Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Health and Happiness

Yet again I find myself regretful of not posting more. Perhaps I'll challenge myself to a weekly post at least. You can complain to me if I fail to comply!

Starting January 7 I have had health issue after health issue. I won't be taking it for granted any time soon. On the Jan. 7 I had a minor surgery to reveal the titanium post put in for my "super tooth". I just had a shot (during which the dr. asked for Nitrous so that he could finish because I was so panicky) and ended up with a mere two stitches. But it was tender for a while and I self medicated with some booze and old vicodin pills. By January 9 I was okay again.

Until about dinnertime, when I made a yummy meal of quesedillas and found I had no interest in eating. Not typical! As the evening progressed, I noted a huge headache and a sore throat. I thought the headache was due to the fact that I had been crying all afternoon because I called the vet and we have decided to put Calvin down. But Thursday morning was terrible. I laid lethargically on the couch until noon when I made Dave come home to help take care of Charlotte. He stayed home the next day also while I ran to the doctors. I was pretty sure I had the flu (fever, chills, sore throat, bad head,etc.), but they said no.

I was also seeing the doctor about the fact that I couldn't open my right eye. Yep, pink eye. Oh and Charlotte had it too. Giving eye drops to a one year old take two people!

So I was basically a useless vessel of snot and fatigue Saturday and Sunday. The afternoon of Sunday I felt better and went to belly dancing (Oh, I started that again:-) and after that I felt much better! Monday and Tuesday were okay, I was still a little tired, sore throat, cough, etc.

Wednesday (the 16th) I managed to throw out my back in what I suspected was the same thing that happened when I was pregnant. Unfortunately, when I did my exercises to fix it, even though I heard a small pop, it was still pretty bad on Thursday. So I tried to see the physical therapist, but he needed a referral. So I called my ob. But wait, the insurance needs the referral from Primary Care Physician. Called him. On vacation. My back is in the meantime pretty darn painful. Crying and such. So I see some other guy at the office and pay $20 for him to say, yep, you should get physical therapy. But they couldn't get me in that day, so I got some more vicodin which didn't kill the pain, but made me less concerned about it in general.

Friday I went to physical therapy and my back was worse when I left. Oh, also $20 for this. Then I went again on Saturday and it was better. He massaged it for about 30 minutes and we changed my exercises. Still not entirely sure what the problem is, but there is another $20. On sunday I felt a little better and didn't want to miss what we were learning of the belly dance routine, so I went to that. Fortunately, Laura (my teacher) is a thai massage person and is very knowledgeable of this stuff. She gave me some exercises to try and did some pushing on my butt (the pain is in my sacrum, quite low down).

I feel better today (Tuesday), finally. I took it easy yesterday (as much as you can while caring for a one year old that must be put into and taken out of car seats, high chairs, and cribs). I also applied some heat. As Laura said, it isn't so much the bones as the muscles that are too tense and bunched to let the rest go into place. SO lots of sacrum opening exercises that I shall continue to do. I have a physical therapy appt. for tomorrow that I plan on cancelling. I can't pay another $20 for a maybe feeling better, maybe worse situation. I am still slightly sore, but I can manage household duties much better and even danced with Charlotte a little today (just try not to dance when "Hey Ya" comes on the radio followed by U2's "Elevation" which I'm just having a lovefest for anyway. Oh, and Gettin' Jiggy Wid It, also was on. Yep, that is the spelling. A sad thing, I know.

Incidentally, the physical discomfort and inability put a certain strain on my marraige that was not welcome. I'll discuss that more another time. I've got to take advantage of nap time to make my egg salad and do the rest of my job as an at-home mom.

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