Blow off Auntie Em

Throw-away entry # 52468348: My name is not Kevin. I am not a guy. I will never ever be either of these things.

I do not understand WHY people have such a hard time spelling my name when it’s already written out for them. I sent someone an email asking for further info this morning. My name is part of my email address, it’s also the display name associated with the address, AND it is written in the signature in my email. THREE PLACES where my name is CLEARLY spelled out. And yet the lady STILL responded to the email and said “Hi Kevin” in her greeting. She even quoted my email, so she had all THREE correct spellings of my name RIGHT THERE in front of her. Sigh.

Yes, I know my name is unusual, and people will get it wrong sometimes. Especially pronounciation. But is it really too much to expect people to get the spelling right, when it’s right there in front of them, they only have to copy it? Granted, I’m grumpier than all get out today anyway (which will probably come later in a locked entry), but it would still bug and baffle me if I wasn’t grumpy. I can copy names when they’re written out in front of me, why can’t other people do the same with mine?

Rubber bands expand in a frustrating sigh

Almost a month ago, I made an entry saying that I’d been having trouble sitting, and was diagnosed as having a subluxated coccyx (dislocated tailbone). I had a lot of issues getting an appointment with the pain management doc (referrals not getting faxed, etc) so I wasn’t able to see her until last Wednesday. At the appointment, she asked a lot of questions, went over my medical history, etc. She also mashed on my tailbone to see the area of the pain and I could barely sit the rest of the day from the increased pain because of that. It’s been worse since then, and the painkillers are just barely working any more.

The course of action recommended by the pain doctor is to have a corticosteroid injection into my tailbone; kind of similar to what I have to do with my knees on a regular basis. There is a big difference though – with the knees, the doctor can do the injection right then and there and I’m on my way. With a steroid injection in the tailbone, though, they actually have to put me under general anesthesia to knock me out for the procedure. They’ll then use x-rays to help pinpoint the exact location, and use that to guide the injection. I am having this procedure done on Thursday at noon; and afterwards I’m headed home to sleep the rest of the day away. Mom is taking the whole day off work to play chauffeur for me.

Yesterday, I had my appointment with the orthopedist about my tailbone. After I finally found his office (the stupid insurance co had the wrong address listed online), I didn’t have to wait very long to get in to see him. I liked that quite a bit. First I met with his PA, and she did the interviewing and she decided they were going to do x-rays on me, since I didn’t have the original ones my main doc had done. They have their own x-ray equipment and technicians in-house, so that didn’t take long at all to do.

After the x-rays, the doctor came in to meet with me. He showed me on the x-rays where the dislocation was – it’s just the very tip of my coccyx that is out of place. He said that it actually looked like it was arthritic, which would contribute to this problem. I had no idea that you could get arthritis of the coccyx, but it is a joint, so it makes sense. So I have arthritic knees and an arthritic ass. Haha. Anyway, he went over the treatment options with me, and the thing he suggested as the first line of treatment is the very procedure that I’m having on Thursday. I’m also supposed to continue on my current weight loss plan, since getting the extra weight off will help all of my joints. I bought this nice soft comfy coccyx cushion at Brookstone, using the pillow was of course another suggestion. He said that any kind of surgical procedure (i.e. to remove the tip of the tailbone) would be the very, very last resort because those type of surgeries don’t have a high success rate, and the area is also more prone to infections. So, for now I’m to get this shot, and hope like hell that it helps. If not, I’m supposed to try getting another 2-4 shots before going back in to see him to talk about more drastic measures.

The really cool part of the visit – the doctor had print outs of the x-rays and he let me keep them. They’re not the best, since they’re print outs, but it’s still cool. I tried to scan them last night, but we had issues getting the scanner set up. So, I took a couple snapshots of them on my digital camera. Since the x-ray is all greyscale, those ended up slightly dark, so I went in and edited them, outlining the different bones in yellow. Haha. I’m going to tuck them under a cut, so if you’re interested in seeing the x-ray, you can.

The small piece on the bottom towards the left of the image is the dislocated tip. It is actually supposed to be up against the other bone. It’s pretty obvious in that image that the bone definitely isn’t where it belongs and that’s why I’m in so much pain.

But, just for extra comparison, the drawing below is pretty much how a normal coccyx should line up. And mine definitely doesn’t look like that.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

That’s my Mali. Isn’t she absolutely adorable? Clicking on the picture will take you to a mini album of her in that hat. haha. Ignore the mess behind her, my room is currently having the wallpaper stripped, sheetrock repaired, being repainted & papered, new curtain rods being installed (those are in the box on the bed behind her), and carpeted; so it’s more than a little disaster area at the moment. I can’t even sleep in there because it’s so insane. Ha.

But as I was saying, that’s my Mali. When I first came home with the elf-eared Santa hat, she was terrified of it. Thirty minutes later, she was trying to eat it. Another half hour after is when she had her picture taken wearing it. The shelter she was adopted from is having pictures with Santa the next few weekends. It’s highly tempting to take her out there and get her pictures done (especially since they’re also micro-chipping pets for only $15), but I’m afraid dragging her out into public with strangers around might be too overwhelming for her, and might create a major setback in her recovery.

She’s seen a tremendous improvement over the last couple of months on the amitryptiline. It took a while before we saw any results, in fact it didn’t seem to work until we used it in combo with a vet-administered steroid shot. Since then, though, her belly/tail/leg fur has been growing back and she’s starting to look healthy again. She’s also started acting like a kitten again — I hadn’t realised how much her personality had changed while she was chewing. I knew she was more terrified of strangers than ever, but I didn’t realise that she was so lethargic and kind of depressed. The change was slow enough that it just seemed like she was mellowing out as she got older.

Now that she’s doing better, she’s constantly going crazy, chasing her toys or bottle caps all over the house. A night or two ago, she actually decided she wanted to climb up the walls and race across shelves containing Precious Moments figurines and other porcelain collectibles. This shelf is normally out of her reach, but she made it up there, and disturbed several figures from their resting places. Luckily, nothing fell off the shelf or got broken, but she did make a racket as she raced across the shelf and moved the pieces. She’s also not quite as scared of people anymore. She will still hide when a stranger comes over, but she’s not as frantic to get to a hiding spot, and she comes back out of hiding considerably quicker after she thinks the danger is gone. I think she ventured out only a mere 5 minutes after Martin finished doing repair work on one of the walls in my room and that is a major improvement for her.

She’s been off the meds for about 3 weeks now, and I noticed last night that it looks like she might have started chewing again. Some of the fur that was growing out seems to be a good bit shorter than it had been. I guess we’re in for another vet visit and another refill of her meds. I know that it isn’t actually physically harming her to lick her fur off (aside from the hairballs), but with her being such a slender cat, it’s even more noticeable when her fur is missing. It makes me feel like I’m not taking good care of her, even though I am. Hell, that cat is spoiled rotten when it comes to food and toys and attention and gets her shots every year. So I know she’s getting good care, and the problem is mostly psychological and not physical; as long as she’s healthy, the fur loss shouldn’t really matter.