Christmas Miracle

On Thursday morning, on my first day of Christmas vacation, I limped over to my primary care physician's office for a refill prescription of the narcotic painkiller that has not been working. Luckily, I got to talk to the nurse. I explained that I didn't really want any more of a drug that isn't working. Couldn't I have something different, not necessarily something stronger, in the hope that it might work?

I told her what I hadn't told anyone. In the wee hours for the last few nights, when I am in considerable pain, cannot watch TV, cannot read, cannot lie down, and still have 2 hours before I can take another dose of painkiller that isn't really going to help, that I sit alone in my office, sobbing, trying not to wake anyone up, but unable to stop crying.

She said, "You need to tell all that to the doctor," and she dragged me to an exam rrom. I waited for awhile until he could squeeze me in between official patients.

So my fantastic primary care doctor talked to me and devised a completely different strategy for dealing with the bulging disc pain.

I tried it Thursday night, and only woke up twice in the night!  I was so chipper on Friday morning! Like a new person. It was especially wonderful because Lou's Christmas vacation started Friday, so we were all hanging out together (Patsy, Omer, Lou and me) and I was not a pain-wracked zombie woman.

We all went to the very cool "Rembrandt in America exhibition" at the NC Museum of Art. There are almost 50 Rembrandts on display. But they are not all Rembrandts, which is the point of the show. Lots of paintings were thought to be Rembrandts, but later shown to be by a student -- or by Rembrandt and a student together. (He would get a commission to do a portrait, and he would paint the face and a student would fill in the rest.) So the show is about collecting Rembrandts in America, and how authenticity has been challenged over the years. Imagine how bummed you would be if you bought a Rembrandt and found out it wasn't one?!

Last night, I think I woke up only twice again and got another awesome night's sleep. I woke up early in minor pain this morning, but that's NOTHING to complain about. I am so relieved to be sleeping again. It's a Christmas Miracle.

Happy Christmas Eve Day!

I hope Santa is very very good to Dr Schroder, because he deserves lots of toys.