The hard facts and the simple pleasures

I had a visit today with my GP. It was to discuss the next step in trying to figure out what is going on with my neck/shoulder and fevers. I actually just now took out the thermometer from my mouth this second... 37.5 celsius. That's 100 fahrenheit. That is always what it is when I feel this sickly feeling. Otherwise, when I feel normal, it's 36.4 c, which is exactly 98 f. It's been this way for at least two months, not daily, but most days. And the neck pain started around the same time. I still go for massages, once a week, an hour & a half at a time. The masseuse is *wonderful*. I walk out feeling great, but the pain in my neck stays the same. I let her work on it, but it doesn't change things.

So I said to my doctor that at least we know we can take osteomyelitis off the table as a reason. She moved her eyes to the side and made a face like "now I have to say something she isn't expecting". Turns out that it's *not* off the table. Turns out that those blood tests only show if I have acute osteomyelitis. That means if it is in my blood and I am in urgent trouble. So my blood tests showed I'm not in urgent danger, baruch Hashem.
But, it turns out that it's possible to walk around for a long time with the disease and it can go undetected. Symptoms: long term low-grade fever, pain. It goes undetected because it's in the bone, and you can't see it on blood tests.

So, I need the MRI.
My GP also wrote out referrals for a bone scan and a CT, but those are less precise in the case of osteomyelitis. And, of course, they involve lots of radiation which is undesired because of my kidney problems, and because of the fact of having had soooo much radiation in the past four years. The referrals are just there, in my file, in case they wind up being the diagnostic tool we need to go with.

I have an MRI scheduled for my thigh (to check the PVNS situation) in a month. I scheduled it six months ago, of course. It's here in Soroka, glory of glories I don't have to travel for it. My GP suggested that I go there, to the MRI unit in Soroka, with my referral for the spinal MRI, and find out if it'd be possible to do both body areas on the same day. That'd be a month away; not bad. It's pretty hard to secure an MRI in less than a month, but not impossible. I'll do that on Sunday and get the scoop.

In the meantime, quality of life is a big issue. I do go on with life... I am not in bed (most of the time). I am with kids every afternoon and evening; driving, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and going swimming (it is so good to be in the water, but my laps are more painful, so I do fewer. I do lots of thigh joint work).
I even have clients this month for the birth preparation course.
But I am in pain. And it is a ***drag***. There is nothing I can take for the pain except the narcotics, which *do* help, but still make me nauseous. I don't take them. It's not worth the side effects. Everything else is either bad for the kidneys, or ineffective.

So I am in limbo. Again. And feeling yucky.

(one highlight of my day is playing with Azriel... he is so simple at 5 years old. he wants to play the matching game-- *we* used to call it "concentration"-- he's  really good at it. 

And he wants to do the hand slapping/clapping/choreograph-type of games with the rhymes and weird nonsense stories I taught him and Shifra from my youth. Like this one:

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For fifteen cents, cents, cents

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high

They reached the sky, sky, sky

And they didn't came back, back, back

'Til the 4th of July, July July!

 

...Remember that one? Feel nostalgic? :-)