Dr. Visits and an Excess of Engergy

An update of me: Well, I'm officially a mess.

I got worrying about how much money I was putting in my flex account for my health coverage.  I decided with the 7 week break coming up I would have a few medical issues checked out and taken care of to try and use some of it up.

First I went to the hand specialist Ortho doc in Idaho Falls, Dr. Liljenquist.  Even though they kept me waiting for over an hour I really liked him. He looked at my x-rays and told me the good news and the bad news.  Good news is that my whole hand looks pretty good!  No sign of deteriorating cartilage or spacing issues in the whole thing, except for this one place, which is the bad news.  My basal thumb joint is shot.  Check here for a slide show explaining it in more detail. We decided to try a steroid shot in the joint to try and buy some time.  In the future I will probably have to have the surgery to remove the trapezius bone and replace it with a rolled up piece of harvested tendon that he'll get from my wrist.   They gave me the shot.  It hurt!  and my hand cramped up. He kept saying, "it should start to feel better now" but it really didn't.  It's been throbbing and cramping since then (6 days) although it's been getting a little better.  I can actually sign my name now without pain! so that's an improvement. Hopefully this shot will last at least 3 months when I can get another.

Yesterday I went to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I've been concerned about my voice. I keep losing it.  

Dr. McMasters told me that my septum in my nose was so badly twisted and had spurs so that I need surgery to fix that if I wanted to breath through my nose. I'm debating.  I've gotten pretty good at breathing through my mouth.  

My vocal cords have nodules on one side and bleeding on the other, so I'm not supposed to sing or talk much at all for 4 weeks to see if it will heal. That's going to be fun communicating with my husband who is severely hearing impaired.  At least he can read lips. :)

The doc had the nurse give me 2 shots of steroids in my hips to help heal everything up. Wonderful. I know what steroids do to people. On the bright side he said that the steroid shot would help my SI joint pain in my back. LOL   I have to go back to McMasters in 4 weeks to see if things have improved. I'm not making any surgery decisions until then.



They warned me about the steroid shots.  I told them I already had 1 steroid shot on board, but they insisted that these shots were more systemic and that I needed them.  However I may have some side effects, things like...

• Acne, dry skin, or thinning skin
• Bruising or discoloration of skin (The new bruising will have to tell the old bruising to move over.)
• Insomnia (Actually what they said was becoming jittery)
• Mood changes (If it changes for the better, I'm all for it.)
• Increased sweating (Wonderful)
• Headache
• Dizziness (What do you get when you get dizzy on top of already being dizzy?)
• Nausea, stomach pain, or bloating (More bloating?  Wonderful.)
• Slow wound healing
• Changes in the shape or location of body fat (I wouldn't mind if my body fat relocated to another location)
• And they added, you may get the munchies. Ha!

Or more seriously

• Vision problems
• Swelling
• Rapid weight gain (WONDERFUL!!)
• Shortness of breath
• Severe depression or unusual thoughts or behaviors
• Seizures
• Bloody or tarry stools
• Coughing up blood
• Symptoms of pancreatitis (severe pain in your upper stomach that spreads to your back; nausea and vomiting; or fast heart rate)
• Low potassium
• Dangerously high blood pressure   (The rest of these serious ones I don't really want to contemplate.  I'll just think positive thoughts and keep them at bay.)

Last night I had a very raspy voice and was extremely tired.  Not much else was going on.  I went to bed and slept. all. night!  That is highly unusual for me.  I usually get up at least twice to visit the little ladies room.

This morning at 6:30 my eyes popped open.  I was done sleeping.  The jittery phase is kicking in nicely.  Before leaving for work at 8:45 I got a few things done:

• washed the sheets on my bed
• cleaned the oven
• did the dishes
• organized a shelf in the kitchen
• fed the chickens and gathered their eggs from yesterday
• picked raspberries
• watered all the outdoor potted plants and the garden
• pulled out the hoses onto the lawn and started the water
• checked my bees
• wrote Andy a note
• Arranged for Joni to get some meals brought in to her this week
• Started preparing the meal that I was taking to Joni later today.
• Did my makeup and hair and dressed for work

This is a really slow day at work.  Not good for me considering my jittery state, and also considering that the munchie phase has just kicked in.  It's a good thing I had some go-gurts in the freezer here at work.  I may or may not have eaten 3 of them so far. and it's only 11:15. 

I'm sincerely hoping the munchie phase and the jittery phase cancel each other out so that I don't get the rapid weight gain on the serious side effect list.