Hubby & Birthday

So, my hubby gave me my birthday present REALLY early. It's a BeBook!!! YAY!!! It's really awesome, and it's light, and it's nice to read for hours on end, and you push buttons instead of turning pages!!! Okay... I was a bit excited there... (but buttons are so much fun!!!)

I would recommend a bebook or similar device for anyone who has troubles with heavy/awkward books. Or for anyone who downloads books, but can't look at a computer screen for hours on end. Or even more practically, if you're going to school, instead of carrying around 50 pounds of books, you could carry an ebook with all of your necessary reading material in it, and it doesn't weigh much at all or take up much space (the only difficulty would be finding copies of the books online, and most schools don't offer them except for special circumstances).

I've noticed that the pain in my wrists comes in waves. Sometimes they seem as perfectly functional as I can hope from my body, and other times it's as though if I move them, they might fall off. A bit dramatic sounding, but that's what it feels like.

I've also noticed that my hips and ankles are feeling really loose. I sat in my car too long yesterday, and when I got out, I had to spend about 5 minutes to put my ankle back in place... My neighbour saw me limping slowly toward the house, and asked what was wrong... I told him my foot was on crooked. With my hips it seems like any time I take a step, they click, and when they've had enough clicking, they start to sublux, and once the novelty of that's worn off, they'll throw in a dislocation, and try to introduce my face to the pavement...

On another note, I haven't been sleeping much or well in the last 2 weeks, and I am alternately giddy and zombified...

But thankfully, I can still crochet, and my brother is looking forward to getting his sweater for Christmas :)

Hands

So, one of the things I have been grateful for since I have started reading all of the EDSers blogs, is that I haven't had trouble with my hands.

Well, that is no longer the case. For the past two weeks, I've had a weird feeling in my right wrist, like it's fatigued after I write. A few days ago the feeling turned into pain, and it's almost unbearably painful to write more than a few sentences at any one time.

Yesterday, at work I had to staple a rather large file, which meant I had to use the rather large stapler. It's a job that would usually require the use of my right hand to use the lever, and my left hand to steady the paper... When I got to the stapler, I looked at it... It seemed to stare right back at me... So I steadied the paper with my left hand, pushed the lever down enough that I no longer had to steady the paper, then I used BOTH hands to push the lever down. I felt the most sickening feeling I think I'm capable of. My left wrist slid out of place... I don't know exactly how far, but it looked like more than 3/4 of an inch. I immediately looked away and stopped pushing down. My wrist made a wet sucking sound, and slid back into place.

Thankfully it wasn't painful. It didn't swell up, it didn't bruise, but afterward it felt really unstable. It still does, and so does my right wrist.

In the last few days I have been subluxing the joints in my fingers, as usual it takes little or no pressure, and I have to almost massage them back into place. I'm going to start looking for some wrist braces or something, because with my left shoulder as bad as it is I have to drive using my right hand, and it really hurts my wrist when I drive now.

Thankfully (as of 2 days ago) I can still crochet without injuring myself.

Edit:
As it turns out crocheting is about the only thing I CAN do without causing severe pain in my wrists. I did dishes last week and almost cried from the pain, and it took me about 2 hours to finish them with all the breaks I needed to take. I've found that I need to set my books down when I'm reading them, because the weight of the book is too much to hold for any length of time. And I was folding laundry on the weekend, and OMG OWWWW... That's all i have to say about that.

Fe

So, I haven't posted anything lately... Medical issues... Surprised?

Anyway, I had some issues, and I tried to figure out what they were on my own... (YAY Google!). I couldn't figure it out, but I thought I knew, so I went to the doctor (for confirmation), and he thought he had it figured out (different answer than I had come up with), and he sent me for blood work, and I have been anxiously awaiting THE ANSWER. He got the results from the blood work last Friday, but since he is not my family doctor (because I don't have one) I had to get my results from a walk-in appointment, so I couldn't go until yesterday.

We were both equally wrong. (I'm just glad I wasn't more wrong than he was).

Results are: my blood iron saturation is at 8%. It's supposed to be around 55% to 60%. The doctor told me that in order to get my iron to "normal" levels I will have to take an iron supplement every day for the rest of my life, and while I'm at it, continue taking the 2000mg of Vitamin C daily, along with Vitamin D, and hopefully that can help with some of my joint pain, and energy levels. Oh, and I am no longer allowed to donate blood. That makes me kind of sad.

Aside from all of that, my hubby had his hip surgery, and he is recovering, but the damage was a helluva lot worse than they thought, and it looks like some time in the future he will need to have a hip replacement. But his doctor is looking at prolotherapy for his knee, and that will hopefully be helpful.

Vacation

So, I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to Vancouver for a week on holidays. Hubby and I went, and it was fun. We did a lot of driving, and a lot of walking, and even though I complained a lot, I was glad to be able to walk. I only limped a little bit the entire trip!

We went to a used book store, and we each found out of print books that we've been looking for, like 6 each I think, and we spent $50.00 on books.

