In addition

To applying for that job,  I changed my Web job hunting documents (links on the right). I missed a publication along the way,  I discovered (there are 35 all together),  and I added a jury and closed some dates. Feel free to let me know what you think of them.

Okay,  I'm going to bed.  I picked up and carried a 35-lb dog food bag earlier.  My back and neck are twinging just a bit.  Good night.

Just a brief post before turning in

The physical therapy evaluation was very thorough, and I learned a lot. He thinks my pain is primarily muscular, although there is an issue with my thoracic spine in terms of degenerative discs, arthritis, and a bone spur, in addition to the degeneration in my cervical spine. Oddly enough, my lumbar spine is in good shape, although I have pain in it, so it's most likely in need of strengthening the muscles. I also found out that the tailbone fracture we thought had occurred when I was in my 20s definitely did happen, as my coccyx is off a bit. My neck issue is apparently the cause of the constant headache since last Wednesday as well. So we're going to work on getting the muscles loosened and relaxed so we can then strengthen them. Even though this was only an exam, I have to admit, I felt better than I had all day. Last night I'd decided not to take the tizanidine (the muscle relaxant), and that was a mistake, as the muscles were very tight and spasming a bit today still. So tonight I'll take my prednisone and tizanidine, and some ibuprofen, and hopefully it will be better tomorrow. The whole spine is still doing much better than last week, thankfully. I think the PT will help a great deal as well.

My family member's condition is unchanged. I'll check back tomorrow about her and see if anything improves.

I worked in scheduling today and then had my videoconference, which I did using my own cell phone, so I didn't have to pay a lot in long distance for the hospital (I have unlimited calling, including long distance). We used Zoom, which worked really well, and they could hear me fine. They're going to ask via the electronic list if the membership wants me to continue as our state representative, or if someone else is interested, if we'd like to give them the chance this coming term. I also got some feedback to take with me to Chicago.

I now have my hotel confirmation and, of course, the plane itinerary with confirmation. It's just a little over a week away. :) I've never flown Delta before, so this should be an experience, especially with the layovers and five different airports to navigate. I told my boss about it, and I think he thought it was insane. By the time it's all over, I think I'll agree.

Okay, I'm going to take my meds and go to bed. Good night!

Oh...ow...

Earlier this evening I hurt my neck, and spasms have gone down all the way to my lower back. At first I could barely move it at all. Now I'm mostly okay when going to the left, but moving it to the right sends pain through the muscles of the neck and down into my back. I was having pain and a little numbness in my foot and hand on the left side earlier; now I'm not sure. I did come home and immediately took a very low dose of tizanidine, a muscle relaxer, and half a Percocet that I had left over from my knee surgery last year. I almost never take anything stronger than ibuprofen or acetaminophen, but the pain was the type that took your breath away. I am having trouble bending down at all, because the spasms went down to my lower back and it's messed up as well. The midback muscles are tight and the pain reaches around to right under the shoulders into the sides and even into my pectoral muscles on the chest. So I'm pretty stiff and while not in the pain I was, I still hurt. I have cervical degenerative disc disease anyway, which translates to bulging discs in my neck, and my neck curvature is opposite of what it's supposed to be, on a straight and J-shaped spine rather than the normal S-curve. So it's easy to make it worse. If I still feel bad tomorrow, I'll try to get in to my doctor's office for an evaluation.

I laid down about 7 pm and woke up just before midnight, feeling pretty decent until I moved. Apparently in that time I moved over to my left side and got my pillow back (I had been keeping my neck straight on the mattress). When I moved to my right side, it was a different story. I went ahead and got up. I'm eating a breakfast sandwich and thought I'd post on my week so far. I know I haven't really done much writing the last few days. Sorry about that. Sunday was the game, of course, and I don't normally write then because, well, I'm usually pretty tired afterwards, especially when we play late, which we did, till about 9:30, and I got home around 10:30 pm, so I'd been over there about 13 and a half hours, and we played about seven.

