So when I visited the doctor last week for my annual physical, I complained a bit about occasional numbness shooting from my elbow up to my thumb. My doctor took some x-rays and determined I have some bone spurs where my tendons attach to my bones -- not a real surprise, as this arm has been giving me some kind of trouble or another for the past few years.
This year he decided to get a bit aggressive with treatment, and has put me on prednisone to combat the inflammation.
So far, I think it's helping my arm feel better.
But the side effects -- probably the worst I've ever had from a medication. They're not kidding when they say stomach upset and insomnia are a thing with prednisone. I think I've gotten about ten hours of good sleep in the last 48 hours, and the heartburn today has been something else.
But my arm feels better.
I need to hang on for four more days and I'll be done with the prednisone, so that's a good thing.
Just in time to cause more trauma to my arm by having to rebuild the stairs on the back of the house.
And yes, we did look at other things -- it's not heart-related; my EKG was normal this year. That was something I hadn't even thought of until he started going through the other symptoms of heart attack. Not a fun thing to think about.
But I do use that arm a lot; I am right handed, and have been doing a lot of digging and tinkering as I tried to repair our sprinkler system. That's done, thank heaven.
Getting old is hell.
I am losing weight, though, so that's a good thing. I'm not in danger of not being able to reach the control panels.
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