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Lordy, what a day!!
Apr. 28th, 2006 09:41 amThe Physical Therapy place mailed me a stack of forms to fill out. I filled them out as I ate my breakfast. Eric had to sign one of them because he's the "card holder" for my insurance. That seemed a little strange, but OK. It was suddenly time to go and I wasn't dressed yet. I hurried into clothes, remembered to grab shorts for PT and grabbed my mostly full diet pepsi. Yeah, I know. Breakfast was two oats and honey granola bars and a diet pepsi. It takes too long to make a mocha. I've slacked off on having those during the week. It's just easier to grab a diet pepsi.
In my rush to the car, I found myself juggling too many things and set the pepsi on the roof of my car while I unlocked the door and put the rest of the stuff inside. It wasn't until I was two blocks away that I remembered my pepsi. It was gone. There wasn't a thump or any sign of spilled pepsi on my car, so I have no idea when it fell off. I figured it was when I backed out of the driveway. Eric didn't find it when he got home. I guess a neighbor picked the can up. D'Oh!
There was another form to fill out at my doctor's office. I have to fill out a form every visit. They ask all the same questions about pain and what meds you're taking. I take a lot of meds for my allergies, asthma, peri-menopause and ADD. I take a lot of supplements because with my super-efficient metabolism I can't eat enough food to get the nutrients I need to function well, plus the stuff going on with me is helped by herbs. I just wrote, "Same as before, too many to list here."
The Appointment with my Physiologist
He showed me the MRI films and explained there is supposed to be a space along the sides of spinal column. In my films, the space disappears next to each disc on the right between my C3-C6 vertebre. On the closeup view, there is still space but it's much less than by the "healthy" discs. I don't have herniated discs, they're just bulging. The bone spurs I have project into the gap the nerves run through. He says my neck is trying to protect the nerves so it's growing the spurs that will eventually fuse together and then I won't have pain anymore. I'll have a permanently stiff neck. Great. :(
I told him as much as I hated having something wrong with me it felt good to know all the pain I've been in isn't all in my head. He said it definitely wasn't imagined at all. I've got real reason to be hurting this much. Now I guess I know why my otherwise very healthy blood tests show slight signs of inflammation.
He says he wants to do two sets of injections. The first are next Tuesday afternoon. They're facet injections "for the bones," as he put it in non-technical terms. Three weeks later he wants to do a second set of injections "for the nerves." I'm not sure of the technical term for that, but he says it will ease the incredibly tight muscles I have in my shoulders and upper back. Oh, that sounds so nice! Those muscles have been spasming ever since I can remember.
The only trouble is, he doesn't have any Tuesdays scheduled for injections past this coming Tuesday. I asked to be put on a wait list for a Tuesday because his only other injection day is Fridays. I have a class Friday night I don't want to miss. The Troubleshooting Windows Applications class is filled with new information I really need to have!
On my way out I found out my co-pay for a specialist is $30 instead of $15. Grrrr.
Walking out to my car, I had a bit of time before my PT appointment and since my front tooth crown was about to fall out, I called my dentist. He told me to come right in. He got the crown out and x-rayed me without it in there. Then he tried to stick it back in. He wanted me to bite a piece of cotton and I did but I realized too late that it made the tooth flop out frontwards and I stopped to tell him that wasn't going to work. He put the crown into the right position again and held it with his fingers, telling me to clench my teeth while he did it. My start time for PT came while I sat there waiting for the crown cement to set, and after Dr. Gong told me not to eat anything for 90 minutes I was out the door and on the cell phone to tell them where I was and that I was on my way. Luckily, they're only 5 minutes away.
I'd driven by the day before after work to make sure I knew where I was going. I'm so glad I did! They don't have a sign out front of the building or anything!
I'm going to like PT. My therapist rocks! He's on the same wavelength I am on how all the different pains I have going on may be related and he's just been to a conference about peri-menopause, the lesser known symptoms - like all the muscle reactions to hormone imbalances - and ways to alleviate them. He got rid of the little bit of a headache I had and loosened up my neck a lot. :))) The downside is my co-pay is $30 a visit with them, too. That's $60 per week when money is already running out every month. *sigh*
At least the MRI was completely covered.
