So I was working on an update for our trip this coming December, when all of a sudden it became clear that a life update was more in order.
Since coming back from the birthday weekend (which I intend to finish), life took a while to get back to normal. It was a fun and exhausting weekend and a lot of things went by the wayside while leading up to it (laundry, bills, etc).
In addition we had made some decisions about our old place. You see we used to live in two adjacent apartments in a building that we owned. We put a connecting door in between the two units and had one giant five bedroom, three bath, two kitchen household. We had always planned to restore them to two separate units (2 bed-1 bath and a 3 bed-2 bath) after we got all our stuff out. The two bed unit (Olga’s place) is still actually in pretty good shape. It doesn’t need all new counter tops, refaced cabinets, new appliances, and a total makeover. It will be fine with a new coat of paint on the walls, some new carpeting, and a couple ceiling fans. Wash the windows, appliances and wipe out the cabinets and it will be good to go. Oh yeah and patch up that door leading to the three bedroom apartment.
Other than that, we can have it ready by August for when we have prospective tenants to move in. We told the Contractor about this plan the Monday after birthday weekend, and he said he would be in touch with us in two weeks to see how we were doing on getting out stuff out of there. So a frenzy of work began on mine and Darcy’s part, and I do have to say that we have made great strides in our progress over there. But two weeks is tomorrow and we are certainly not ready for him to start work over there.
Fran has been resting. She went off her arthritis drugs the week before my birthday in preparation for the study drug which she is scheduled to start taking Monday morning. The longer she is off the drugs the more stiffness she experiences. Her hands curl up to a point where she can’t move or straighten out her fingers. The pain creeps back into every joint in her body, and she is in agony. She has ramped up the pain pills to a point that most people would be comatose, and frankly sometimes she is. But yesterday her right (dominant) hand was hurting more than normal and it was very swollen. She had been having difficulty holding her clarinet at band rehearsals for the last week, but yesterday the pain was just excruciating. She got the doctor to refer her to an X-ray for her right wrist and hand just to rule out the fact of whether or not she had done something to injure her hand.
Unfortunately it didn’t rule it out, instead it confirmed that she has a chip fracture and subluxation at the first metacarpal joint space. The doctor suggested that we go to an Urgent Care facility and see if they could wrap it with a splint. Well they directed us to the ER, and neither of us wanted to spend 7 to 9 hours waiting for a sub par splint which we would probably remove once we got home (based on our past experience) or spending all that time in a place with sick people. So we just headed home and had a lousy evening.
She is just resting in bed at this point, taking pain pills every three hours. However, at this point she is questioning the decision to go through with the drug study, and is considering going back to the expensive pills that are taken twice daily. The drug study has no guarantee on how soon it will give her any relief from the RA. The expensive pills show progress within 1-2 days. We have a call into her RA doctor, but he’s on a plane right now, so we’re hoping to hear something back from him tomorrow so she can make a decision what to do.
Never a dull moment.
The cake was amazing as was all the food.
Does she have the opportunity in the future to try the drug study? I hope she gets the relief she needs fast!
