Hey. I was just saving y'all another trip.
I took Maggie and Lulu to the vet today. It was an interesting visit for lots of reasons, one being that I actually put them on leashes and walked the four or five blocks to the animal hospital.
This wouldn't be such a big deal except that last week, I wouldn't have even considered it, since my hips were so painful. But I took a look outdoors at the rare winter sunshine and warm temps, grabbed their leashes and was out the door before I recognized what an extraordinary thing it was - to just walk without pain.
At least for today. Thank you, thank you, Dr. Young Guy, for your skill with that very, very long needle.
So we headed out into the sunshine. The girls were delighted to be on a walk so were especially poorly-behaved and excited. I decided that I'd abandon my attempts to reel them in and just let them pull me along.
Mush, you pups. Like sled dogs.
Living on an extinct volcano has lots of perks - one of them being that the view is fabulous of the other Cascade Mountain foothills - but the downside is that when I head out my door to go for a walk, I can't go far without going significantly UP or DOWN. Luckily, the veterinarian's office was UP on the way over, and DOWN on the way home.
The dogs dragged me UP the hill and into the reception area, where I had arranged to pick up some medications for Maggie, who immediately pooped on their remarkably polished and immaculately clean floor.
Oh, brother.
I had just opened my mouth to apologize, but here's the great thing: the vet tech. leaned over, noticed the pile of doggie poo, and squealed, "Oh, GOOD! Maggie's due for a fecal exam!" and scampered out from behind the desk to scoop it all up in a little plastic bag.
I love this place.
We headed DOWN the hill toward home, and I smiled the whole way.
Ha!
4 comments:
Nicely done Maggie... and kudos to the vet tech for seeing the positives.
I have a question(s) for you Miss Julia... especially where you just had the injection. Was the injection for the joint or the bursa? and did your doctor use a topical numbing agent before inserting that very long needle?
The reason I ask is:: When I discuss and point to my area of pain... I am told that its probably not my hip but bursitis. When I had my knee injection the doc didn't use a topical agent to numb (as I would have preferred) and he didn't glove up or wash his hands... this was done by an ortho doc and not my rheumy.
ToOdLeS.
Hi , ShEiLa,
My injection was in the bursa. And I may have exaggerated the length of the needle a bit.....it just looked like a long one to me. Hehe.
Dr YG did wash his hands, wore gloves, cleansed the site thoroughly and then sprayed a numbing agent at the injection site before actually injecting.
I wrote a post about trochanteric bursitis awhile back; http://reasonablywell-julia.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-boring-idea-for-daytime-television.html
Interesting that it's so common in people with autoimmune diseases.
Dr. YG tells me that this may take awhile to resolve - I've had symptoms for over a year - and that he can't inject the bursa any more frequently than every three or four months or so.
Julia,
Thank you very much! I think I have the same thing. I have to turn from side to side and I ache all night. It sounds like I should consider a few injections asap. Just to make life a bit easier. Four days of pretty bad pain... tried to walk with my hubby and pets yesterday and the short walk nearly killed me. I had missed that article. Thanks for the heads up.
ToOdLeS.
I've been having the same kind of hip pain, waking me up at night, turning from side to side, etc. for several months now. I thought it was because I have arthritis in my hips. Then I read your post and remembered that my dad had bursitis in his shoulder. One more thing to put on my list of questions for my next doctor visit.
I loved this post about walking to the vet's. I know it's hard when you have constant pain, but it kind of just shows that attitude controls everything doesn't it? I read recently that the area in our brains that controls thankfulness and gratefulness is literally "turned off" if you're under stress. And constant discomfort and pain is certainly stressful. Now I totally understand why for months (years?)I was so negative about everything, almost to the point of paranoia, some days just didn't even see the point of continuing life. I've read that Sjogren's can affect the way you think and I can definitely see that!
It just boggles my mind how many things this disorder can affect. I feel like I'm getting somewhat of a handle on one thing when another one comes along. I've been journaling lately and that has helped a bunch. So has reading your blog posts!
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