I had once mentioned that if he could get me a job working with him, that’d be cool. So, when he called me a couple weeks ago and told me he had done just that, I was a bit surprised. I had about two weeks to decide whether or not to move. Well, I did.

I start work tomorrow, with the whole background check and paperwork and such going forward. I’m currently in residence with Steve on his living room floor. That’ll probably be slightly less than a month, hopefully. My girlfriend and I are hopeful for a certain apartment that’s available in mid-to-late September. That would be a nice birthday present.

This was supposed to be a nice, long thoughtful entry, but, that’s pretty much it.

So I went in and gave him a brief history, but he could tell by the size of my file that I had been going at this for some time. We went through everything I’ve tried and done and tests I’ve had, etc. We touched on Marfan’s, and made an appointment for a specialist (which isn’t until October). Then, something happened. For the first time in the couple years I’ve been dealing with this, he said “we need to find some form of pain control.” He gave me tramadol. I could have wept.

Unfortunately, the tramadol wasn’t strong enough to do much for the pain. So I used it for a week, then called, and he added diclofenac to the tramadol. I did this for about a week, and it wasn’t working either, so I called again, and he asked me to come in.

I went in Friday, and we went over the stuff again, and he agreed to treat me with stronger medicine until my appointment, and we’ll figure out what we need to do long-term from there (hopefully). So now I’m on a daily regimen of Tylenol #3 (co-codamol), meloxicam, and cyclobenzaprine. I’ve only been on it for a few days, but so far it seems to be doing more than anything else in recent memory.

I hope.

A week or so ago my laptop’s hard drive died. I am currently poor, so that means my laptop is out of commission. This also means the only computer I have available to me is running Windows XP. And I am sad.

Since I was stuck with using Windows, I was left without my beloved Apple Mail. Since Dreamhost’s server-side mail filters catch next to nothing, I was relying on Mail’s client-side filter, which itself isn’t that great. Without even that, though, it was impossible to wade through my inbox. I’ll not shame Outlook’s spam filter with a mention.

So, I decided to move my mail from Dreamhost to “Google Apps.” I figured I’d move it over, use gmail’s web interface until I got my laptop back up, then enable IMAP within gmail and use Mail as normal, with the added benefit of Google’s spam filter, which is excellent. This in itself was not difficult.

The difficultly lies in the fact that I have around 10,000 emails, and I wanted to keep them. Not as easy.

I am still unemployed.

Also on Thursday, I had an appointment with my usual clinic doctor. Apparently, the clinic was taken over by some other “network” or whatever the organizations are, and there was a new doctor. And he was awesome. I ran through my history, and mentioned the possibility of dural ecstasia due to Marfan’s syndrome, and he ran out and got like three textbooks and ran back in and sat down and talked to me like I was his best friend. He made an appointment for me with a cardiologist (though it’s quite far away; October 22nd) and gave me a prescription for tramadol and told me to call back in a week to see if it was working. Unfortunately it’s not, so I guess I’ll try to find some way to say that without appearing ungrateful for the medicine. Maybe this guy will actually figure things out. It sure would be nice.

I miss Kori.

I am also currently unemployed. Someone give me a job.

I got there and did the usual questions and they took me straight to the back. Walking was painful. As soon as I got back there a doctor came in and I gave him the symptoms and a brief history and the first thing he said is “it’s weird that your ESR and CRP are normal… but have you heard of ankylosing spondylitis?” That makes like four or five people that have suggested it. He told me to forget my regular doctors and go see a rheumatologist. He asked me what medicine I had and was appalled that all I take is naproxen. He gave me a shot of hydromorphone (Dilaudid) which totally took the pain away, and he gave me a script for a handful of Vicodin. I was almost in tears I was so relieved.

I tried to call my PCP to make an appointment with a rheumatologist but apparently there aren’t any at my hospital. That means I’d have to pay upfront for one. I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do about this. I’m now accepting PayPal donations (only partly joking I’m afraid).

I’m unsure what to do. Fingers crossed I guess.

So why do I feel so crappy? I feel as if I’m just that much further from an answer. Without inflammation, what can it even be? Now my PCP doesn’t really believe me, and won’t give me any more medicine. What should I do? I can’t work without the medicine, and I can’t afford to lose my job. I don’t know what I can do.

I feel hopeless.

The quake measured 5.2 on the Richter scale and occurred at 4:37 a.m. CDT. It was centered in southeastern Illinois, five miles from the town of Bellmont, according to Timothy M. Kusky, director of the Center for Environmental Sciences at St. Louis University.

I’ll call today to see if those tests results are in. I’m almost out of drugs.

Update: The asswipes are closed until Monday. I’ll probably have to go to the ER if the pain continues as it has today.

I’ll have the results by next week hopefully. I’ll update then.

Also, see here.