...Barely tolerable, I daresay...

Life lately...

K and I went to Loma Linda to have a visit with the hand specialist.  The drive wasn't too bad even though it was a 2.5 hr trip.  We got there early and I had time to try to write all my symptoms and health history with my stupid hand in a splint.  That was fun!  Then there was an hr wait until we were called back, but I wasn't at all surprised.  Go to a big dept at a university and you're gonna wait.  I figured an hr wasn't all that late.

First an intern came in named Dr Lee.  He did a cursory look at the MRI films and a cursory exam and then ran off to find Dr Wongworawat (say that three times fast).  Dr W came in with Dr Lee and a med student and started looking at the films.  He pointed to one slice and said, "what is this?"  I thought he was talking to me and then remembered the student and university and kept my mouth shut.  "Huh?"  This bone right here, which one is it?  Uh...  I'm thinking Radus!  Radius!  He finally blurts out radius.  Good boy.  The MRI didn't show any inflammation in the wrist or thumb, but it doesn't show arthritis as well as a regular xray.  I mentioned to him that I have pain on gripping and opening bottles and bending my wrist and then he started looking at my joints and grinding the base of my thumb against the wrist.  That didn't feel nice.  He decided to get new xrays and asked the intern which study he should ask for and which view.  Roberts view.  I had no idea.  The intern came up with Jones.  It was a name...

Wait for xray, see radiology tech and help him interpret what the orders are and get zapped.  Then wait again to back to the ortho dept and wait to get back to a room.  Get back to a room and wait some more.  Xrays concur with me having early arthritis.  They think I have been trying to support the joint and that's stressing the muscles and tendons in my arm/hand/thumb.  I get it. 

Treatment is going to start with me having a thumb splint made for me at the occupational therapy shop out there.  That's another autho to wait for.  If pain progresses, then we'll talk about steroid shots into the joint. 

We were starving by this point and decided to get lunch and track down where the occupational therapy place was.  Not too far from where we were, actually. 

Now, to find out why my elbow hurts so much!

I went to a place called Ben's Corner for the first time today and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. It was like a little, tiny Hadley's. Lots and lots of fruit and veg and dried fruits and nuts and such. They had the prettiest, plumpest, sweetest-smelling strawberries that I've seen in ... ever! I had to get two boxes. Right above the berries, they had chocolate wafers packaged up. Hell, I can do the math! Chocolate strawberries! Almost all of those beautiful berries are now robed in chocolate and cooling on my counter.

Playing with the new "Melt" button on my microwave was pretty fun as well. It worked!

I also picked up a mango. I've never purchased fresh mango before. I hope I picked a ripe one.

I am so annoyed with WaMu-and wtf kind of name for a financial institution is that? I got a letter from idiot father saying I'm listed as beneficiary on the signature card for my mom's old checking acct. I went over to the local branch a couple of weeks ago and the asst mgr stated the acct had to go to her next of kin (idiot father). Fine, I sent a letter back to him saying as much and told him to take care of it. So, last Mon I got a letter back from him saying the cust svc ppl at his branch are telling him I'm listed on the card and I'm the beneficiary, not him. I tried to get this taken care of again today and met with the same asst mgr who had the same opinion. His excuse is that the signature card is from a bank that WaMu took over and the acct numbers don't match. Duh! I got to sit there for an hour to learn this. Gee, thanks.

As a thank you for him not wanting to help with this situation a 2nd time, I decided to close out the account K and I have through that bank.

If mom's branch is saying the signature card is OK, why is this asshole having a problem with it? He told me he was going to request a hold on the acct and request the current signature card for the acct. If there isn't one on their computer, how is a new one going to appear? He kept mentioning that the old one was from '96.  ? 
That's going to be fixed-how?  I told him I don't want him doing anything as he's the one standing in the way of me getting the acct closed.  He's the one who keeps saying, no, without regard to what the people at the other branch are saying.  I hate the thought of having to drive 90 minutes to the other branch to get them to fix the situation.  Gah!