I think I mentioned that I was feeling overwhelmed at work. If not, let me do so now. I'm working three positions in a standard 40-hour work week, and I'm non-exempt, meaning I clock in and out and should not have overtime. On Monday morning I was in scheduling from 9 am-noon, had lunch, and then my temporary boss asked me to come back from 2-3 pm since a couple of people were leaving at 2. I did so, but wound up there till 3:45 pm. Then I desperately started tackling the backlog of charge sheets I had to enter. I usually work on the same day or maybe the day after at the most. Monday I was working on a giant stack from last Wednesday, where we'd had a very crazy busy clinic. I couldn't work down a list like usual because it had been more than the same day or the day before, so I had to look each encounter up by financial number, which slowed me down, and also, some numbers had been punched through and I had to look them up by medical record number instead, which further slowed me down.

My regular boss came by to ask me about the referral queue, which normally has about 7 or so encounters on it in a 10-day period at the beginning of the week, and had 65 or so this time. I simply have not been able to work it down, and it has crept up each week that I've worked in scheduling, then jumped up this past week, with all the charge sheets I got. He found me sitting there attempting to get through my giant stack of charges, and we wound up having a long talk about how it's affecting my work. I was very candid. I also admitted that I'm not particularly assertive, and probably shouldn't have agreed to help extra when I was so far behind, but I hadn't expected to be there for almost an additional hour. I also told him that I've been having to use almost every moment I'm not in scheduling to try to keep up with the revenue cycle job. I'm even further behind on the library; I've done a few interlibrary loans and troubleshot the copiers or helped others with the computers, but otherwise, no, I haven't been doing much to keep the library going. I have a large stack of books that are stacked up about four feet tall behind my desk. I need to put out new journals, and have two large stacks of them. There are some donated books I was going to put out but haven't. The clinical early literacy programme cart hasn't been filled--that sort of thing. And I told him all this.

On Tuesday, I went in early and was finally able to, between the hour and a half I had in the quiet of the morning and then being able to work between phone calls in scheduling, I was able to get through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's charges, then picked up Monday's and did them. I also worked on the monthly audit, various reports, and caught up on the OR charge reconciliation. My temporary boss came by and we talked for awhile. Instead of working three days and 12-15 hours a week over in scheduling, we decided I wouldn't come in on Wednesday, and then each Friday for the next three weeks we'd decide on one day for me to come by and help depending on my schedule and workload and their clinic numbers and staffing. In about three weeks, they'll have more information about when or if the person I'm sitting in for will return, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I felt a lot better after I talked to her.

Today I went in and really hit the referral queue, and got some of it down. I'll do more tomorrow. I did the normal OR reconciliation (I do it every day, normally). I did the rest of the sheets from yesterday and the ones they had for today by about 2 pm. Then at 3:30 I needed to leave for a doctor's appointment. I went to it, got some refill prescriptions for my psych meds, and then went to the pharmacy and picked up a friend's medication. I went over there briefly, at which point the neck injury happened, and I came on home. Which bring us back around to the present. Tomorrow I hope to really bring the referral queue down, especially by Friday, as a report is run Monday. If I can do that, I'll be in better shape. The plan is to totally catch up and then be in good shape for when I go to Chicago later in the month, as I'll miss two days.

