jennlk: (ornament)
mostly.

Still in thumb splint; expect to be there for the next month or so. Appointment with specialist is next year - to be expected, with two midweek holidays between now and then. Still rather annoying. MRI got pushed back to next weekend because the insurance company is being stupid. Typing is annoying, as my right hand gets ahead of my left. :(

FCB Holiday concert on Sunday went well. Extra concentration in the bass line (or at least three of us -- dunno about LF) for Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring after Mr FCB Announcer Guy dedicated it to Murph. I suspect we were not the only ones.

Mum says she is snowbound but safe -- 14" of snow in the foothills will do that. She says the problem now is that it's freezing every night, so the roads are pretty much impassable until the black ice melts the next day. Expects a couple more days of that, and then the rain Friday will melt everything.

Bell Choir is playing with the kids for a 'sing along' this Sunday. There are a few books of music for bell choirs arranged so that the players don't have to read music to play - ring on the circled syllables, damp on the underlined ones, and that's what we're using. The words for these carols are not the ones I have memorised. This is irksome. Then we play something else, this one arranged for bell choir, on Xmas Eve. We're rehearsing them at the same time, so some people (who are not paying attention) are slightly confused.
jennlk: (Default)
Still in the thumb splint. Doc has agreed with an MRI, so that's ordered for this weekend (xrays showed no damage to bone and only minimal joint degeneration, so there's that). Still waiting for the specialist to call back WRT scheduling an appointment with him. Small neoprene splint not sufficient for everyday wear, but okay(ish) for rehearsal/concert. The S word has been mentioned, by both OT and doc.

DB working Nutcracker, now at a different venue. No uber-annoying auditorium manager, which is a plus. He has submitted his 2 week notice, with an addendum that it's entirely the new auditorium manager's fault, and that he'll be more than willing to come back when the AM is replaced. He says he just can*not* work with the new guy. (and it's not because he's new, it's because he's inappropriate for the job. He came from a university auditorium where he was the assistant, and is not suited for being the boss at a HS venue.) The outside clients don't like him, either, and have not been particularly shy about letting the administration know. DB came home from the Nutcracker stage rehearsal absolutely incensed.

Concert Sunday with bonus change in soloist, as original soloist has a family emergency to deal with. {sarcastic voice} Gosh, it's too bad there's not a university with a strong music program anywhere nearby, nor one where the band administration knows people {end sarcasm} The new soloist is an associate professor at UMich, playing mostly jazz and contemporary small-group music. I hear that they have cancelled the last two rehearsals for December -- which is good, because I was going to skip them anyway.

I've been filling the birdfeeders, although not as much as I might expect -- despite being cold, we've not had a lot of snow or wind, so the birds can get to the grains and seeds in the fields and on trees/shrubberies. The pond has frozen over (again), so the birdbath has been getting emptied.
jennlk: (snowflake)
At least for a while -- they tell us that it will warm up (and rain!) this weekend. Monday I woke up to five inches of very-nearly-slush on the ground. I shoved it off the driveway, as it was going to get well below freezing and I didn't want to have the area in front of the garage full of frozen ruts. I only did the area where we turn, because that snow was heavy!

Got word today that one of the FCB tuba players died earlier this month -- he did play the Halloween concert, but that was the last time he played with us. He was in his 80's, so he had a good run.

Still not a lot of progress on the thumb. The OT has asked my doc to order an MRI, as she can't figure out what's amiss in there -- there's something wrong, but the muscles/ligaments are so small that it can be hard to tell exactly what. Her current theory is that there's a tear within (or away from) some scar tissue from an old sprain, but she wants to take a look. Meanwhile, we're addressing the symptoms, and it's far better than it was, but still not even to 75% -- there are still far too many things that hurt to do, and it's inconsistent.

J is spending 12 hours a day away from home; DB is working Nutcracker and coming home between 8 and 9 every evening(and managing to not get too annoyed with the auditorium manager). OTOH, J is also (finally, after 20+ years!) finishing the drywall work in the basement stairwell.

The black cat has resigned himself to winter. He's not pleased, but at least he's not giving me the hairy eyeball when I open the door for him. Sometimes he even goes out!
jennlk: (Default)
Just the three of us. Lasagne, crescent rolls, salad, and the pumpkin crisp I never made last year. DB started clearing off the kitchen table before lunch, so that I wouldn't have to do it while in the middle of dinner prep. J actually helped this year (!) -- usually he doesn't even notice that I'm clearing the table. We'll see how long he manages to put his crap away. (Usually, 75% of the stuff on the table is his stuff that he can't be bothered to put away.)

Mum (living in NC) was off to T'day dinner with her extended NC family. Her best friend from HS lives down the hall, and *her* daughter lives in the next town over, and Mum has been her "Aunt Suzi" forever. Mum just got back from shuttling AC down to Cocoa last week, and will be going down in Jan for a bit. AC just turned 90, and other than not driving (due to post-concussion symptoms) is still living on her own.

SR is working (team leader on the catering staff) the race schedule at the (horse) racing track across the street from the sub she lives in. She can walk to work, which makes the commute pretty easy. She's sent us a couple of pictures of her in her spiffy sharp black-and-white staff uniform - one with a hi-viz vest over on moving day, and yesterday with a clear raincoat, as it is now spring in Australia and it's doing the spring rains thing. She says that she's adopted "competency is its own punishment" as her work mantra, as she got hired on as a team leader despite no managing experience.

