Tag Archives: pain

Because apparently sleeping can be dangerous.

April 18, 2022 Rivergirl 31 Comments

It’s official,

I have reached that age.

I woke up the other morning with a slight pain on the left side of my neck… but didn’t think much about it and went about my day.

Until I couldn’t.

Until I realized the mere act of sleeping has rendered me into a blubbering idiot positively alight with pain. It seems I pinched a nerve and holy hell does it hurt. 24 hour burning, tingling, numbness and sharp spasms of agony every time I move my head. I’ve never pinched a nerve before and let me tell you, I don’t want to do it again.

The doctor said to alternate cold packs and the heating pad, take ibuprofen for swelling, rest, sit up straight to correct my overall posture and perform this series of exercises.

I’m doing all that and nothing helps. After reading it can take 6-8 weeks to heal I’m quasi suicidal… so what have you got? Ever experienced this, and if so what did you do for relief? At this point I’m open to all cures… so please include your witch doctor’s phone number or voodoo priestess’s email.

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Talk to me.

January 21, 2021 Rivergirl 47 Comments

And answer a question if you can.

As some of you know, I injured my knee while staining our deck last fall.

It ached for weeks, but when I stepped off our kitchen porch one morning in October… something snapped like a rubber band. The pain was so excruciating I dropped to the ground and may have called for my dead mother. ( This from the woman who had a full abdominal hysterectomy, went home the next morning and took Tylenol for a few days. My pain tolerance is high.)

So my knee swelled up like a balloon and I couldn’t move my leg without cringing. The pain sent me to the doctor, who sent me to the orthopedist, who sent me for an MRI. I was diagnosed with a deep root meniscal tear and a damaged MCL. Wanting to avoid surgery, I opted for a cortisone shot that didn’t help, rehab exercises that didn’t help, and ice with ibuprofen which reduced the massive swelling but didn’t help the pain.

It’s now three months later, and while I manage to walk without a limp (sometimes) it still hurts, still feels unstable and still makes walking or standing for long periods of time intolerable. Stairs? Hate them. Treadmill? It’s collecting dust.

My SIL tore her meniscus a few years back and told me it took her almost 12 months to fully heal.

So my question is this: does anyone out there have experience with this? Because while it’s winter in a no travel Covid era, where my main exercise involves popping a top and raising a glass…

I’m wondering if avoiding the hospital is going to be possible going forward.

Someday we’ll be able to travel again and getting up out of the chair without groaning like a ninety year old would be preferable.

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It’s 2020, what did you expect?

October 23, 2020 Rivergirl 22 Comments

What fresh Hell is this?

Crikey!

That’s a caterpillar?

Damn, watch out Virginia. 2020 isn’t through with you yet.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound good at all.

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Let’s play.

October 21, 2020 Rivergirl 32 Comments

Because my knee still hurts and I’m bored.

Mine are as follows:

🍸 🙄 😉 🍷 😳 😈

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that martini holds the top spot, with eye roll right behind.

That’s where I live.

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I’m on a roll…

October 16, 2020 Rivergirl 25 Comments

I forgot to mention this on the broken water line fiasco post, but my run of bad luck continues.

Yes, the fun just keeps on coming.

Torn meniscus in my right knee?

No water or shower for three days?

Rodents in open rebellion and probably surrounding the house as we speak?

So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that just after the well was covered back up it started to rain…

And our roof sprung a leak.

But wait, another sign someone has put an evil curse on yours truly?

Birds are literally falling out of the sky in front of me.

Dismembered birds.

Pieces of birds.

Plop!

Right in front of me as I walked down the driveway to the mailbox this morning.

Whaaaaaat?

Seriously.

Enough already!!

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When it rains, it pours.

October 13, 2020 Rivergirl 43 Comments

(And I sincerely hope it keeps raining today because that’s probably the only way I’m going to be able to take a shower.)

I woke up this morning, slowly and creaking because of my knee. The husband, who’s been underfoot since March … who hardly ever has to visit a client since working from home… left at 7:00am to visit a client.

And that’s when the proverbial waste product collided with the rotating blades.

I heard a noise.

And since I’m an anal retentive woman, every noise must be investigated. I tracked the noise to our ~~so filled with crap I never go down there anymore~~ cellar. Stairs are not my friend right now, but I hobbled down in pain and discovered it was the water pump.

(That’s the little blue doohickey to the right for the plumbing challenged among us.)

The water pump was running. For no reason. Cycling on and off every 15 seconds. This is not what you want a water pump to do. So I climbed back upstairs, slowly and with more than a few sound effects, to make sure nothing was turned on, running or leaking. Nothing was. I hobbled outside in the rain to make sure the outdoor faucet wasn’t left on. It wasn’t. Reaching the end of my diagnostic skills, I called our plumber.

No. That is definitely not me.