Did I mention my itinerary for the Chicago trip? I think I may have. Anyway, I fly out of Lexington at 6 am on a Thursday to Atlanta, with an hour and a half to navigate through that nightmare of an airport, and then into Chicago O'Hare, travel by train to the Medical District, check into the hotel, and go to the meeting. The next day I leave the hotel, go by train to Midway, and then fly to Detroit, where I have an hour and a half layover, before getting into Lexington about 3 pm. So I'll be doing a lot of travelling, and I'll travel four states, five airports, that sort of thing, all for a four-hour meeting. :) Ah, well. I saw the forecast for Chicago that went right up to my trip, and it looks like it'll be in the upper 40s, low 50s while I'm there, although I don't know the rain chance yet--the day before is 20%. I did e-mail them today about the hotel--I hadn't heard anything yet, but they've reserved the block of rooms but are waiting for the confirmations from the hotel, so all is well. Tomorrow I need to e-mail the Kentucky Medical Library Association to get their input before the trip (they have a meeting on the 10th, and while I can't make it to Louisville, will attempt to join the meeting remotely), and also I need to ask them if they want me to continue being the state representative to this committee now that the University of Chicago at Illinois is in its last year of a five-year contract, or if they'd like to appoint someone else in the upcoming cycle. I've really enjoyed being able to participate and the travel has been wonderful, as I never have had a travel budget at work, have never gone to a major conference, that sort of thing. I did miss one year, the 2012 meeting, when I got hit by the car and broke my ankle, but I've been to Chicago now three times, and I'm about to go again. Last time I was able to stay an extra day at my own expense and experience a little more of the town, including going to the Field Museum. I can't do that this time, but still, I'm looking forward to it (although maybe not that many airports!) And this time I can mark Michigan off of the number of states I've been to. :) I think that makes just over half. Anyway, I'm grateful for the opportunity, but someone else might want a chance to do it, and it would be a good time to change, since either UIC or someone else will start the new contract cycle next year.

Okay, I think I'm going to go on back to bed. It's been an hour of sitting and I'm hurting a little. Good night!

Today I had the ergonomic assessment

One of the worst things about my desk/cubicle, is that it is set up to have a keyboard tray and mouse pad holder that utterly fails to work correctly when my body is interacting with it. It's too low, my chair could only go so low, I'd have to sit far back so as not to have my hands actually mousing and typing under the actual desk, and I had no arm support and was putting lots of effort into keeping my arms up, even though there were armrests on the chair, because they wouldn't work with the tray. I have short little arms, which meant almost everything was out of reach unless I put the tray in, which was difficult, as it tends to stick. So...

We moved the keyboard and mouse up on to the top of the desk and raised my chair, and the armrests. The chair itself, although pretty darn old (I'd say it's at least 15 years old--I've had it since before 2003 and it was our administrator's secretary's chair, who hasn't worked there in years, prior to being mine (it has her name on the bottom of it)), but it is still better than the newer ones we have in the library. Anyway, the occupational therapist went and got me some braces for my hands that work better than the gloves I was using, and then sewed extra length to the straps for me. We adjusted the monitor. I managed to bring my document holder to the correct height using a PDR, boxed book set, and an in/out box but still have it close enough to read and reach without strain. She is recommending an ergonomic keyboard such as the one I use at home, which will keep my hands and wrists supported and in a natural position, with my elbows firmly on the armrests. Right now I'm using a footrest I already had. My desk has been rearranged slightly so everything is in reach without straining. I'm closer to the screen, so I can read better. I have an old mousepad that's cover was frayed and rolling up back from the rest, which was exposed and and rubbed against my wrists, so I went by Office Depot today and got a mouse pad and support there (yes, I could have had them replace the other, but I don't mind, and this way I could choose something to brighten up the office. I'll just take it with me when I leave. It has a tree surrounded by lavender, and the beaded rest that I got is grey, but I put it in my laptop bag, replacing the purple one that is the same colour as the lavender on the mousepad that I'll move to the office.) She also gave me some exercises to help with my neck and shoulders, and encouraged me to continue the night splinting, but use the wrist braces during the part of the day (typically the afternoons, when I'm doing data entry) when I'm typing and clicking the most, so I don't over-brace and weaken the wrists and hands.

On that note, my wrists are really hurting. I think I'll break down and take some ibuprofen. Time to brace them and turn in for the night, now that my hiccups have finally stopped. :) Good night.

I am glad I stopped by the library

after getting my allergy shots, as I had about a dozen books to take back, and they had a book in the new section that I've really wanted to read, but haven't been able to buy yet. It's called Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill. I always loved the Little House... books by Wilder and also the television series, so I was happy to check it out. The checkout system was a little different this time; they've upgraded the screens and software for the self-checkout. I liked it, once I got used to the different setup (I continued when I should have scanned the book; fortunately it let me go back).

