March 11. Snowshoeing Struggles
Emeraude is resting for 1/2 hour to give me a chance to build up a little energy…
It’s a really bad day, more fatigue than I have dealt with in a long time, I think there may be stress factors contributing to this situation, hopefully some fresh air fun with my girl will help with that.
Daniel dropped off her snowshoes which he had borrowed a few weeks ago during the night and was nice enough to add Craig’s (his friend who lent him a pair) as well. The harnesses on Craig’s were all messed up and between last night & this morning working on them I got them done up right (I think!?). Emeraude’s however have thick rubber harnesses (they were Lloyd’s when he was younger) which are very hard to adjust and keep adjusted as the cold just makes their problems worse.
I had hoped to make some ‘new’ harnesses for hers but that will wait for another time or we will loose our opportunity to go out. I think we will walk towards Mom & Dad’s with the wagon. It is in the same direction as the hospital in case I need to get some pain meds on our journey (more likely that not). And if by some miracle I do not, we could always join them for supper as they enjoy these impromptu visits when we are enjoying the ‘great outdoors’.
I spoke briefly with Dr. Crawford this morning, the ESR level did not work out (31 I think it was, we were looking for around 70 like the last bloodwork I had, this would’ve given me some real options for action) but he recommended I start the prednisone regimen anyways (and I am so thrilled to have a doctor who understands I need a better quality of life than what I am currently living that I will try almost anything he suggests).
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50mg oral prednisone/day
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5 days then more bloodwork
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bloodwork before then if I think I am suffering any specific symptoms
easy enough. Apparently an ESR level of 30 such as Inow have can contribute to pain, fatigue, I forget the other things but basically mirroring alot of the symptoms I currently have (maybe they aren’t all MS? is what Dr. Crawford is examining). Cross your fingers everyone.
The ‘new’ patch (it turns out I had actually tried this one before and it was my least preferred of the two types of fentanyl patches at the time) is not having any effect as of yet but Doc C. seemed to think I should not yet dispair and recommended I continue to wear one for at least 9 days (I think that was the time frame) as they could yet begin to be absorbed into my system and have some effect.
Well, time’s up! I need to gulp my coffee and get myself and my partner
My brave girl in her snowshoeing gear.
dressed for our adventure. We will be in full arctic gear (bellaclavas + toque + neck warmers + longjohns + jogging pants + snow pants + kitchen sink LOL, leave that last one out but you get the idea! I see a lightening bolt on a red square on my taskbar which represents blowing snow warnings outside and the temp is -19oC and that’s before adding the wind chill (or as I had been calling it the ‘windsheild’ HAHAHA, Roger will get that one)
more on the results of our adventures a little later 🙂
