Why I'm not sleeping now
I started experiencing really bad headaches on Wednesday last week, getting worse through the weekend, but that appears to be a sinus infection of some sort. It's bloody painful and ... bloody. Lots of blood clots. I'm running a cheap humidifier in the bedroom now, but the headache shoots right through the Vicodin I'm taking for my back. That's one hell of a headache.
But what's kept me up almost nonstop for the last forty-eight hours now is my right knee. It started swelling on Friday, and aching, but I figured it was just the weather (did I mention it SNOWED over the weekend?! WTF? It isn't even Halloween yet!). I soldiered on and pampered it a bit.
By Sunday it was greatly swollen and turned hot. Stabbing pain under the patella kept me up all night Sunday night. Looks like an infection or somesuch. Deep. Nasty. And unexplained. I have had no injury and the last injection I had in my knee (a Synvisc series) was 5 weeks ago.
Did I mention this pain is getting right through the Vicodin I'm already taking? Sigh.
I called my rheumatologist first thing Monday morning, only to discover she's out of the office until Wednesday on vacation. I called my PCP and left a message asking if he wanted to see me or if he wanted me to go to my orthopedist. (This knee has had three operations since 1976 and is full of scar tissue and crap from when I was a professional dancer; hence the arthritis in it and the injections. My orthopod is also somewhat familiar with it.)
Surprisingly he had me come in, took a look, and decided without tapping it (god, I wish he had -- the pressure is incredible) that it was "an inflammation" of undeterminate origin (hello, autoimmune disease -- he could be right) and put me on a Medrol pack. I'm to take that, and if it is worse by Wednesday when my rheumatologist is back, I'm to call her.
He said it was, yes, "very swollen and hot," but that he didn't want to stick an 18-gauge needle in there unless it was "massively swollen." Not sure about his reasoning there, but I'm trusting him for now. Besides, if he's right and it can be cured with a dose of cortecosteroids, that's better than a huge-bore needle in my knee, frankly.
But I did warn him that in the past one dose pack of Medrol usually doesn't take out my inflammations from the autoimmune disease. He didn't seem to hear me say that. I think he was already thinking ahead to something else. ::facepalm::
I really, really don't want to have a permanently fucked-up knee and be unable to walk.
So here I lie, with my head full of stabbing ice picks and my knee full of ... some little men with tiny ice picks, thank you very much ... and unable to sleep AGAIN.
I did get some naps in this afternoon, thank God. But I'm exhausted. But it hurts too damn much to sleep.
I tried Mucinex -- my head is still full of rot. Painful rot. (Or he did put me on a Zithromax pack for the sinus infection, while I was in seeing him for the knee. Nice guy. I like him. ::pets new PCP, who is actually a D.O.::)
I'm a bit worried about the knee. If it is an infection in there, it needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later. And frankly I don't know how much more swollen it can get without me being unable to put any weight on it whatsoever, making it impossible to get out to the doctor's office again.
But what's kept me up almost nonstop for the last forty-eight hours now is my right knee. It started swelling on Friday, and aching, but I figured it was just the weather (did I mention it SNOWED over the weekend?! WTF? It isn't even Halloween yet!). I soldiered on and pampered it a bit.
By Sunday it was greatly swollen and turned hot. Stabbing pain under the patella kept me up all night Sunday night. Looks like an infection or somesuch. Deep. Nasty. And unexplained. I have had no injury and the last injection I had in my knee (a Synvisc series) was 5 weeks ago.
Did I mention this pain is getting right through the Vicodin I'm already taking? Sigh.
I called my rheumatologist first thing Monday morning, only to discover she's out of the office until Wednesday on vacation. I called my PCP and left a message asking if he wanted to see me or if he wanted me to go to my orthopedist. (This knee has had three operations since 1976 and is full of scar tissue and crap from when I was a professional dancer; hence the arthritis in it and the injections. My orthopod is also somewhat familiar with it.)
Surprisingly he had me come in, took a look, and decided without tapping it (god, I wish he had -- the pressure is incredible) that it was "an inflammation" of undeterminate origin (hello, autoimmune disease -- he could be right) and put me on a Medrol pack. I'm to take that, and if it is worse by Wednesday when my rheumatologist is back, I'm to call her.
He said it was, yes, "very swollen and hot," but that he didn't want to stick an 18-gauge needle in there unless it was "massively swollen." Not sure about his reasoning there, but I'm trusting him for now. Besides, if he's right and it can be cured with a dose of cortecosteroids, that's better than a huge-bore needle in my knee, frankly.
But I did warn him that in the past one dose pack of Medrol usually doesn't take out my inflammations from the autoimmune disease. He didn't seem to hear me say that. I think he was already thinking ahead to something else. ::facepalm::
I really, really don't want to have a permanently fucked-up knee and be unable to walk.
So here I lie, with my head full of stabbing ice picks and my knee full of ... some little men with tiny ice picks, thank you very much ... and unable to sleep AGAIN.
I did get some naps in this afternoon, thank God. But I'm exhausted. But it hurts too damn much to sleep.
I tried Mucinex -- my head is still full of rot. Painful rot. (Or he did put me on a Zithromax pack for the sinus infection, while I was in seeing him for the knee. Nice guy. I like him. ::pets new PCP, who is actually a D.O.::)
I'm a bit worried about the knee. If it is an infection in there, it needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later. And frankly I don't know how much more swollen it can get without me being unable to put any weight on it whatsoever, making it impossible to get out to the doctor's office again.