A New Taste of Pain

Well, while the rest of the country might be overtaken by undirected anger, I think I'm getting a handle on why I'm so angry these last few days. Of course the heat is partially to blame but more than anything I think the increase in pain is fueling the problem.

Now that it has become almost unbearable to do something as simple as fix dinner or wash the dishes, I'm finding if quite difficult to cope. Overall I'm in pretty good spirits and everything else is okay, but this thing about my body feeling intensly itchy but also feeling the sensation of a burning/cutting that is hard to deal with.

I'm beginning to wonder if my immune system isn't going crazy for some reason. While the problem is at it's worst when I'm in the kitchen or trying to walk Robin, I am noticing this problem to a much lower level body wide much of the time. But it is always when I am active. It's almost as if my body is attacking itself when I exercise.

The problem is not knowing what to do about it. I can and have taken some generic Benedryl (diphenhydramine hedrochloride) but it doesn't always take care of the problem and can make me very sleepy.

I'm also trying other things like wearing shoes when in the kitchen and a friend picked me up a very nice stool yesterday, but one does nothing and the other creates more problems. For some reason, the standing in one place that is required when doing dishes is the issue and this doesn't seem to be the problem when I'm outside watering the garden. There I must move around just enough to relieve whatever chemical reaction is being created.

As for the stool, well, it was a good idea but there is the problem of what to do with my legs and I find myself headed for problems with stretching and reaching. If I don't tear a muscle or something, I will definately drop and break a plate. I've wondered if changing the height of the stool might help, but I don't think that's going to do it since I'll still have the reaching issue to contend with.

So now I'm really stumped about what to do in the kitchen. This is a huge hit to take and it's not easy to come up with a workaround. This is very frustrating.

Additionally, I seem to be bumping, dropping, and knocking things over at an increasing rate and this is wearing me down as well. I've tried over the last few days to rearrange things a bit to make this less of an issue, but it is going to take a lot more than just rearranging. One big problem is not having enough surface area next to the recliner -- I just don't have a place to be able to set things down when I need to go and do something else.

All this is currently pressing on me in a way that has left me very short and cranky. I feel a bit better after my friend took me shopping yesterday -- in addition to the stool, he picked up some much needed groceries so I'll make it through to my next batch of food stamps and hopefully will do a bit better at the store next month.

Well, I better get back to the blasted dishes. Things have been waiting on the counter now for over a week. That doesn't mean I haven't done dishes in that length of time, but I just can't go for very long before the pain is too much to stand -- quite literally.