More navel gazing
But now with fewer photos.
Yesterday sucked. Day before that was pretty grim too. Today is a little better. Pain levels are pretty much the same, low, annoying, mostly muscle pain in the low belly, right side psoas and hip flexors. Emotional state is what bottomed out yesterday and seems to be levelling back up today. Sleeping last night helped, took 1/2 a pain pill and actually slept through the night. The previous 2 nights were studies in insomnia and restlessness. Wednesday night was so bad that after a few hours of tossing and turning I went into the living room and brought the cats into my bedroom so that I could pet them. They did not appreciate the tossing and turning but stuck around and purred usefully when pet till around 7am when they decided to switch over to knocking shit off the dressers and being annoying.
Yesterday I actually cried during PT. Not because it hurt, it didn't, they were super gentle and it was mostly stretching and massage work, but because I was so exhausted and upset. Mom hates being cooped up in my house and even more hates seeing me in pain, so I was trying to put on a good front and take care of her...to the detriment of taking care of myself. Much misery resulted. Thankfully she's now mobile again, if cranky about being cooped up by the rain and bum knee. None of this helped by how annoyingly frustrating it is to get medical care. The cortisone injection that the ortho surgeon referred me to last wk has finally been approved by my insurance company, but getting it done within the next month took more than 45 minutes worth of phone calls to three different offices. All part of OHSU, you'd think I'd be able to do that bit of scheduling through a central number but oh no, gotta talked to one Dr office, then another, then another, then back to the first. Meanwhile getting a refill of pain pils is another exercise in frustration. Apparently new federal law requires a DEA number on the paper prescriptions but the fellow who wrote my new scrip at the last follow up appointment left that off, so when I took it to the pharmacy day before yesterday they couldn't fill it. Nor could they attain that information digitally, electronically, over the phone or any other way besides me physically couriering the damned piece of paper from Dr office to pharmacy. Because folks in pain have nothing better to do than faff about all over town transporting slips of paper because some stupid government agency can't figure out how to secure communications btwn dr offices and pharmacies. It's a ludicrous situation that makes me so angry I could throttle someone and so frustrated that there's absolutely nothing I can do about any of it. Well, I managed get the Drs office to mail me a new prescription so that I don't have to drive there to pick it up. Honestly, it's safe enough for the Drs office to mail the paper scrip to me but not to fax it, email it, or paper mail it to the pharmacy? How does that make sense, DEA? Anyways, that saves me one trip but I will still have to go back to the pharmacy and go through the same shaming for continuing to need narcotic pain meds in order to get any rest.
I'm so ready to feel ok again. I get about 4 to 6 hrs a day until I'm exhausted, but often too exhausted to sleep. Trying to up my exercise levels during those hours in order to build up stamina, so far able to do 20-30 minutes on a recumbent bike either before or after PT yesterday and today and it did seem to help last night. Still trying to coax that left side incision site to a slightly more healed state before trying pool and aquatherapy. Hopefully next week.
Yesterday sucked. Day before that was pretty grim too. Today is a little better. Pain levels are pretty much the same, low, annoying, mostly muscle pain in the low belly, right side psoas and hip flexors. Emotional state is what bottomed out yesterday and seems to be levelling back up today. Sleeping last night helped, took 1/2 a pain pill and actually slept through the night. The previous 2 nights were studies in insomnia and restlessness. Wednesday night was so bad that after a few hours of tossing and turning I went into the living room and brought the cats into my bedroom so that I could pet them. They did not appreciate the tossing and turning but stuck around and purred usefully when pet till around 7am when they decided to switch over to knocking shit off the dressers and being annoying.
Yesterday I actually cried during PT. Not because it hurt, it didn't, they were super gentle and it was mostly stretching and massage work, but because I was so exhausted and upset. Mom hates being cooped up in my house and even more hates seeing me in pain, so I was trying to put on a good front and take care of her...to the detriment of taking care of myself. Much misery resulted. Thankfully she's now mobile again, if cranky about being cooped up by the rain and bum knee. None of this helped by how annoyingly frustrating it is to get medical care. The cortisone injection that the ortho surgeon referred me to last wk has finally been approved by my insurance company, but getting it done within the next month took more than 45 minutes worth of phone calls to three different offices. All part of OHSU, you'd think I'd be able to do that bit of scheduling through a central number but oh no, gotta talked to one Dr office, then another, then another, then back to the first. Meanwhile getting a refill of pain pils is another exercise in frustration. Apparently new federal law requires a DEA number on the paper prescriptions but the fellow who wrote my new scrip at the last follow up appointment left that off, so when I took it to the pharmacy day before yesterday they couldn't fill it. Nor could they attain that information digitally, electronically, over the phone or any other way besides me physically couriering the damned piece of paper from Dr office to pharmacy. Because folks in pain have nothing better to do than faff about all over town transporting slips of paper because some stupid government agency can't figure out how to secure communications btwn dr offices and pharmacies. It's a ludicrous situation that makes me so angry I could throttle someone and so frustrated that there's absolutely nothing I can do about any of it. Well, I managed get the Drs office to mail me a new prescription so that I don't have to drive there to pick it up. Honestly, it's safe enough for the Drs office to mail the paper scrip to me but not to fax it, email it, or paper mail it to the pharmacy? How does that make sense, DEA? Anyways, that saves me one trip but I will still have to go back to the pharmacy and go through the same shaming for continuing to need narcotic pain meds in order to get any rest.
I'm so ready to feel ok again. I get about 4 to 6 hrs a day until I'm exhausted, but often too exhausted to sleep. Trying to up my exercise levels during those hours in order to build up stamina, so far able to do 20-30 minutes on a recumbent bike either before or after PT yesterday and today and it did seem to help last night. Still trying to coax that left side incision site to a slightly more healed state before trying pool and aquatherapy. Hopefully next week.