The Strand

After finishing my secret project last week, I pulled out Patchwork to work on some more. I have so much fun with this, partly picking out the color for each part and also from the mini finishes.

Some people get asthma attacks playing tennis. I gave myself an attack cheering for tennis.

That Nadal/Verdasco match is a heck of a thing!

However - MAJOR MAJOR shame on ESPN, who prominently put the results of the tape-delayed match during the commercials. SHAME!

I went into the city today to see my hand doctor, and along the way I stopped by the Lush store near Union Square. I have trouble controlling myself there, but I promised myself I would leave with only what I intended and I succeeded! I am now the happy owner of cinnamon clove shampoo that makes my head tingle.

The hand doctor seemed somewhat befuddled by my hand. He could find no physiological reason for why it was hurting so much, and suggested trying it without any brace whatsoever. I wasn't buying it, but I tried it, and somehow it hurts less. Clearly my hand hates all braces.

I should have more to say, but partly my hand just makes typing so annoying. The thumb continues to be a bit concerning. When I last checked in with my surgeon he thought the brace had been rubbing to cause it, so I stayed in the splint that does not rub. However, it's been more than a week, and not only is it not getting better, but it is spreading. This doesn't seem like something that can be attributed to be rubbing. I'm glad, frankly, because it's a new symptom and hopefully that'll help diagnose it correctly.

In happier news, I have been stitching! Very slowly, with the wrong hand and using my floor stand to hold it, but it's coming along. I'm so pleased to be at it again.

The lovely Doctor Who and Torchwood binge continues. It's really interesting watching it over again with my folks, who haven't seen it before. We're a few episodes into DW series three and TW series one. The best surprise was discovering the giant DW concert on my series three dvds. It was amazing!

Let's see what I was up to this year.

January - Last year's resolution was to not be on crutches for more than two weeks - guess I blew that! I didn't exactly succeed this year either, particularly after going back to school, where I spent more than a month on them.

February - I saw my surgeon today, early in the morning before he dashed off to surgery. My, that was a theme. That was to address the Achilles issue that suddenly popped up. Happily, that seems to be resolving itself slowly without further intervention, as long as I'm careful about shoes.

March - Well, I was going to post last night, but then right when the time was supposed to change we lost all power and I could hear the chainsaws going nearby, so something fell. Weather sure has been nutty this year. Like a white Christmas that was 50 degrees.

April - Well, in a few hours it will be two weeks. The last - fingers crossed - major foot surgery! That recovery went really well, the foot doesn't so much as peep at me and I'm not even a year past the surgery.

May - Well, I have made it to six weeks post op. Past the coma period! I was so exhausted after this surgery. Must remember not to schedule ops so closely.

June - Woohoo! I started this last August, but then I didn't stitch for five months, so it took about four months to do. Stitching! Such a major part of my life. This year I finished Altengamme, made huge progress on Rev, some of Patchwork, and half of a secret project.

July - Oh, for crying out loud. It's 6:00 a.m. and I still haven't gotten to sleep! The joy of trying of trying to balance sleep.  I was doing better, but then the anemia set all of that back.

August - I have decided my health insurance sucks, which surprises me a bit because it is normally so good.  I've acquired many new doctors this year, most recently a hand surgeon. Oh, insurance.

September - Today was lovely. It's the idyllic period of going back to school, before I got sick and it all fell apart. I'm on medical leave for next spring as well. The first two weeks were wonderful though.

October - I had my first public economics midterm today (we have two, don't ask), and all things considered I'm reasonably pleased with how it went. I really did love this class. My biggest regret about missing next spring is that I was going to take another course by the same instructor.

November - It's a good day! President Obama. Boy I love saying that.

December - This morning coming down from breakfast, I slipped on the stairs, grabbed the railing, and sprained my wrist, though happily not my dominant one. That one got better in a few days. And was on the other hand. This one is not looking that good.

You would think I'd clue into these things faster. After several days of difficulty falling asleep due to my hand hurting, it suddenly occurs to me to that maybe taking my pain meds before going to bed would be a good idea.

Posting has been lacking as of late due to the hand, which makes typing very awkward. Latest update is that my thumb went numb on Friday. On call ortho at HSS said go to ER, ER xrayed but shrugged, put me in new splint. Thumb still numb, so I shall call my hand surgeon first thing tomorrow.

I'm not terribly upset about the whole thing - hey, at least it's not pain - but I would like to know why this is happening.

For anyone mailing me anything (there's at least one person whose name I forget), please send it to my home address, as I'm leaving school this weekend. Drop me a comment if you need it.

In wrist news, it hurts.

I slipped and fell on black ice not once but twice today. The first time I just bruised my knee, but the second time I may have broken my wrist. I went to the ER, got it xrayed, and the conclusion is that they can't tell if it's broken or not. I think there may be a hairline fracture somewhere.

For now it's heavily braced and I'm down to my non-dominant hand. Oops.

I think I've found out where all the global warming is coming from. The temps have been in the teens all day, along with snow and gusting winds. And yet in my room it was so hot that I had my window open, snow was blowing into the room and settling onto my window sill without melting and I was still hot.