Hey, whodathunk it? I finally got my referral to the hand specialist and have an appointment on June 18th. He's an actual certified hand specialist instead of the general orthopedist the base was going to send me to. I have hopes that this guy will do more than poke on a tendon or two and then give a shot of cortisone and say, there ya go.  I'm not expecting a quick fix or even a complete fix, but I would like to know what's going on and if there's something else I can do to make life easier.  I'd also like to know if it is a progressive problem like arthritis, over use problem like tendinitis, or chronic thing like fibromyalgia. 

Speaking of hands, I'd better go take my anti-inflammatory med before I forget.

I had an MRI done on my wrist and hand today.  What an ordeal!  Instead of taking an anti-anxiety pill, I took an Amaretto and Coke!  Boy, am I glad I did!  I figured there wouldn't be much of me in the "machine" at all since we're talking about hand stuff, but I was WRONG!  I guess to most people, it would be OK to be up to your shoulders in the tube, but not so much for me.  Then, they literally strapped my arm down and my hand was bundled with plastic forms to keep it in position.  I felt like the Statue of Liberty!  Not a very comfortable position and my whole arm went to sleep and my shoulder cramped up in the end.  I think I was in there for something like 45 min to an hr.  I'm pretty sure I wasn't in there that long for my brain scan when I was having vertigo.  Is it strange for me to hope they do and don't find something wrong?

K says he had far more stress and trauma being subjected to E! News.  We agree to disagree on this.

Dinner was at Famous Dave's for some mighty good BBQ pork products.  Yummy!

Happy Memorial Day everyone.  I hope all of MS had a lovely weekend, or at least a good one!

K and I decided to go to the cemetery yest to see if everything was OK with his parent's gravesite.  As we were fearing, the lovely tree that stood over their marker was cut down.  It was the only tree cut down on that bit of the road, but there was a whole line of tree stumps further south towards the middle of the cemetery.  We knew it was a possibility that the tree would be gone since we'd read there were many trees taken down due to death or disease.  K's dad must have been appalled that they took the tree.  He was so fond of sitting under the tree on his weekly visits to see K's mom's grave.  The stump is pretty hideous and they left the marker completely covered about 3" deep in sawdust.  We were beginning to wonder if something had happened because we couldn't find the marker.  I decided to follow a hunch and dug under the sawdust to see if that's where the marker was.  K had been getting a bit agitated that we couldn't find anything, so I'm glad I followed my hunch.

Some people have disinterred their relatives because of the troubles the cemetery is having.  K's aunt has her parents and brother buried there and she's talking about having them moved to Forest Lawn or somewhere.  I think it would be rather creepy to turf someone out of their "final resting place" just because the cemetery is having problems.  Now if they were going to shut the place down or build over it, I understand.  Otherwise, that's just creepy.  Ew.

My joints are still aching pretty bad.  There's still a low pressure weather system over CA and that's all I can think of as the cause.  My joints hurt even at rest and that just seems quite wrong to me!  I've iced my hand, arm, knee and hip and it helps from the aspect that I lose feeling and feel frozen.  Heat doesn't seem to be helping at all and that's unusual for me.  I was reading at About.com that hypothyroid pts have more instances of joint pain and fibromyalgia than pts who don't have thyroid disease.  They figure it's related to the hypothyroid being an autoimmune disease and that may cause other autoimmune responses.  Dry eye could also be connected.  Good grief, I'm tired of falling apart.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm in agony or in 10/10 pain.  But even a 3/10 or 4/10 on a constant basis is wearing.  When it amps up to include almost my entire right side at one time, it's miserable.  Yesterday, Just going to the cemetery and walking around a bit exhausted me.  I came home with a splitting headache and slept for 2 hrs.

I've tried to stay fairly cool today and not over-exert at all, so WTH is wrong with me?  My right hand, wrist and elbow have been aching all day.  Same with my right knee, hip and ankle.  The chronic pain under my right shoulder blade has been acting up as well.  I've taken all the does of the Clinoril since Wed and had to resort to Tylenol today.  Neither seemed to help at all.  Not a damn bit and it's been quite wearing to hurt over such a wide-spread area.  I've used heat wraps all day in hopes of having enough distraction so the meds can work.  Maybe I should have used ice instead.  I hate icing.  It's also difficult to ice a hip....  At least as big a hip as mine!

