What's on your Wednesday Menu?

I'm looking forward to being in Europe again next month where the worst you usually have to worry about is pickpocketing. No lunatics with military-grade assault rifles mowing people down in grocery stores. It's gotten to be pretty scary living here - grocery stores, schools, churches, malls - what next? You're not safe anywhere any more. And it's gotten so out of hand I'm not sure we'll ever be able to "fix" it.

The boardwalk in Hollywood Florida evidently.

so sad

How scary! Stay safe.

I don't know how you function at a 10. Pretty sure you've mentioned nerve pain medication before but...have they eliminated enough possibilities to know for sure it isn't nerve pain? All of the traditionalish pain treatments have been so ineffective.

I do have a lot of nerve damage. I had a nerve conduction test (Youch) and it showed I have a little dit of diabetes nerve damage and a ton of nerve damage from my back issues. The spinal cord stimulator was supposed to help with that but it's been utterly useless too. Which is weird because the trial for that helped a lot. I think the lead to it was poorly placed.

I have been called...to my face...their special patient. No one wants to deal with me because my body doesn't react normally. Pain meds offer little. If I end up losing the pain pump(which at this point I'll just be upset for yet another surgery) I'm going to try medical marijuana. Or at least try to. It's about the only thing I haven't tried since they drug test me every three visits at least.

I hope the medication change provides some relief and no side effects.

I hate you are dealing with all of that. Pain, specially chronic pain, unrelenting chronic pain is so tiring, physically and mentally. It wears you down very much.

Some opiates work on me, oral, but they just reduce the pain. I also do other things like, i.e. Lidocaine patches, herbal lotions and creams, acupuncture, etc. One thing by itself is not really good enough, but combination can reduce my pain from 8-9 to 2-3 level.

Lastly, and I already mentioned that to you before, finding and strictly following low inflammatory diet, significantly reduced my overall pain.

Hopefully with the new meds, you may get some pain relief. Best wishes.

Good morning QJB and menuers,

Congrats on crushing the list! Except maybe the forgetting to eat part, which I absolutely do, too. The knee issue is kinda stuck on my mind because of my dear mom. Please...get it looked at.

QOTD- When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet. Then I wanted to go to Emory because of my interest in medicine. Sucks to grow up poor, though, and the priority had to be paying rent. I already had 15 years of official work experience when I got my first degree. I've done things I'd never have thought, though, and I kind of see my current role as a way to pay it forward for people.

Survived my first office day and got permission for some hybrid days for a bit. I'm still booked for New Orleans in a couple of weeks for a conference, so focus is being able to make that happen! Everyone stopped me yesterday and one of the first people I ran into was my EVP. She hugged me and made me cry. And chastised me for my ER shenanigans. Anyway. Working from home today.

Accountability- Still trying to figure out the new normal. I did eat enough yesterday and was proud of myself for throwing turkey on my English muffin. The toasted cheese hid the weird taste. Gotta get sneaky with protein!

Exercise - Need to keep on with the weights. I'm definitely losing muscle. After watering today I'll do weights and as long as I can tolerate on the recumbent bike.

Menu - English muffin with Cabot cheese and 2 ounces of turkey, pretzel crisps and hummus, sausage and ham with red beans, chicken and dumplings x2.

Can't believe it's Wednesday! Cheers.

....kind of see my current role as a way to pay it forward for people...

What do you do? It sounds like you might be part of one of the social safety net type programs which I imagine is both rewarding and frustrating in equal parts.