Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Doctor, Moronic Highway Work, Doctor

This morning I drove into Philadelphia to see the nurse practitioner at my plastic surgeon's office about a possible hernia. Remember that ice storm we had a few weeks ago? Well, after scrubbing three toilets and two bathtubs, I went outside and helped the kids shovel the ice off the drive. I either pulled a muscle or herniated my abdomen. The NP and I are leaning toward pulled muscle because it has gotten better and she couldn't palpate a bulge when I coughed. If it gets worse we'll do a CT scan, but I'm betting it's going to continue to get better.

On my way into Philadelphia this morning I noticed the Highway Department had one lane on the opposite side of the freeway closed so they could change the bulb in a street lamp. This shocked and angered me. Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the country, yet it's highway system is one of the worst I've ever seen. There are only two lanes escaping the metropolis and when one of them is closed the traffic backs up for miles. So why in the world would they choose 9:00 on a weekday morning to do this stuff?? It's totally insane. Last week when we drove to Philly for King Tut they were doing work on the freeway signs and had one of our lanes blocked. What should have taken us 45 minutes turned into nearly two hours. And now that I think about it, if we hadn't gotten stuck in traffic Rachel wouldn't have had to make a mad dash for a restroom, which means we would have still been in the car and I would have noticed the No Parking sign, thereby saving us $295, give or take a few bucks for legal parking. Maybe I should send my ticket to the Highway Department!

Then it was back to my dermatologist this afternoon. Twenty-one days of high dose steroids later and my vasculitis is starting to clear. I am of the firm belief the steroids had nothing to do with it. I think it just ran it's course. Whatever. I don't care. I'm just glad it's going away.

I took my final steroid last Wednesday. That same day I noticed a couple red, itchy spots on the inside of my left arm. By Thursday I had a full blown rash from my neck to the tops of my feet. It looks like an allergic reaction to something - Heaven only knows what. He did two more biopsies to make sure it's not the same thing with a different presentation.

Oy vey! Eventually my blisters will be completely gone, I won't have a pain in my abdomen whenever I laugh too hard or sneeze or cough or move just the wrong way and I won't be covered with this annoying rash. And I'm going to feel GREAT!

I can't wait.

Labels: medical, traffic, whiney

Mused by Jenster :: 9:34 PM :: 13 People musing:

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