The bad is that I am in serious pain and can barely walk.
Saturday during the day I noticed a mild twinge in my left hip joint, the kind of thing I notice from time to time which normally goes away on its own in an hour or so. Saturday night I sat down at the computer for a couple of hours. When I got up, I was quite sore and limping. I have no idea what if anything actually happened to cause this; to my knowledge I didn’t do anything unusual. I had a hard time finding a position that worked for me to sleep in, but I found one (on my back, knees together and slightly bent on top of a pillow). When I woke up I felt a lot better and thought “Great! Maybe I’ll be over it.” Then I tried to get out of bed, though.
I was seriously hobbling yesterday, but able to make my way around. I bought myself a cane at the drugstore, on the theory that recently I’ve had two twisted ankles and a bad hip, and
plumtreeblossom has had occasional minor knee and ankle trouble, and her mother visited and could
really have used a cane while she was here, and it seemed like an investment with excellent returns. And I drove to
plumtreeblossom’s instead of taking the T, despite the fact that that means I have to pay $20 for parking at work tomorrow, because I didn’t think I could handle the walk to and from the T station.
It’s a good thing I have that cane; I don’t know what I’d do without it.
I was mostly OK for my date with Mare, limping with the cane and occasionally in pain but functional. When we went to bed (around midnight) I tried to duplicate the position that had worked for me the previous night. I woke up once probably around 1:30 and had to get some Aleve. At 3:00 I woke up moaning and couldn’t stay in bed because I couldn’t find a position that didn’t hurt. Even with the cane, I couldn’t pick up my left leg to take a step and I couldn’t put any weight on it, so I had this funny shuffle where I’d scoot my good foot forward on the floor, balancing with the cane, and then slide my left leg along the floor. Sitting hurts a lot less than lying down, so
plumtreeblossom set me up in the living room with my laptop. (I don’t normally carry that with me; it’s fortuitous that I had it with me today.) I’ve been sitting for an hour, and I’m feeling a lot better. With the cane I can take steps; even a few small steps without it. (I tested this just now by going to the kitchen for a cupcake and some water.) An hour ago I was debating whether I needed to go to the emergency room right away, but now (if I don’t get worse) I think I probably won’t even have to tomorrow.
This is weird. Nothing
happened to cause this. It definitely feels like a joint thing; it feels like it’s right in the ball-and-socket joint (although I don’t know if that’s the sort of thing I can tell). It’s definitely not muscular. And although even small movements hurt, it seems like it’s very seriously aggravated by long periods of immobility (like my couple hours sitting at the computer or my three hours in bed tonight), and it seems like using the joint (however gently and gingerly) helps.
*Sigh.* I hope this is just a weird thing that goes away and doesn’t come back, and not the first discovery that I’m developing arthritis or something. The last thing I need is
another major medical adventure to embark upon.
Anyway, I think I’m going to try sleeping in this chair shortly. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable now.
Sorry for bending your collective ear!
PS — The other bad is that the wireless here seems to be really sporadic. :-)