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Saturday, April 3, 2010 - 6:40 PM
 
Sometimes I feel as though I'm in the middle of nowhere. This is one of those days. Things are not entirely bad, but they are not good either.
 
I have seen my primary care physician regarding the new pain I have been having on the lower right side of my back. A number of x-rays have been taken, and they ruled out the possibility that I may have had a broken bone.
 
My doctor says that I am having muscle spasms, which were brought about by a pulled muscle. He called my physical therapist and asked her to continue working with me. She agreed, and has been seeing me twice a week for the past two weeks.
 
She was not given any specific instructions as to what type of therapy she should give me, but only told her to, "Work your magic." Because of that, she has been gently stretching my muscles in my legs, back, and near the kidney on my right side. She has also used moist heat therapy as well as ultrasound. It is far too soon to be able to tell what effect, if any, this has had on me.
 
Although my physician had tried telling me that my pain will go away within two weeks, my physical therapist says it may be a lot longer than that, and that realistically speaking we are talking about in the neighborhood of one to three months. I told her that I was not surprised by that because I knew that my doctor sometimes sugarcoated bad news.
 
Due to her busy schedule, it looks as though I am only going to be able to be seen by her once a month during April. She has promised to try to see me twice a month in May.
 
I am still trying to deal with an almost excruciating amount of pain each day. My doctor, and physical therapist, have both told me that when I have this amount of pain that I should definitely be taking my pain medication as prescribed. Despite the reluctance I have had in the past about doing just this, I have somehow managed to work on my thinking processes in order to bring myself to the point where I can take the medicine that I do need.
 
As if this has not been enough to deal with, I have also been involved with some changes of the people who help me from my home healthcare agency. The man who used to prepare my dinner, and who did my housecleaning, for me is no longer working with me. He was the one who got into my apartment when I was not here, and helped himself to my computer without my knowledge when he did so. When my CNA's heard about this, they became concerned for my safety and well-being. It was reported to my nurse, and after she talked to the director of nursing, he was removed from my case. Replacing him has been more than a chore.
 
The first person they assigned to help me almost drove me stark staring crazy. I finally caught him washing out my shower for the third time in one day. When I spoke to him about this, he told me that he was a perfectionist. While I pretended to believe this, I really think that he had OCD. In addition to that, he could not stop talking about his conquest of women. After four long weeks, I finally requested that he be replaced. (It took me that long to make a request because his sister is the one who owns the home healthcare agency.)
 
I now have a new person helping me on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I have a good feeling about her, and thus far, she has worked out quite well. They just hired another person to help me from Monday through Thursday. I like her, too, but she keeps insisting that she was hired to help me from Saturday through Thursday. Although I told her that was not the case, she arrived here this afternoon prepared to work. I told her she was not supposed to be here, and that someone else was on the way.
 
She picked up her cell phone and called the head of the home healthcare agency, trying to convince her that she should be working for me and not this other person. She struck out on the phone call. It did not do her any good. She says she is going to talk to the staffing director on Monday, but I am going to try and talk to her as well in order to make sure that I do not lose the person I already have helping me on the weekends.
 
I am also in the process of losing one of the CNA's who helps me Saturday and Sunday mornings. I am extremely unhappy about that. She's been helping me for more than half a year, and I really like her a lot. The problem is that she lives a long way from me, and I am the only person she sees because the other clients that she had are moving away from Denver. I understand that this does not make much sense for her to drive this far only to take care of one person. There is still a very slight chance that the other two people she helps may not move after all. I should know by the end of this coming week.
 
Tomorrow I will be spending Easter Sunday with my sister and her family. My brother will not be there since he never takes part in anything like this. I have not spoken with my brother in nearly two months. A lot of good that family counseling did! What a waste of time.
 
I am not at all happy with the way things are going in my life right now, but I suspect that trying to deal with all the pain I am having has a lot to do with the way I'm feeling. There were a few days when I was quite tempted to begin using drugs again, but I somehow managed to get beyond that stage.
 
There are several people here on DS who have given me a lot of encouragement and support in the past, and I am determined to try getting on here much more often than has been the case in the past few months. I need to be among those who I trust the most, and that means that those of you who have been with me in the past, will be seeing more of me.