Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

So I went to see my rheumatologist today. Spent about a half hour, minus the time he left the examination room to use the computer. He actually looked at the spreadsheets I'd brought him on a floppy -- one being a sleep log, the other being a log of what drugs I've taken when, so that he can look for patterns possibly more meaningful than what I can remember off the top of my head. Actually, I was able to give him most of the info he needed about my sleep off the top of my head, but only because I'd keyed it into a spreadsheet and told Excel to do the math already. He wants me to try a drug I tried a few years ago, in case it works any better now than it did then. (I'm not optimistic, but hey, bodies change. It could work...) The big thing we're trying to do is make it so I sleep more than four hours, and maybe get the overall pain levels down to where I don't need to use narcotics so often. (Oh, the face he made when I told him about my difficult week in Peoria, where I took a month's worth of pain meds -- based on my usual usage pattern -- in a week.) He touched me in a few places to assess my current state (checking fibromyalgia tender points, seeing how tense the muscles were and how much I flinched, checking my grip strength), and said to come back in three months.

I hadn't really expected him to look at those spreadsheets. I wanted to have the information right there to give him if it might be useful, 'cause I'd already gathered it and all, but this is an HMO. I didn't expect him to have time to look at it. Specialists do get more time per patient-visit than the primary physicians, but I was still surprised that he had time to properly discuss my case with me and take note of the information I had for him. (Gee, have HMOs succeeded in getting me to set my expectations lower, or what?) The visit still felt a little rushed, a little short, but it was six times as long as a primary-physician visit.

So the good news is that I seem to have a doctor who's doing the right stuff and taking the time to figure out what the right stuff is. The bad news is that there really isn't much he can do for my problem. Well, if this drug works this time, that'll be something. And he did suggest massage. (Uh, yeah, I know that. The single most effective treatment for fibromyalgia is massage on a regular basis (especially if the type of massage is myofascial release therapy). Guess what my HMO doesn't cover and I can't afford? Feh. Feels good and is good for me, but I can't pay for it.)

Traffic was both bad and strange on the way to the appointment. I kept getting boxed in by people doing the speed limit or a few MPH under, most of the way; then I95S slowed to 20MPH in a 65MPH zone a bit before the exit before mine; then the street that I turned off onto had a Nasty Accident at the next intersection I needed to turn at, and was slow until then.

Current music I'm listening to is by a Canadian friend of one of my bandmates. (She keeps saying she thinks he and I should play together. She's probably right. Sooner or later it's gotta happen.)