Arthritic Critic

This is my back after my first surgery. See that loose screw there? That gave me bragging rights to a lose screw for 4 whole weeks. After all of my screws were tightened and in the right place my ankle started to really hurt. The kind of pain that makes you seriously consider cutting limbs off. I went for a few xrays and found that their might be some question if my ankle fusion had actually fused. By this time I had already been off Enbrel for almost 12 weeks due to both surgeries and my back surgeon worrying about infection and my back not fusing. Enter my bone stimulator. This is my bone stimulator and my corset...aren't you jealous? As you can imagine I've gotten quite a few interesting comments which I will share with you in my next post. In this post I wanted to tell you about the sales rep that brought it out to me. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor put up both of my Christmas trees. The sales rep came in and pulled out the stimulator, showed me how to use it and t...

Have you ever met just a good person? I have a chiropractor like this. He's just a really nice guy, he remembers exactly how many days its been since he married his wife, he always has a smile and a kind word and you can just tell that he's upwardly mobile and going somewhere...not to mention he just found out his wife is expecting. He is just really a joy to be around because life just hasn't kicked him in the shins enough to make him bitter. I went to get my hair colored today. I decided that I was going to have a few pieces underneath dyed purple (ok, they turned out mahogany but I still likey). I have a hair stylist that is just good people. She's Type A and not only does she do hair but she goes to school for nursing. When I told her the last time I saw her that I was freaking out about my health and thought about dying my hair purple she told me that I wasn't freaking out I was expressing myself. She makes an awesome stylist and I'm sure will make an extre...

I had an appointment with my foot surgeon today to check in and make sure all the last minute stuff was where it needed to be and that all my questions were answered. I've been having some problems with my left foot feeling like I'm walking on rocks in the ball of my foot. I told the doctor about it and he picked up my foot and said, "Oh my goodness, there really is a rock here." I looked at him with big eyes and said, "Really?" At which point he looked at me and said, "No!" After I finished laughing at myself I thought how gullible can one person be? I've looked for rocks in my socks for the past few weeks. Now if I had found a wocket in my pocket, that would have been quite odd...

I fell down the steps this week. Needless to say a few of my doctors needed to be updated so we could make sure everything was pretty much where it needed to be. These are two of the sillier conversations I had at my doctor appointments. Doctor: How many steps did you fall down. Me: Uhm, sorry...I didn't think to count them as I was falling down them...I fell from about the middle of 15 steps. Joe told me that the next time I fall he expects me to call out the steps like The Count on Sesame Street as I bounce down them. "One, one step I've fallen on...Ha!Ha!Ha! Two, two steps I've fallen on...Ha!Ha!Ha! Overheard at my physical therapy appointment. Physical Therapist: Well that's two steps backwards... Me: No, actually I think it was about 7 steps down... I think this might have to be a weekly post...

A few weeks ago I stupidly sat in an office and made a promise I couldn't keep. I promised that I would take the time to let my back heal and not have another surgery for 6 months. I didn't say those words with the idea that weeks later I would be taking them back...believe me if I could not have another surgery for 6 months I would happily go along living my life and trying to heal from the emotional and physical whirlwind I've been dealing with for the last 4 months (has it only been 4 months, it feels like about 4 years). Now I can't honor that promise and the person that I made it to is unwilling to listen to my reasoning so I thought I might write it down here and it would help me to remember that my choice counts and that maybe I'm not making a mistake by going ahead with the surgery. Hope has been having a hard time, she's struggling and she doesn't quite get what's going on. She understands that Mommy is sick but doesn't quite understand the ...

For some reason I think doctors walk on water. Maybe because I deal with so many of them...maybe because they can cut peopleopen and not kill them, maybe it's because I feel like they have all the answers that I'm scrambling so hard to find. I guess in my head, white coat = a person who is invincible and is never wrong. As you can imagine, I'm often disappointed when I find out that doctors are people just like me...except for the $150,000 school loan (and you know, the 12 years of education). Yeah, I got my answer today. My back surgeon is mad at me. This weekend I fell down the steps. One minute I was good and the next I was bouncing down the steps and trying to grab a hold of anything to make me stop (and no, I didn't count the steps on the way down...who knew I was supposed too). I managed to land right on my back, right where the incisions were. I also banged up my elbow pretty good though only one bruise...(I scraped it down the banister, I was sure that I had lef...

The past few weeks I've been talking with my therapist about separating a bit from my parents and doing things on my own. As a side item, one thing my shrink wanted me to do was to let my friends know "how sick I am." I tend to tell my friends a lot about my health but I don't really tell them when I'm wearing a boot, or using a cane or that my foot hurts so much lately that by the end of the evening I'm crawling around the house on my hands and knees. As you can imagine the need for ankle surgery has again been brought to the forefront. I scheduled it for March 17th. I casually mentioned to my neighbor that things were getting difficult and that I had added the boot and cane back into the mix and then threw in the crawling around the house. She took it well and it just didn't seem like a big deal. So I just thought, ok...it's no big deal. This is just all part of the disease of RA...this is my life, this is my normal, I can do this. So I've made ...