Friday, October 21, 2016

End of the week or the beginning?

Back in the day when I had to work for a living, Friday was the end of the week. Monday was the beginning of the week and those two days between the beginning and the end were? Whatever you wanted to make of them.

These days, those two days have taken over the whole calendar and I have to come up with a reason for each day. I visit the family doctor this morning, a PA-C and a darn good one. He's the best "MD" I've have never had. Warm, caring and very thorough. This morning we have to debate the pro's and con's of my pain med, Dilaudid, and what do I do now that my supply is growing short. The prescription came from a hospitalist that I won't be seeing again. That prescription replaced the one for IV Dilaudid.

This morning's pain came close to making me cry and the Dilaudid brought it to an end within 30 minutes. What else will do that? I would rather move down to a less powerful drug but I'm also afraid of more pain. After all of these years of pain you would think I would be used to it, but I'm not. I'm actually more fearful.

The subject was 'days' and today I'm looking forward to the weekend. Not my weekend but the workers laboring right behind our house. I want them to leave this afternoon and never come back. They are building a 19 home tract of high end homes. High end price but low end quality. And they are noisy while they build. Of course they are. It's to be expected. But I'm old and cranky and so I mutter curses under my breath each and every day until 4 PM when they go home for the evening.

When we moved in there was nothing but 20 acres of pasture with sheep, horses, donkeys and a goat to see, with the Sierra foothills in the distance. It's all gone now. After all our years of wandering up and down the state we have seen it changing. We moved from Manhattan Beach to the 'Valley' and then to Ventura Co, (Newbury Park) followed by Orange Co. (Brea) which lead us to Lassen Co. (Janesville) then to Placer Co. (Roseville) followed by Glenn Co. (Orland) and now Butte County. (Chico) My dream was always for a secluded spot with acreage and we had that in Lassen. Eight acres of second growth pines in a small community in the remote northeast corner of the state. We lived there for 11 years before the state moved in nearby with max security prison. There was a small hill and 15 miles between us but when the prison turned on the lights (they were never off) the bright glow on the horizon killed the night time sky. The stars disappeared and after a while we were gone as well.

Change is the only constant and we came here for health care reasons so we can't fly away as we did in Lassen. So the change is happening like it or not.

I don't  

5 comments:

  1. Frustrating on change although I live in rural Oregon and farm use laws have pretty much kept it as it's been. That could change, of course.

    Did acupuncture do anything for your pain? I know it doesn't for everyone.

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    1. I did try acupuncture. The medical group where my 'doctor' works also has an MD doing acupuncture. I did it 3 times with varying success and none of it permanent. Just a few hours at most...

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    2. it might take the right practitioner. I had it several times before I had a surgery and I felt it helped me heal faster but that wouldn't necessarily do anything for bad pain. Hope you find a solution. It is very draining. Marijuana some say helps but I only know from hearsay

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    3. I've tried replying about 3 times so far and each time something happened to end it. Network disappeared twice and once I touched some unknown key that made the whole post disappear. The network appears to be back and so I will try again in a few minutes.

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  2. When you're taking Dilaudid it's hard to remember what you typed 2 minutes ago let alone 30...

    Short story. I tried the herb once as a tea and it didn't do much. It just made me feel 'spacey' if that's a description. It was not scientific. A vague amount of the herb in a tea ball and steeped for an indeterminate amount of time. I will try again some time next year when I can have a better choice of the herb

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