Once I got home, I immediately watered the plants inside and out, which were looking a bit peaked. Speaking of water, there is a large hole in our parking lot with caution stuff all over it that I presume has to do with the water pipes, because I received a notice that our water will be turned off between 10 am and 3 pm on Monday, which is fine with me--I'm at work. But for the night shift folks and others who are home for the day, that's going to be an annoyance.

Work today was very satisfying. I ordered 20 books for the library, about 10 for the family resource centre, and a bunch of children's books for the early literacy project. I'm glad I didn't have any trouble with the ordering software, which runs through Internet Explorer. I had to have them upgrade to IE10 yesterday because I couldn't run any search, even simple ones, in PubMed on IE8, and they said it could cause an issue with our purchasing system (hence why most people are on an old, old version of the browser), but everything went through alright. After lunch I got through all my sheets, OR charge reconciliation, and got the referral queue down before the report comes out on Monday. On Tuesday I have a couple of reports due regarding grant programmes, so I'll be very busy on Monday, finishing that up. :) On Thursday there's my ergonomic assessment, where they'll check out my desk and work area for problems that may be causing or contributing to some of my issues.

I don't have a lot planned this weekend, but we are going out to the Indian buffet at Masala in Beaumont tomorrow. Then there will be the store, and working on the game notes (although I may try to do the latter at least partly tonight). Sunday is the game. We're on a new adventure set in 16th-century Spain.

I also want to do some reading tonight. I'm reading a book right now that is pretty interesting, on how our mindsets affect learning and success. My counselor had suggested it, and I finally got a hold of the book from the library. Then the other day I found out I had a credit from Amazon regarding the e-book class action suit, and used it to get the book on my Kindle, as I suspect I may want to refer back to it again. It's by a psychologist named Carol Dweck, and is called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. I'm finding it very insightful regarding my own mindset and life.

Okay, my back is hurting somewhat, so rather than taking some ibuprofen, I'm going to try to stretch out on the bed for just a little bit (without going to sleep). That often helps.

We had a good Cthulhu game today

We're in the investigative stage of things, which is often fun. We don't know much so far, but we have a mass murder-suicide to contend with along with an archaeological dig whose results may have driven people mad and a possibility of flooding the Nile. See, fun. A was happy, too, because the University of Kentucky (the alma mater of both YKWIA and me, but not A, who merely worships at the temple of basketball there) managed to defeat Wichita State (with was undefeated up to that point) and progress to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA basketball tournament. (He'd chosen that in his brackets, actually, which, since he's playing by himself, doesn't matter in terms of winning money, but he'd doing pretty well so far, he said).

I'm home now and my back is killing me. It was fine up to the point I stood up and started walking after about six hours of (mostly) sitting. It wasn't bothering me when I was cleaning house earlier. Unfortunately, one of the first things I had to do when I got home was fill the big aquarium with about 15 gallons of water, in three bucketfuls. I did that, though, and reconnected the pump, light, and heater in that tank. I'd had it all shut off, the heater because the water had gotten so low, the pump due the loss of electricity the other day. But I couldn't keep them in that position too long, and it's been a couple of days. So now they're happily swimming about, happy with the food I gave them and the new, clean water. I also added most of a 2-litre to the small fish tank (the betta's, which is only three gallons), and he seems happier, too.

I'm propped up in the bed listening to Pentangle's version of the Lyke-Wake Dirge. My neck and back hurt a good bit. I think I'll take some ibuprofen and stretch out some. Here's the song for you to listen to, if you'd like. It has a haunting quality, which is rather appropriate.



Good night.

Time for bed

I ache all over, especially my neck and lower back, but I accomplished much (it's amazing what a little incentive can do). The place is a mess, but the objective was met. I did a little cruising through Google News and now I'm quite ready for bed. Good night.

