I fail, whatever

So I gave up on my month long posting spree very early on. I realized there was nothing that interesting to post about every single day.

But we'll hit some highlights.

My knee is healing well. My superawesomesupportive knee brace is not. After wearing it 18 hours a day for 6 weeks, it's dying. The arm of one of the hinges has torn through the sleeve it resides in, making it less effective when I bend my knee. I managed to patch it back togeher with cloth tape at work, and that's holding fairly well (that shit is tough!), but I'm going to need a new one soon.
I'm hoping that's something I can get paid for if I ever start PT/OT.....sheesh.

Also dislocated my thumb badly last week. I was cowboying through it at work, but it hurt so bad. I realized later on that I must have pinched a nerve when I did it. At any rate, I wore the thumb imobilizer for several days to let the poor thumb rest. But that's not one I can wear at work, so I really want to get silver ring thumb splints...those would be doable at work.

Met my baby nephew and he is the sweetest baby ever. Seriously. I love him so much and I can't wait to go back to see him and snuggle him again. He's awesome. So are my bro and his girlfriend....they've really taken to parenting like pros. You wouldn't know that this was their first one if you saw them witht he little guy. Which is just way too awesome.

I went to the ED yesterday halfway through work. I had a hormone headache that would not leave me alone and despite my best efforts to power through it, it was giving me visual disturbances that I couldn't ignore. So I left my floor halfway through the day to spend the remainder of my day in the ED (they were PACKED). Talking to the nurse and NP about treatment was tough because most EDs won't give out narcs until they have your history and whatnot (weed out drug-seeking behavior). And I wasn't really there for narcs anyway. But I had to let the professionals throw their ideas at me first. They suggested Zofran (which I took anyway because the nausea wasn't horrible....Zofran's useless for the big game though) and Tramadol. I said no to the pain med because it never works for me (for anything, they also tried to give it to me for my knee and it did absolutely nothing). They asked if narcotics worked. I said that I was foggy but I knew that morphine was a no-no (it hinders that breathing thing that I've gotten so used to) and that last time I was in the hospital with a migraine, I was given Demerol shots. They didn't like that idea, I could tell. So I threw something else out there. I told them that frequently for me, the first plan of attack is bolusing in as much fluid as I can handle and IV Benadryl. The NP said she had never heard of that, but I could tell she liked the idea better than giving me narcs, so she was willing to give it a try. I told her it's a triple threat for migraines: it's been shown to suppress the CNS, which is a good thing during a migraine, it helps combat nausea, and it knocks you out, and sleep is the best thing for a migraine. So they gave it and let me sleep for over an hour while I got fluids. I felt better when I woke up. Still had a twinge, but then I was headed home to take Lyrica and Klonopin for bed anyway, so I wasn't worried. Just more sleep. I sat up and ate a little snack and walked around for a bit to make sure the Benadryl wasn't dragging me down, then headed home.

I'm feeling much better this morning and I am scheduled for my skin punch biopsy for molecular testing at the geneticists office today. Even though most docs would agree that clinically I show very clear signs of EDS, they still want to do the genetic study to see if there's anything else they can glean from it. And my rheumatologist said that will help with getting me into PT/OT somewhere, even if it's not in my own network of hospitals (they have to provide care for you anywhere if they can't provide it themselves, so having proof that we've done everything to show for it makes it easier to convince insurance they're going to have to cover me at one of the big expensive hospitals). My rheumy is on board with my ideas and really wants to help me find a PT/OT who specializes in these types of disorders so that I can get what I need. I really like her. And I'm going to have today's test results sent to her so we can speed up that process.

It's 0830 and I need to leave here by 0915, so I think I need to get up and get around to go.

I'll probably make a second post later about the geneticist visit.