Random Cookbook taking a week off

My random cookbook series is taking the week off. Between a shoulder pain flareup and Mr. Fraser's needing the kitchen to make kale chips for a Super Bowl party (they turned out quite tasty), there just wasn't a chance to spend time cooking this weekend.

Watch this space next week, when I'll be cooking from Chili Madness. Mr. Fraser, being Oklahoman and having decided Opinions about chili, will probably disapprove of whatever I produce, so maybe I'll deliberately pick one of the more East Coast, veggie-fied, city slicker recipes. Or I could try Cincinnati Chili...

Where I've been of late

I've been posting a bit less than usual of late, for three reasons:

1) I just finished a novella manuscript and sent it off to my editor. It isn't contracted, so I'm now in a limbo period awaiting response.

2) To reward myself for finishing said manuscript, I went in for a massage, with a new-to-me massage therapist, since my regular therapist had no openings last week. The new therapist gave me such a painful massage I was sure I'd feel wonderful the next day. I mean, if a massage doesn't hurt at all, it doesn't help. So I thought more pain = more gain, especially since it felt like she was really digging into the tightest muscles. Not so much, as it turns out. Somehow what she did made all my shoulder muscles that had been only slightly sore from the push to finish the manuscript seize up so much I missed two days of work last week. It hurt just to sit at my desk and type, despite all the ergonomic accommodations they've made for me, and I learned the hard way from my pinched nerve experience that it's not the kind of pain you want to ignore or try to push through.

Suffice it to say next time I'll wait till my regular therapist has space on her calendar.

3) Mr. Fraser turned 40 on Saturday, so we threw him a shindig.

Anyway, hand and shoulder willing, I should start getting back to a regular blog schedule this week.

Pinched nerve update

I realized I hadn't posted about my pinched nerve in awhile, so...a quick update:

It's better. Mostly. I still get regular flareups of shoulder and arm pain, but if I stay on top of my home exercises and watch my posture, I can manage it and still write and work a full schedule at my day job. I still avoid really heavy lifting, but I can manage everyday things--carrying groceries and the like--with no real issues. I can cook almost anything I want, but I've learned I'll regret chopping-intensive recipes the next day, especially if they involve tough root vegetables. (This despite the fact the pain is on my non-dominant side.)

I don't know if I'll ever be 100% again, but I'm hoping it's like my right ankle, which I severely sprained twice within a year as a high school senior and college freshman. Throughout my college years that ankle ached, popped, and would twist out from under me if I put my foot a smidge wrong. But it gradually improved, and now, many years later, it's only slightly weaker than my never-injured left ankle. Meanwhile, even though my shoulder and arm aren't perfect, I haven't missed any work time because of them in months, and I'm on pace to turn my next manuscript in time, so it's all good. At least, it's all good enough.

Happy New Year!

What's that you say? It's not New Year's Day on any calendar that you know of? Sure it is! It's Miss Fraser's first day of school (she's in second grade now, and I have no idea who took my adorable baby girl and replaced her with this tall, skinny, leggy, but still adorable kid). And as long as I have a kid in school and work at a university for my day job, early September is going to feel at least as much like the start of a new year as the official version in January.

I'm even doing some small, informal resolutions. We just replaced my computer that was stolen in the break-in, and now that I have a new computer and a new contract from Carina, along with a greatly improved pinched nerve, it's time to step up my writing pace accordingly. And I figure if I start back on Weight Watchers today, that gives me almost two months until the Emerald City Writers Conference, where I'll see people who last saw me at RWA in New York. Maybe that's time enough for them to say, "Wow, Susanna, have you lost weight?" And I'm not due for my annual physical till January. Surely four months of Weight Watchers, even with mini-breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas, is time enough to move the scale a bit and make my doctor happy.

What about you? Is September a new year for you, formally or otherwise? Any fall resolutions?

What a week (with three Public Service Annoucements)

I don't think I've EVER been quite so glad to see Friday get here.

