don't panic. . .
As promised, here's the real update. . . the medication for my cough/breathing issues has been changed yet again, because I had a bad reaction to the initial medication I was given that landed me in the ER a couple of weeks ago. That was an interesting experience- we went to Convenient Care first, and the people there were so freaked out by my symptoms that they didn't want anything to do with me, so they sent me straight to the ER. I had a feeling the medication might be the problem, so I asked about it, but they said I needed a whole bunch of tests before anyone could even speculate as to what was going on. So I went to the ER, waited for four hours to see a doctor, and when he finally came in, he just looked at me from the doorway, talked to me for a few minutes, and told me the problem was the medication. . . and the people at Convenient Care couldn't do this, why? It was very frustrating. It did provide an interesting opportunity to observe people, though. While I was waiting for a room to open up, someone apparently called and tried to make a reservation to be seen by a doctor immediately upon arrival- creative, I guess, but it didn't work; the person at the desk very patiently explained that there's a system set up to make sure people get treated according to the urgency of their medical conditions, and that this is determined *after* they arrive at the ER. There was also a girl who was brought in by ambulance who claimed to be suffering from excruciating abdominal pain, who decided after an hour of waiting around on a gurney in the hallway right outside my room that she was feeling just fine and wanted to go home- not sure what was up with that.
Anyway, as far as the meds go, I'm now on something different but related, that hopefully won't have the same side effects (my doctor recommended starting at a lower dose, and since the adverse effects from the other medication just wore off, I haven't had the courage to increase the dose yet). Unfortunately, its effects during pregnancy have not been studied, so the recommendation that we wait for two months after I stop taking it to try to conceive still applies. :(
I'm also seeing a new doctor for my knee. As my physical therapy sessions are drawing to a close, it's becoming very obvious that even as my ankle, neck, and shoulders are improving, my knee is steadily getting worse. My therapist made a couple of recommendations for me, and after ironing out some insurance weirdness, I was able to get an appointment impressively quickly. I'm now spending hours and hours doing therapy exercises in a last-ditch effort to avoid knee surgery, but so far I have noticed no appreciable effect. At this point, I really almost want the surgery, just to get things taken care of and get on with my life, so that should tell you something. . . at any rate, I've got a couple more weeks before my follow-up with the doctor, at which point, if things aren't improving, we will apparently start discussing "other options."
We went to the Jason Mraz concert at the Assembly Hall Saturday. It was a lot of fun; we really enjoy his music, but seeing him live is a whole different and even more enjoyable experience. The most amusing moments of the concert for me were at one point when the brass section randomly appeared in the midst of the audience, and at one point when Jason was drinking from a water bottle and someone down in front asked him what he was drinking- he replied that it was a refreshing beverage composed of two parts hydrogen to two parts oxygen, and I about died laughing (this is the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide). Howie Day was the opener, which was cool because it was like 2 concerts for the price of one (and a low price at that- tickets were only $36). I struck up a conversation with the girl sitting next to me, who got upset and suspected Howie Day of lip-syncing to canned music when he stepped back from the mic and the music kept going. I explained that he was using digital recording devices to record music with a dense texture one layer at a time and play it back in a loop (if you can't picture what this would be like, there are videos here and here that give you some idea- he does some echo-y stuff throughout, but the effect I'm talking about is really most prominent at the ends of these songs. It's even cooler in person, but the videos give you a pretty good idea of what it's like). Anyway, after I explained what was going on and she realized how cool it was, we started chatting about music and life in general- it was fun to just strike up a conversation at random like that. Also, Howie Day sort of reminds me of my brother-in-law.
Oh, and one of my students last night was sick with what appeared to be potentially swine flu-like symptoms. I felt really bad for him because he was obviously pretty miserable (he couldn't even make it through his second hour of tutoring, but his sister had driven him and was working on ACT prep and didn't want to leave to take him home, so he finished his first hour and then went to go lie down on one of our couches), but I was also a little nervous about sitting two feet across the table from him for an extended period of time. I know the media has overdramatized things and the swine flu is really no worse than the normal flu, but to be honest, that's not much comfort for me- the last time I had normal flu was my freshman year of college, right after NFK 69, when I got some kind of nasty secondary infection, spiked a fever of 105, and had to spend an entire afternoon at McKinley having several liters of IV fluid pumped into me. . . so I'd really rather just stay healthy, thanks.
Anyway, as far as the meds go, I'm now on something different but related, that hopefully won't have the same side effects (my doctor recommended starting at a lower dose, and since the adverse effects from the other medication just wore off, I haven't had the courage to increase the dose yet). Unfortunately, its effects during pregnancy have not been studied, so the recommendation that we wait for two months after I stop taking it to try to conceive still applies. :(
I'm also seeing a new doctor for my knee. As my physical therapy sessions are drawing to a close, it's becoming very obvious that even as my ankle, neck, and shoulders are improving, my knee is steadily getting worse. My therapist made a couple of recommendations for me, and after ironing out some insurance weirdness, I was able to get an appointment impressively quickly. I'm now spending hours and hours doing therapy exercises in a last-ditch effort to avoid knee surgery, but so far I have noticed no appreciable effect. At this point, I really almost want the surgery, just to get things taken care of and get on with my life, so that should tell you something. . . at any rate, I've got a couple more weeks before my follow-up with the doctor, at which point, if things aren't improving, we will apparently start discussing "other options."
We went to the Jason Mraz concert at the Assembly Hall Saturday. It was a lot of fun; we really enjoy his music, but seeing him live is a whole different and even more enjoyable experience. The most amusing moments of the concert for me were at one point when the brass section randomly appeared in the midst of the audience, and at one point when Jason was drinking from a water bottle and someone down in front asked him what he was drinking- he replied that it was a refreshing beverage composed of two parts hydrogen to two parts oxygen, and I about died laughing (this is the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide). Howie Day was the opener, which was cool because it was like 2 concerts for the price of one (and a low price at that- tickets were only $36). I struck up a conversation with the girl sitting next to me, who got upset and suspected Howie Day of lip-syncing to canned music when he stepped back from the mic and the music kept going. I explained that he was using digital recording devices to record music with a dense texture one layer at a time and play it back in a loop (if you can't picture what this would be like, there are videos here and here that give you some idea- he does some echo-y stuff throughout, but the effect I'm talking about is really most prominent at the ends of these songs. It's even cooler in person, but the videos give you a pretty good idea of what it's like). Anyway, after I explained what was going on and she realized how cool it was, we started chatting about music and life in general- it was fun to just strike up a conversation at random like that. Also, Howie Day sort of reminds me of my brother-in-law.
Oh, and one of my students last night was sick with what appeared to be potentially swine flu-like symptoms. I felt really bad for him because he was obviously pretty miserable (he couldn't even make it through his second hour of tutoring, but his sister had driven him and was working on ACT prep and didn't want to leave to take him home, so he finished his first hour and then went to go lie down on one of our couches), but I was also a little nervous about sitting two feet across the table from him for an extended period of time. I know the media has overdramatized things and the swine flu is really no worse than the normal flu, but to be honest, that's not much comfort for me- the last time I had normal flu was my freshman year of college, right after NFK 69, when I got some kind of nasty secondary infection, spiked a fever of 105, and had to spend an entire afternoon at McKinley having several liters of IV fluid pumped into me. . . so I'd really rather just stay healthy, thanks.