Last Saturday Jim went for an overnight with Ron to go fishing at Mark Twain Lake. This is highly unusual as he hardly does anything without me, his social director. It just so happened that I had washed the sheets that morning, mostly because Jim had them all ripped out from being tucked under the mattress. You'd think he was over 6' tall the way he can tear the bed up! I guess he had an active night! And it also just so happened that I went to J C Penneys that day and bought a new comforter set which I immediately put on the bed when I got home. I had been looking for a long time and finally found one that I thought was really nice and a good bargain.
My plan was to go get my hair cut & roots done at Celeste's house Saturday evening and Laura decided to ride along with me. We planned on going out to dinner beforehand so when I picked her up in the old "hood" I begged her to go to Ponticello's with me. It had been years since I was there and it was just the same as I remember. Of course I couldn't resist talking to our waitress and telling her that I used to live in the area and hadn't been there in years. She asked where I lived and when I told her St. Charles she said that probably 75% of the people she served also used to live in North County but had moved over the bridge. I had a great meal of the Ponticello's special salad and pizza. Talk about memories! I remember when Dad used to bring pizza and salad home when he thought we were all sleeping so he could pig it down himself!
We drove over to Celeste's, she did my hair, Mike started up his firepit and we sat around and talked and laughed for awhile. The whole time I had in the back of my mind that I would get the whole, clean, new comforted bed to myself that night. I was really looking forward to it. Nothing against Jim, but you married folks know what I'm talkin' about!
I got home around 11:45 and went to bed shortly after. I pushed Jim's pillows to the side and carefully arranged mine in the middle of the bed. I stretched out, with my arms & legs spread out, hogging the whole bed and felt like I was in heaven. Everything was great until about 5AM when I woke up because my hand was on fire. Carpal tunnel! I was in severe pain and I couldn't get rid of the numbness and burning sensation for about 30 minutes. Well, so much for my "heavenly" night of sleep!
I've been dealing with carpal tunnel and had gone to the doctor who sent me to a neurologist for testing a couple of years ago. The results were that I had mild carpal tunnel, so I bought a splint and withstood the suffering up till now. I knew the pain would just get worse and I couldn't imagine going on my JCI trip to Turkey and waking in the middle of the night in a strange country, a strange room & a strange bed, so I called my doctor first thing Monday morning. She referred me to a specialist and I made an appointment for Tuesday morning. I predicted to Jim and a few other people that I would have to go through more tests and a bunch of other crap before anything would be done. From past experience, I've learned that's usually the way these things go, and for that reason alone, I put off going to doctors as much as possible.
So I went to the doctor (a hand surgeon) this morning and was I shocked when he didn't take x-rays or send me to a lab or anything to run more tests. It took about 10 minutes where he explained carpal tunnel to me (I didn't tell him I was an expert as I already had it during my pregnancy 23 years ago and had self-educated myself via the internet) and did a few little pin prick tests before he explained the surgery. Unfortunately, due to my trip coming up in 2 weeks he advised it wouldn't be good to perform the surgery and then me having to haul luggage around. So he suggested a cortisone shot. Now, I remember my mom getting cortisone shots for the arthritis in her elbow and thinking that's a drug for old people! Plus, I don't really like needles, but I didn't feel like I had a choice so I took it with a grin. Hopefully, it will last until I get back and have surgery at the end of November.
Now, if I can just get past the colonoscopy next week............
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