Like Sands Through the Hourglass

Frankly, I think I trade these days of my life for some sand. Sand is clean, solid, useful...my days cannot always be described as such. Today was one of those...

Yesterday was a good day. A really good day. My feet were pink, rather than red, the swelling was bad, but not horrific and I spent the afternoon engaged in conversation with a terrific person. Today, the situation is reversed and, perhaps even worse.

My feet, legs and abdomen are incredibly disheartening. The feet are again red, itchy, sore...my calves, thighs and abdomen are obscenely swollen. My face is puffy. The only "good" thing is that this was the condition in which I saw the nurse practitioner this afternoon - she got got a good picture of my continued affliction....

...and she was not happy. My weight at the office was about 135 pounds and all of it, it seemed, in my lower body. The pitting edema was doing justice to its name and I could read the concern on her face. I relayed the comments of both the radiologist and gastroenterologist. More examination and then the verdict. I am to have my regular physician on Thursday morning and I am still ordered to the couch with feet in the air. I cannot go to work. I cannot do anything. She said this will be my status until answers are found and solutions implemented.

I shall have to call AFLAC and see just what is involved in placing a disability claim. I am now very concerned that I will not see the end of the school year in my classroom. If this is the case, I will have to explore the option of setting myself up with short-term disability and using my policy to replace my salary. I am hopeful that this is possible...I do not want to be out for that extended a period, but I especially do not want to be out without my normal income.

I need some brain time. This is all rather overwhelming. Not that I have any answers, good or bad, but even the possibility that this condition has put me in the disabled category, however temporary, is almost more than I can comprehend right now. Of course, I feel so heavy, swollen and waterlogged that I can't comprehend much period! Seems like the water has washed away my neurotransmitters and I am left with no brain function. Time to watch movies...the more mindless, the better...