arrrgh!!!!!!!!

[Tora Ziyal]

^I'm so sorry. It's been years since I had a major bank problem, but I still remember how awful it was to discover it on a Friday night, on my way out of town for the weekend. Hopefully, yours will be resolved on Monday.

[Rhubarbodendron]

{{{{{{{{Ghostie}}}}}}} I hope they can solve it really quick! It has never happened to me (...yet!), but it's to be expected, I'm afraid.
I, too, find that evil things tend to happen in the weekend. Heating failures, power cuts, wrong bills, sick pets - whatever you can think of, it invariably happens 5 minutes after everyone closed down for the weekend.

[SmoothieX]

Good friend of mine is going to waste away mentally and physically and die in the next couple years. Fuck it all.

[Shanndee]

I'm so sorry SmoothieX. Is it ALS?

[SmoothieX]

Mitochondrial something or other. Was a little too much freaked out at the time.

I'm complaining that my stuff won't get to my new house here until next week and she's joking about dying.

Absolute sweetheart who talked me through my divorce after she went through hers, she deserves much better.

[Rhubarbodendron]

I'm so sorry to hear that But you two shouldn't give up hope yet. Medicine has made surprising progress in the last decades. Maybe they'll find a cure before it's too late.

[thestrangequark]

Wow, Smoothie, I'm really sorry. I know no words can ever be adequate, I just hope the remainder of your friend's life is as happy and free of suffering as is possible.


My argh moment today has to do with continuing medical tests. I had a nerve conduction test yesterday, which was by orders of magnitude the most horribly painful thing I've ever experienced. Worse than surgery, broken bones, nerve-impinging wisdom tooth roots, spine tattoos...just the worst. The test consisted first of about 15 minutes of mild electric shocks, which weren't bad at all. They were bizarre and uncomfortable, verging on painful, but it was interesting (especially being able to feel how the nerve branches and reaches so that a shock at one point in the calf would spread through to the toes). It was nothing I wouldn't do again for science...or a hundred bucks and a good bottle of wine.

The second half used needles. I don't have a problem with needles and I don't have a problem with the pain of being poked. I have four large tattoos, but more than that, I have type 1 diabetes, which means I've been poking my fingers and arms with needles at least 4 times a day, having lab blood drawn every three months, and giving myself insulin injections at least twice a day since I was twelve. The nerve conduction needles were like nothing I have ever experienced, though. I've had a lot of painful medical procedures done in the past and have been described by medical professionals doing painful tests as "stoic" on more than one occasion (actually, it's how I learned that word when I was a kid!). I completely lost it with this, though. The doctor got 2 needles in my right leg, which were very painful, but not something I couldn't handle, but the first one in my left leg was literally unbearable -- true, blinding, I can't think, just make it stop kind of pain.

It only lasted a few seconds (though it ached for a few hours afterwards), but I was so shaken that I couldn't go back to work afterwards. I walked home to try to cool off, and kept breaking into tears uncontrollably -- even 8 hours later, when I was trying to email my mother about the experience, I couldn't even compose the email without starting to cry. I've never reacted to pain like this before, even today, though I can talk about it without getting upset or crying, I feel worn out. I don't know why my left side was so hyper sensitive -- I was too overwhelmed to ask yesterday.

At least, in the words of the doctor (who was wonderful through all this, by the way) I "definitely do not have diabetic neuropathy."

Argh to fucking pain.

[Tora Ziyal]

^That sounds horrible! Have a hug... {{{{{TSQ}}}}}

[Rhubarbodendron]

{{{{{{{TSQ}}}}}}}
I think the doc must have hit the nerve directly with the needle. A one in a few hundred chance. Still, it shouldn't have happened.
I think you are beginning to be unnerved by all these tests, quite propably close to a depression, and the horrible pain was the drop that made the bucket overflow. I know it's far easier said than done but try to relax and think positive. Get some comfort food and as much sleep and as many hugs as possible, talk with friends and rant as much as you can. It'll help you remaining sane.

[thestrangequark]

Thanks for the virtual hug. Unfortunately the point of the test was actually to hit the nerve directly with the needle -- it was a nerve-conduction test, after all! I was warned that it would be painful, and on the right leg it was indeed extremely painful, but I could at least handle it. On the left leg, though...

I think you're right that part of my bad reaction was due to there being a lot of tests lately, and then that one going so badly just threw me over the edge that day. Fortunately, I'm not experiencing depression, which is good, but I wouldn't blame myself if I was!

[Jim Gamma]

This is insignificant compared to thestrangequark, but I wish someone would create a cure for the common cold - or at least some way of suppressing the symptoms!

[CorporalClegg]

Someone did. He called it "rest."

[Tora Ziyal]

^Yup. And the extra-strength dose is called "sleep".

[CorporalClegg]

Is that the one in the blue bottle?

[Tora Ziyal]

That's it!