Things fall apart.
Jul. 3rd, 2005 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aquabeanWent to the doctor on Friday for a couple of different things. And not fun things either. But we'll start with the hands.
Since high school I've had issues with my shoulders, elbows and hands. I swam and played water polo, and was hard on these joints to the point that my double-jointed elbows actually became a problem. I ended up quitting water polo -- and man, that still pisses me off -- because by the end I couldn't swim more than 200 or 300 yards without losing the feeling in the pinky and ring fingers of my hands. My left hand in particular. Tendonitis didn't help either, but it was a more minor issue. I could have done exercises to fix the shoulders, where the tendonitis lived, but that would have just aggravated the hand/elbow thing, so I didn't. I just quit sports. And after a year or so it seemed to have helped.
Sure, I still had something like arthritis in my hands, but hey, I could live with that. They weren't going numb, it wasn't constant or totally excruciating, so I figured it was, in the long run, a fair trade.
Until in college when my knees started to hurt. So while the hands became less of a constant thing -- random bad arthritis and the occasional twinge from the shoulder or elbow -- my knees took up the slack. Going down stairs was sometimes almost impossible, and more often than not I'd spend time telling myself that one of these days I was going to just amputate from the hip down. I think I've made such brash statements right here in fact.
In any case, in the last few months though, my hands have started acting up again. And not just in the usual arthritis kind of ways either. The numb and tingling sensations have returned, along with actual visible swelling. A fact made markedly clear by the moment when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ranalore, during a brief experiment I conducted last night to see if it was just imagining things, said, "Oh! Your vein, it's doing thing this whole grow-y thing!" Which the vein on the outside of the knuckle of my pointer finger actually was, of course, confirming the fact that my left hand is just fucked.
Because of all of this though, there was a doctor's appointment Friday. I went, I spoke with him -- a nice man in list mid-to-later 50's -- and said it was making me worried that several times in the last few weeks I'd realized there were moments when I couldn't get my pinky finger to work at all. He'd nodded and then decided that what I needed were x-rays and blood work. The latter bit coming because it has, again, been 3 or 4 months since my last period. Would be concerned for a whole different set of reason if I were in any way in a "Oh, God. Babies." type relationship, but since I'm not, I'm concerned for a whole slue of other reasons. The last time I went this long without a period it ended up stretching to 6 months and that just freaked me out.
Needless to say, I was glad something was being done. So yeah, x-rays -- which end up being of my knees o.O -- and then on tuesday I got back for blood work. They're going to be testing for thyroid levels and "female hormones" as the doctor put it. Which I'm assuming means that my estrogen levels may be off. Hardly comforting, any of it, but at least if it's something like that then there's got to be something that can be done to fix it.
Except that last night, when my hand would go from so swollen that I couldn't get my ring off, to totally normal in under a minute, depending on whether I raised it over my head or not, I realized that maybe it should be looked into more immediately. So when I go in on Tuesday for the blood work I'm going to run upstairs and see if I can't get the doctor to set up an EMG test. The test is a way of looking at where, and if, my ulnar nerve is being compressed or trapped, or whatever it is that makes it feel like my left hand is so stiff.
Because really, not being able to use my hand, or type? Patently unacceptable.
* * * * *
And then there's the car.
Trixie finally ate it and so I'm car-less. Or well, would be except that my mom is leaving for China on Tuesday and so I've got her car until my little girl is up and running again. We're figuring on Thursday or Friday. Dad has predicted that it shouldn't be too expensive and he's willing to help me out for the time being, so at least there's that.
Also spent some real time driving dad's work truck. Oh, there will be stories about that later. Oh, yes.
There are also going to be cooking stories in the future because -- woot! -- I finally got a wok. Oh, there was much squee. That and a ceremonial Wearing of the Wok. It makes a good hat. Just ask Rana. Though, the search for a lid continues. I'll find something eventually, I'm sure.
Hey, if any of you have good "Let's make stuff in a wok" recipes, send them my way!
...um and GIP. Heh, I heart Ken.
Since high school I've had issues with my shoulders, elbows and hands. I swam and played water polo, and was hard on these joints to the point that my double-jointed elbows actually became a problem. I ended up quitting water polo -- and man, that still pisses me off -- because by the end I couldn't swim more than 200 or 300 yards without losing the feeling in the pinky and ring fingers of my hands. My left hand in particular. Tendonitis didn't help either, but it was a more minor issue. I could have done exercises to fix the shoulders, where the tendonitis lived, but that would have just aggravated the hand/elbow thing, so I didn't. I just quit sports. And after a year or so it seemed to have helped.
