have been messed up? I did refill the Ultram that Dr. Jackson’s office called in, but it was just making my stomach hurt more than it was actually helping the pain, so I quit taking it. The stomach is back to being pretty much awful, nothing seems to help much, not the Prevacid or Nexium. At least now I recognize that I was eating to try and compensate for the pain and stomach pain! I’ve been able to control it, now that I know about it, and have dropped the 5 pounds I put on the week after the medication failure, and hold that weight. It hasn’t been easy, but I recognize now that eating doesn’t make my pain or my stomach feel better, nor actually help the acid reflux, but it sure packs on the pounds. I have to get the pain under control again! I didn’t realize how much better my stomach was doing until it quit. This is miserable. How did I do this before and not go nuts?
I came down with the cold/flu stuff that’s been going around last Thursday (2/26/09). Made it Thurs and Friday at work but spent Sat and Sun on the couch feeling totally miserable. TDH made me stay home Monday (wasn’t much of argument) and brought home NyQuil and DayQuil that night. I know I’m not supposed to take it, (G6PD No-no list) but I was just miserable! I couldn’t even sit up without dissolving into sneezing- which dislocates the ribs and makes that feel SO lovely….. Besides, I could NOT sleep, still, just too much pain. The NyQuil knocked me out for several hours, so I took another dose and slept another several hours. After two nights of that, I feel like a different person. Yea, I still hurt like nuts, but it is just SO much more manageable when you can actually get some sleep now and then. The mouth guard is helping my mouth, but I still have chew lines on my cheeks, so I guess maybe it’s not built up enough? Or perhaps my jaw tendons are just stretching around the obstacle? At any rate, they aren’t nearly as painful, nor the ones on my tongue, which haven’t completely disappeared either. Have to admit sticking out your tongue and having it look like a leaf off an Aloe Vera plant was rather an interesting experience…..odd, but interesting.
I have to follow up with Dr. Cameron on 3/10 for the finger. The splint he put on has worked well for the middle joint (PIP) but it’s not long enough. It’s not covering the end joint (DIP). I’ve begun taping that a little more strongly to give it more support, but that isn’t working all that well. And…being the BRILLIANT person that I am, I keep forgetting and instead of using my fingers in the flat position to hit the stupid blinker, I’ll catch it with the first or third finger on the side….did I say BRILLIANT??? Yea…so guess which fingers hurt now? Neither of them have actually dislocated yet, only sublexing, but who knew retraining your brain to do something so simple would be SO hard??? The third finger is closer to a full dislocate than the index, which is kind of odd, because you’d think since I use the index finger so much more it would be. Course, that would be like saying “with Normal people”…..No.
I can’t wait to see Dr. Cameron’s Hand PT though! Hopefully she can help with these silly problems. He mentioned Silver Ring Splints, so who knows, maybe those will help? I can’t do the simplest things anymore without something either popping out of place or just flat out hurting so much I can’t take it. Peeling veggies, chopping veggies, opening packages- I’ve seriously developed a love/hate thing with zipper baggies…… I love them, they keep stuff fresh, yada- yada- yada….BUT, I can’t get the stupid things open half the time! Especially the ones that come that way when you buy them, like with burrito skins….. yea…. Whoever came up with “New-Easy Open” on those things needs to play for a day with my hands…. Oh…oh… and let us not forget the lovely “Easy Open- Pull Here” things….. Like on the cheese bags… pull here to open my rear end….. You should see the look on TDH’s face when I hand it to him and say “open, please”. Yea….
The worst though, is both pinky joints I think, but am not for positive, that the tendons are hanging up somewhere between my wrists and knuckle. I’ll be holding something, like a knife to cut veggies, and all the sudden WHOMP, the pinky does this funny little contortion and hurts like a bugger. And Yes….I do chop with both hands… use the 10 key calculator too…..Until it settles down and I can get whatever it is to go back where it belongs forget it. So, I’ve learned to “stage” chopping events. Yea, I’m still my over-anal self that likes to chop all my veggies for the week on Sunday so I don’t have to deal with it after work (when the hands are already tired from using mouse and keyboard all day). So, I’ve gotten so that I’ll go until I feel that tell-tale twinge, then stop and do something else (like surf or update Facebook…..;-p) and then go back again. Sure, it takes 3 times as long to get it done, and many-many-many more hand washings going back and forth from food to whatever, but hey…. I get it done! Speaking of keyboards and mice….. by the end of a work day, I’m done….. gees…. Especially the tendons between the index and second finger on the mouse hand….. too much click-click-click….
I think I know now how an avalanche feels as it starts out this little bit of snow and then builds and builds until it’s a huge mess. At least the avalanche is going to stop somewhere…. I guess I will to, when I’m dead…. Until then, I’m invincible. It’s just the morbid curiosity of finding out just how far that avalanche can slide before it does hit the end that makes me wonder about the dumbest things. I mean seriously, have you ever considered the possibility that one day your fingers/hands might not work well enough to pull up, button and zip a pair of jeans? Really, have you? Or tie your shoe laces? This is a very “real” thing for me… hopefully not for many years….but even now there are so many things I find myself saying “I just can’t, no matter how I try”. Even some of the old adaption tricks don’t work anymore. Like Jars….hate jars…spaghetti sauce is the ENEMY…. So some equally BRILLIANT person came up with an “Easy Open Pouch!”…. My Rear END….at least those you can use scissors on…and do NOT get me started on the most lovely sticky jars like jelly…. …. So much for PB & J’s….which I adore….. Oh….and here is a lovely one for you….toilet paper….yep… no…get your mind out of the toilet…I can still USE it, I just can’t get the dang rolls on the holder anymore. Any idea how embarrassing it is at work to have to roll into the co-worker’s office and ask THEM to put a new roll on the thing because you can’t? I mean COME ON…..it’s TOILET PAPER….. Consideration for the new house- BUY those things I hate where the paper just slides on, you know the ones that are open on one end? Don’t get me started on that subject either….dumbest crap….light switches, stove with the controls on the side or front so I’m not trying to reach across hot burners, OH and don’t forget I can’t turn the stupid KNOBS hardly anymore…..sometimes I really, really hate EDS….. I know, I know…it’s a “Thing” and you can’t hate it….. wanna make a bet?