The pain in my hip and knee was so bad overnight that I dreamed that I was at some sort of outdoor market looking for the Indian homeopathic vendor.  He listened to my symptoms and made some teas that I had to drink each day.  I collected my teas and then went to look for a restroom (waking shortly thereafter having to go to the bathroom!)

I was reading about glucosamine last week, thinking about starting to take it because of my joint pain.  You don't know what to believe when you start reading information about that stuff!  One kind is effective and another kind isn't.  One kind (the "effective" kind) is made from the shells of shellfish.  The kind that is vegetarian isn't supposed to be effective at all according to a big study.  What the heck are you supposed to believe?

I guess it's time to try the ice...  Damn, I hope it helps. 

K and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull today and had a really good time.  We got the biggest screen and didn't have a full house for the 3:00 show.  The line was huge for the 5:40 show, mostly kids.  There were quite a few visual jokes that people all around us were missing.  It wasn't a very responsive audience.  I don't think most of them even noticed the most famous article from that warehouse peeking at them on the way out.

I'd love to go see it again, but maybe we should see Narnia before the digital edition leaves local theatres.  I'd also like to see Speed Racer *blushes*  I had a small crush on Racer 9 as a kid, what can I say?

I finally had my appt with my doc to see if they'd send me to a hand specialist since PT didn't work out.  He seemed totally cool with it and put in the referral for that along with a request for an MRI of said hand.  I mentioned that the Mobic I've been taking isn't doing much for the pain and inflammation and that's getting pretty irritating.  I mean, why am I taking a med that can increase my risk of heart attack if it's not doing anything for inflammation, much less pain?  Now I've started taking Clinoril and it seems to have taken quite a bit of pain away in just the first dose.  Yeah, it has to be taken twice a day, but at least it's doing something.  Hot damn, I can move my pinkie w/out pain!  The thumb is still stiff and sore, but not as bad as it was.

Can you believe there were tornadoes spotted in CA today?  Wild weather in the Inland Empire area of LA today.  We just don't DO tornadoes in LA!  Keep an eye out for other weird stuff at this rate.

Now I remember why I haven't changed my cartilage jewelry in years!  Ow Ow Ow!  I got a new barbell/shield kind of thing for my helix and some little cz thingeys for my tragus piercings.  The helix jewelry is great, but the little labret thingeys won't fit in my tragi (plural of tragus?) at all.  The "T" of the labret won't fit in any of my cartilage, tragus or conch.  It says it's 18 gauge, but it seems larger than the curved barbel I have in now. 2 of 3 new pieces in.  Damn that's sore!  I'll try again in a week or so.

Friday was my errand day.  I saw the MT and she did some serious magic on my arms and hands.  She wasn't feeling up to par, but didn't call to R/S either.  She worked on my arm and hands sitting down and seemed OK.  Oh, but it did make my hand/arm feel better.

Saturday was Wash-The-Doggies day.  Gah!  It's hell bending over a tub, you'd think I'd get a clue and sit on the edge of the tub or something and spare my back/thighs.  The doggies were quite sure I was going to drown them, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't even close.  At least they're clean and shiny and sweet-smelling.  Before the bath I had clipped their nails and Tanis was just SURE I was going to take off his entire toe.  He started howling and crying and I hadn't even touched his toe nail yet, much less his toe.  That kind of clues me in that he's having me on...  I gave him the same lecture I give the kids at the office.  You can't tell me I'm hurting you when I haven't even touched you yet.  He at least had the sense to look embarrassed at being caught in the act.  It's not like there's nothing in it for them to get their nails trimmed.  Each toenail cut gets them a piece of kibble.  Muffin figured out that situation very quickly and would position herself in my lap, upside down w/toes in the air (V funny to watch in progress), waiting for her trim and reward.

Sunday was slug day, but I did a bit of divination homework and so on. 

Today was brush-the-doggies day and boy, were they NOT pleased.  No crying involved, but Tanis decided to stay away from me for a good 2 hrs afterward.  Later, I showed K how to make my ver. of shepherd's pie.  It was our first "cooked" dinner in a while.  He's been mostly BBQing and making prepared foods for dinner.  His last try at a recipe he found online didn't come out well, and I think it scarred him.  Poor guy. 

