Blah, Good, Rheumatologist Appointment

This has just been a rather crappy month for me and everyone I know. Still not really okay with stuff that happened, but can't dwell on things I can't change.

Found out on the 23rd ( week of other real bad stuff ) that the court hearing medicaid appeal thing I went to was denied. Which, doesn't surprise me. Considering the idiots set a court hearing for an appeal for a program that doesn't even apparently exist anymore and no one bothered to tell me so till we were there in court. It doesn't surprise me one bit. But with everything else that week it was like acid and salt in raw wounds. Makes me more hellbent and determined for the next battle.

The little spark of good news, I *finally* managed to get an emergency appointment with a Rheumatologist. I will have to pay a small fortune out of pocket since I don't have medical coverage, but hopefully this doctor will be able to help where others have not. I see him on June 6th.

Part of the reason I wanted to taper off the Cymbalta before seeing this new doc, aside from the insane price OOP monthly, is because I got to wondering if it was "masking symptoms" because it was blocking the pain and also as a result possibly blocking inflammatory markers that might show in bloodwork.

Along this same line of thinking, realizing I have been taking Aleve every day now at higher than normally recommended doses, it made me think the same thing. Swelling / inflammation, low grade fevers, etc might be masked by the amount I have been taking.

So, this week I decided to attempt... and I say that laughing... to not take any pain medication all week long, whatsoever. So far, I have managed. But oh gods does it hurt sooo much. I have used topical creams and my TENS unit to try and help make it more bearable. Mind over matter, mind over matter I keep telling myself. Tomorrow will be going into week 2 of no pain medication. Hoping I can last till Friday and the appointment.

Since I am going to this new doc and expecting bloodwork, etc. I don't want anything being "hidden" inadvertently. I am starting to think that may have been part of the problem all along.

Hoping seeing this doctor will also tell me something about my wrist, since he specializes in the condition I think I have. I have been doing physical therapy with it every day, and slowly, sooo agonizingly slowly, some more range of motion has returned. But it is still tender and hurts to grasp, turn, or lift weight with it. After MONTHS ( geeze since Nov 2013 ) of not being able to work on any artwork, I am about ready to gnaw the damned thing off and replace it with a hook.

Then everyone can call me Cap'n Lhunie. YAARRRRGGGGG! ::Drinks some rum::

Anyway. Happy to move forward and hoping next month will be better than this one was.

Poor Possum

Coming home tonight, about to make the turn to come back to the house and see something on the curb of the median. The car in front of me hits it. It was a possum. I managed to miss it and so did the car behind me because I slowed down and breaked suddenly and swerved.

Ran inside after I parked in the driveway, grabbed a broom and large upright/stick dustpan and ran back out with my aunt looking at me like "WTF are you doing?" and me calling back that I'd explain after.

I ran back across the street, managed to find it, still alive but hard to tell how badly hurt. There was some blood but otherwise nothing ripped that I could see and nothing dripping all over. Tried getting it on the dustpan with it hissing and chorking and making horrid angry noises. Managed to scoop/guide the possum up onto the median. The road is 4 lane divided by median, 2 lanes each side.

Dustpan broke when I tried to pick the possum up in it because it was so heavy... ran back across the street and grabbed the only thing I could... old jaw action poop-scoop my aunt has off to the side and is actually pretty clean ( it is old and not used much )... run back across the street, put the jaws on either side of possum and scooped it up, and proceeded to carry it back to our side of the street, set it down a time or two to rest. Managed to get it back to the dark alley on the side of the house and placed it by a bush, which it crawled under. It was snarking at me the whole time and despite a slight limp it looked okay and moved okay.

My ankle is *screaming* at me for attempting to jog/run on it when it was already very angry. But at least the possum is away from the road now. Hopefully it'll recover and move on its way overnight.