Weekly Mileage #292 and Our Halloween Costumes

I’ve slept very poorly the last few weeks, which has resulted in slow starts in the mornings that aren’t nearly as productive as I need them to be.

Despite the slow start, I did get some work done on pockets, paid bills, etc.

*tiny little tree frog I found on the railing one morning*

Tuesday I saw an orthopedic doc to get my thumb looked at. Turns out it’s not soft tissue damage like I thought. The damage is to the thumb joint capsule. The injury left scar tissue in the joint and the scar tissue is what’s causing the pain. So the plan is to try to break up the existing scar tissue without causing more scar tissue by using topical pain ointment and paraffin baths. If that doesn’t work, we can try a cortisone shot in the joint, though I’m not fond of that idea as I had a cortisone shot in my shoulder after my accident when I was in high school and it left me in more pain.

I’ve been migraine-y for the last week and it was worse on Tuesday and the nausea from that combined with the visual in my head of a shot in my thumb joint had me almost passing out during my appointment. I had to lay down in another room for a bit before we could finish discussing the treatment plan. I’m feeling a bit better about what’s going on with my thumb and looking forward to being able to fully bend it and to be able to grasp things again without it hurting.

Music lessons were online since my appointment was scheduled too close to the start time for us to drive to our lessons. I had limited options for the appointment and wanted to get in as soon as possible, so thank goodness for online lesson options.

Afterwards I made some over-due doctor appointments and did the grocery shopping, where I got hit with more nausea while in a store. So I think the nausea earlier was mostly the migraine, not necessarily the idea of the shot, but combined together they were definitely problematic. After the shopping I rested a bit before we went to karate class. It was a super full class which meant it was really warm in the room. We learned our new universal, but it’s got a lot of spinning kicks, which are challenging. The lingering almost-migraine plus spinning kicks plus heat left me quite dizzy and a bit nauseous.

Wednesday I took the boys with me to pick up Sunshine after seminary, then took them to get their flu shots. We hurried home so I could hop on a phone call with someone in our ward who is thinking about homeschooling and wanted to get some more information. After the call I had a few minutes before I headed out to my chiropractor appointment. I had to rush home from that for my accountability call. I was going to be about 5 minutes late, but when I went to text her, she’d already asked to push it back half an hour, which gave me time to eat some lunch. A friend dropped off her son to play with the boys for a couple hours, then I hopped on my call.

After my call I finally time to get some work done: making sure I have stuff ready for the shop update that needs to go live on Friday and finishing previously sold-out products for product photos so they can be added to my shop. Busy, productive day.

Thursday the sore throat I’d had since Wednesday was worse. I didn’t feel great and was not nearly as productive as I’d wanted/needed to be. On the plus side, there was no seminary Thursday or Friday because the local schools were out, so we got to sleep in a bit.

Friday I was still not super productive, though we did finish putting our costumes together for our ward trunk or treat activity. We went as a group of lost Scouts. If you look closely, we all have different maps! And apparently we have some gaps in our Scout skills: we can do first aid, but can’t read maps 😉🤣. Sunshine and Jeremy came up with the idea on the way home from one of her Scout campouts and we had a lot of fun with it. The only thing we had to get was the Cub Scout shirts for the boys (off eBay) since they aren’t actually Cub Scouts (it just doesn’t work with our schedule, so we’re waiting till they’re old enough for ScoutsBSA).

Putting liquid latex and fake blood on our faces was too much for River- he got all light headed and had to lay down for a bit. Apparently he’s every bit as much of a lightweight in this area as I am.

We took pictures, then went to Jeremy’s work trunk or treat then the ward activity. We had lots of fun and got lots of compliments on our costumes.

Since I still don’t have my sleep schedule on track and was still recovering from the sore throat/cold I have, I slept in on Saturday. On the plus side, this round of illness was a lot milder than the last round. I do think I need to start wearing a mask in Primary though, to see if I can’t stay healthier that way. It was not super productive day since I wasn’t feeling well.

Sunday Ocean had behavior issues at church and home- probably the worst oppositional defiance we’ve seen in him yet. This was most likely due to a lack of sleep (a chronic issue with him since he wakes up super early regardless of when he goes to sleep) combined with waaaay too much sugar and artificial dyes.

I’m coming up on two weeks of mild migraines- bouts of nausea keep hitting me and the muscles in my neck are super tight. I can’t seem to get them to loosen up enough to get rid of the migraine completely. Our old chiropractor did acupuncture beads in my ears when I had longterm migraine issues, but he retired and our new chiropractor isn’t trained in acupuncture, unfortunately.

*At the ward activity we set up a tent, a fake campfire, and camp chairs and distributed candy from the dutch oven on the campfire.*

I realized it’s been two months since the last dose of the meds that were a total failure and it’s been four months since the worst of my covid. My heart rate and blood pressure issues are still present, though not nearly as bad as they were. My doc said covid can cause them as well, so I got the double whammy from the meds and covid. I still maintain that the meds contributed since the issues worsened each time I increased my dosage, but covid sure didn’t help. From what I hear, they do go away eventually, I just have to be patient until then.

Now that I know what’s going on with my thumb I’m babying it a lot less (I have less fear of causing more damage, though I do still have to be careful with it and will continue taping it during karate) and I’ve already got more range of motion. I’m making more of an effort to use it carefully, rubbing in the topical pain killer several times a day and using the paraffin dip at least once a day. Grasping and pulling are still an issue, but do seem to be improving.