December 31, 2017
I was awakened early this morning with sharp pains in my left wrist and radiating down through my left hand to my fingertips. I couldn’t move any parts of my left hand and wrist without severe pain. In addition, my hand appeared to be swollen. Now this is what I would identify as inflammation! Not some mysterious, invisible “owie” deep inside your body that is causing you to have diabetes. But I digress.
I have no strength in my hand and I can’t move my fingers to grasp anything, most significantly, dishes or laundry. I am learning new skills today for 2018: how to do most everything I do but with only 9 fingers (left thumb is totally out of commission). I will definitely be buying a supply of paper plates and plastic flatware and disposable hot cups for coffee.
January 1, 2018
Everyday tasks requiring both hands:
1) Brushing teeth
2) Taking a shower
3) Fastening a bra
4) Pouring coffee
5) Putting on socks and shoes
6) And pants
7) Folding laundry
8) Washing dishes
9) Fastening a FitBit
10) Cooking
11) Opening a jar
12) Opening a milk carton
I give up! I’m going back to bed!
I can’t stay in bed, though. Linda has made an appointment to drive out to Concord to the Bay Area Rescue Center (BARC) to meet a little furry girl who needs a home. This is the worst possible time for me to even think about another dog! Barley has been dead only five days. We haven’t had time to grieve. But maybe Linda needs another baby to help her grieve. She has promised me that she will get up at 8:30 every morning and take her for a walk and ride on her scooter.
It was fate that I had one check left in my wallet. And that direct deposit had just been made into our checking account. Linda had already removed the dog car seat from the van, so our new baby had nowhere to sit but on my lap as we drove home. We spent most of the way home discussing what we should call her. It would definitely not be Dot, the name that was on her adoption papers. We decided on Emily. I talked to her and stroked her back and told her gently she didn’t need to cry now.
But I still could not move my left hand, fingers, or wrist without pain.
Phone Appointment with Doctor On-Call
January 2, 2018
I finally found a phone number to reach a Kaiser “advice nurse” who is actually just the first responder to calls and then decides how to direct your call. She scheduled a phone appointment for me with the on-call physician, a young woman who identified herself as Dr. Nelson. I repeated to her my symptoms and complaints. She told me that it would get better. But she also said that if it’s worse tomorrow to come in to Urgent Care.
It’s NOT carpal tunnel. It’s not peripheral neuropathy. No one has any idea WHAT it is! Or what to do about it. 
So against all better judgment, I took 600mg of Advil Liquid Gels (inbuprofen).
Several months later, I would be able to find her notes from this phone appointment, which read, simply: “The following issue was addressed: NUMBNESS OF SKIN.”
Kaaren Nelson-Munson, MD
Family Medicine
Earthquake on January 4, 2018
I remember lying there in bed, in too much pain to even turn my head, listening to the sounds of things shaking and falling in the other rooms, just waiting for the entire house to cave in! But after several seconds, the shaking stopped and I went back to sleep. When I got up later, I saw that 3 pictures had fallen from the walls.
UPDATE: The numbness and tingling in the thumb is almost all gone, and I can move the thumb joint now, albeit VERY cautiously! The swelling is also going away. Still taking massive amounts of ibuprofen. Don’t know how long I can do that (twice a day) before my stomach rebels!
I have two more acupuncture sessions scheduled: January 5 and January 17.
Meanwhile, I stay at a prophylactic level of CBD & THC (as recommended). So far, no migraines since November (a week after I first started CBD).
Please be gentle with me.
I wouldn’t mind being old if I weren’t also sick and poor.
