Massive pain

Woke up in horrible pain from my hands at 5am. ankles, knees, feet also bad. heating pad, ice on ankles, voltaren, finally vicodin. my hands feel like claws. i have tons to write but it hurts. So will read physical books all day. Orthopedist at 1:30 in mission bay. I am going alone in a taxi.

also having harsh cymbalta side effects in the night and this morning. like restless leg, but in the small of my back and jerking down both legs. and my neck too. staying in bed with tea and cookies. that's my plan. feeling sad and discouraged from pain.

a good visit

The orthopedist was super nice (again). She congratulated me for getting this much better. Hard to believe, but that's how it goes. She said that it all seems normal for this sort of injury and it is slow but there is progress. In 2 months I see her again. At that visit she says I will probably be able to walk in to her office but still in the boots. And will likely be walking around the house without boots but wearing them to go any further than around the house. We'll see!

I have some changed up physical therapy including "iontophoresis". Okay... And what is a CAM walker? Must look all this up.

I feel perkier. May try to unpack some books. D. came back from a massage with tamales for tonight and pastries for the morning.

I have a mad urge to write a mystery novel starring a Mary Sue character for my mom and involving, somehow, horses, needlepoint, silks and yoga classes, interior decorating, and her recipes (as all the mystery novels I'm reading seem to center on food). The first mystery would center around both horses and (somehow?) an evil giant corporation perpetrating some sort of stock fraud, which she would solve using her skills as a business reference librarian and student of Western trail riding. As a detective she would be slightly insecure, yet with awesome insight into people and an attractively sweary level of cynicism. Her faithful sidekick, Watson to her Sherlock, would be my dad as he mooches about the house talking to the cats, playing Civilization, and making up fake errands to go up and down the stairs extra times to win another FitBit badge as he mutters sarcastic things about world politics and the ongoing investigations. Somehow his classes in German language -- unexpectedly useful -- would factor into the mystery's solution. The detective lady (let's call her Carrie DiFranco) would get to give a very satisfying "how I solved it " clever speech to the assembled suspects at the end, perhaps at a dinner party of her own making.