Monday during the day I had an appointment with a neurosurgeon as part of the ongoing hand-neck-shoulder saga. (My orthopedist wanted me to see him about possibly getting a steroid injection for my pinched nerve.) I wasn't crazy about him, since he was obviously of the Me Doctor, You Patient school that gives you minimal information. He examined me, clucked thoughtfully, and referred me for an MRI on Tuesday and a follow-up visit Thursday, refusing to speculate on my likely prognosis or treatment options. But the very speed with which they got me scheduled made me a little nervous, along with the thoughtful clucking.

That night I came home from work, planning to cook dinner, do some housework in preparation for my mother-in-law coming to visit next week, and write. But then I spotted a carry-on suitcase that had been in a corner of our bedroom lying in the hall, thought, "That's weird," and went to have a look...only to discover we'd had a break-in. The thieves took almost all our electronics--my iMac, three laptops, both our Kindles, our Wii, Mr. Fraser's digital camera, and Miss Fraser's DS--along with a silver ring designed to look like an ancient Celtic torc (not worth a lot, but high sentimental value for me, and as best as I can tell no longer available), and, to add insult to injury, a handful of Canadian change, maybe $5 worth, from atop a dresser. See, our change jar was full last weekend, so we took it to one of those change counter machines you see in grocery stores, which of course returned all the Canadian money that had got mixed in from when we've gone up to BC for a weekend. I was going to start a separate jar, figuring next time one of us is up there we'd have enough CAD$ for a couple of donuts at Tim Horton's or something, but no more!

Tuesday I was scrambling to come up with as many receipts as I could for all the stolen items for our insurance report, and I had my MRI, which seemed to go smoothly. I left work with a list of plans for when I got home--only to step on a honeybee while picking Miss Fraser up from day camp. (Open-toed sandals, grassy lawn with blooming clover, OUCH.) It hurt too much for me to drive, so Mr. Fraser had to come get us both, and I spent all evening with my foot propped up on ice.

Wednesday I got a call from the neurosurgeon, very hush-voiced and mysterious, telling me there was something concerning on my MRI, and they were going to set me up to see a neurologist. They'd found one who was happy to see me the very next day, though I might need to be patient and wait at his clinic, since he was squeezing me in. He said there were 5 things it could be, and 4 of them were pretty benign, but the other one...less so. I eventually forced him to tell me that the less benign option was MS, but that I shouldn't worry or look things up on the internet and just see the neurologist tomorrow like a good girl. (He didn't SAY "like a good girl" but the tone was there.)

IMHO, that call would've made the calmest person in the world anxious. And I am NOT the calmest person in the world.

This post is getting long, so I'll just say I spent a harrowing 24 hours until I saw the neurologist, who was able to assure me I don't have MS. When I apologized for being such an anxious patient, he didn't quite criticize his colleague, but made it clear what I should've been told on Wednesday was more like, "There's nothing in your MRI that indicates a need for surgery, so we're sending you to a neurologist for follow-up instead. It just so happens Dr. So-and-So has an opening tomorrow, so you might as well take advantage of it if that works with your schedule. And, oh, there was a shadow on your MRI that's probably just an artifact of your breathing or swallowing at the wrong moment, but he may do a few additional tests for due diligence."

Oh, and based on his examination (lots of reflex checks and a nerve study) he thinks I had a pinched nerve that's now healed, and my lingering symptoms are muscle and ligament damage that should heal with time, patience, continued PT and therapeutic massage, and diligent attention to posture and ergonomics for, oh, the rest of my life. So that's good news.

Anyway, what's the use of a Week From Hell if you don't come through it with wisdom to share with your tribe? So here are my PSAs for the good of the order:

PSA the First: Save receipts and serial numbers for all your valuables in a centralized, easy-to-locate place. This will make you, your police officer, and your insurance agent happy. I think I'm going to scan everything and store it on Dropbox next time.

PSA the Second: If you get stung by a honeybee, pull the stinger out RIGHT AWAY. I would've probably suffered less pain Tuesday and would have a smaller welt on my foot even now if I hadn't waited 10-15 minutes because I didn't want to touch it.

