It Never Rains; It Pours
This spring, while I was waiting for some definite news, my carpal tunnel syndrome came back.
It had started in October of last year and it was awful, but brief. Searing, burning pain, numbness
and worse, sleepless nights. I used to walk around the house like a phantom, watch a movie,
anything to distract me. Day became night and night became day. I was exhausted, just running
on fumes. Then it went away—like a bad dream.
But in April it came back with a vengeance. I ran back to my spine doctor and he sent me to his
partner to do a nerve study. He concluded that, yes, I have bi-lateral carpal tunnel syndrome,
probably acquired from the past decade of being chained to my computer. I could either have
steroid shots right into the area (ouch!) every three months or I could have it permanently fixed
with surgery. With cancer treatments looming, I didn’t want to have to deal with that too. So I
had my right hand repaired a couple of weeks ago, and what a relief! Now just my left hand
bothering me, but that surgery was scheduled for July 9 th and then peace!
But wait! That’s not all! I’ve been in the Urgent Care Center three times since April with mouth
ulcers/viruses/infections. Oh, I’ve had canker sores many times in my life, usually caused by me
when I bit down on my lip. But the worst of these hellish infections was like something I’ve
never endured. Intense soreness, inflammation and ulcers filling the bottom half of my mouth. I
couldn’t even talk normally. But the worst part was my inability to eat without terrible pain. I
was so hungry and unable to pass anything across my palette without terrible pain.
But there’s a wonderful medicine called Magic Rinse, and it was just pure lidocaine I had to mix
with two other liquids and swoosh around in my mouth. But I couldn’t swoosh, so I used an old
makeup brush and painted it on directly. Ah, relief! My kids took us to the opera for the last
performance of Barber of Seville, and I couldn’t say no, though I wanted to. I brought my
“magic” with me and kept painting it on throughout the performance. Then we picked up the
grandkids and went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Oh, I love my kids to the moon, but that was
not the best choice!
That’s enough whining from me. It’s been a nasty spring, health-wise. But I’m only human. It
feels good to vent once in a while. Sort of like interior weeding. And then let it go and move on
to more positive thoughts. I have a third PET scan scheduled for June 26th . They will see if my
“hot spots” have increased since my March scan. If they have, then we’ll probably get started on
the chemo. If it looks the same, then there’s no hurry.
So we’ll see what the PET scan reveals…
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