Miracle of all miracles he answered the phone and walked me through a few steps to check the problem. The pump is only 5 years old, the heater a mere 3. Nothing seemed to be wrong inside but when he had me go outside and check the well…

And I looked down inside..

The cap to our well was crooked and water was positively bubbling out of it. (picture taken later, sorry… no bubbles) ((The bag of sand was my husband’s answer to the well house blowing over in high wind. He might come to regret this quick fix, please stay tuned.))

When I explained what I saw, the plumber told me to run back down to the water pump (which didn’t happen because, ya know… torn meniscus) and shut power off to the water pump, water heater and recirculator. (another waste of money gadget the husband had to have which doesn’t make a bit of difference).

So I shut power off to everything because he thinks one of our pipes has cracked or broken.

Yeah. Big time. He doesn’t think it’s a pipe in the house, but rather one leading to the house… and that can’t be good.

Thankfully he’s coming this afternoon… so if you’re a person who prays? Please pray to the god of plumbing for a swift and easy fix for your dear friend River. And rest assured if there are any photos worth posting?

I will.

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They give souvenirs now.

October 8, 2020 Rivergirl 28 Comments

My MRI was today… and after they made me strip naked and dress in scrub pants that were 3 sizes too small and double hospital johnnys that were 12 sizes too big, they did their thing on my knee.

A solid half hour of cacophony later, I got a souvenir.

I know they give you ultrasound pictures of your baby in utero, but I’m not sure I’ll be having a look at all the fluid on River’s knee reveal party anytime soon.

And yes, though I’ve gotten the swelling down with elevation and ice packs, there’s still a lot of fluid where fluid shouldn’t be.

Good news? No torn ligaments and minimal damage to my MCL.

Yay!

Bad news?

My meniscus tear is a deep root tear which is more serious, slower to heal and could require surgery.

Boo.

But I did a zoom meeting with my orthopedist when we got home and she said we’ll try to avoid that.

More ice, more exercises and a cortisone shot next Friday to speed up healing so I can do more load bearing.

Load bearing? I know I’m a bit overweight, but that seems a trifle harsh.

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Real time update.

October 2, 2020 Rivergirl 38 Comments

At 8:00 this morning I was standing tall at the orthopedist’s office.

Okay, standing is a relative term… it was more like listing 45 degrees and hopping around like a rabbit on a 3 day bender.

But you’d hop too if your right knee looked like this:

A little swollen… no?

The good news –

My xrays came back clean, no fractures, no bone spurs and no signs of arthritis.

The bad news –

The doctor thinks I tore my meniscus when I stained the deck. Fluid and swelling set in, which weakened the joint. Then the other day when I stepped off the porch I probably damaged my ACL and possibly my MCL. Not good.

There’s no way to tell for sure until I have an MRI which they couldn’t schedule until next Thursday.

So a weeks worth of ice, elevation, ibuprofen and gentle range of motion exercises.

And whining.

Don’t forget the whining.

Yes, there might be some of that kind as well.

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I rarely post in real time….

October 1, 2020 Rivergirl 33 Comments

But I’m in pain and quite cranky, so here goes.

Remember a while back I stained our back deck on my hands and knees? I do it every few years but this time it caught up with me. Thank you (not so) old age, you suck the big root.

My knee had been stiff and sore for the last month but I’m tougher than I look and just went about my business.

Bad move. Very, very bad.

Yesterday I stepped off my kitchen porch and something snapped. Like a rubber band… and yes, I screamed. Did I mention we had a big storm the night before and had been without power for 10 hours by then?

Good times.

I hobbled back in the house and iced it down but holy hell it hurt. I couldn’t walk, couldn’t bend, couldn’t put any weight on it whatsoever. Spent a very uncomfortable and sleepless night, then woke up looking something like this:

I didn’t dare attempt a shower, so I limped to the doctors office this morning with my radical bed head and frightened a few staff members along the way.

Hey, ya gotta take your jollies where you can.

Turns out the doctor they assigned me wasn’t really a doctor just a nurse practitioner. And when he put me on the table to start pulling and tugging my leg in different directions? I was ready to cram his stethoscope where the sun don’t shine.

After the exam and manipulation I was almost in tears. Which is when he told me to go across town for xrays and an appointment with an orthopedist because oh, by the way… he had no earthly idea what was wrong with me. As I made my way back to the waiting room… with the speed of a 200 year tortoise… I discovered my husband had decided now would be a good time to request his flu shot.

Which we waited a good half hour for.

So.. by the time I got across town, had xrays and was ready for my orthopedist appt? We found out the orthopedist leaves at noon.

It was 12:05…. and I was not a happy camper.

Long story long, I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00am and they think I either tore a ligament or ripped a tendon. Either way, it’s not good.

And oh yes, my devoted spouse who took the day off from work to care for me? He’s at our local pub having a late lunch. Me? I had to make my own.

Ain’t love grand?