2003-06-04 - 6:44 a.m.
The more you know...
Well. I'm nauseated, and I have a headache. Traffic coming back from Baltimore yesterday was so horrendous, I thought I was going to meet my maker a couple of times. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Nor does any of the silly interpersonal stuff that's been going on in my life lately. Nothing can get me down, because I finally know what's wrong with me. Yup. I got a real diagnosis for my hand and arm pain. From here on, though it will still be painful for a while, it can only get better. I cried in the doctor's office when she told me that. Two years of pain, steadily getting worse and worse, and no idea what was wrong. So I cried in relief. Took me a while to stop, too. Plus, the lidocaine she injected into me made me woozy, so I was quite a sight, I'm sure. If you really want a rundown of the diagnosis and treatment, e-mail me, and I'll be happy to fill you in on the details, but it's long and dull, like any medical description, so I thought I'd skip it here, and just feel happy. Though JHU in Baltimore is a really good hospital, the designers that landscaped it had to have been on crack. The road in front of the main entrance is cobbled. As in cobblestones. As in small-sports-car-with-truck-style-suspension will vibrate itself to pieces if forced to drive on it too long. Man, one city block of sheer agony. In days of yore, cobblestones were used as paving because they were what was available. The gaps in between the stones (that cause the horrible road-feel) were filled in with sand so that the road was at least a little bit smoother. The JHU cobblestones are *not* filled in - in fact, they sit up higher than the cobblestones I remember in the streets of London when I was a child (they're all covered up now). Crack. These people were definitely on crack. I have to admit, I hate hospitals - no matter how nice the people are, how well the place is laid out or decorated, hospitals scare me. The corridors that lead on and on and on, the strange almond-coloured walls as you get further away from the main lobby areas, the crowds. The feeling that you can get lost very easily. I *hate* getting lost. Of course, now that I've been there once, I'll be able to find my way back (and I go back next week for another injection), and the only thing to deal with will be the traffic coming back. But it's okay... Everything's okay.
Dorsal - Ventral
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