I am committed to writing every day until next week, but I really should have scheduled some posts ahead last week. I have chronic pain in my dominant elbow and causes an ending amount of distraction. I’d rather not be typing, but I’m stubborn.

I asked for alternative suggestions from one of the doctors I see because I am not seeing consistent relief. I’ve tried physical therapy, icing/heating, pain killers (they work, but at what cost), cortisone shots but nothing solves the problem. We manage to mask the symptoms until I don’t want to keep up with the regiment. The cortisone shot barely lasted a week and it would have been several more weeks before I could have another one. The alternative suggested to me was prolotherapy. A horribly brief summary: scar tissue too prevalent so inject a safe irritant so that my body will work on that area to break down and reconstruct it in a more beneficial manner. It sounds weird, but I have personal references from those who swear by it. I’ll try anything once, well, not anything, but some things. I haven’t investigated the above link as much I as would like, but I wanted to find a source that was not a doctor’s office promoting the cure.

I had an appointment this afternoon in Traverse City with a doctor willing to evaluate my elbow. The result of the evaluation required three injection sites in my elbow. Now I’m not a big fan of needles, but I swear the needle was at least a foot long. I admit it, it was more like two inches long, but the syringe held a lot of solution and I really wanted to not be there. There was a bit of discomfort but the pain was temporarily alleviated. The muscle in my forearm seems to be a bit stiff and a bit of pain is returning, but I was told to expect pain while the process is working. Time will tell, though I will not turn this blog into my personal medical history.

After the appointment, Jason and I detoured to a few shops and found a wonderful wok. We’ve been on the lookout for one and found a nice used one for a great price. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it works.

Tags: elbow, pain, prolotherapy

I have been absent from writing due to the extraction of two wisdom teeth on Thursday morning. Somewhere around 11 or 12 years ago, I had to have the bottom two teeth removed. They were creating too much pressure on my jaw and the pain was getting to me. According to the x-rays, it was to be a simple procedure, no roots only caps, both still under the gum. After at least 45 minutes, though I think it was probably more like an hour and a half, 3/4 of one tooth was removed in small chipped pieces. I remember needed several shots and by the time we reached the removal of one tooth we were all crying, the dentist, the assistant, and myself. The dentist recommended that we stop there and set another appointment if the other one needed to be removed. We agreed to see if the removal of one alleviated the pressure. I was content with the decreased pressure and never gave it a second thought. Somewhere in my mid-twenties, I would experience random pain in the back of my mouth, where the other bottom wisdom tooth existed under the gum. I would think to myself that if it still hurt next week, I would make an appointment. Next week would come and go, pain subsided until the next month or the one after that. It didn’t occur to me that the tooth was trying to come up and couldn’t, so would recede and try again later. Luckily for me, I had a cleaning appointment scheduled a few weeks ago, just when the pain was beginning to subside. The dentist came in, we all chatted and sent me on my way with a referral slip to have the bottom and top teeth removed on the right side of my mouth. I pleaded to be put out for this procedure. I remember feeling as if I had lived through torture the first time and didn’t want to remember any of it. Thankfully, the oral surgeon was happy to oblige me. I remember the laughing gas, the IV being inserted and waking up in a totally different room with a lovely, warm blanket and my sweetie. I have some lovely pain pills to keep the pain at bay, but the down side is that life is rather surreal at the present moment. I titled this BUI, because I feel that I am under the influence of the pain meds, but when I try to go without them, the deep ache is more than I can handle. I have discovered that I am one of the few whose stomach goes topsy-turvy when meds and motion are applied. Riding in the car is very bad, unless I lean the seat back and don’t look out the window.

I have also discovered that knitting is fun while under the influence as well. I watch my fingers pick stitches and my head thinks, wow, that’s cool. It’s a good thing my fingers know what they are doing. I have put dishcloths on hold for a few weeks. My goals at present include finishing a hat (but not until I’m off the drugs) and making a knitted grocery bag, a hybrid of two patterns and some numbers from my own head while under the influence. I am keeping good notes, so I will know whether or not my brain worked well.

I’m trying a new piece of software that allows me to blog offline, then publish it. It’s past my bedtime, good night, sweet dreams.

Tags: blogging, knitting, pain, patterns, recycle, tote, wisdom teeth