My thumb is getting better, but there are still a few things that make me go "Ow". The OT has told me that I can swap into the smaller splint for daytime now, but still wants me in the big one at night. Two more weeks of OT, and then we reassess -- she has figured out a few more things it isn't, and has mentioned that she may be suggesting a referral to a hand specialist. I'm kind of afraid to ask her if I should take a concert session off (Holiday concert is 9 December, the next one is in March).

The black cat is annoyed by the change in weather -- he wants it warm and not-snow-covered, tyvm.
jennlk: (daisy)
It's the little things that are the most annoying.
- I can't find a glove/mitten to fit over it. I'm in the process of building one, but acquired feline "assistance", so have called a temporary halt to that project.
- keys can't go into left hand jacket pocket; grocery lists can't go into left hand trouser pockets.
- Typing is hard because I don't have my usual finger spread, and I have to hit the space bar with my right thumb *every* time. And it hurts in weird ways, especially now that she's given me some exercises (will be mentioning that tomorrow when I see her).
- I can't wear a wrist watch. I have tried wearing one on my right wrist in the past, but was never able to get used to it. And of course I can't buckle it on anyway.
- opening safety bottles is harder. Squeezing tubes (toothpaste, skin lotion) hurts in ways it didn't before I got the splint.
- I can't bend my wrist at all, which is not what I bargained for. I mean, it makes sense as the thumb is really part of the wrist, but it's odd. And makes driving different because I can't grasp the steering wheel with my palm & fingers.

The smaller neoprene splint arrived Tuesday, just in time for me to not need it for nearly a week. I will try it for bells on Sunday, but it seemed to work well enough with the big splint at rehearsal. I will be wearing it for band rehearsal on Monday. I managed to play quite a bit with the big splint on last Monday, but when we got to the faster pieces and/or marches, I had to take it off because I couldn't get the intervals with it on. There were some interesting pains to describe to the OT on Wednesday. (I did get a "really? Pain right there even with the tape?" "yep." More clues for the puzzle, I guess.) Still no real diagnosis, but she says there's still quite a bit of inflammation in there. And the webbing between thumb and hand has some lovely deep knots in it, even with the splint and not much movement.

In other news, the pond skinned over with ice yesterday, but by this afternoon the ice had turned to a layer of slush, as the air temperature rose and we got a couple of inches of snow. Snow is actually accumulating a little bit on the roads & driveways, so that's a bit amusing.

J and I went off to WindyCon last weekend. It was fun. Tegan's costume was gorgeous! I talked to people I haven't talked to since last year's Windy (what with me skipping Cap and Muse not happening...).
jennlk: (stompety)
"hrm. that's odd"

Just once it might be nice to have a PT/OT look at something and say "I know what that is, and we can get to treating it right away". But Nooooo, it's "that's odd. I know a few things it *isn't*...."

On the other hand, the first step toward determining what it actually is from the remaining options is the same - 'here, have a splint to immobilize the thumb so that the inflammation can go down. Wear it all the time for the next three or four days. apply heat twice a day for no more than 15 minutes at a time". She may send me back to the doc for x-rays, but agrees with the doc that it's not (or at least not primarily) arthritis in the joint. She says it's one or more of: ligament, tendon, muscle damage; probably exacerbated by arthritis. It is not any type of nerve impingement, and almost certainly not inflammation of a tendon sheath. Other that that? we keep trying things and figure out what it is by what makes it feel/work better.

She gave me a big splint, and told me where I could order a smaller one that I should be able to wear during rehearsal (insurance will only pay for one), but that won't be here until after rehearsal next week. I can take the big one off for rehearsal - she'd rather I didn't, but understands why (she used to be an oboe player).
jennlk: (Default)
Well, if by lovely fall day you mean rain and wind, sometimes separately, sometime together. It's still nearly 50F (9C), so it's not nearly as bad as it could be. The black cat has been out a couple of times already today, annoyed every time; but he keeps going out when it's not raining, and romping for the door when it starts to rain again.

I'm nearly done with the gardens - only two to go, and one of them is the one up against the house which doesn't have a lot left to be done. I just need to cut back the alliums and the other late blooming things there. Saturday I finished the E garden, and Sunday I did the garden by the forsythia patch. I should probably clean out under the forsythia and trim it back, too, but not today. I'm hoping for one or two more 'warm' days (or at least dry) this year.

I discombobulated a new doc yesterday. After reading the description of my symptoms (as taken down by a not-quite-intern), she was pretty sure of the diagnosis, and was discombobulated when I told her all the reasons that her preliminary diagnosis was wrong. After a couple of tests, she pretty willingly admitted that she was wrong (it was almost certainly *not* what she thought), and perhaps she learned something. I expect there was some discussion after. {My primary doc is a supervising doc for UMich residents/interns, so I often get baby/new docs when I go in. She still has final call on treatment. She has told me (she lives in Chelsea) that she likes sending new docs to me because I'm good at describing symptoms. Not just 'my thumb hurts', but 'my thumb hurts here when I do W, and this-other-place when I do Y'.} So I get six weeks of PT with the hand specialist, and maybe a splint. It may just be tendinitis, but there may be some actual damage underlying that, hence the splint. I find out tomorrow. whee?

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