Wow! What a day!

 I had almost back to back appointments with a physical therapist and my doctor. I, who am given to anxiety attacks, was off the wall about this. At the PT clinic, I called and asked the receptionist/girl-of-many-jobs to come help me in. She did willingly but said, “Wow. This isn’t a good sign.” I agreed. Actually the appointment went well; the therapist thinks he can help me with loosening my back, pain control (I don’t have that much pain any more), strengthening my legs, decreasing the swelling in my ankle which may help with the dropfoot, and best of all getting my self-confidence back. He did some heat treatment and ultrasound and had me do some stretches, after which he worked on my back. All gentle and reassuring, and I felt better.

Then I made a speed run to Jordan’s office to get her key to my house because I’d locked myself out.

Then back to my doctor’s office, which is just around the corner from the physical therapist. He is an astute observer—said my tremor was worse, so was my gait, and he saw a slight tremor in my face (oh, please no!). Sending me to a neurologist for a consultation but has no objection to my continuing osteopathic manipulative treatment plus physical therapy and for now not getting steroid injections. As for surgery, which the physiatrist mentioned, he said to my great relief that he’d want a lot more studies before that. And I said, “No back surgery.” I did learn at least one lesson from being married to a surgeon: surgery begets surgery. And I’ve noticed that’s particularly true for back surgery.

So I’m a bit relieved tonight. And if they find some organic cause for my tremors and lack of balance, I’ll be relieved to know that it’s not all anxiety, which I always thought it was and considered a weakness on my part. You know the old joke about the hypochondriac who died and had on his tombstone, “I told you I was sick!”

Happy hour, as usual, at the house—this time from four to almost seven. It cheers me to have people of all ages here winding down the day.

Enough about my health woes. No more until I have something positive to report. There’s a lot of work ahead of me.