The diagnosis

I heard Chris shower and leave for work. I got up and realized it was not yet 8am. The pains started again, shooting up in a vertical line in front of my right ear. I started my coffee morning with a quart of water, and exercise. When I poured the coffee out of the bag, it had small pieces of plastic in it, probably from the lining of the bag. I was not able to get out the smallest ones. I hoped they would be filtered in the decanting of the coffee. I also made green tea. When I drank the hot tea, I noticed that the right side of my throat hurt. But when the tea cooled down, it did not hurt. I had hoped the caffeine in the coffee and tea would increase blood flow in my head and stop the pains, but it did not work. I called Myra and she said she was out planting flowers but I could join her later for a trip to the ROK base. I waited for her to call. I mowed the lawn, here and next door. I could not mow our back yard because the pigs had ripped it up so badly it seemed like they used a rototiller. Chris came home for lunch with packages. I opened my three and put the items away. Some were a month old. I read e-mail, then made and ate breakfast. I laid down to try to relax the pains away. When I got up, I called Myra who was almost ready to go. So I headed out. On the way, Deron stopped and handed me a typhoon check list. He was putting one on every door. I went to Myra’s place. When she noticed the pain I was in, she decided I should go to Medical. So we walked over there. I had to fill out forms. The lady registered me online with the info from the forms and some questions that she asked me. I chatted with Myra as I waited. Then the lady took me back for vitals, which were normal. Then I was told to wait in room 104. I found it way down the hall. As I waited, I counted seconds between pains. Some were only a second apart, but I got as far as 68 when the doctor came in. He checked my ears, nose and throat. I had to follow his finger with my eyes. He checked muscle strength in my limbs. Everything was normal. He suggested a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. As he went to dispense the meds, I filled out a form stating that he washed his hands before and after the exam. Then I waited in the front room with Myra. We talked for some time before the doctor leaned out and said he’d be with me in 3 minutes. When he came back, he said he looked up my symptoms and came up with trigeminal neuralgia. He handed me two prescription bottles. He said he looked around and called pharmacies to get an anti-spasmodic. I admitted that I would not have taken it anyway. We thanked him and left. Scott came by and took us home. I took one pill from each bottle and swallowed them, then ate some kimchi. I removed the bones from the crock pot as Chris had asked earlier. Then I went outside, heading for the chapel for the FRG meeting. Carolyn offered me a ride, but I thought I was going with Myra. I called when I got to her place, but she wasn’t ready so I kept walking. But then Ray and Mandi picked me up and took me to the chapel. I sat between Elizabeth and Akia. Kelly called the meeting to order exactly on time, then asked for volunteers to run for the vacant offices. Amber volunteered for President, and Carolyn for VP. Neither Akia nor I wanted to be secretary, but she gave in first. I publicly thanked Kelly for all her hard work as President. I headed home. Kelly offered me a ride, which I accepted. On the way, she told me of a nearby hospital that was clean, spoke English and required payment up front. But she did not know the name, having gone there in an ambulance. She dropped me off at home. I read e-mail until Chris came home. Then I put some essential oil drops on a wet wash cloth. I put it on a heating pad under my neck. It felt good. The pains mostly quit. I thought the massage on Thursday might have contributed since the lady was digging in a spot under my ear with her knuckle. After a good rest, I got up. I read e-mail while holding a warm washcloth to my right ear area. I showed Chris the kimchi in the jar and he said it smelled bad (well, gee, it IS kimchi after all), but no, he thought it smelled like bad kimchi. So I ran it through the garbage disposal, washed out the jar with hot water and soap, then put the new batch of kimchi in it. I ate some of that, and took my supplements with coconut water. We watched two episodes of Bones. We looked up a movie mentioned in one episode called Rififi but the movie was not on Netflix. We continued to read e-mail as weather alerts came in. I posted to my blog and went to bed.
* Not having taken any pics today, I offer you Amber and her pumpkin. *