I have to say that the worst part about the entire trip was sleeping in the tent on an air mattress. I subluxed my hips multiple times each night, because of the position I had to sleep in, and every time I did, I'd wake up and have to switch positions, then like 5 minutes later I'd get a cramp and then have to switch positions again.

So, Friday, I tried to get into the chiropractor before we left, and I called, and I had missed him, he was out of the office for the day. So I called his other office, and I talked to the receptionist, and she called the chiropractor, and he said he'd see me at his house, and gave me the address. I googled it and went over to see him. He adjusted me, and I told him about my blog, and the fact that I posted about him, and my doubts about him, and the nail gun it felt like he used on me. He didn't have any problems with it, and he laughed a the nail gun part.

I'm going to go see him again after work today :)

Ridiculous

So my day yesterday got ridiculous after I posted.

I went to get lunch for the office staff, and I went to to food court at the mall near us. I got out of my car and started WALKING... not limping, not waddling, not shuffling, but walking. It was amazing. So after work, I went shopping, and I continued to walk. My left knee was getting fatigued at the end of shopping, but it was so much better than the constant pain I'm usually in.

So I went home from there, and I started doing my dishes; while they were soaking, I put some laundry in the washing machine. I got my first sink full of dishes done, and I went to check on the laundry... It blew the breaker... So I turned it back on, and went back to my dishes. When I was done my dishes, I went to check on the laundry again, and the breaker blew again. I turned it on, but it wouldn't stay on for more than a second. So I checked, and nothing else on that breaker was turned on, so I stood by the breaker box and held the darn thing in the "on" position. For half an hour. When the washer was finally done, I switched everything to the dryer, and went out shopping again.

I was supposed to get food, toilet paper and light bulbs. I forgot light bulbs. With the weird power situation where I live, we burn out a lot of light bulbs, I've tried the low energy, the normal ones, the "green" ones, the cheap ones, the expensive ones... They last about a month on average... So anyway I got home from my second shopping trip, and I took in all the stuff i bought, then I went out and cleaned out my car.

After this, I still had unspent energy, but it was like 9:30 at night, so I started watching a movie, and painted my nails. Then I didn't like the color, so I took it off. Then I finally went to bed.

I haven't had that much energy in so long, I wanted to use it all up, just in case it's that long again before I have that kind of energy, but I ran out of time to do stuff.

Needless to say, I'm a little stiff today... But it was so worth it.

Chiropractor

So, I haven't been to the chiropractor since late December, and yesterday I was in so much pain, I decided to make an appointment. Problem is my regular chiropractor works an hour away from where I live, because I moved. So I went to see a new chiropractor, and he did his preliminary look you over so he can tell what you need, and I was complaining about left side pain, as I always am, and he tells me I need mostly my right side looked at. He adjusted my right hip, which I thought was feeling fine, and my left shoulder blade, which he said was rotated at a funny angle, along with my spine in 4 different spots.

About 2 minutes after he was done adjusting me, I felt a really stupid pain under my left shoulder blade, almost like someone was stabbing me in the lung every time I took a breath, but after a few minutes of NOT crying (but I was really close) it started to fade. Then I went to walk to the front to pay, and it felt like instead of using the clicky thing to adjust my hip, he used a nail gun. That feeling didn't go away until this morning, but it still feels oddly tight/burning.

So after my chiropractor appointment, I went to the mall to buy a few supplies for camping (going on a road trip to Vancouver). And I was shuffling, I couldn't even waddle for the first half hour. After a while I realised that I wasn't limping, but it wasn't because it didn't hurt, it was because there was a war between my left knee and my right hip - they were deciding which was the worst joint, and they tied.

Then I went to bed, and woke up this morning with some weird pain in some unexpected places. I'm going to go back to the chiropractor when I get back, mostly because I don't want to spend $50 for my first appointment with someone else, but also because he does it differently than my old chiropractor, and I'm interested to see if I get any kind of beneficial results with his method.

Ummm...

So, just thought I'd write a few words, let you all (both of you) know how I'm doing.

I 'm having some weird issues with my ribs lately. I used to have one rib on the left side that frequently subluxed, and it was easy to put back in place. Now I have (approximately) 4 ribs on the left side, and 2 on the right side that are subluxing FREQUENTLY, as in multiple times a day, and they take longer to put back in place, and they're more painful.

Aside from that, I had a wikkid Easter with all my family, and I ate a LOT of good home-cooked food ( YAY no instant mashed potatoes and KD Mac and Cheese!!!)

Oh, and my mom and step-dad built a 100ft wooden sidewalk, and my mom told me afterward "I think I have SOME idea of the pain you go through every day." - This was after she saw that I did as little as physically possible for 3 days, and saw me wince in pain and limp around the house.

Oh, and weird thing last night... I had NO balance AT ALL. It was like I was REALLY DRUNK. I hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink, and I can't think of anything that I could have eaten that would do it. I was also NOT taking ANY medications for anything. Anybody know if this is an EDS thing, or if it might be an EDS-seems-to-come-along-with-a-billion-other-medical-zebra-type-issues thing? Or is it just a normal-people-get-dizzy-too thing?