How about a general update?

Yummy cactus blooms.

I just saw my primary care doctor today about a pretty darned intense pain I've had in the left side of my pelvis for about three weeks now. I was pretty sure it was a new set of nerve pains associated with a degenerating disc and vacuum disc syndrome. My acupuncturist is also an RN and felt strongly I should get the opinion of my doctor to see if I should have a pelvic exam.

Country Dancer is back! Starting wave II of her summer bloom-a-thon!

I just had a clean PET/CT scan on April 30th which was six months after one done in November 2008, both looking for distant metastasis in bones and organs and finding none. Two clean PET/CT scans with no changes in eight months, so I really wasn't worried about this new pain being cancer. As a responsible patient though, I made the appointment and went in.

Morning Glory

After talking about it and examining me, he agreed that it is new nerve pain associated probably with the next disc up and since I've already seen a spine specialist, we'll just continue on continuing on. When he asked me what helped, I told him riding my horse and would he mind giving me a prescription for that? He is a horseman himself and got a good laugh and said he would but he didn't think our insurance would go for it.

The lovely shading of Robert Clements.

Now our minds are relieved even if they didn't need to be and since I can pretty much control this pain through meds and 'Aw shoot!', riding, all is good. I've had so many years to practice with chronic sciatic nerve pain on the right side, I imagine I'll get used to pelvic pain on the left side. Learning to deal with neuropathy through my upper body over the last four months makes me a pretty evenly distributed pain package now!

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous

On a sad note...I've waited to write about this till we were absolutely sure and after a month there isn't much doubt, Lio the cat is gone. The last time I saw him he was headed up into the rocks, tailing after Nicodemus. We have had loose dogs roaming around plus it's the time of year that the coyote families are teaching their young to hunt. I'm afraid Lio probably fell victim to one or the other. We miss him and feel very sad about it, especially Coli. Fionna does not miss him.

We really miss you Lio...there were far too many losses this year without adding you to the list.