I got to work pretty fast from there. The extra hour and a half I worked the day before more than covered the time I was late getting in. I'm so glad my group doesn't mind letting me adjust them that way. They're being really supportive of everything. :)
I'd missed a pot-luck brunch at work. I was told to please help myself to the leftovers, so there was a free lunch! There were mini-burritos filled with eggs and sausage, a rice dish with veggies, a vegetable dish with broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash slices and carrots, several desserts and some kind of eggroll type wraps with rice and who knows what inside. Big bottles of diet pepsi and something else were there to drink. I filled my plate with healthy stuff. I made sure to bite the burrito with the non-crown side of my teeth, checking the crown after each bite. All good! Then I had a forkfull of rice, gently scraping the rice off with my teeth. The crown flipped forward. I realized then that when I bit that cotton, the crown had created a space for itself to flip like that. I pushed it back into place. It seemed to stay.
I had a few duties to take care of right away. One of them involved inventory. I knew writing down the tag numbers of EVERYTHING I found whether it was on my list or not was the right thing to do. I was able to use my list to check off about half of a list of 20 missing items from other people's lists! Later Mike was given another list to check and asked me to email my list to him.
Another task was installation of some software on a computer on the other side of the base. We had summer weather yesterday so I rode one of the department bikes over to do it. I think I need to create a padded pouch to put things in for bike transport. The basket is a bit hard to set a CD in. I used a grocery bag I'd kept in my desk and it worked, but it really didn't provide much padding. I tied the bag to the bottom of the basket in case I fell or something. I didn't! I got all sweaty because it was so warm. Ah it felt so good to be riding a bike in the sun! I'm going to take some sunscreen to work. The freckles and age spots on my hands and arms got a bit darker just in the short bike ride back and forth.
I drank some water from my water bottle when I got back and my tooth fell out. I didn't have time to deal with it until after 4pm. Naturally, my dentist closes at 4pm and I got his machine. They said to press 4 at the end of the message if it was an emergency so I did. Dr. Gong would be paged and call me back. I stuck it back in and decided to get some denture adhesive on the way to school. At the store, I couldn't find it so I asked a clerk. My tooth flew out of my mouth and onto the floor as I asked him! I retrieved my tooth and wiped it off. Not chipped. I almost wish it were so I'd be justfied in getting a better one made. He showed me the denture section. I chose the one that boasted the best adhesion of all creams available. When I got back to the car, my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Gong. He had a specialist to refer me to and gave me her number. I called. She's at a conference until May 11th. I called him back. This time I got him directly. He came up with another specialist. I called her. Yes, they had an opening in the afternoon. So today I go to a specialist about this. I hope my dental insurance doesn't treat this the same way my medical insurance does. This is getting to be a very expensive week. I'll pick up my x-ray and referral on the way to work. Anyway, after that I used the denture cream to secure my crown. It took a few tries to figure out just how little I should use so the tooth fits properly. It works pretty well for a few hours at a time.
Class was interesting. I got there early enough to snag the two computers my lab partner Bill and I always use. The first week of class, a new guy to our school was sitting in Bill's usual seat when I got there. Last week, class was cancelled because Chuck, our instructor, was sick. So we hadn't done any work on the PC's yet. I put my books at one of the computers and sat at the other. He high-fived me when he got there. :)
We were told the first task was to install the operating systems. The hard disks are all reused every quarter, so we'd have to install over someone's work system from before. Both Bill and I tried but the computers just wouldn't boot from the install CD's. We told Chuck and that started a big investigation. His materials said our books came with Windows Server Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server. Our books said we would come in to computers with Windows Server already installed. Luckily, Chuck had just ordered 100 copies of Windows Server Enterprise for his classroom computers and will have them for us to install next week. He did the lecture for last week and this week's assigned reading and we went home. He stopped at the normal break time. I headed for the coffee shop. In my transition from work to school, I'd forgotten to take my evening ADD med and was literally falling asleep during lecture.
