Sunday, June 2, 2013

That's How It Always Goes

Are you like me? You put off going to the doctor til you're nearly dead, finally make an appointment (for a week away) and suddenly, you're all well!

Last weekend (Mem. Day), I COULD NOT WALK for about four days! I've always had this little glitch in my right hip joint. And really, that's no surprise. My right leg has taken quite a beating over the years.

About 30 years ago, on the farm, we used cattle panels as gates between pastures. (Cattle panels are long sections of stiff wire fencing.You wire them to the fence posts.) Anyway one day, while opening one, it got caught in the tall grass. I tugged and tugged and when it finally tore loose, it came down right across the top of my right foot. I'm sure it broke every little bone in my foot, and I literally "saw stars," the pain was so acute.

Not long after that, I accidentally stepped in a bucket in the barn, and the far side swung up and whacked me a good one in the right shin.

Not long after THAT, I was kicked in the pelvis (right side) while trying to load a horse in the trailer. Saw stars with that one too! I'm sure most people have no idea how hard a horse can kick. I didn't either until one connected with my mid-section. The ER doctor said if it'd been an inch to the left, I would have sustained serious internal injuries.

About 25 years ago, after we moved up here, we were having trouble with trespassing hunters. I heard one's truck coming up the hill one day, so I ran out to try to apprehend. It was a January thaw, so the ground was greasy. I slipped and my right leg went straight out sideways at a 90 degree angle at the knee --- messed up something, meniscus, I think --- that was a bad one.

Another time I went to step off the porch and sprained my right ankle. Just this past winter I slipped on ice and landed, yes, on my right hip. When I have gout, it's in my right big toe.  Because of all this trauma to my right leg, I think my left leg is shorter from taking my weight when I limp.

So, anyway, I've always had this occasional glitch in that hip. I can be walking along and BAM! My hip freezes up, very painfully, and I have to stop dead in my tracks til the pain passes. Then I'm usually okay.

Last weekend, I couldn't walk at all. I couldn't walk from the living room to the kitchen without almost falling in the floor. Hip impingement?  Arthritis? Bone spur?

Even though I've been walking fine all day, I think I'll keep the appointment and have them take X-rays. It's bound to return.

That ON TOP OF another fibro-attack. For the past four or five days I've barely been able to get out of bed, my legs hurt so bad from hips to toes. Fibro is a form of nerve damage: no known cause and so far no cure. Forget about Advil, Tylenol (with or without codeine), Vicodins, Oxycontins, morphine. Nothing (and I mean NOTHING) touches the pain of fibro. It's like a migraine of the body, instead of the head. I just spend a lot of time writhing in bed, crying, trying to sleep it off.

Today, for the first time in two weeks, it didn't rain.  Today was a beautiful cool, sunny day.

And I felt GOOD for a change!


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