February 1, 2002

[General] Ow.

My arm hurts. More precisely, my elbow hurts.

I am not sure what I did to it. I woke up a couple of weeks ago feeling like I had slept on in funny, like maybe I had hyper-extended the elbow. I was sure that it would get better quickly. I was wrong. Every day it seems to hurt worse. As of now, I can't really straighten that arm all the way without wimpering and if I can manage to get it straight, I certainly can't flex my wrist or twist my forearm. What I can't do most, though, is lift anything with my arm straight.

So tomorrow, I need to go to the doctor to get my referral for the radiologist who will take pictures of my elbow and try and determine what it is that I have done.

The leading theory is that I sprained it when I fell on my porch and banged up me knee, even though that happened a week or so after I felt the initial pain. It is felt, by many who aren't doctors, I hasten to add, that maybe I did just sleep on it funny and that it would have healed on its own, if I hadn't fallen on it later in the week. Maybe.

In any case, I am off in the morning to get it looked at and to get something from my doctor for the discomfort.

Now, if managed care in this country didn't suck big, rotten, hairy eggs, I would already have something for the discomfort. Because of a recurrent problem with my shoulder, and an increasing inability to tolerate Advil, my doctor has been giving me Celebrex. If you don't know what that is, it is some sort of miracle arthritis medicine that has become de riguer among the senior set. I am sure that you have seen the commercials of the old folks doing tai chi? That's celebrex.

I love this medicine. When my shoulder flares up (I have some sort of calcification--nothing serious, just occasionally painful) or even when I have a headache or a cold--I take celebrex and the pain or the fever or the headache just goes away. And it doesn't make my tummy hurt. So, when my arm started to hurt, I naturally reached for the little blue and white pills. They helped a great deal, for a while.

But then I ran out.

No problem, thought I. I still have refills. So I go to the pharmacy and put in my request: "More Celebrex, please."

But there's a problem. At my company, we recently switched health plans. Seems my new plan only covers celebrex if you are over 65. I guess only old people have arthritis? The pharmacist cheerfully informs me that I can still buy it, I will just have to pay retail. The price isn't that bad, really--$90ish dollars for a bottle of 60 capsules--but more than I am willing to pay. So tomorrow, the pilgrimage to the doctor will also hopefully include some celebrex samples. :)

In other news, my company is rolling out some new enterprise software this weekend and we are in 24x7 support mode through next Friday. I've got graveyard shifts for the whole week--9 PM-9AM, six nights in a row. I knew that there were privledges associated with being the boss! We'll see how that goes when we're in the middle of it--I have never worked nights in my life. My director tried to tell me today that trying new things makes life exciting (although he was using that to try and bully me into trying the escargot) so I am approaching the week with guarded optimism.

I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Posted by Lori at February 1, 2002 10:44 AM