February 15th, 2011
This morning I meant to get moving a lot faster than I did, but I just couldn't. At 6 a.m. my mom woke me up to take my gabapentin and morphine extended release, two medications I haven't given up on yet. My original medical medication list hosted 23 or 24 different medications. However, this morning before I got dressed, I got one of those inkling little bugs that say "Hey, find out about THIS."
This little bug was about the muscles in the lower back/hip region. The gluteus medius. As I was reading, I about fell off my bed! There are pieces of the visit with Dr. Fitzgibbon at the pain clinic that I cannot remember. Pain has a funny way of distorting appointments when they are trying to teach you things. Pain has a LOT of funny ways, but I am not getting into that right now- I am trying to remember Dr. Fitzgibbon's speach to me. Ah yes, that is right. He was talking about how when he asked me to raise my right leg I could not raise it very high by myself without considerable amounts of pain. However, when he raised my leg, he could raise it considerably higher than I could. He obviously didn't realize that the pain was still there when he raised it, and extremely bad when he moved my leg side to side that made me start crying- but hey. He's the doctor right?
So during my google-craze, I noticed something about trigger points, and how they refer pain- and I was learning about all sorts of parts of muscles- and I was also realizing Dr. Fitzgibbon may have been on to something. What he did with the injection was wrong- but he was definitely on to something that no other physician had come up with. Because of that, I am looking into additional forms of therapy that I was interested in before but am somewhat afraid of- such as acupunture and accupressure.
Anyways, after my foray to the local library yesterday, it became extremely clear that I needed to get a current drivers license and identification card. So mom and I went to the DMV in Lynnwood. I got a number and found a place to sit, pulled out my book, and started reading.
And then I started falling asleep.
Mom kept poking me every few minutes to make sure I opened my eyes and blinked a few times because I was wearing my boston lenses. Unfortunately when you have boston lenses you are not allowed to sleep for longer than 15 minutes with them on. I learned the hard way that when you do, the dryness and irritation that occurs on the upper eyelid adds for much more increased pain than anyone would want to deal with in their eyes. Not being able to blink is extremely irritating. It's something that just comes naturally to everyone! Although after chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, blinking doesn't quite have the same effect as it used to since chemically my tears aren't produced quite right and so they tend to become more of a gooey mess that doesn't actually moisten the eye. That accounts for the extreme dry eye and pain.
By the time they finally called my number, more than a couple of people had left in a huff after repeated mutterings about how slow they were. Most of the time I just chuckled at them, but one man flat out annoyed me. He kept calling different people on his phone and.... doing what I used to do. LOL. Isn't it odd? To be faced with something that you know you used to do, and to realize just how obnoxious it was? I honestly wasn't sure whether to laugh or to face-palm myself.
The gal at the counter was quite nice. I explained the situation to her, that I had come to Washington originally for medical treatment, but that I was going to become a permanent resident. She asked what type of medical treatment and I told her. Apparently they would have to require a medical release for me to get a Washington drivers license, so I opted to simply get an ID card. She handed me back my driver's license. I have no idea if it is even actually legal to have an ID card from one state, and a driver's license from another. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but noone stopped me or said anything about it, so who knows!
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On our way home, we stopped at 7-11 and picked up Paranormal Activity 2 from the Redbox. I'm oddly in the mood to get scared about something beSIDES my health for awhile......
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