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03/01/2010 - 11:11 PM

I really do love my doctors...really I do...



Conversation at Dr. Martha's office this afternoon, discussing pains in my knees and right hip...

Me: Since I have arthritis in my neck, does that mean I'll be more prone to get it in other joints now?

Doc (patting my knee): Sweetie, when you call a plumber because a pipe in the kitchen rusted through and broke, the plumber is going to have to assume that you have other bad pipes in the house too.

Me: *quizzical look*

Doc: You already have it in your other joints and have just been lucky to not suffer any symptoms before now.

Me: Great, I had to go and be the first in my family...I just had to find a new disease. *sigh*

I did make a mistake earlier when talking to my dad about it. I mentioned rheumatoid arthritis. After looking at my paperwork, I realize that mine is something else.

Welcome to the world of osteoarthritis.

I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't all that bad. I have to make a few minor adjustments to my daily habits, but I can handle that. I have to take my ibuprofen 3 times a day instead of 2 and I have to take it every day, whether I'm feeling good or bad on that particular day. I also have to break up my time on the treadmill and alternate it more evenly with the recumbent bike. Instead of an hour all at once, I'll be breaking up my treadmill time into 30 segments. It'll still be effective as cardio work, but won't be as stressful on my knees and hips.

I'm also going to have to go back to strength training. It seems that strengthening the muscles that surround the joints helps to slow down the progression and lessens the associated joint pain. And, apparently, my yoga and stretching exercises are probably what's kept me from having too many symptoms before now, so keeping up with them will also be helpful.

I wonder if all that climbing up and down the stepladder while painting is what aggravated it...hmmm.

She also prescribed 10 days of Augmentin because I have a bacterial infection in my sinuses, probably caused by the same staph bacteria that caused my carbuncle (neener). I'd never heard that word prior to the visit today. She informed me that what I thought was a boil on my forehead was actually a carbuncle. Who knew such a thing existed? At least that is healing up quite nicely and should be nothing more than a tiny scar in a few more weeks.

I just read on the NASA website that the earthquake in Chile had a rather larger effect on our planet than I realized. It actually shifted our figure axis (the axis around which the earth spins) by about 3 inches and shaved 1.26 microseconds off the length of our day.

Amazing!

Ciao.



Mood: tired and a bit icky due to the antibiotic

To do: play a bit then get some zzzz's



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Don't disasters come in threes? - 03/18/2010



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