So, a Lady Walks Into A Bar ..

.... or rather, a doctor's office.
Sorry, but "A lady walks into a bar..." sounds much funnier than "A lady walks into a doctor's office ....".
Doesn't it?

OK, since you asked .... even though you didn't .... yes, this is a biographical post.
And yes, it really is 2:00 a.m.

Let's see .... where was I?  Other than not sleeping?

Oh yeah ..... so, I walked into my doctor's office yesterday.
And when I walked out .... I knew no more than when I walked in.
Don't you just love it?
Me, neither.

Yes, 7 (SEVEN) tubes of blood, a boat load of tests,  and 2 weeks later .... we got nothin'.
Except for this:  I am feeling as close to great as I have in a long time.
Or rather ... I was feeling that way.
Right now?
Not so much.

It would seem that out of the 1 to 2 percent of the population (again ..... lucky, lucky me!) that has R.A. (or something quite close) .... I fall into the 20 percent who test negative.  Something about negative serum.
I should totally go out and buy a lottery ticket.

My doctor wasn't surprised ..... or at least, not stunned.
I was.
I asked him if he had seen this before .... the symptoms, signs and physical characteristics of R.A./Inflammatory Arthritis but no blood indicators.
That's when he told me about the lucky 20%.

His gut tells him that I have it.
But he, and I, are not so thrilled with moving forward with treatment, based on his gut.
And so we went to plan B.
Which involves me tapering off of the steroids.
And waiting to see what happens.
If anything happens.

So yesterday morning I took a pill.
This morning I did not.
And sometime in the afternoon, during the agony that will henceforth be known as, "Transformers 3: You'll Be Begging it to End", I noticed that my toes were aching.
No, not the whole toe, just the joints.
All twenty .... both feet.

I ignored it.
And told myself that I was imagining it because I knew that my body was off of the steroids today and was a bit worried about this happening.
That worked for a while.
Until my ankles started to disappear under the swelling of my feet this evening.
So.
Much.
Fun.

And now, here I am ..... not benefiting from the relief that the steroids gave me, yet not benefitting from the relief of sleep that they have also deprived me of.
For 2 (TWO) weeks.
And my knees are aching, as are my fingers and wrists.

God seems to have a really crappy sense of humor lately.



The morning after:

So I finally fell asleep around 3:00, got up at 9:00, went to physical therapy at 10:00.
And now I feel great.  Well, emotionally great, but not all that bad physically.  I get to take a steroid pill today so that helps a bit.  But the aching wasn't too bad this morning and I've worked most of it out now.

The reason I feel great?
I told the PT that I had an appointment with my ortho, either next week or the week after .... wasn't sure which (the week after).  He told me that I would was doing great and would be discharged at that visit.
YES!!!!  Which means that I'll be cleared to start playing tennis.  And you ALL know what that means to me!  So yes, I'm grinning from ear to ear right now.
See?

Yes, I have no makeup on.
Oh well.

And now I must turn my attention back to the USA women's soccer team.  DANG!!!  France just scored, making 1-1.  See what happens when I'm not actively cheering????
Bye, Peeps.

And Happy Wednesday.
:)