Can you believe the 4th Indiana Jones movie is coming out this month?  The really scary thing is that I worked in a movie theatre when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in what, '82?  '81?  The PT aide who was working with me has never seen Raiders or ET or Back to the Future or Star Wars.  WTH?  I know I'm showing my years, but, Dayuum!  I hope Indy 4 is worth the wait.  I loved Raiders, Temple of Doom not so much and adored Last Crusade.

I've finally gotten my left eye to feel a bit better.  It was not easy with having the AC on and some fans on over the weekend.  Yay for those "indoor" glasses I got!  The foam around the eye area keeps a little moisture chamber effect going.  Unfortunately, they're not prescription lenses, so I can't read everything. 

Yuk.  Heartburn and just yucky feeling tonight.  I felt kind of off before dinner, but figured I was just hungry.  Maybe not...

My new pretty!


We went to Ren Faire on Sun. It took a few false starts and some terrible allergy problems, but we finally did get there around 3. good thing they don't shut the place till 7. It was also a good thing that it was a nice coolish day of only mid-70's temps. I have a pic of me in my garb, but I'm too lazy to get my ass into the other room and get the memory card from the camera. I just Love people-watching at Faire. You see the weirdest shit ever at Faire. Women who haven't figured out how to wear their bodice to the Advantage of their boobs (pointing downward is Not Good). Men who think polyester plaid wrapped around their waists makes a good kilt. There was a Jesus walking around like I used to see in my picture bible as a kid. There was also a demon dude walking around.  Thank all the gods I don't have to wear a boned bodice on a daily basis!!!  How the hell did women live back then?  K kept complaining about this or that with his garb and all I had to do was say at least he didn't have to do X in a bodice.  That shut him quickly. 

I got a new hand-thrown, glazed cup to replace the one Chelle broke before she left, the necklace above, and a new leine shirtdress to go under the Irish garb I want. K got some new breeches for his garb and a new belt pouch. Oh, I also got a new parasol. Not really for Faire, but I've been wanting one for general outside stuff/sun protection. There's a craft fair in Montrose next month and it'll be great for that.

Our poor new coworker has had problems with her ex vandalizing her car and trespassing around her home. He tried some evil stuff with her friend's truck and messed up windshields. She's hoping he'll get put away for awhile for his actions, but everything is circumstantial at the moment. I hope to hell that he doesn't get out and come round the office with his threats and crap. She's got a restraining order, but what good are those if the asshole isn't paying attention to legalities?  I hope she can get him put away for a long time.

My left eye is really pissed off tonight.  I guess getting hot sauce in my eye at lunch isn't a good thing for eye health, huh?   It's feeling like I've got an erosion forming or something.  I wonder how dry eye would be covered by insurance?  Medical problem?  Not in the whole "Annual eye exam"  bundle, I would guess. 

Damn but we were busy at work today!  Just add one thing to the mix and you've got busy, add a chatty pt and chatty Dr and you've got disaster for getting anything done in a timely manner.  That was first thing this morning and there were 3 debands and I did two.  By the time I was done with them, my coworker had done another deband and had to remove a fixed retainer.  I so couldn't have removed that retainer!  My hand would have fallen off.  Unfortunately, the handpiece fell off the tray when I was doing the 2nd deband and the bur poked me in the leg on the way down.  It's not like a hollow needle stick, but still agitates me something terrible.  I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned it and checked the health hx of the kid I was working on.  Bleah!  It's been a long time since I've done anything so careless, but accidents do happen and I've got to be more careful.  It's been a busy week and I'm knackered, even with coworker being back and working hard.  Busy, busy busy is good, but tiring.  I hope this means we'll stop getting lectures about how business being down is a bad thing. 

I've had to order a new brace for my hand/wrist.  I hate wearing the huge/bulky one that makes me so hot I don't wear it as much as I should.  The one I have that doesn't make me hot doesn't support my thumb enough.  Then I added another sleeve/support thing to try at work because the vet wrap just isn't doing much for me there.  Fingers Xed that this helps.  The stand in PT I saw said I was never going to heal if I kept hurting myself, but to stop hurting myself I'd have to stop working completely and not do anything at home for months.  How the heck am I going to do that?  Gah!  I got a compliment from Dr this week.  I had fit some bands for a pt getting a full set of braces and had him check/help me.  I tell him I need help on some of the contouring and he's finally figured it out that that hurts my hand to do as well as I used to.  He told me this week that I may have a sore hand, but I still fit the best bands.  Bwee!  Complements are so rarely given that to get one leaves me speechless.  I don't even know if I managed to say thank you!