The coffee shop staff decided to change the closing time because they were having to work later than they were authorized to clean up. That meant no coffee for anyone. I found a soda machine. No diet cola there so I had to get a regular pepsi for the caffiene.
It just wasn't my night, I guess. Oh well. Things could be worse. At least I'm not feeling sick anymore and I'm really excited about getting this pain dealt with! :)
In my rush to the car, I found myself juggling too many things and set the pepsi on the roof of my car while I unlocked the door and put the rest of the stuff inside. It wasn't until I was two blocks away that I remembered my pepsi. It was gone. There wasn't a thump or any sign of spilled pepsi on my car, so I have no idea when it fell off. I figured it was when I backed out of the driveway. Eric didn't find it when he got home. I guess a neighbor picked the can up. D'Oh!
There was another form to fill out at my doctor's office. I have to fill out a form every visit. They ask all the same questions about pain and what meds you're taking. I take a lot of meds for my allergies, asthma, peri-menopause and ADD. I take a lot of supplements because with my super-efficient metabolism I can't eat enough food to get the nutrients I need to function well, plus the stuff going on with me is helped by herbs. I just wrote, "Same as before, too many to list here."
The Appointment with my Physiologist
He showed me the MRI films and explained there is supposed to be a space along the sides of spinal column. In my films, the space disappears next to each disc on the right between my C3-C6 vertebre. On the closeup view, there is still space but it's much less than by the "healthy" discs. I don't have herniated discs, they're just bulging. The bone spurs I have project into the gap the nerves run through. He says my neck is trying to protect the nerves so it's growing the spurs that will eventually fuse together and then I won't have pain anymore. I'll have a permanently stiff neck. Great. :(
I told him as much as I hated having something wrong with me it felt good to know all the pain I've been in isn't all in my head. He said it definitely wasn't imagined at all. I've got real reason to be hurting this much. Now I guess I know why my otherwise very healthy blood tests show slight signs of inflammation.
He says he wants to do two sets of injections. The first are next Tuesday afternoon. They're facet injections "for the bones," as he put it in non-technical terms. Three weeks later he wants to do a second set of injections "for the nerves." I'm not sure of the technical term for that, but he says it will ease the incredibly tight muscles I have in my shoulders and upper back. Oh, that sounds so nice! Those muscles have been spasming ever since I can remember.
The only trouble is, he doesn't have any Tuesdays scheduled for injections past this coming Tuesday. I asked to be put on a wait list for a Tuesday because his only other injection day is Fridays. I have a class Friday night I don't want to miss. The Troubleshooting Windows Applications class is filled with new information I really need to have!
On my way out I found out my co-pay for a specialist is $30 instead of $15. Grrrr.
Walking out to my car, I had a bit of time before my PT appointment and since my front tooth crown was about to fall out, I called my dentist. He told me to come right in. He got the crown out and x-rayed me without it in there. Then he tried to stick it back in. He wanted me to bite a piece of cotton and I did but I realized too late that it made the tooth flop out frontwards and I stopped to tell him that wasn't going to work. He put the crown into the right position again and held it with his fingers, telling me to clench my teeth while he did it. My start time for PT came while I sat there waiting for the crown cement to set, and after Dr. Gong told me not to eat anything for 90 minutes I was out the door and on the cell phone to tell them where I was and that I was on my way. Luckily, they're only 5 minutes away.
I'd driven by the day before after work to make sure I knew where I was going. I'm so glad I did! They don't have a sign out front of the building or anything!
I'm going to like PT. My therapist rocks! He's on the same wavelength I am on how all the different pains I have going on may be related and he's just been to a conference about peri-menopause, the lesser known symptoms - like all the muscle reactions to hormone imbalances - and ways to alleviate them. He got rid of the little bit of a headache I had and loosened up my neck a lot. :))) The downside is my co-pay is $30 a visit with them, too. That's $60 per week when money is already running out every month. *sigh*
At least the MRI was completely covered.
