Suzanne Calling

You may have noticed that I haven't written about the health issues a lot over the past year. The problems I have are still here, still troublesome, but they've become the norm-so I don't talk about them much. The foot issue was mentioned last month, but there's another problem that cropped up before that did-my right shoulder. I've had issues off and on for years with my neck and shoulders, usually when I am stressed, one or the other will spasm. This is usually accompanied by a huge knot just under my shoulder. For nearly two months, my right shoulder has been giving me grief. The pain is similar to those spasms, but different because this time, the upper arm is affected. There is no knot. When you tune out pain, gradual increases aren't so noticeable. It had been a problem for a while when I went to go choose my backpack for school, because I'd even commented to Ed that the only good thing about doing it that day was that my neck and shoulder were ...

It's funny how you look at things when you don't have the whole story. For instance, when I was younger, I'd look at seemingly able bodied people alighting from the car parked in the handicapped stall in front of a business and roll my eyes. That person didn't seem like they needed the space and my perception was that they were borrowing someone else's car and decided to take the parking perk along with it. In a case of cruel irony, at 29 years old, I developed a DVT and earned a 9 day hospital stay. The pain was horrible. My doctor suggested that I get a handicapped tag. He warned me that there would be days where I would not want to walk the short walk from my car to work. "You should make it shorter." This was after he was incredulous that I wanted to return to work in retail. Apparently, you just don't do that with a huge clot in your body that puts you on a year of nasty blood thinners. Seeing the other patients he had sitting in the w...

Another day, another visit to the (NEW) offices for my doctor. Once again, I get a confirmation of the appointment with the ever important "Your doctor has MOVED since your last appointment" message. Each time I so wish it wasn't automated , so I could say "Oh, really? They change offices EVERY week?" It's almost like all those Clear Channel radio stations here in Tampa, the NEW Tampa Bay's best country US103.5, the NEW 107.3 the Eagle, the NEW 101.5 The Point. They've all been new since I moved here OVER THREE YEARS AGO! The radio stations don't have an excuse for calling themselves new for over three years, the doctor's office can be forgiven that the 2 month old building is not new to me. Nurse M had a death in the family, so my appointment was reshuffled to another member of the vascular team. The young lady checking me in says that I've never seen Dr. B (according to the records-which are wrong), so I get the patient medical h...

Okay, there will be several posts in a short period of time to make up for the dearth of entries this past week. Friday, I had a follow up with Nurse M. Only she's out of town with a family emergency. I got one of the new residents instead. Nice doctor. He looked at the wound and seemed perplexed, and Nurse D and I had to tell him that this looked really good! We should have had pictures from back in December in the file to show him. Alas, there were the ones from I think April, where I still had two wounds. He put another Oasis on it, and we decided (well, really Nurse D did) that I would not be wrapped again, so as to prevent this: Nice ripples on the leg, don't you think? This is what is the bane of an RSD sufferer's existence. Nurse D knows that the odds are great that a boot will accordian and do this to me. Then it presses on the three nerves on the top of the foot (the deep peroneal, the medial dorsal cutaneous, and the intermediate dorsal cutaneous) and causes mo...

Monday morning, I had another appointment with my Nurse Practitioner to check the Oasis and re wrap my leg. We got the kids off to school and hightailed it across to Tampa, arriving five minutes before my scheduled appointment time. (small miracle, given the unpredictable Tampa traffic patterns) First, a little info about the reception staff at the Physician's group. I am a familiar face to them now, since I have been there at least once a week since December. Most of the ladies are pleasant, including the receptionist formerly known as the grumpy battle axe (rfkatgba), who is now positively chipper when checking me in. (I think that wonderful week where I was there FIVE times won her over). All but one of these ladies have been there at least the three years that I've been a patient with the practice. There is one young lady who started there about three months ago who treats patients as an interruption of her day. Even those who are cordial and polite get the "I ...

Today was my first visit to nurse M since going out on disability. It was neat to see the new office building the professional offices were moved to. (Note to USF: everything is very BLAH, let them put up some touches of personality) M looked at my wound and wondered if it'd been getting any better. It's not infected and I'm able to debride it fairly easily, though this week has been a bear in the RSD department. I've been experiencing a ton of constant stinging and episodes of sharp stabbing pains. Lots of fun. Last night, we took a dip in the gulf (blog entry to appear later), and I decided not to put a new dressing on the leg if it was only going to be taken off today. As a result, it scabbed up. M was wondering if the wound bed was healthy enough for a new treatment, a skin graft dressing. It was my opinion that it was fine underneath. She got a bath out for me to soak, and while I waited (Ed with me today), I commented to him that I felt like I was getting ...

I'll bet you all were expecting more posts from me, now that I am out on disability. To be honest, I thought the same. However, the first few days of rest and relaxation were truly that. I had no idea how worn out I'd become over the past few months. I have been a lazy ass, with my butt parked on the couch for many hours. I've been sleeping a lot, but the sleep is erratic. I was up until 5am the other morning, and then went back to sleep once I got the boys off to school. Today is the first day where I don't feel like I've been run over by a mack truck. Monday is my first visit to Nurse M since going on leave. She and I haven't specifically put a time frame on this leave. We've both agreed that I need to get off the vicodin. Small problem there is that the pain has been WORSE since I've been off from work. Time will tell whether I am crazy to think I'm going back...

I have a day off. Lately, that means I've taken ill in some fashion. That probably would explain the aura I've got right now. Damn, it's almost 6pm, and I thought I'd escaped it this time! It's making typing interesting for sure. Disability begins next week. My boss contacted HR today and they are FedEx ing the forms. The call went out to Nurse M. Apparently, the practice charges 25 dollars for these forms to be filled out. Instead, she gave me her fax number to complete them and return to my employer. An indication of how much she likes me: she told me to do it this way so I don't have to pay the 25 bucks! Hmm, I think I need to bring a batch of brownies or cookies to my next appointment. As far as work goes, I feel bad. I've been hoarding my vacation time to use in the first 8 days of my time off. The company counts sick days in the payroll budget for the store, but not vacation pay. This sucks-not only does someone have to come in to cover ...