Good morning. How is everyone getting along these days? My state's stay at home order has expired and things are opening back up. Last week, beauty and nail salons, barber shops, etc were allowed to open. This coming week (starting tomorrow), gyms and other businesses will be allowed to open so long as they can maintain safe social distancing procedures, along with the extensive cleaning that will be required. All stores are allowed to open at 50% capacity and restaurants can also begin inside dining at 50% capacity.
We still aren't going out except to buy food and other necessities, go to the doctor, etc. I almost forgot my husband did go get a haircut the other day. A lot of people in my area refuse to wear masks and many don't practice social distancing, so I feel it's still pretty risky.
We've had plenty of things to do to stay busy - I have enough shop projects to keep me busy for months and months - all things I've put off for ages and now have time to get done.
I've been having a tremendous amount of pain in my neck... it started last fall and has kept getting worse. My neurologist touched my neck lightly and told me I have arthritis. He gave me pain pills and said if they didn't help, he'd do a trigger point injection. I just saw my pcp and, after some painful probing, he said my cervical spine is out of place... Oh yay - one says arthritis, the other says cervical spine out. My pcp ordered a neck x-ray and he's right... Some vertebrae are out of place going in one direction, others are out of place going in the other direction. Also, the openings in my vertebrae, through which nerve roots go, are narrowing, which also contributes to pain.
I think I've mentioned that I joined a calligraphy guild last fall and have take a few calligraphy classes... I've had a terrible time with the whole process, no matter which calligraphy hand I've tried. Doing the research on my neck issues, I learn that it can cause handwriting problems as well as the pain. Add my cataracts (not being able to see properly) to the equation and that could explain why I've had so much trouble with the calligraphy. I've also had a lot of trouble with muscle cramps that keep getting worse, for which every doctor says "take magnesium" which hasn't helped, so far. I've more than doubled my dose of magnesium (per doctor's orders) but now find out these cramps may be part of my neck issue.
Anyway, we'll see what direction my treatment takes now that I've had the x-rays and we know what the issue is.
This past week, I've really tried to clean up my diet, but still not doing well enough. Nor have I gotten a lot of exercise, because I've been in a lot of pain. I've actually gained weight - but it's fluctuating a lot, so it's somewhere between 3 and 5 pounds over the past couple of weeks... grrrrr!!! As much as I hate to say it - that's a total of almost 10 lbs gained since this time last year, when my MIL passed away - several of them within the past couple of weeks.
You may recall that, at the end of April, I saw a new endocrinologist who changed my thyroid medication to a lower dose because he insisted I'm hyper (I'm not) - I believe my recent weight gain is a combination of the lower dose of thyroid medication, not eating well and not enough exercise. I'm not going to be able to do anything about the too low dose of thyroid medication, but I do need to get my eating/exercise habits back in shape.
I've read that a lot of walking, standing, etc may not be good for my neck condition, buy yoga might be, so, as I've been saying for ages, I need to get back into that, but will wait to see what direction my neck treatment takes and what's recommended. Right now, a good massage would be just the thing... :-)
So, that's me - how are you doing? I hope you're doing well.
~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~
*Stay safe and wash your hands!!*