Accidents Happen...

I've mentioned before that I have half a pharmacy on my bedside table. What, I haven't mentioned that yet? Hmm, well anyway, I am currently prescribed a colorful array of little and big pills. These include:

• Neurontin 800mg horse pills that I have to get BH to cut in half for me
• Elavil 10mg for the futile attempt at getting some sleep
• Norco (Vicodin) 10mg with no real street value, just great fun for my brain
• Fentanyl 25mg patch that gives me a migrane after 2 days

So, needless to say I'm feeling a little loopy these days. Oh, and the days that I go in for a Shot-in-the-Neck-Nerve-Block I'm not too pleasant to look at or talk to. I get a funny Micky Mouse on helium voice and a droopy right eye (more so than my normal lazy eye) for a few hours after. 

Pretty sexy, right?

Sorry for that horrible sight. Where was I going with all this? Oh yeah, I am now super accident prone. I'll give some examples:

• Dinner out at Bouldin Creek, I knock my coconut-limeade over and it spills everywhere
• Try to make tahini in the Vitamix and lose control of the tamper when I try to switch to my right hand (that's the bad one), end up stripping the gears of the machine and container
• Reach for a banana that's on top of the microwave, end up punching the cabinet with my right hand (bad one) and skinning my knuckles (the already red and swollen ones)
• Attempt to peel Yukon Gold potatoes for dinner, instead peel index finger of left hand (the good hand, are you following?) have to get BH to band-aid it up
• Cat is scratching the couch, so I pick her up to bring her to the non-couch scratching post and she flips around and scratches me, through my shirt and scratches off a mole(!!) that I've had my whole life. Again had to get BH to band-aid me

Not too bad, you say? This was just within a couple of days, and I am normally quite graceful. Ask anyone. I can't imagine getting behind the wheel of a car...

Well, do the benefits outweigh the accidents? I am still feeling pain in my right arm/hand 24/7 except when my hand is under hot water or lying perfectly still - not in my splint with nothing touching it. Both of these times are very brief, as I have a mile long list of physical therapy exercises and torture devices to keep me moving. I'll go into more detail on the torture devices in another chapter...

Good night!

The Plot Thickens....

Like any good soap opera, The Spaghetti Wrist Show has plenty of twists and turns. It seems that our hero has developed a rare and exciting syndrome called RSD or CRPS, OMG LOL. It stands for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. According to the NIH:

"Doctors aren't sure what causes CRPS. In some cases, the sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in the pain. Another theory is that CRPS is caused by a triggering of the immune response, which leads to the inflammatory symptoms of redness, warmth, and swelling in the affected area.

CRPS has two forms:

• CRPS 1 is a chronic nerve disorder that occurs most often in the arms or legs after a minor injury.
• CRPS 2 is caused by an injury to the nerve."

Mine, of course, would be Type 2 from the fun incident with my friend the glass pitcher. You can feel free to read more about RSD from the Mayo Clinic, although I prefer Vegenaise... mmmm

The perfect potato salad, don"t forget the Dill!

Well, so there is no cure for this syndrome/dystrophy, but my ever-growing team of doctors are certain that they've caught it early.  I have undergone some aggressive treatment so far in the hopes to kick it into remission. One of my new Docs, Dr. Malone, told me CRPS is like cancer that doesn't kill you. He said that you don't wait around to see if your cancer will get better, you attack it with radiation and chemo and whatever hippy-raw-food-30-bananas-a-day-diet you can think of. Makes sense. So I'm now attacking my CRPS with a medicine cabinet full of drugs and weekly nerve blocks. I'm sure I'll get into that more later.

Goodnight for now!