I can't believe it's just a little after 10 pm

I have:

1. Gone over to a friend's and fixed something on the computer
2. Come home and contacted someone for a friend
3. Blogged
4. Caught up on the news
5. Filled both fish tanks and cleaned out and replaced the filters, fetching about 10.5 gallons in various containers despite my back trouble (it simply had to be done)
6. Taken something for my back
7. Filled my medication holder (I forgot to do it yesterday and didn't have anything but the metformin to take today. I've graduated to a bigger pill box, as both the potassium and metformin tablets are huge, and I have a total of ten pills to put in each day's space, three of which are about 3/4 inch or more long. Fortunately a couple are tiny and two are half pills.)

I think now I'll retire to the bedroom and do some reading. I don't really want to watch any TV or DVDs right now. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment. I need a refill on my insulin, there's the back of course, and a couple of other issues that are pressing. I have a friend who has an appointment a few minutes after mine that I'm going to take, along with his spouse, so at least I'll have some company. Saturday I think A and I are going to watch the Silver Linings Playbook. That means I have to do the game notes early enough to have that evening free. I think it's doable, especially as most of the latter part of the evening was spent working on a puzzle that stumped Brenda and myself completely but which, when I looked at it with fresh eyes yesterday and paid attention to the help the game master had given us, I had it in something like 10-30 seconds flat. :) Hope you have a good evening.

Up briefly in the middle of the night

I came home about 7 pm or a little after. I was in bed by 8, lying down because my back was bothering me. I did a lot of scanning and copying today at the library, and although I spaced it out, it made my back hurt. So when I got home, I took a fourth of a muscle relaxant and very quickly fell asleep. I just got up, took my insulin and some more medicine. I think it's time to go back to the doctor. I need to for my insulin refills anyway.

I'm going to try to get up early and do some things before work. We'll see how that goes. But I did get Silver Linings Playbook in the mail today, so I'm looking forward to watching it with A. The house is in good shape and I'm going to invite him over.

Okay, I'm still sleepy. Or maybe the new medicine has already begun to take effect. Back to bed.

It's been a decent weekend

I went to the grocery with my friend yesterday and then watched a couple of episodes of 'Alphas' with another friend afterwards. Then I came home about 9 or 10 pm. Today was the game, and preparations for it. My back has been hurting on and off all day. Basically if I stand for more than about three minutes, it hurts. So now I'm going to lie down, put my feet and knees up, and see if it helps. I took some some ibuprofen already. I thought I'd post something short and wound up going on the laptop, only to have it restart without warning to put in some Windows updates, then the keyboard got hung up, backspacing over and over and trying to put in one word, 'my' over and over. Grr.... Maybe I should have just sat down at the desktop, but I'm sitting in front of the fan on the bed cooling down. So anyway, I'll keep this short and sign off for now before any other technological craziness happens. Hope you had a good weekend.

So tired

I just got in a little after 10 pm and I'm very, very tired, and I'm paying for getting up so terribly early this morning to do the laundry. Also, my back has been bad all day. The clothes can stay on the couch until tomorrow, I'm afraid, and even then I'll have to fold them sitting down. Any standing has hurt today. Also, I have to get up early again tomorrow, as I have a meeting right as I normally go in to work at 8:30 am, and I need to print out some sheets for it and grab some breakfast before I do that. On the one hand, one of my tasks is going away. On the other hand, I'm going to be reconciling some things and need some training on how to read the sheets I'll be getting.

So, the phone is on its dock, the tablet is charging, my contacts are out and I'm in shorts and a tank top and I'm all comfy, although to be truly comfy I'll need to stretch out and rest my back. I still need to give an offering to the Goddess tonight, but I didn't manage to stop by the Liquor Barn, which closes at ten of all things. So I have no wine, very little olive oil, and some honey. It looks like that last is my best bet. I'm usually a little better about it than this. At least the house is clean, though. :) That makes it nicer, as part of the point is to purify and rededicate myself and my home to Her.

So, that and taking my insulin are the only other things to do before I turn in for the night. At least it's Wednesday; just two more days and there's a long holiday weekend. Yay! The only plans I have for now are for Saturday, when friends and I plan to go to Masala, the Indian restaurant. I think we'll be playing the game on Sunday, too--Brenda didn't think there would be anything preventing it. Okay, it's time to stretch my back out for a bit and relax. Have a good night.

