Video Blog

Day Ten and All is Well

I got to the point that I thought, "well, this is now my life. It's all downhill from here". And then I crammed two thick needles of every thick liquid into my upper leg.  That was ten days ago.  I have tracked how I'm doing on the medication in a logbook:

• Day One: 
• No change
• Day Two:  
• What?  I'm walking with little pain?  What's up with that?
• Day Three: 
• I just spent two hours cleaning the garage.  Bending is an issue so I'm being careful but wow, I can actually grasp things with my hand.
• Day Four: 
• I got right out of bed today. No need to go back to bed. Energy level is up, pain levels are down, significant reduction in swelling.  Hip and lower back still hurt
• Day Five:
• Tired.  Exhausted. Can't think straight.  Brain fog.  Going back to bed.
• Day Six:
• Still having bad hip and lower back pain - could be the kidney stones moving but i doubt it.  I can't bend over and when I do it's right to the floor I go.  Tired.  So very tired.
• Day Seven:
• Joint stiffness lasting all day.  Tired but energy enough to focus on some tasks
• Day Eight:
• Foot hurts like hell.  Hips and lower back have seen absolutely no change, in fact, I wonder if since the inflammation has gone down, more nerve and bone are exposed and that is causing more pain?
• Day Nine:
• Again spent most of the day in bed.  Went to visit friends and got very stiff and started limping again. Foot got heavy.  Pain increasing all over the body.  
• Day Ten:
• And here we are.  Ten days.  I went back to bed after seeing Robbie off to work as I usually do but got up two hours later.  I could have slept till noon, easily, but I was actually able to force myself to get up (the cup of coffee helped, too).  

Each day I do a mental systems-check.  Today's results:

Toes: swollen, red, but able to wiggle them ever so slightly which is something new in several years.  Still, painful to put on and take off shoes and socks - forget it - wow those hurt coming off.

Ankle:  weak, crunching when it moves, not very steady on my feet

Legs:  weak and I don't trust that they are going to be there for me to keep me upright.  I spend time using walls and furniture when navigating around the house.  Not a nice sensation

Tailbone:  wow - en fuego - seriously painful and hips.

Hands: major reduction in swelling - grasping ability adequate; functional

Shoulder:  easier to reach above my head today - I supposed that means I can start dusting things higher than my nose now.

Eyes:  scratchy, dry, blurry...just not pretty

Voice: this ever-present "frog" in my throat, swallowing is intentional and deliberate, not automatic like it should be; tried singing a few notes - sound like I've been smoking for thirty years and my once 3+ octave range is now sitting at a VERY difficult one octave...