Another bit of catch up

There will be a stitching catch up today, along with a recipe or two - so this is just the general chatter of what's been going on the last few days.

When I thought I'd only be able to be here during the week last week, I decided it wasn't a great time to try to squeeze in a visit with my daughter - Michael doesn't get home from work until after 7pm, and she lives about 45 minutes away - on a school night, that means it's mainly just disruptive of the girls' bedtimes, and since she and her husband just had a baby, disrupting schedules is very unkind.

But I let her know about the extended time, and we were invited to dinner on Saturday.  Our plans for Saturday included getting out and about - Michael offered to take me to go explore a couple needlework shops more-or-less in the area (he is a very good guy, in case you didn't already figure that out), so we spent the day with me happily wandering through a couple shops (details in another post once I take a couple pictures), and spending some time in a second hand bookstore we stumpled upon along the way.

We also went out to lunch at Gordon Biersch - mind you, their food is good and they are highly praised for their garlic fries, but what always draws me to them is their Tapas Platter - I could very happily make a meal of this.  Toasted Bread served with a mound each of hummus, caramelized roasted garlic, olive tapenade, and tomato bruschetta.  I'm getting hungry all over again just picturing it.  There is nothing exotic about any of it... it could so easily be accomplished at home, and by golly, I think I'm going to have to do just that and have an appetizer dinner sometime soon.

So... I bought a bit of stash, and we headed back home to let Sadie Beagle have some attention, and then headed down to my daughter's house - her husband made broiled steaks and baked potatoes, so I wound up eating way too much that day, but all so good that I didn't care.  We played board games - there was a drawing game that is sort of like 'telephone' that was a whole lot of fun but I don't remember the name of it!

I'll be getting in one more visit - they're going to pick me up mid afternoon on Thursday, and Michael can come on down after he gets off work.  That way I can get in some good visiting time with the grandkids. Yay!

Sunday Michael and I quite literally slobbed out on the couch all day doing nothing, but watching an entire season of Sons of Anarchy.

Yesterday was the official reason for this trip - off to see my doctor.  Or, my new doctor as my regular one is gone now.  I'm never thrilled about a new rheumatologist - the visit is never all that productive, just 'this is me, this is my symptoms, no it's not like that for me, it's like this..." and then asked "any questions" and the answer - invariably, no matter what the question is, is, "Hard to say since this is the first time I've seen you... we'll just have to monitor awhile and see how things go."  Yes, doc... been doing that since before you were born, thanks.

He seems nice. I don't trust he's going to be around long enough to worry much about developing a relationship with him.  But...got my labs done, got my meds.

I am highly bored with chronic illness - that's probably a good thing, means I'm not in CRISIS with it, right?  But there is exactly one thing new that I've not been dealing with for three decades and that's the RA deformity in my hands.  Each hand bows out to toward the pinkie fingers, and that creates a lot of pressure-pain at the point where the pinkie connects to the palm.  I also get the hand bones in the palm all snarly and need to massage them carefully to unlock the tangled mess hopefully without too much damage.  I've now asked three doctors how should I be dealing with this? What can be done to minimize the pain and damage (I am aware there deformity cannot be undone, and that the biologics I take are intended to slow down the progression... but how do I deal with the reality of what IS happening?)   I've not gotten a single answer to this - in fact, the looks I get make me think they've never even heard the question before.  Come on, I'm not the first RA patient ever to develop deformities... is there really no path at all to treat and sooth the impact of having hands that are badly mangled?

Of course, the answer is - I'm sure - something that costs nothing to treat... light massage, heat maybe.  Things that no one will get rich researching or creating a pill for.  But it's still impossible to me that doctors in this speciality wouldn't even be able to address non-for profit treatments to make their patients more comfortable.

Bah!

After the appointment, the day got much nicer - Michael surprised me me with a trip to the Easy Spirit shoe store and bought me boots!  I'd mentioned awhile ago that I'd noticed styles were making flat boots easily available and I wanted a pair before it was all back to spike heels and I wouldn't be able to get any.  They're black leather and suede, knee high, with a low 1/2" heel that gives just lift to not feel like I'm wearing gramma shoes, while still being flat enough to not make me risk falling over.  And I can wear them with skirts or pants... or SKIRTS - and look nice, not like I forgot to take off my granny shoes before I went out in public.

Boots make me very very happy - and so does Michael. :)