Post # 9000

I'm up again, after taking a bath and about 1/4 of a muscle relaxant they had prescribed last time my back went out, in April, and went back to bed. So I've spent nearly eight hours in bed today. But I must admit, I feel much better. I'm not saying the pain is gone, but it's greatly diminished. We'll see if that stays true tomorrow morning when I get up (I'm often achy and stiff in the morning, what can I say, I'm getting older). But with any luck it'll be okay. After work I'm planning on taking a friend to an appointment tomorrow and then finish up some of the stuff we couldn't do today.

This is my 9,000th published post on this blog, after almost twelve years of blogging. That's a pretty decent milestone. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog, even when it's all about aches and pains. :) I know I don't have the most riveting life at times, so thanks for sticking with me through some of the more whiney posts. I'll try to keep those to a minimum.

I'm kind of awake now, and it's after 11 pm. Not quite sure how well I'll sleep after all this time in bed today. I think I'll go listen to some music and chill out for awhile. If I can't get to sleep, there's plenty to do around here if I can do it without exacerbating the back issues.

My back is acting up again

I did take the trash out, but wound up taking some ibuprofen and lying down afterwards. I was having trouble with my lower back earlier this afternoon and even though the couple of bags of trash weren't extremely heavy, it exacerbated the pain. So no 'Doctor Who'. I did text with a friend for a bit this evening, and called another, chatting for awhile. Then I fell asleep. That was about 10 pm. Now it's nearly 2 am. I'm going to try to get up early and get some things done before work. So it's back to bed for me. I live such an exciting life. On the other hand, that is terribly overrated.

One last post for for the night

The last two or three nights I haven't been in enough pain to warrant my night meds. That's great news, and my physical therapy went off without much pain, either, so I think I'm getting better. Yay! Tomorrow I may try to go to the Y.

So last night was a bust as far as cleaning went

My half-hour of rest turned into falling asleep for the night. That shouldn't be a surprise, of course. So tonight the plan is to clean the kitchen and then hit the living room/dining area. I have fortified myself with Captain D's (grilled tilapia, rice, fried okra, broccoli, and a breadstick), taken my insulin, and hopefully will not flake out on the apartment tonight. This despite the fact that I have been in a lot of pain with my back all day, shooting down my leg, while my left arm has been numb thanks to issues with my neck. I took some Tylenol earlier and that helped, but even so, it was a rough day. So the trick will be to do housework without overdoing it, if you know what I mean.

Just got home from physical therapy

which I had been dreading, as my back wasn't it's best today, with pain running all the way down my leg, but I feel much better as a result of going. I am a bit tired from doing laundry very late (1-3 am last night), where I'd fallen asleep early in the evening, got up and was productive, then went back to bed, but didn't sleep so well. I've dragged a little all day. But I have a few things on my agenda tonight. I want to pot up some African violets (there are three in a pot, and they really need their own individual ones, so I stopped by Home Depot and got some violet pots (the type that self water from the bottom). I also plan to work on the kitchen. But first I'm getting a bite to eat and maybe take a half hour to just chill.

Moving a little slowly today

I was having some pain beyond the usual last night with my back and leg so I took my normal nightly meds but took a whole pain medicine tablet rather than a half (I'm only taking that at night so it doesn't affect my work or driving) and I'm a little groggy this morning. I've done some of my PT stretches to try to limber up the muscles that are so tight (it's worse in the morning, and gets better as I get up and move--to a point, as long as I don't overdo it). I also didn't want to get up because I sleep under a fan, but I didn't put the heat on last night and when I woke up just now it had only made it up to 43 degrees. I only have a couple of things planned for today, and there's no timetable per se, but I did plan to get up earlier. Now I've eaten some fake turkey patties (they were okay, not as good as the burgers by the same company) and am thinking of getting a shower. But I'm still moving awfully slowly.

