I never knew I could break this easily!

General Blog
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For the last couple of weeks, I've been having some terrible pain in my left hip. The strange thing is, it isn't in the joint, but rather at the very top of my hip bone and radiates down into the sciatic nerve area and to the front of my left thigh. I've noticed that the more activity I attempt the worse it gets...to the point of having no choice but to put some pain relieving patches on, curl up in my nifty recliner with a heating pad, and avoid movement as much as possible until I hurt more from not moving than my hip does. Between my hip and my knees, when I do manage to walk anywhere I waddle like a waterlogged penguin. With the holidays coming up rapidly, I simply do not have time to deal with this! But once again my body is forcing me to slow down. My first instinct is to say that I have a fun new place where my PsA has migrated. On the flip side of that coin, however, it may be completely unrelated. So off to the doctor I go (again). Want to take a bet he a) blows me off completely and/or b) ups my occasional prednisone prescription into a long term steroid treatment? The man has been trying to get me to go with the long term treatment for about 6 months now. Looks like he might just get his way this time.

As if the hip thing weren't enough to cope with, tonight our new puppy (I use that term loosely considering at only about 6 months old his back is already mid thigh high and has paws the size of a small bear) decided that it would be great fun to play tug of war with Mommy. This is a normal thing for young dogs to do, but with my PsA, it was a really stupid thing for me to allow happen. Both wrists are now (I think) sprained. Hurts to move them, hurts to hold anything in my hands, and my fingers don't want to type correctly (spell checker is our friend). Added to which, the wrists are now swollen rather spectacularly, the bones grind together and snap and pop if I try manipulating them at all, and the pads of both thumbs send shooting pains up my arms when I look at them sideways - let alone try to use them.

All I can say is: OMG I'm getting OLD! My 74 year old mother-in-law with complicated and serious health problems (including a mechanical heart valve and severe vertigo) is walking circles around me. <shakes head in annoyance and snorts indelicately>

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Hey there Sybil! Went to the clinic yesterday, and to my surprise the doc neither blew me off nor insisted on long term pred treatment. Imagine my shock! Instead, he gave me a look like, well DUH! I neglected to mention on my blog post that the hip pain started the night I was attacked by my neighbor's dog - a pit bull no less - and I "neglected" to mention it because I didn't really want to start a huge online war about how dangerous those dogs are. Not the dog's fault that he was never taught any manners. Anyway, the doc promptly insisted I sit on my arse and do nothing until the pain subsides. He also upped one of my maintenance meds that is supposed to help with nerve pain for at least a few days and told me to use a heating pad pretty much all day long until I can actually walk from my living room to my bedroom with no pain. So today we got the Christmas tree put up and decorated. Have I ever mentioned I don't follow orders well?
Oh, and the wrists were not sprained so much as strained...which means no wraps, and no special treatment...and no more tug of war with the mutt. Now we are getting ready for a road trip to my niece and nephew's house for Thanksgiving. Some time between now and Wednesday night I have to get the car looked at, pack, bake a couple of pies, buy the ingredients for my almost-famous seared brussels sprouts with toasted pecans, find a kennel to board the mutt while we are gone (We're taking the pug with us), get his shots, etc (since he was a stray, I have no idea what shots he might have had), get my youngest to and from school Monday and Tuesday, and my oldest son to and from work on Monday.
Oh yeah, and I need to buy more dog food. That mutt eats like a horse! Bandit, the pug, and Heidi and Peaches, the kitties, are not particularly happy with the new addition to the family but they are starting to come to an agreement now. As long as everyone realizes that Heidi is the ruler of the house and treats her accordingly, everything else is just fine.
I'm thinking I probably won't be sitting around toasting my bum with the heating pad anytime soon....

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OMG girl l Leave you alone for the summer and you fall apart!!! just kidding I love you and I missed you what the heck happened hon?

After reading your post I nearly fell off my chair. I have been dealing with this issue all last winter and all summer as you may remember. however I could not feel the shooting/radiating pain . The reason- the nerves where so compressed the pain was moving.or distorted by PsA pain.My PsA had destroyed the discs in my lower spine and left me with spinal stenosis. I have barley enough nerve feeling left to know if I run into something. that is why I didn't " feel It". I would occasionally get a screamer that put me to the floor.

