CRPS, or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (Type 1), is a change in the nervous system that's usually triggered by a very painful episode. The bad kinds affect the brain, nerves, muscles, skin, metabolism, circulation, and fight-or-flight response. Lucky me; that's what I've got. ... But life is still inherently good (or I don't know when to quit; either way) and, good or not, life still goes on.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Not what I expected today

I got bitten by a deer tick right before leaving Massachusetts.

Lyme disease is, of course, something CRPSers are susceptible to, so I took it seriously, especially when the head popped off when we tried to remove it.

A two-tone rash quickly rose and fell with much hot salt water, but it rose again last night and I woke up this morning feeling glandular.

I found an urgent care clinic, called to make sure they take Medicare, and put it on my list of errands on my way out of Scarsdale. I returned one thing, picked up another, stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up lots of kefir to help with the antibiotic impact, and pulled over at an AT&T shop because my newly-activated Galaxy S3 phone wasn't behaving well -- and wasn't surfing at all.
(Mine is white.)

Two hours and a great deal of work later, I walked out with a phone I now know is not as unlocked as Negri Electronics said it was (it will soon be available on eBay, once I know what carrier it can use) and a brand new Galaxy S3.

The very capable and helpful young lady who got me sorted out gave me a tip that is probably worth what I've lost on the phone: Never buy anything that matters from a company that doesn't have a customer service phone number on their web site.

What a simple, brilliant filter. No customer service phone number = no interest in staffing for customer service. Do you want any problems dealt with in a rational manner, or not?

The good news is, these phones are so hot I probably won't lose all that much on my original purchase price.

Then I went to the address of the clinic, according to Google Maps, and there was no clinic there. In fact, nobody at the Family Center had any idea about it. I  should have taken the secretary up on her offer to give me directions, if only to check the address...

I wanted to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge (yes, those of you from anywhere else, that's the right name) before the construction started tonight. So I did a search for hotels and motels on the other side.

They're all full, probably with hurricane refugees, and the least expensive room I could find was double what I have budgeted for a single night's lodging. Most of them were quadruple that.

It was getting below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and very dark. I called my hostess and turned back to Scarsdale.

Safe, warm and fed, this is beginning to look less awful.

It really brings home to me the pointlessness of taking plans too seriously. The linear approach has only ever yielded average results for me, at best; I can only excel in a more seat-of-the-pants kind of way.

It's hard to accept, because it's -- wow -- really, really difficult to start something when you have absolutely no idea what the finish might be, and are necessarily vague about even the next step.

The blind leap is exceptionally challenging, especially with a hotwired fight-or-flight response thanks to dysautonomia.
Try it blindfolded, with live wires stuck in your brain...

But I did get down that birth canal all those years ago, and that was the quintessential one-way leap into the void.

After that, any other trip oughta be a piece of cake. Right? Even if you have to start it twice.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, the horror. I know those days, when the best laid plans and all that jazz... glad to have the update, even though it wasn't a happy one, and hoping tomorrow will be better.

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