Happy Holidays
Dec. 26th, 2015 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseHow was your holiday?
I have to say this was a really good year for my family, so far. Shawn is really very amazing at getting gifts for me. (In comparison, I'm kind of a dud. But I believe in buying what people ASK for and Shawn has learned to leave me huge hints, like emailing me links to the books she wants.) This year, Shawn LITERALLY bought me something I didn't know I wanted until I had it. It was part of a themed set of presents: stationary (because I have pen pals I write _actual_ letters to), an address book, and stamps. Only the stamps? They were old stamps. Old? Yep. And I was thrilled!
Because.... and I bet you didn't know this about me, but I collect stamps.
It's a very on again, off again, spontaneous sort of hobby for me. I do it when I think of it. I bought a stamp album back in the 1970s at some point that came with a starter pack. I stuck those stamps in their spots and kind of mostly forgot about it, except when a random, interesting stamp would come by. Then, I'd pull out the album and hunt around, put the stamp in its spot... and then forget again. I probably would have forgotten altogether, but, in the 90s, I worked at an archive, the Immigration History Research Center, as a secretary. I was friends with all the archivists/processors and there was a big set of correspondences that came through. I ended up helping the processor remove the staples (some of which were already rusting the paper) and discard the envelopes (which weren't historically valuable and were taking up box space.) As I gathered up the envelopes, I asked, "Hey, would it be okay if I take these stamps?" There was some discussion, and it was decided that I could.
This is how it is that I've come to have a fairly complete, extensive collection of American World War II stamps. (I have a fair number from the post- and pre-war years, too.)
But, again, I mostly didn't think of it again until Shawn bought me these packs of stamps. I had such fun these last couple of days going through the "grab bags" and filling holes in my collection. I can't even explain this pleasure, because it's really not even about *having* the thing. Like, I have no sense of the value of any of these. In fact, I'm quite certain they're worthless. But, I get such a thrill when I find a missing one in my album and stick it in.
Maybe it's like coloring. I just like doing a simple, fairly mindless task that involves interesting history and pretty pictures. Or Pokemon. I like having a complete collection.
I had so much fun these last few days that I went and bought myself EVEN MORE stamps from e-Bay.
The only drawback is that I hunch over the desk as I do it, and my back gets all twisty and sore. Which reminds me, I should report on my latest doctors' appointments. Last Wednesday was fairly busy. I had an appointment with my chiropractor. I don't know if I told you that I went ahead and booked the hour long massage that Dr. Matt gave me as a gift for my birthday? Well, I did that on Monday and they neglected to tell me that this was a THERAPEUTIC massage. No candles and Zen music. The masseuse pounded on me. In some places, fairly painfully. I thought, "Well, this sucks. I'm never doing this again." I complained about it for about a day and a half while drinking the required water and then suddenly... everything felt amazing. I mean, places that had been aching in a very background way? GONE. So the chiro went really well, too, on Wednesday. As I told Dr. Matt, I'm feeling pretty much fixed. Yeah, I have to watch my posture or I get all stiff and sore, but I'm 48. That's par for the course. The only weird thing remaining is the random blasts of numbness in my index and middle fingers of my left hand.
But I had a neurology appointment later that same day....
Which was... well, frankly, it was awful. There wasn't anything WRONG with my experience on the surface, except that it was so TYPICAL of Western/modern medicine. Dr. Johnson breezed into the office and had me repeat all the stuff I'd already told his nurse. He nodded along and asked if I had any weakness in my left hand. I said, none that I've noticed. But, he did some tests that proved me wrong. While he was doing his battery of exam tests he made some disparaging comment about how the insurance companies make him go through these things, and I said, "Are you saying you never find out anything useful?" "Oh," he says, "Occasionally, I hear something in the arteries, especially with older patients." And, I'm thinking, so.... these useless tests helped someone BE AWARE THEY MIGHT HAVE A STROKE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. Yeah, those dumb insurance companies, what ARE they thinking???
But, I don't say that, because there's something about Dr. Johnson that doesn't really engender conversation. I'd tried a couple of times earlier. Dude actually has a black doctor's bag and I tried to make a little conversation about it, because, c'mon, a black doctor's bag! How cool is that? But, nope. He was very practical in his response and a "can we please stay on task" sigh.
I don't trust people who can't be distracted by interesting things.