Anyway kiddo, I am so glad you are getting things taken care of. Keep those maint. meds going as they are so very important. Also with your wrists -- did he mention DE Querverins disease? I gue ss it goes along with all of the other loss of tendons and movement strain thing of the wrists. I just got the low down on it last week from my reumy. Apparently I now have it in both thumbs.She recommended that I wear braces at night to let my wrists rest and avoid bending them under my pillow and then I could go brace free during the day except for really bad days.:) It works!

I love your energy and I like your kind of dog too. Have several in the family, lots of good dog kisses! We are all gathering here toady for our annual Holiday decorating /daddy's birthday party. I'm cooking a turkey and apparently we are doing Thanksgiving all over again!! My daughters can be so silly sometimes.I think we may also be helping my son and his fiancee move to their first apt and a friend of theirs is going to stop by and pick up some furniture I've been storing for her until she could afford her first apt.!Young people , they wear me out. I'm not sure what I'll do with an empty house, I know I'm starting with paint next week. Today I think I might sit and watch everyone else work ( fat chance).

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Hi! Hi, Hi, Hi!! Missed you like crazy also! Wow, that spinal stenosis sounds horrible. I think I will opt to NOT have that happen. I'm so glad things are moving for you. Empty nest syndrome sounds better and better now that I have two teenagers, mother-in-law, hubby, and assorted pets all living with me.

Oh...sad (and happy) news. Duke, the new puppy is no longer ours. When I took him to be boarded, I was very up front about his being a stray and asked them to check him for a chip. Apparently he had one, as I found a message on my answering machine tonight when I got home that the vet clinic found his first family. So I'm sad, but also happy because he was a great dog, and I know his first family was missing him. In many ways it really is better that we don't have a monster sized dog living with us, but I miss having a REAL dog. A Pug is really a rabbit disguised as a dog. Some day I will have another Siberian Husky or a German Shepherd. Maybe both?!? But for now we are back to one dog, two cats, a handful of really pretty koi, and the mouse that manages to elude both cats and lives in my pantry.

So more on the continuing saga that is my life: On Wednesday as we were driving to my niece and nephew's house I started coughing. Thought for sure it was an allergic reaction to the essential oil spray that we use in our luggage when it is not in use to keep it fresh. By late Thursday night, however, both my hubby and I had raging fevers, horrible sinus congestion, and that deep, wracking cough that can only be bronchitis. Imagine how pleased the rest of the family was that we traveled all the way to Pfleugerville Texas to share our germs. Friday everyone else went to the Texas Renaissance Fair while hubby and I huddled at the house in misery. At the fair, our nephew twisted his already bad back wrong, and ended up having to have everyone turn around after only about an hour and a half there and come home. I suspect he will have to go back in for surgery again. By Saturday morning, my niece had a fever of 103.6. Joy. So my poor teenagers were stuck taking care of our niece's baby and waiting on the rest of us hand and foot. Here it is Sunday, and we are finally home. And my youngest now has a fever. Sometimes I Just.Want.To.Bang.My.Head.Against.A. Brick.Wall.

The best news, though, is that I have all of my Christmas shopping done. It is all wrapped. It is either under the tree (for the stuff that stays here), or in separate and distinct boxes for all the various places they need to go. Our decorations are up (as much as they are going to be), and I can now sit and watch the frantic masses as they rush to and fro trying to find the perfect gift for their special someone(s). The only reason I can sit smug in the knowledge that I am DONE is because I started my Christmas shopping the day after Christmas last year. I have promised my youngest son that I would teach he and his girlfriend how to bake...so that is our next major project. From now until Christmas, our house will smell toasty and yummy (and I don't actually have to do any of the work! WHOO HOO).

The moral of my story is, no matter how bad things seem to be, our hardships are just fly spit on the windshield of life. In the cosmic sense of things...it just doesn't matter!