Climbing the Third Stair

Today was delightful.

Yesterday I finally decided that I didn't have to live in pain and made an appointment to see my doctor; and his office was able to get me in this morning. I explained my symptoms and what I had and had not done, and he diagnosed a sinus infection and prescribed a steroid to de-inflame my sinuses and an antibiotic to clear out the infection. He didn't do any lab tests, but maybe when the patient complains of constant crawling pains up and down the sides of her face lab tests become unnecessary. At my request he also wrote down his recommendation of a humidifier or vaporizer, so I can use my flex plan money for it.

While I was there I discussed my health-related (irrational) anxiety with him. He agreed (in a nice, reassuring way) that my paranoid anxiety really was far-fetched and unworthy of worry. His opinion was that it would probably fade on its own, but if it did not then I should talk to someone about it. He also said he could write me a prescription for something to get me 'over the hump' if I needed, and if I do end up seeking therapy I will be sure to discuss this with my therapist. If a medication can get me some breathing space while I develop some healthy coping strategies I'd be a fool not to use it.

I may not need to, however. I took the first steroid at lunch and the first antibiotic at dinner and the change is amazing. I still have little twinges of pain in my face, but they are pale reminders of what I have been living with. And it is amazing how much my outlook on life has improved now that I am not in constant pain. It's magical!

The other thing that made this day good was that I wore the shirt that I had embroidered, and collected a lot of nice comments on it. In the afternoon a co-worker with a cell phone that could take pictures and email them took some photos of it, so I can post them later. This is doubly exciting, as it means I can finally put something up on my deviantArt account; until now I've only used it to keep tabs on a few artists I like.

I haven't updated much this month, and part of me regrets that as I've been having a lot of things happen. Part of me doesn't, because a lot of those things are me dealing with various medical issues, and do I want to be publicly whiny about the unknown thing that has taken up residence in my right sinuses? Probably not. Being publicly whiny about psuedoephidrine and my love/hate relationship with that drug might have been somewhat more entertaining, but while under its influence I didn't have the focus to post to my journal.

Right now I am contemplating dinner, L5R fiction, and my totally messed-up sleep cycle. I just spent two nights training a new baker, and got to bed about 7:30 am this morning. And got up about 3 hours later, so that I could get to church. I did not fall asleep during the sermon, which pleased me. At 6 pm I just had to lay down for a two hour nap, which means I'll be up all night. This isn't all bad, as I still have one more night of training to do, but it isn't helping my feeling of being only lightly attached to reality.

This brings up the important question of how attached to reality you have to be in order to write. Or at least, write L5R fic. I should probably get dinner first--it's been over eight hours since lunch, and though I don't feel hungry I suspect that some sound nutrition would do me some good. I'll have the left-over cabbage salad in the fridge and...something.