PSA the Third: Neck MRIs are prone to weird shadows and false positive results. Don't let yourself panic over one, no matter how mysterious and hush-voiced your doctor insists on being.

Hand update: a definitive diagnosis at last?

So, you know how week before last I thought, based on my visit to an orthopedist specializing in the hand and shoulder, that I had carpal tunnel syndrome rather than a pinched nerve in my neck after all? Well, today I visited a neurologist, who poked and prodded everything from my wrist to my upper back with electrodes (OUCH!).

Turns out there's no indication of impairment whatsoever where you'd expect to find it with CTS or its elbow joint cousins. If anything, I have remarkably healthy and fast-firing nerves. However, everywhere you'd expect someone with a C6 pinched nerve to have pain, numbness, or impairment, I've got them.

All I can say is thank God I didn't let that first doctor operate on my wrist when she was ready to schedule the surgery, since it wouldn't have helped a bit and would've at least temporarily weakened and limited the use of my arm to no purpose.

The neurologist said that happens a lot, unfortunately--C6 pinched nerves imitate CTS so well that they're frequently misdiagnosed, especially in people like me whom you'd EXPECT to have CTS, and good for me for paying attention to my shoulder symptoms and refusing any invasive treatments until I had a fuller picture of what was going on.

There is, of course, surgery for pinched nerves, but the neurologist doesn't think I'm at anywhere near that point yet. He recommends anti-inflammatories, PT, and continued careful attention to posture and ergonomics. Apparently from a medical perspective, my case isn't that bad--I just feel like it is because it's keeping me from writing as fast as I want to or tackling assorted household projects that would make our house look a bit less the fixer-upper work-in-progress. But I've got good strength and range of motion with little to no muscle atrophy, which I gather means surgery at this point would be overkill.

So. I figure nerves don't lie, so pinched nerve with no CTS it is. Which means exercises, naproxen/ibuprofen, and...patience. Sigh.

Hand update, mid-July edition

So, last week I saw an orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion on my shoulder and wrist/hand issues. She had my neck and shoulder x-rayed and put me through an array of strength and range of motion tests. (Which, incidentally, had the effect of making my symptoms in both areas the worst they've been since March or so. THANKS, Doc!)

I was at least 90% certain that the neck x-ray would show a pinched nerve as the root of all my problems. However, my neck looks...normal. Same for my shoulder. And it turns out the first doctor was right after all. I do have carpal tunnel syndrome, and a bit of ulnar tunnel syndrome as well. Sigh.

That said, this doctor was a lot more willing to believe me that my shoulder is an issue as well, and one somehow connected to what's going on further down the arm, even if there isn't an obvious reason. My left trapezius muscle is extremely tight, hence my ongoing pain, and the PT I've done with a focus on my shoulder and neck HAS seemed to help my wrist/hand symptoms.

So the next step is for me to visit a neurologist next week, who will do nerve studies focusing on the entire affected area. After that, back to the orthopedist to settle on a treatment plan.

We'll see what happens, but my latest theory is that I have two separate injuries, both sustained within a week of each other in November, neither of which will heal fully because they're part of a linked neuro-musculo-skeletal system and tend to trigger each other. I think the two tunnel syndromes come from pushing myself to do NaNoWriMo on a desk with poor ergonomics. And I think I strained my trapezius muscle pretty badly while carrying my sleeping daughter (age 6 at the time, and almost 50 lbs), who lolled off my shoulder, forcing me to jerk to not drop her.

But I could be wrong. I thought the x-rays were going to show an obvious pinched nerve in my neck, after all. On the one hand I'm frustrated, because I was hoping for a clear, straightforward problem with an equally clear solution. However, I'm glad to at last have a doctor who's paying attention to my whole range of symptoms.

And between longhand and Dragon Dictate, I've figured out how to move forward with my writing in the meantime. It's slower than just pounding out a draft at the keyboard would be, but I'm still not without hope that by the end of 2011 I'll have a release or two scheduled for 2012.