I got to work pretty fast from there. The extra hour and a half I worked the day before more than covered the time I was late getting in. I'm so glad my group doesn't mind letting me adjust them that way. They're being really supportive of everything. :)
I'd missed a pot-luck brunch at work. I was told to please help myself to the leftovers, so there was a free lunch! There were mini-burritos filled with eggs and sausage, a rice dish with veggies, a vegetable dish with broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash slices and carrots, several desserts and some kind of eggroll type wraps with rice and who knows what inside. Big bottles of diet pepsi and something else were there to drink. I filled my plate with healthy stuff. I made sure to bite the burrito with the non-crown side of my teeth, checking the crown after each bite. All good! Then I had a forkfull of rice, gently scraping the rice off with my teeth. The crown flipped forward. I realized then that when I bit that cotton, the crown had created a space for itself to flip like that. I pushed it back into place. It seemed to stay.
I had a few duties to take care of right away. One of them involved inventory. I knew writing down the tag numbers of EVERYTHING I found whether it was on my list or not was the right thing to do. I was able to use my list to check off about half of a list of 20 missing items from other people's lists! Later Mike was given another list to check and asked me to email my list to him.
Another task was installation of some software on a computer on the other side of the base. We had summer weather yesterday so I rode one of the department bikes over to do it. I think I need to create a padded pouch to put things in for bike transport. The basket is a bit hard to set a CD in. I used a grocery bag I'd kept in my desk and it worked, but it really didn't provide much padding. I tied the bag to the bottom of the basket in case I fell or something. I didn't! I got all sweaty because it was so warm. Ah it felt so good to be riding a bike in the sun! I'm going to take some sunscreen to work. The freckles and age spots on my hands and arms got a bit darker just in the short bike ride back and forth.
I drank some water from my water bottle when I got back and my tooth fell out. I didn't have time to deal with it until after 4pm. Naturally, my dentist closes at 4pm and I got his machine. They said to press 4 at the end of the message if it was an emergency so I did. Dr. Gong would be paged and call me back. I stuck it back in and decided to get some denture adhesive on the way to school. At the store, I couldn't find it so I asked a clerk. My tooth flew out of my mouth and onto the floor as I asked him! I retrieved my tooth and wiped it off. Not chipped. I almost wish it were so I'd be justfied in getting a better one made. He showed me the denture section. I chose the one that boasted the best adhesion of all creams available. When I got back to the car, my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Gong. He had a specialist to refer me to and gave me her number. I called. She's at a conference until May 11th. I called him back. This time I got him directly. He came up with another specialist. I called her. Yes, they had an opening in the afternoon. So today I go to a specialist about this. I hope my dental insurance doesn't treat this the same way my medical insurance does. This is getting to be a very expensive week. I'll pick up my x-ray and referral on the way to work. Anyway, after that I used the denture cream to secure my crown. It took a few tries to figure out just how little I should use so the tooth fits properly. It works pretty well for a few hours at a time.
Class was interesting. I got there early enough to snag the two computers my lab partner Bill and I always use. The first week of class, a new guy to our school was sitting in Bill's usual seat when I got there. Last week, class was cancelled because Chuck, our instructor, was sick. So we hadn't done any work on the PC's yet. I put my books at one of the computers and sat at the other. He high-fived me when he got there. :)
We were told the first task was to install the operating systems. The hard disks are all reused every quarter, so we'd have to install over someone's work system from before. Both Bill and I tried but the computers just wouldn't boot from the install CD's. We told Chuck and that started a big investigation. His materials said our books came with Windows Server Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server. Our books said we would come in to computers with Windows Server already installed. Luckily, Chuck had just ordered 100 copies of Windows Server Enterprise for his classroom computers and will have them for us to install next week. He did the lecture for last week and this week's assigned reading and we went home. He stopped at the normal break time. I headed for the coffee shop. In my transition from work to school, I'd forgotten to take my evening ADD med and was literally falling asleep during lecture.
The coffee shop staff decided to change the closing time because they were having to work later than they were authorized to clean up. That meant no coffee for anyone. I found a soda machine. No diet cola there so I had to get a regular pepsi for the caffiene.
It just wasn't my night, I guess. Oh well. Things could be worse. At least I'm not feeling sick anymore and I'm really excited about getting this pain dealt with! :)
