Today in My History

2000:  The Piano
2001:  The Big Orange
2002:  Baring it All With Pride
2003:  How Was the Orgy?
2004:  Marn's Purple Ball of Humiliation
2005:  Just Words
2006:   My Kingdom for some SHIT
2007:  The Old Stories   
2008:  65 x 365
2009:  Journaling in a Sauna
2010:  Yaroslavl
2011:  Pass the Chopsticks Again, Please

Bitter Hack
Updated: 6/29
"Grease"

Books Read in 2012
 Updated: 6/23
"L is for Lawless"

Most Recent on My

HAIKU OF THE DAY

Night fears are the worst
Nameless terrors steal my sleep
Thank God for doctors!

SELF DIAGNOSIS

30 June 2012

Last night was not the best in the world.

The lump on my backside (or perhaps more accurately "bottomside") got more and more painful.  It was difficult to find any comfortable position in which to sit.  I did get a compress on it in the recliner, but getting up was painful, in addition to the fact that my knee always hurts for the first few minutes after I get up.

I was feeling like a real whiner, though I don't think I actually whined about it (much) to Walt, just to myself.  But I was not happy.  Mostly I was in the "how am I ever going to take this trip" phase, wondering how I could sit on a plane for several hours and could I actually walk around any of the towns we would be visiting.

By the time I went to the living room to climb onto the couch and try to sleep, I had come to the decision that if I was going to be mobility impaired there were worse places to be than 5 star hotels and a cruise ship, so I wasn't going to worry about it.

But I did.  It was the not knowing what the lump was that was worst.  I thought it might be a Bartholin cyst, and then thought maybe a hernia...all sorts of possibilities kept flitting through my mind and finally I got up to go to the computer to see what I could find googling "groin lump women."

I decided it was not a Bartholin cyst because it was located too far from the vaginal opening.  But the henia possibility seemed to be the most accurate fit based on the description.  Well, then that got worse.  I loked up hernia treatment and there is only one:  surgery.  But there isn't enough time between now and the time we leave to have surgery, especially since there is a trip to Santa Barbara between now and then.

I was wide awake and worried and finally at 3 a.m., I got up, logged into the Kaiser Permanente web site, and made an appointment with my gynecologist for 3:15 this afternoon.

That done, I was eventually able to get to sleep.  When I awoke, I was pleased to note that I could step on my leg without excruciating pain, but I still couldn't sit down comfortably. I couldn't really settle into anywhere since it hurt to sit at the computer and it hurt less, but still hurt to sit in the padded recliner.

Finally I just went and lay down on the couch again.  I wasn't sleepy, but it took the pressure off my bum so I stayed there for awhile until time to go to the doctor.

The nurse couldn't get the blood pressure machine to work right and it kept giving these astronomical readings until she tried taking the pressure by hand, which, while still high, was better.

My appointment was 3:15 but it was nearly 4 before (a) they found a room for my exam and (b) I actually saw the doctor.

I really like my gynecologist.  Her ex-husband used to be my internist and I had worked with him at Sutter, so he and I were on a first name basis. But he is long gone from Kaiser, having opened his own private weight loss clinic.  I didn't really know his wife until I chose her as my gynecologist, but we hit it off as old friends from my first appointment.  She knows me better than my current internist, who, for example, has no clue I have buried two children or any of a host of other things about me, which S, the gynecologist, knows because she chats with me.

We were laughing about the fact that it was right before last year's China trip when I had seen her with a massive infection that had been plaguing me for weeks and how she cured it almost overnight.  I had high hopes that this might be a similar situation.

I told her about my midnight googling adventures and she laughed at the fact that we all do that, with so much information at our fingertips, most of which serves only to put us in an unnecessary state of panic.  I had run the gamut on this thing and what it could be since it was so hard.  I was sure it couldn't be a cyst for that reason.

But.  That's one of the reasons you shouldn't self-diagnose.   It was a cyst and with a few pinpricks of minor pain, she had the thing drained and bandaged and prescriptions written for me to prevent an infection, along with medicine to take in case the antibiotic gives me a yeast infection...or just to take along in case I develop symptoms of a yeast infection while we are gone.

So my night of panic was for naught...but it gave me something to do while I couldn't sleep, I guess.  And unless the knee gets worse, I should be all set to go on the 10th.  I am still debating about bringing a cane.  I think I am going to.  It does help.  And, if nothing else, should make folks a bit more sympathetic when I can't keep up!

Tomorrow we are heading off to Santa Barbara to help Tom celebrate his 42nd birthday.  I am concerned about how much the dogs will bark while we are gone.  Polly has a bark collar which does help keep her from barking, but they advise not having the dogs wear it more than something like 8 hours.  Jessica, who will be here in our absence, isn't sure Polly will let her touch her.  They get along all right but, like all strangers, Polly wants Jessica to keep her distance, so I guess I'll just come home to a bunch of angry phone messages from Mr. McCoy about how terrible our dogs are, though I think they haven't barked at all (that he can hear) for months now.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

I love my new cell phone case!
(The roses were from Walt for our anniversary)

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