Sure, I still had something like arthritis in my hands, but hey, I could live with that. They weren't going numb, it wasn't constant or totally excruciating, so I figured it was, in the long run, a fair trade.
Until in college when my knees started to hurt. So while the hands became less of a constant thing -- random bad arthritis and the occasional twinge from the shoulder or elbow -- my knees took up the slack. Going down stairs was sometimes almost impossible, and more often than not I'd spend time telling myself that one of these days I was going to just amputate from the hip down. I think I've made such brash statements right here in fact.
In any case, in the last few months though, my hands have started acting up again. And not just in the usual arthritis kind of ways either. The numb and tingling sensations have returned, along with actual visible swelling. A fact made markedly clear by the moment when
ranalore, during a brief experiment I conducted last night to see if it was just imagining things, said, "Oh! Your vein, it's doing thing this whole grow-y thing!" Which the vein on the outside of the knuckle of my pointer finger actually was, of course, confirming the fact that my left hand is just fucked.Because of all of this though, there was a doctor's appointment Friday. I went, I spoke with him -- a nice man in list mid-to-later 50's -- and said it was making me worried that several times in the last few weeks I'd realized there were moments when I couldn't get my pinky finger to work at all. He'd nodded and then decided that what I needed were x-rays and blood work. The latter bit coming because it has, again, been 3 or 4 months since my last period. Would be concerned for a whole different set of reason if I were in any way in a "Oh, God. Babies." type relationship, but since I'm not, I'm concerned for a whole slue of other reasons. The last time I went this long without a period it ended up stretching to 6 months and that just freaked me out.
Needless to say, I was glad something was being done. So yeah, x-rays -- which end up being of my knees o.O -- and then on tuesday I got back for blood work. They're going to be testing for thyroid levels and "female hormones" as the doctor put it. Which I'm assuming means that my estrogen levels may be off. Hardly comforting, any of it, but at least if it's something like that then there's got to be something that can be done to fix it.
Except that last night, when my hand would go from so swollen that I couldn't get my ring off, to totally normal in under a minute, depending on whether I raised it over my head or not, I realized that maybe it should be looked into more immediately. So when I go in on Tuesday for the blood work I'm going to run upstairs and see if I can't get the doctor to set up an EMG test. The test is a way of looking at where, and if, my ulnar nerve is being compressed or trapped, or whatever it is that makes it feel like my left hand is so stiff.
Because really, not being able to use my hand, or type? Patently unacceptable.
And then there's the car.
Trixie finally ate it and so I'm car-less. Or well, would be except that my mom is leaving for China on Tuesday and so I've got her car until my little girl is up and running again. We're figuring on Thursday or Friday. Dad has predicted that it shouldn't be too expensive and he's willing to help me out for the time being, so at least there's that.
Also spent some real time driving dad's work truck. Oh, there will be stories about that later. Oh, yes.
There are also going to be cooking stories in the future because -- woot! -- I finally got a wok. Oh, there was much squee. That and a ceremonial Wearing of the Wok. It makes a good hat. Just ask Rana. Though, the search for a lid continues. I'll find something eventually, I'm sure.
Hey, if any of you have good "Let's make stuff in a wok" recipes, send them my way!
...um and GIP. Heh, I heart Ken.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-03 08:28 pm (UTC)...um...and...I heart Ken too. XD Especially when he's in a skirt.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-04 02:28 am (UTC)But yeah, it's kinda weird. Just gives me the hebee-gebees to not be able to feel my hand. It's been doing better today, still swollen but not as tingly, which I take to be a good thing. Then again, this is my first time on the computer today, so we'll have to see how I hold up after spending time doing actual typing. Though, just showering was enough to start the swelling. We'll just have to see what happens.
I feel like such a whiner. Heh. Sorry. *G*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-03 09:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-04 02:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-04 10:36 am (UTC)Hang in there, I'm sure they'll be able to figure somethng out... *hugs* And yeah! Threaten those doctors good! And definitely keep us posted.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-04 06:17 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'll be posting and complaining about all kinds of things in the future I'm sure.
Blood tests on Tuesday and we'll just have to see how that goes. Oh, the fun. Heh.