On the upside

It was a lovely day today: sunny and crisp. We did our usual running around (a daily affair, that) and stopped by the mill to pick up some feed and just check in with our friends. Dar wanted me to show Dianne the MRI I'd posted, so I called it up on her computer. Her first comment was, "You know, your nose really doesn't look like that, so don't worry, OK?" Bwah! And she was entirely serious :)

We made it back home in time to start working on putting up the snow fencing. Mostly it was just charting where it's going to go and checking to be sure that we have enough fencing, which we do, so yay on that. Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day, so I think we'll actually be banging some poles into the ground and affixing the snow fencing. We're going to anchor it on the street end to our mailbox. In order to do that, we'll have to roll it and the bucket of cement that it's set in across the driveway and over onto the other shoulder. It weighs a couple hundred pounds now, so I imagine that there will be wacky hijinks involved, considering the two women who will be doing the moving of said mailbox. There may even be pictures.

Pushing Daisies airs on Tuesday nights in Canada. I won't give away the plot, but I will say that I belly laughed several times. And Digby gets some good air time. Don't miss it tomorrow, hear.

You'd think I'd be used to this by now

If it weren't Dar, I'd be either a gibbering wreck or in jail on charges of bodily mayhem.

I had an appointment with my GP yesterday. After keeping me waiting for an hour I got to see him for less than 15 minutes and came out with the usual nothing. I showed him the report about my back and asked him what I should do. Rehab? Anything I could do to help stop the degeneration? Nope. Nothing to be done. I should walk. I said I cant walk all that far because of the fatigue. He said walking would help the fatigue, too. ::sigh:: No, Mr. Dr., my fatigue is from cellular destruction, not lack of exercise. Exertion on top of that kind of fatigue accelerates the destruction.

I showed him a few of the MRI films. "Huh. Cerebral atrophy." And that was all he had to say about that. My blood pressure is still very high, so he told me to double my meds. He didn't write a new prescription, though, so I'll be going through my meds at twice the rate as before which means I won't be able to refill them. I know that all I have to do is call and get a new scrip from him, but really - shouldn't he have thought of that. No questions or interest in how the search for a diagnosis was going. He didn't ask me to get a follow-up appointment to check on my blood pressure or pain meds or anything else for that matter.

Then today I got the report from the radiologist on my MRIs. Guess what? There's nothing wrong. I'm perfectly fine! Yay! What the fuck is wrong with the doctors today? Even my clueless GP could see the atrophy, but this guy doesn't think it's worth a mention. I wrote an email - polite and professional - telling the radiologist that I'm in the process of being diagnosed with Lupus CNS and about my supporting blood work and symptoms, and that in light of that information I'd like him to reread my films and supply additional comments. Let's see if I get a response.

I've made two tries to get that antiphospholipid blood work done to no avail. I had no idea that it would be this difficult. Apparently there's only one lab that can do the work, so I'm off to see them tomorrow.

Dar got in contact with the neurosurgeon who dealt with her when she was getting her Chiari diagnosed and treated. He's a chief medical officer at one of the NY hospitals, and as a personal favor to her he's agreed to look at my MRIs. I am so very lucky to have Dar in my corner (and in my life.) I'm very much looking forward to what he has to say about them.

This is all terribly frustrating. And, I have to admit, it's starting to scare me. I'm clinging to the hope that my neurologist is going to be competent and aggressive in finding out what's wrong with me so we can - please - stop this thing in its tracks.