Monday was terrible hectic.  Thank goodness I didn't need a pap yet and could get by with only talking to the NP about my weird periods, hot flashes and other hormonal weirdness.  She took me off the micronor pills and gave me Real BCP's.  It's a much lower dose Pill than I took years ago, but it should get me back into a more normal hormonal state.  I mentioned that the base Dr's wouldn't give me BCP's because of the fibroids, but the NP said their practice has tons of pts with fibroids on BCP's w/out problems.  I remember reading in many publications that BCP's aren't nearly as bad for fibroids as previously thought, but the military docs haven't done the same research.  I'm just thinking it's an exciting thing to take care of my hormonal-ness. 

It was one year ago today that I had the longest and worst day of my life.  I cannot believe a year has passed and yet it sometimes seems only days.  Sometimes I feel normal and then it's gone for a bit.  Time marches on and time does heal.  I'm progressing. 

To keep things normal, we went to the mall to get some new pillows.  This new thing of pillows being made of some kind of fluffy fiber is not working for me.  My pillows end up looking like some sort of sausage-shaped lump after a few months, and it doesn't seem to matter if I buy cheapo stuff from Costco or expensive stuff from Bed Bath and Beyond.  My melon is just too heavy, I guess.  Today's pillows came from JCP's after looking at Mervyn's and having no joy.  Yay for 40% off sales!

We had lunch/breakfast at International House of Pancakes before the "great pillow shop" at the mall.  Yum!  Buttermilk pancakes, omelets with  ham, mushrooms and cheese. 

My eyes are still bothering me, but getting sunscreen in them was not a help.  I'm working on contacting a dry eye Dr down in Valencia to see if they take our insurance.  Then I'll have to find out how I go about getting a referral if they do.  If they don't, I'll just have to go anyway and charge it.  I was rereading my dry eye book and that Dr is the national expert on the problem and suffers dry eyes himself.  He mentions that keeping bad tears in the eyes is worse than letting them drain away too fast.  I think I have bad tears and a plug will just burn my eye worse. 

Girly appt tomorrow.  Bleah!  Work 5 hrs w/out a break.  Double Bleah!!  I'll have to pack a peanut butter sandwich so I don't self-destruct!

These are the pretty pink flowers that make me happy.  They are annuals and self-seeding and would probably take over the whole front yard if I let them.  When we bought them from HD or WM or Lowes, they were much taller. 


"the flowers" next to a J&P Double Delight rose.  It looks like all weeds under the rose, but it's really more of these pretty flowers that haven't bloomed yet.


A wee close up of the gravel dwellers.


One of the iris that Chelle planted a few years ago.  I doubt she meant to leave it here as she dug up most of the other ones.

I've done some limited "weeding" over the last couple of weeks.  Mostly pulling out the remaining mint and encroaching grass.  These pink flowers have entirely taken over the right side of the flower bed and are even in the gravel next to the garage.  The worst thing I "weeded" out were the 2 dozen snails of various sizes that have been clustered around the daffodil leaves.  Ew!  We didn't snails or slugs when we first moved here, so they must have come in on a pot or dirt from the store.  Each day was about a dozen snails that I then chucked into the street.  I can't just squish them like my mom used to, and I hate snail bait, so I chuck them into the street hoping a bird will find a nice meal or a car will run them over and squish them for me.  I also deadheaded the roses today.  The heat wave sent them from pretty to burnt out in just a day or two. 

Ow!  My left eye is bugging the hell of me.  Having two fans and the AC on has not improved my eye comfort level at all.  I guess I'd better give some more thought to having a plug put in my left tear duct.

Yesterday was busy and lazy in equal amounts.  I slept and slept and slept and think I hatched the bed.  I guess I was tired, huh?  My massage therapist appt was at 2 and she did some magic work on my back and neck and face.  Heaven!  I don't think I'd be able to get around lately if it weren't for her magic hands.  I'd definitely be popping quite a bit of Tylenol.

