445x2 + 44x2

I normally limit my blog to my knitting, but I have to share this with the word wide web. I’ve just come back from the mailbox. No mail, but I walked 445x2 + 44x2 steps (yup I counted everyone of them) without pain for the first time in at least a year and a half, and all because I was forced to change doctors. My “old” doctor fired me. I wasn’t a good patient, kept canceling appointments and not showing up. One of the reasons was that I have suffered from a severe depressive episode for at least a year with lots of panic attacks due to concomitant PTSD. I’ve also been experiencing a tremendous amount of pain from osteoarthritis (it sucks getting old). Chronic severe pain doesn’t help the other two conditions either. I decided my best bet was to go to a walk-in clinic in the next “city”. The clinic is run by two nurse practitioners with a supervising physician. I figured that this would serve my needs of not always being able to make it for a scheduled appointment. For that convenience, I will, of course, have to pay with waiting time, but I always have my knitting. The nurse practitioners came highly recommended by friends who have been going there for years. Another benefit is that the two NPs are partners in real life and are lesbians. Hurray! Well, to make a long story short, my previous doctor had prescribed a pain medication, Ultram, which only partially eased the pain as long as I didn’t move around. The new NP suggested a try of a medication called Relafen which is a cox inhibitor and is used for osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. Wellllll, I am on my second day of the meds and I made it to the mailbox and back, fed and watered the chickens and turkeys and tucked them in, all without pain.

No city sounds on the way to the mail box; the birds were still chirping since it wasn’t dark as yet, but otherwise it was very quiet and peaceful. I saw a lot of deer tracks, both big ones and smaller ones, turkey tracks, and every two or three steps a few small ant hills. There were even two mole holes in the middle of the driveway. The tree leaves are finally fully developed, the ferns are unfolding, and the milkweed is growing. I saw no blooms on the blueberries. Everything is late this spring due to the cold weather. I even got to squash a couple of tent worms, one of my favorite pastimes in the spring.

The photos are of things that catch my eye around the property.

Do you think, maybe in a few days, I will be able to block the shawls I’ve knitted? I hope so, but as of tonight things are looking up.

Knit on!