I felt a little sorry for the doctor yesterday. He's a fairly young man, maybe 40 or so, with a mostly thankless job. When he called me into his office, he asked me if my wrist and thumb joints were still swollen and hot. He reached out and took ahold of my right wrist. Yes, your wrist is still hot. What I noticed was that his hand and fingers felt ice cold. I'm sure they weren't, it's just that my wrists and hand are so hot. Feverish. What I have is "inflamed" joints, after all. The doctor seemed dejected about having to let me leave without having figured out what my condition is or being able to come up with a cure.
I'll go back to the pharmacy on Monday morning to get the doctor's prescription for Prednisolone filled. Then I'll start my one-week course of the drug. I don't want to go out today because I've already done too much driving this week. Turning the steering while hurts my wrists. The newer Citroën car (only 16 years old!) seems to have better power steering than the nearly 25-year-old Peugeot. The Citroën is a fairly staid sedan, designed and built for comfort. The Peugeot is a sportier car, designed and built for fun driving. Until now, I had never really understood that about the two cars.
Take care of yourself. Often docs have to guess at what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI think that’s true, Travel.
ReplyDeleteKen, did the doctor say just what he was testing for.. what it was that he was thinking that it might be?
I believe the doctor said something, mostly talking to himself, about his suspicion about the cause of my affliction being related to gout, which I have and take medicine for daily so that I won't have a flare-up like the one I had 10 or 15 years ago. He also sort of mumbled something about how the whole episode might be a mysterious allergic reaction to something (who knows what. Do you remember the allergy attack I had 6 or 7 years ago that caused my face to swell up and landed me in the hospital for nearly 24 hours?
DeleteHoping the prednisolone fixes the problem.
ReplyDeleteI hope the swelling goes down Ken. Good on you for keeping your cars so long. That's what I like to do - nothing better than having no car payment on a depreciating asset!
ReplyDeleteIt never occurred to me that the used Peugeot would still be on the road 20 years after I bought it. When the pandemic hit, we stopped going on trips around France, so we've put very few miles on the car since then. I bought the Citroën (used too) in 2015, and we haven't used it much, for the same reasons. In 10 years, we've put about 20 thousand miles on it.
DeleteKen, I sprang my wrist years ago and I now have arthritis in it. The orthopedic doctor I go to suggested surgery, but the surgery is so invasive I'm not going there. He does give me cortisone shots in my wrist and they help. I haven't had a shot in over a year. He also recommended physical therapy. I did go to a physical therapist for a while, but the last time I went my wrist hurt worse than before I went that day, and I haven't been back for therapy. I massage over-the-counter rubs for arthritis and that helps somewhat. The one thing that gives me the most problems is holding a pen and writing. My handwriting turns to scribble. I hope the meds that the doctor prescribed help. I know how painful it is to have a bum wrist. Wanda aka Galestorm from NC
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Galestorm. Coincidentally, my handwriting became illegible a few years ago after I suffered a torn ligament in the ring finger on my right hand when I was making my bed and struggling with a fitted sheet that was apparently slightly too small for my matress. I still can't sign my name the way I used to, or write a legible grocery list. I think I could have had surgery back to fully repair the finger, but I decided not to. When I absolutely have to hand-write or sign something, Walt does it for me nowadays.
DeleteI'm not blogging today because my wrist hurts too much. I think I slept on it wrong and it is very swollen this morning. Tomorrow I'll start the prednisolone course of treatment to see if that helps.
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