I pretty much crashed last night

But I got up at 4 am and I've been steadily working on the house (or at least doing what I can without too much bending or anything that would hurt my back), the thing I never got to on Saturday. Now it's nearly 5:30 and the birds are singing outside. I start back at physical therapy at 7:30 this morning. I have to drop a library book by the library as I go, and then after PT there's work and an appointment this afternoon.

My back is to the point where I'm out of bed and off the cane, but some days are better and some days worse. Yesterday my stomach was really upset despite the Pepcid they gave me with the naproxen. Also, I'd eaten a lot of raw veggies at the game on Sunday. So the combination of factors plus back pain made me extremely uncomfortable most of the day. The naproxen, of course, is meant to bring down the inflammation, although it is also a pain reliever. I'm also taking a half a tablet of pain medicine and a muscle relaxer--but only at night. I didn't want to drive with the pain medicine in my system. So much of the day I'm still experiencing pain, and I can't take any other pain relievers that I know of safely with the naproxen to boost it. It's possible you can acetaminophen, as it's not an NSAID (and it's in the pain meds), but I don't know about it enough to risk it. So I'll just carry on as I have. It does take much of the pain away, to the point where I can (mostly) function. I will admit that between the back and stomach yesterday, although I was at work, I was not my most productive. I got the essential things done, but not much else. It was hard to focus. I'm hoping PT will improve things so that I'll be a bit more lively and engaged. It was all I could do to keep conversations going yesterday. :) I hope to do better today.

PS Thank you YKWIA for the fennel seeds. They really helped my stomach last night.

I found the secret

to waking up relatively pain free these days: I set my alarm for an hour before I intended to get up and then took my anti-inflammatory medication. Then by the time I got up to shower and do all the things that have been difficult the last few days, I'm doing better. I think I'm on the mend, although I start PT Tuesday. And I am determined to hit the YMCA with some sort of workout, even if it's in the water, next week, if my therapist approves. I've had some amount of chronic back pain most of my adult life, but nothing ever like this. For those of you who deal with this daily, my heart goes out to you.

PS At least I'm prepared to do some of my PT exercises at home. On Wednesday, the day I missed work, (the first time I've done that for any sort of back issue), I got a package there from Amazon for a balance ball. I wanted to continue to work on some exercises I'd been given for my ankle. It's 65 cm and it rated to 2,000 lbs when inflated correctly, so I think I'm good for using it. :) [I also got some yoga supplies, but that's on hold]. So I've blown up the ball and am looking forward to using it, but I'm going to wait till I talk to the therapist and get some exercises from him. By the way I love my therapist. I'm going to KORT Physical Therapy Chevy Chase, with Stephen Karam. He did such a good job with my ankle I asked to return there. I highly recommend them.

PPS Sorry it's all been about pain these days. I am afraid that has been the number one thing on my mind lately. But the pain is easing up, the muscle relaxants I'm using at night are helping, and the inflammation does seem to be responding to my naproxen. So I'll try to blog about other things. This weekend I have to do pick up a book from the library, take a friend to the vet, do the game notes I couldn't last week, finish a project, work on the house to the best of my ability, and most importantly, do my taxes. Yeah, I know, I've put them off terribly, and they're due Monday. Agggghhhh!

So I can't say that today I was all better

especially during the morning, but I feel (somewhat) better than yesterday in comparison at the moment. Even so, I'm planning on taking some medicine my doctor prescribed for me and head to bed in just a bit. I managed to go to the doctor, drive to the pharmacy, go to work for a half day, and drop something off at my friends' house (although I used a cane to get around, as my leg was hurting, too). Then I drove home in a deluge, thereby saving the need for a car wash. It's back to physical therapy for awhile. Coincidentally, or ironically, I'm not sure which, I had my balance ball, yoga mat, and yoga block waiting for me at work from Amazon. I can't do much with the yoga stuff at the moment, or at least do not plan on doing anything until I talk to my therapist, but the ball might be useful, as I know some exercises that are good for the lower back using them. Anyway, thought I'd check in before I crash. Official diagnoses: lumbago, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, and sciatica. :(