RWA and a hand update

Just a quick post to announce that I won't be blogging over the next week since I'm flying out bright and early Monday morning to attend RWA in New York. Once I'm back in Seattle at the beginning of July, I'll talk about the conference, what I've been reading lately, random research notes, and my writing life in general again.

An update on my hand issues–I've been seeing a physical therapist regularly to treat the pinched nerve in my neck, and my symptoms have definitely improved. I've gone from having basically 1.25 hands in December to having 1.75 hands now, maybe as many as 1.9 on a good day. In other words, my left hand doesn't feel quite normal–there is still a vague sense of pins-and-needles or tightness even on the best days–but it's a usable hand again. I can carry a medium-weight bag of groceries in it without yelping in pain. I can type. Between my improved hands and getting used to Dragon software, I've been putting out a decent word count on my new historical romance manuscript. Life is much better than it was six months ago.

I hate the timing of this, right after my first two books came out, because the injury slowed me down enough that I wasn't able to produce a quick follow-up to A Marriage of Inconvenience and The Sergeant's Lady. But, if I can use a cliché for a moment, it is what it is. I'm happy with what I'm writing now, I'm writing as quickly as I can, and I haven't given up hope of making a 2011 sale and having a 2012 release after all. And if I can't manage that–well, it will have to be a 2013 release, and I'll just have to survive having a year without a new book out.

As for where I go from here, I'm going to get a second opinion on my hand to try to determine whether the issue is just the pinched nerve or if there is also carpal tunnel involvement, and whether I need surgery to truly fix either problem. If my current condition is the best I'm going to get, and/or if surgery carries a high risk, I can live with that. I still can't do heavy lifting with my left hand, and if one of my hobbies were gardening or carpentry it would be more of an issue, but I can write, I can do my day job, and I can cook. That's a lot more than I could do at the beginning of the year. But, on the whole, I'd rather not go through the rest of my life with a slightly numb hand, so I'm going to continue to follow up and see what can be done about this.

Writing and hand update

Back in early April, I posted about my plans to write every day during the month. And I succeeded, making progress on both my historical romance novella and my historical fantasy. Some days I only wrote a paragraph or two, but that was enough to keep my mind in the story. Insofar as I can, I mean to keep writing every day no matter what in the future.

That being said, I didn't write a single word yesterday. My hand and shoulder pain came back with a vengeance, and I barely made it through the day at work, so when I came home all I did was rest.

As it happens, I'd just seen my hand specialist last week, and she advised me to make plans to have carpal tunnel surgery. I was all set to do so but I had this gut feeling that something wasn't right. It seemed that everyone who was advising me, but especially the hand specialist, was all but ignoring my complaints of shoulder, back, and neck pain. I could tell that my hand got worse when my shoulder got worse. I couldn't believe they were unconnected. I didn't want to sign up to have my wrist slit open if that was only going to fix part, or maybe even none, of my real problem. So I talked to my primary care provider and asked if she'd refer me to someone who could evaluate and treat a possible pinched nerve. My first physical therapy appointment is this Friday.

During yesterday's bad flareup, I looked up the symptoms of a pinched nerve in the shoulder, and I'm shocked and not a little angry that my hand doctor didn't consider the possibility. It sounds like if anything I have a classic case. The nurses I work with and the massage therapist who was able to fit me in for an appointment this afternoon agree. They also said that they don't think I've done any permanent damage yet, because my muscle tone is still good, if hellaciously tight in spots, and the massage therapist gave me good advice on what to do between now and my first meeting with the physical therapist.

Still, I'm very frustrated. If I'd been treated for a pinched nerve back in December, I might be all better now. I might have finished my novella and submitted it to Carina in, oh, February. Assuming my editor and the rest of the acquisitions team liked it, I might even have my next release date.

But I know it could be a lot worse. A pinched nerve is hardly life-threatening. I'll get through this. I'll do what I'm doing right now and use Dragon software until I'm better–something I couldn't do during most of April because of a bad cold threatening to wreck my voice. One way or another, I'll keep writing.