Jeez people. The thermostat should not be on eleven.

Yeah, I totally caved. One DS hopped its way into my shopping cart, along with two games and a case. Well, it was a bundle, so the case was free, and I wanted the games anyway. Then I cried when I remembered that I had to pay sales tax. *grumbles*

I'm so excited to play with my new shiny. I shall have to name it. Not sure what yet.

This morning coming down from breakfast, I slipped on the stairs, grabbed the railing, and sprained my wrist, though happily not my dominant one. I've eaten breakfast three times this year, and twice have fallen down the stairs leaving. Coincidence?

Meanwhile, I've been wanting to get a DS for around a month now. At this point, I really want it, as something I can relax with when I'm too sick and tired for my stitching or reading on the computer, which is often. So should I drop the cash and buy it? It's a little over the amount I'd spend without thinking about it, so I'm dithering.

I seriously do not want to return to school tomorrow. It would be easier if the semester really was over in three weeks, but as I'm taking incompletes in two classes, it just drags on, and I never feel well enough to get the work done.

Well, I'm back at my folk's for Thanksgiving. The train took forever, but it wasn't too bad.

New injuries! I have a blister on my little toe in the cast. Owies. Also, that foot is acting up, probably because the cast doesn't fit well anymore.

My pain doctor called while I was on the train and we chatted a while. He keeps pushing the idea of medicating the withdrawal from Cymbalta. His latest idea was putting me on klonipin, a heavy duty sedative, during the withdrawal. So I can function even less? He doesn't seem to understand that I simply want to avoid withdrawal. Hence the second opinion I'm getting next week.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my GP. Hopefully we can pursue some avenues of investigation regarding the whole mess. I really do think there's an underlying immune issue. Say what you like about returning to college for the first time in years and new germs, but I didn't react this way when I moved to a whole new country's germs.

*whines*

Can I please not be sick?

*whimpers*

So the eye infection has definitely spread to the other eye. Not that I'm surprised, I mean, they're two inches apart, how does it not spread? Still the pain is making me crabby. Apparently the best thing for it is wet heat, but this is challenging to carry around on campus when it's less than 30 degrees outside.

I've been stitching a lot in the last few weeks, but with the eyes it's just too hard to look at a pattern. I miss it. I was trying again this afternoon but I only managed the tiniest bit of a "T" (pretend that was a dramatic curly font) before putting it aside.

Sign you live in the snowbelt: They put down salt every morning whether or not snow is predicted.

Sign you live in a college dorm: You encounter more people in the bathroom between midnight and 8 a.m. than during the rest of the day.

Sign you are excessively tired: You forget to take off your glasses before using your eye drops.

Sign you are me: Four health problems weren't enough, you need to add an eye infection to liven things up.

It appears that I am anemic, which account for some of the exhaustion and feeling like crap. I haven't gotten the labs back on my iron count yet, but the CBC showed anemia and my pain management doctor took one look at me and out of the blue asked if I was anemic, so I feel like it's a pretty safe bet.

In a way it's good, because it's fixable, but apparently it takes a while to start feeling better, so that sucks. In the I am an idiot category, I completely forgot to fill the prescription for iron this weekend so now I need to mail it into Medco, and they're always a hassle. I could potentially get some over the counter, but I need a higher dose or something.

At the moment I don't think I'm sick, but I'm still exhausted. I'm taking two or three naps a day. Part of the fatigue may also be the Cymbalta. I talked to my pain management doctor about that on Friday and we're going to start tapering down. The initial thought is to see how low I can go before the pain in my foot starts breaking through. Then I'm going to evaluate how crappy I still feel and decide whether just dealing with the pain in my foot would be a better option. There aren't very many medications that manage nerve pain, and I seem to be unable to take each one for various reasons.

In foot news, I have a bright pink cast now. I got it wet in the snow last week so had to make an unscheduled trip home to get that changed. The foot isn't too painful, but it's not amazing either. It still feels much better than earlier, but I'm not holding out much hope I'll get out of this without surgery.

While I was home, I did manage to get some shopping done. I haven't really been out in a real winter for three or for years, since these last few I just lived in sweats after my surgeries. So when it started getting cold here two weeks ago, I abruptly discovered that I hadn't bought new winter clothes since high school and that I was in desperate need of warm things. In a miracle of shopping, I came away with five pairs of pants - that fit! - plus a bunch of lightweight tops and sweaters for layering. I even found corduroy pants, which I have been wanting for years.

It's a good day!

I got my toes all wet yesterday in the snow, along with the cast. So I'm popping home tomorrow after class so I can get a new cast on Friday. I did get a new one up here today, but that cast should be subtitled "How to break your back in 24 hours" so I'm going to get a good one.

I'm starting to feel slightly better, in that I have periods of functioning. However, I also took three naps today, so clearly all is not well. Since I'm at HSS on Friday, I'm going to pop in to see my pain doctor to discuss the Cymbalta situation.