Starting again on a Sunday

So where am I at the moment.

At the moment I'm still getting over one of the ickier episodes in recent memory.  About two weeks ago I had a cyst removed from under my skin.  Now no one worry, it was not cancer, it was never cancer.  But it was large and in an uncomfortable spot and the skin over it was getting kind of thin so my doctor said I really should have it out.  He promised me three stitches, a few days of soreness, and nothing to worry about forever more.

One infection and two weeks later and I still have a bandage wrapped around the spot.  This has not been fun.

It wasn't any sort of remarkable infection, just good old staph that decided to crawl in there and set up house keeping.  I had to have it cleaned out, which was disgusting, and then packed with antibiotic-soaked gauze, which was painful, and then have that repeated every two days until yesterday when they finally said it was too small to pack anymore.  It's still draining guck into bandages, but everyone swears it's behaving and healing now.  I'm taking their word for it, where it is I can't exactly see it.  Thankfully my wife has health care experience.

Two days before I had the cyst out I landed int he ER in the middle of the night.  I pulled a muscle in my back/shoulder lifting weights a while ago.  (See this?  Don't do this unless you know *exactly* what you're doing.  Have someone walk you through it a few times before you try it on your own.  Learn from my fail.). Not a big deal, but it didn't feel like it was healing so I started going through the process of seeing a physical therapist.  FSM bless the American Health Care System, it takes 2-3 months to get in to see a physical therapist.  This process started in August, I believe, and I'm not actually seeing her until November.

In the meantime said muscle went into a spasm, clamped down on all the muscles leading to my arm, which pissed them off, and which caused me to wake up in unheard of agony.  Seriously.  Waking up after major surgery was not that painful.  Miscarrying twins was not that painful.  Getting punched in the face was not that painful.  All I could do was curl up like a pretzel and whimper until the drugs kicked in.

So what have I been on for the past three weeks or so:

• Antibiotic - for the infection, natch.  The big, horse pill kind.
• Muscle relaxant - to get that back spasm to break.  Has depression as a side effect.
• Steroid pack - deals with the inflamed nerves.  Also makes your blood sugar go straight to hell.
• Narcotics - makes everything better.  In the sense that you're already depressed from one drug, exhausted from fighting the infection and from your blood sugar going to hell, and now taking a nap seems fine and dandy because the pain is over there somewhere.

I spent three weeks getting exactly crap done.  I dragged my ass to the couch every day.  If we ate off clean plates and wore clean clothing I called it a victory.

As of today I'm only on the antibiotics.  I weaned off the last of the rest on Friday and woke up this morning with them out of my system.  Thank the stars I can think again.

So what did I accomplish today?

• Got my kitchen back in working order (three loads of dishes)
• Prepped veggies for Kitty's lunch for the week
• Got all caught up on our clothing laundry
• Made dinner
• Kitty picked up and vacuumed the living room for me, as well as changed the bed
• Mended one of Kitty's skirts
• Decorated for Halloween (finally!)
• Edited and posted a new chapter
• Started working on a Xmas gift
• Put up this blog post

I am not complaining.

A few other things have happened, but I want something to write about tomorrow.   So for now I am off to bed.