Seriously, he was similarly uninterested when I interrupted him to point out that it was snowing. (We have had no snow here in Minnesota, and most people were anxiously watching the skies to see if we might end up with a dusting before Christamas.) He was very, "Oh. Huh." Clearly, the man is dead inside. :-)
At any rate, after the tests are done, Dr. Johnson says that it's pretty clear that I have a pinched nerve. He can even name the possible one (7?) because of where I'm experiencing numbness. BUT, he wants me to have an MRI and an EEG just to be sure. I ask, so what all this for? What's the point? Is this the sort of thing that can fix itself with physical therapy, time, or what? He's very much of the idea that surgery is a great idea.
Really?
For a bit of numbness?
SURGERY.
I told him that I had to respectfully disagree. I would try physical therapy. He was very "..." Like, no one ever, in his entire life said to him, "You know what, Dr. Johnson? No."
He was also very, VERY eager to know if I had "good" insurance, and wanted to be sure to schedule the MRI for the end of the year because, ha-ha, "it's the end of the year rush." (Like there's a f*cking sale on the things.)
I declined the MRI and EEG. Thank you anyway, Dr. Johnson, but, the thing is, the one is scary and expensive, the other is terrifying and painful as fuck. (Shawn's had both.) It's only going to confirm what absolutely everyone already knows. I have a pinched nerve. My nurse-practitioner knew that the day I first walked in. My chiropractor, too. In fact, my nurse practitioner was a little worried this would happen. She almost didn't send me on to the neurologist because, she said, "then there will be a big push to fix things which might just fix themselves with time."
My plan is time and continued physical therapy, including chiro. If my numbness doesn't get better in a year, I'm happy to revisit this. Or, obviously, if things suddenly get worse. But, I'm going to wager they won't. I'm already noticing (especially now that I'm paying close attention) that the numbness is lessening. It used to be that every time I bent over I'd get sudden shooting, fierce numbness. Now it's every other time... and sometimes not at all.
So, yeah, no. The neurology appointment was a bad idea from start to finish. I should have gone with my nurse-practitioner's gut instinct. But, you say to yourself, "I should cover all my bases, right?" And, right, you should, but not when it leads to unnecessary surgery. (or tests.)
I have to say this was a really good year for my family, so far. Shawn is really very amazing at getting gifts for me. (In comparison, I'm kind of a dud. But I believe in buying what people ASK for and Shawn has learned to leave me huge hints, like emailing me links to the books she wants.) This year, Shawn LITERALLY bought me something I didn't know I wanted until I had it. It was part of a themed set of presents: stationary (because I have pen pals I write _actual_ letters to), an address book, and stamps. Only the stamps? They were old stamps. Old? Yep. And I was thrilled!
Because.... and I bet you didn't know this about me, but I collect stamps.
It's a very on again, off again, spontaneous sort of hobby for me. I do it when I think of it. I bought a stamp album back in the 1970s at some point that came with a starter pack. I stuck those stamps in their spots and kind of mostly forgot about it, except when a random, interesting stamp would come by. Then, I'd pull out the album and hunt around, put the stamp in its spot... and then forget again. I probably would have forgotten altogether, but, in the 90s, I worked at an archive, the Immigration History Research Center, as a secretary. I was friends with all the archivists/processors and there was a big set of correspondences that came through. I ended up helping the processor remove the staples (some of which were already rusting the paper) and discard the envelopes (which weren't historically valuable and were taking up box space.) As I gathered up the envelopes, I asked, "Hey, would it be okay if I take these stamps?" There was some discussion, and it was decided that I could.
This is how it is that I've come to have a fairly complete, extensive collection of American World War II stamps. (I have a fair number from the post- and pre-war years, too.)
But, again, I mostly didn't think of it again until Shawn bought me these packs of stamps. I had such fun these last couple of days going through the "grab bags" and filling holes in my collection. I can't even explain this pleasure, because it's really not even about *having* the thing. Like, I have no sense of the value of any of these. In fact, I'm quite certain they're worthless. But, I get such a thrill when I find a missing one in my album and stick it in.
Maybe it's like coloring. I just like doing a simple, fairly mindless task that involves interesting history and pretty pictures. Or Pokemon. I like having a complete collection.
I had so much fun these last few days that I went and bought myself EVEN MORE stamps from e-Bay.
