The Dark Alleys Of Trivia Crack

While spending so much time off my feet (either in bed or sitting at a table), relying on the inanimate mercy of my pain meds and looking forward to my next doctor appointment, I have gotten totally hooked on Trivia Crack (on Facebook). This surprises me because I'm absolutely terrible at Trivial Pursuit, yet Trivia Crack is do-able.

It irritates me when weird bugs happen (like the question being marked wrong as soon as the screen comes up, without even giving me the chance to click on anything-- for a question I knew the answer to-- especially when this happens at a particularly crucial moment in a 5-5 game when the person then goes on to beat me), but for the most part I like Trivia Crack.

I finished last week at the top of the board and it looks like this week will be the same. So far this week I've answered 1,290 questions right, and am aiming for 1,400 before the weekend's up. Pretty cool, huh?

My favorite thing is that the opponents can be random strangers, which kinda softens the blow if I lose. It's easier to brush off a loss to a stranger because I can just shrug and reassure myself that I'll never "see" them again.

Example: "Meh. I lost. Oh well. Maybe I'll win the next one, especially if I have these cookies over here."

With friends, I've noticed that it's different.
I've begun noticing that I take it WAY more personally than I should.

Example 1:
"You just beat [insert friend's name here]! Congratulations, now you can breathe. You will be permitted to live another day. Enjoy the oxygen... for now."

Example 2:
"You just lost to [insert friend's name here]! What were you thinking? This will haunt you forever, even during traffic jams and migraines and moments on the toilet after too much Taco Bell. [Friend] has now lost 12% of their respect for you and will be significantly less likely to donate any kidneys or trapezoids or cookies you might be needing any time soon. The shame has permeated the room and cannot be dispelled by Febreze. (Much like the Taco Bell). Wanna play again?"

So, once this "round" is over, I think I'm going to spend the rest of the time insituting a "Random Opponents Only" policy.

No offense to any of you; it's just that I need the reassurance of knowing that I'll never have to actually meet these people and will never have to explain why I honestly have no clue who played for what team in what year and ran eighty thousand touchdowns in 2003 while wearing blue and gold with a rabid three-legged skunk on the helmet. 'Cause, ohmygoodness, who even pays attention to stuff like that, right?
You might even say it's... "Trivial".  ;)


So keep those kidneys and trapezoids and cookies warm and ready for me, ok?

I don't anticipate needing extra kidneys anytime soon, so you might want to focus on the other two first.

At least I haven't grown two heads and twelve toes yet...

 Just got back from the doctor. The MRI results are back.

The good news is that they didn't see any rips or tears in the muscle.

On the other hand, the preliminary diagnosis is something called tenosynovitis.

Often it happens in hands/fingers/shoulders, but for me it happened in my ankle.

The challenge now is to find a way to heal it.

When it happens in hands, they just put a splint on it and let it rest, and after a few weeks it's perfectly fine.

For crooked feet like mine, the situation is different because there's no way to completely let it rest. Even if I completely stay bedridden for weeks, the problem is likely to return the moment I start walking again.

My current leg brace just isn't working the way it should, so I have an appointment with a specialist on Feb 4th. She will (hopefully) be able to recommend a better leg brace which will actually keep me steady enough to heal better.

Tenosynovitis never heals if the tendon keeps getting strained. Repetitive injury (like me walking on a crooked club-foot which points inward AND rolls over to the side with every step) just makes it worse.

I'm not going to resign myself to being bedridden quite yet, but I'll be walking extra carefully for awhile, and we'll see what the specialist says on Feb 4th.

Additional medical update:
Also got the results of the sleep study I had a few weeks ago.

I only got about 3 hours of sleep in the hospital that night, but wow.
In that period of time, I had 96 respiratory disturbances, and stopped breathing completely 25 times. (!!!!!)

All night long, I only entered REM sleep for 16 minutes. (The normal amount would be about two hours).

At one point, my oxygen level was down to 80% because I stopped breathing so many times.
This is apparently the way I sleep EVERY night, which explains why I never feel like I get any rest.

So there's definitely a problem.

My next appointment with THAT specialist is on Feb 13th, and my 2nd sleep study is on Feb 20th. They're going to fit me to one of those C-PAP mask things.

Deja Vu in handy cartoon form

Update on the foot/ankle stuff

Had doctor's appointment this morning.
Doctor apologized for the mixup with the x-ray.

Currently we're fighting bureaucracy to get Medicaid to pay for the open MRI. (The open MRI I need is in Indiana, and Michigan Medicaid is currently refusing to cover it because it's across state lines.)
Everything's on hold until that gets worked out.


I also got an appointment with a specialist in February. It's one I saw once last year. Possibly she can recommend a better leg brace, or get one custom-made for me.
I'm hoping I don't need surgery, but if insurance can cover the cost, I guess that's a possibility.


In the meantime, I got a new prescription for some stronger pain meds.

They're narcotics.
Wooooooo.

Just tried them.

My face is numb, but my ankle hurts about 75% less.
Possibly 76% less!