Then I saw the PT for some more hand/arm exercise, ultrasound and ice.  I hate the ice.  We talked about a different brace since I hate the big, bulky one I have.  I did find the sleeker, but non-thumb-supportive one I prefer.  I'll have to see if he thinks it will work or if I should get one that is more thumb-friendly.  Yes, I have been wearing a brace of some sort, except during therapy and after, when he had me all taped up with his kinesio-taping stuff. 

Then I decided my toes were too ugly to be out in public and stopped to get a pedicure.  Not a great job, nor was it a heavenly experience, but at least my toes are presentable in a lovely burgundy. 

K and I were supposed to go to Ren-Faire this weekend, but temps in the 90-100 range made us rethink our plans.  Garb is fun, but garb in that kind of heat is just too much for either of us right now.  Maybe/hopefully next weekend.

Yay!  Matchbox Twenty are going to be at the Orange County Fairgrounds on July 31st and I've got tics.  Woot! 

We joined Netflix again this week and our first two movies were Beowulf and Ratatouille.  Rat was cute and I was LOL quite a few times.  Beowulf was... different.  I just wanted to see it for the animation and to see if I remembered anything from Lit class 20 yrs ago.  Not exactly as I pictured it in my mind, but interesting take on the poem.  I don't think I actually read the whole thing..... but I got a good grade on my composition!   I'm finally watching Rome reruns and find it fascinating.  The Tudors is next on my Queue and I'm looking forward to it since I've been reading the Phillipa Gregory books. (currently reading The Boelyn Inheritance)

I'm irritated that the schedule for work on Mon was changed Today.   For over 2 mos, it's been in writing (literally) on the wall and today it's changed.  Nevermind that I've got a "girly appt" at 10 and had my PT appt at noon so I could have time for lunch before work at 2.  No, now we're starting at 12.  And it's not like they put little appts in that I could be late for.  No, it's a full set of braces and other stuff.  Co-worker could still be hit or miss at this point.  It was nice of them to ask before changing things.  Good little worker bee wendy calls and changes her PT appt to 11, so now there is no room for me to have lunch before a 5hr shift.  I flat out informed the idiot who scheduled this fiasco that I was not going to have time for lunch because of these changes and I was going to be hungry and crabby.  She had the nerve to look surprised.  I suppose it's my own fault for knuckling under to the schedule, but I'll be damned if they're going to have an opportunity to say I'm not a team player! 

I'm trying to wear my thumb/wrist brace all the time when I'm not at work.  We'll see how long I can stand it being on.  It's so padded and heavy that it makes me insane and itchy and sweaty.  It's got 3 separate aluminum pieces in it for rigidity and maybe the PT will say some of them can come out.  It definitely keeps motion of wrist and thumb to a minimum and I can still use my fingers.

Oh, and WTH is up with food rationing in CA, NY and NE?  Rice, cooking oil and flour?  That's just wrong!

Coworker has a bad chest infection, but nothing contagious and nothing that is permanent.  She also does not have asthma, just severe allergies.  It was good to have her back, and not because she lightened the work load considerably, but because we have quite a few laughs during the work day.  We also know what the other is thinking all the time.  Usually a helpful skill, but sometimes is detrimental to our professional mien. 

I saw a different PT yest because the usual one was off running in the Boston Marathon (I think he needs his head read, but who am I to judge).  Different guy says my two arm bones have too much mobility where they meat at the wrist, the wrist is swollen and I'm just going to keep having pain unless I can get some sort of bracing and work adjustment to stop injuring the tendons.  I've modified many working practices so it doesn't hurt nearly as much as before, but it's still sore and gets tired very easily.  He tried a new way of taping my wrist/arm so I could move, but restricted and supported.  Of course I didn't work yest, so don't know if it would have worked.  I did a similar kind of wrapping today and didn't seem to get the same amt of support. 

Did I mention I got the radiology report back for my pinkie?  The Dr didn't think it looked swollen at all and the radiologist said it looked wnl but might show some early arthritic changes.  WTH?  Seriously, that fibromyalgia thing is sounding more and more like me.