The only drawback is that I hunch over the desk as I do it, and my back gets all twisty and sore. Which reminds me, I should report on my latest doctors' appointments. Last Wednesday was fairly busy. I had an appointment with my chiropractor. I don't know if I told you that I went ahead and booked the hour long massage that Dr. Matt gave me as a gift for my birthday? Well, I did that on Monday and they neglected to tell me that this was a THERAPEUTIC massage. No candles and Zen music. The masseuse pounded on me. In some places, fairly painfully. I thought, "Well, this sucks. I'm never doing this again." I complained about it for about a day and a half while drinking the required water and then suddenly... everything felt amazing. I mean, places that had been aching in a very background way? GONE. So the chiro went really well, too, on Wednesday. As I told Dr. Matt, I'm feeling pretty much fixed. Yeah, I have to watch my posture or I get all stiff and sore, but I'm 48. That's par for the course. The only weird thing remaining is the random blasts of numbness in my index and middle fingers of my left hand.
But I had a neurology appointment later that same day....
Which was... well, frankly, it was awful. There wasn't anything WRONG with my experience on the surface, except that it was so TYPICAL of Western/modern medicine. Dr. Johnson breezed into the office and had me repeat all the stuff I'd already told his nurse. He nodded along and asked if I had any weakness in my left hand. I said, none that I've noticed. But, he did some tests that proved me wrong. While he was doing his battery of exam tests he made some disparaging comment about how the insurance companies make him go through these things, and I said, "Are you saying you never find out anything useful?" "Oh," he says, "Occasionally, I hear something in the arteries, especially with older patients." And, I'm thinking, so.... these useless tests helped someone BE AWARE THEY MIGHT HAVE A STROKE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. Yeah, those dumb insurance companies, what ARE they thinking???
But, I don't say that, because there's something about Dr. Johnson that doesn't really engender conversation. I'd tried a couple of times earlier. Dude actually has a black doctor's bag and I tried to make a little conversation about it, because, c'mon, a black doctor's bag! How cool is that? But, nope. He was very practical in his response and a "can we please stay on task" sigh.
I don't trust people who can't be distracted by interesting things.
Seriously, he was similarly uninterested when I interrupted him to point out that it was snowing. (We have had no snow here in Minnesota, and most people were anxiously watching the skies to see if we might end up with a dusting before Christamas.) He was very, "Oh. Huh." Clearly, the man is dead inside. :-)
At any rate, after the tests are done, Dr. Johnson says that it's pretty clear that I have a pinched nerve. He can even name the possible one (7?) because of where I'm experiencing numbness. BUT, he wants me to have an MRI and an EEG just to be sure. I ask, so what all this for? What's the point? Is this the sort of thing that can fix itself with physical therapy, time, or what? He's very much of the idea that surgery is a great idea.
Really?
For a bit of numbness?
SURGERY.
I told him that I had to respectfully disagree. I would try physical therapy. He was very "..." Like, no one ever, in his entire life said to him, "You know what, Dr. Johnson? No."
He was also very, VERY eager to know if I had "good" insurance, and wanted to be sure to schedule the MRI for the end of the year because, ha-ha, "it's the end of the year rush." (Like there's a f*cking sale on the things.)
I declined the MRI and EEG. Thank you anyway, Dr. Johnson, but, the thing is, the one is scary and expensive, the other is terrifying and painful as fuck. (Shawn's had both.) It's only going to confirm what absolutely everyone already knows. I have a pinched nerve. My nurse-practitioner knew that the day I first walked in. My chiropractor, too. In fact, my nurse practitioner was a little worried this would happen. She almost didn't send me on to the neurologist because, she said, "then there will be a big push to fix things which might just fix themselves with time."
My plan is time and continued physical therapy, including chiro. If my numbness doesn't get better in a year, I'm happy to revisit this. Or, obviously, if things suddenly get worse. But, I'm going to wager they won't. I'm already noticing (especially now that I'm paying close attention) that the numbness is lessening. It used to be that every time I bent over I'd get sudden shooting, fierce numbness. Now it's every other time... and sometimes not at all.
So, yeah, no. The neurology appointment was a bad idea from start to finish. I should have gone with my nurse-practitioner's gut instinct. But, you say to yourself, "I should cover all my bases, right?" And, right, you should, but not when it leads to unnecessary surgery. (or tests.)