It is mid March and I have not sent a single birthday or anniversary card yet. I want to, but when I sit down, I am exhausted. I still need/want to send out the Christmas letters I printed back in early December 2020. I still want to honor birthdays and anniversaries with cards like my aunts did for me. There is much I want to do. But finding the energy to do so is a whole other thing.

Well, this weekend, I found the energy for something all right. The energy to drag myself to immediate care when sciatica acted up in my left leg. I haven’t had it hurt that bad before, and various positions of sitting, standing, laying down, or walking did not helped bring the pain to a 6 or lower on a 10 point scale. So, to immediate care I went. Except that my doctor switched hospitals last summer with a bunch of others, and I went to the old immediate care location. By the time I realized I was at the old one, I couldn’t give a fig’s fanny where I was, so long as there might be relief, and so I went in.

They agreed it was sciatica and provided treatment, but the pain only got to a 5 at the lowest for the rest of the day even with the medications, and it kept going back up. Not a roller coaster of my choosing. I like high numbers when it comes to grades and good cholesterol, but not this. It was a long day. I’m glad I coffee, kitty time, and that I’m thoroughly addicted to watching “The Resident” on Hulu, … because that helped get met through the day (yes, TV, cats, & coffee can be medicinal). Finally, the next morning, the pain was gone. Phew! BUT now from my left foot up to the knee felt numb and tingly with a Charlie horse behind the calf. I hoped I’d be so lucky on Monday morning, and that it would just be gone. No Such Luck!

I called my doctor office Monday morning, and they got me in within the hour due to concern of a blood clot. Oh, great, just what anyone wants to hear on a Monday. As if Monday isn’t Monday enough on any given Monday! That doctor then ordered that I get an ultra sound of the lower leg and an X-ray of my lumbar region ASAP.

I am so very grateful for my friend Nickey. She was able to go with me to Battle Creek for these tests … the closest location for an ultra sound ASAP. Nickey was my insurance that it wouldn’t be a blood clot. Murphy’s law runs my life, and when I go to the immediate care without someone to help drive if it may be bad news, then it’s bad news for sure, and I have to go back a few days later to get my car. Because Nickey came with, it was not a blood clot. The x-ray won’t be back for few days, but I’m SO glad it’s NOT a blood clot!!! So glad too that Nickey was there to celebrate with a very late lunch.

Moral of the story: When you might get bad news, take a friend. Even if it is bad news, you can weather it together. If it’s not, Celebrate!