Inner and Outer Pain

I'm not sure what to title this post yet since I'm not really sure what's going to come out of me. Of course, when you read this there will be a title, so already I'm rambling. 

Yay me. 

Let's see, I'll start with why I've been absent for the past week or so.  During the move from The 'Ole Hell Hole, I noticed the ring finger of my left hand was hurting. I didn't pay it much attention since the whole experience was painful. A minor pain in one finger was barely registered on the radar. Nevertheless, there it was, this annoying pain for which I had no explanation, so I shrugged it off and picked up another box. I WAS moving after all, knocking myself into things, tripping over boxes, and doing loads and loads of lifting. Surely I must've tweaked it somehow. 

But then the pain started radiating to other fingers, and into my other hand. Then I noticed I couldn't get my ring on or off anymore because my knuckles had swollen. 

Still, I thought, it had to be from the move and the heat. 

Then the pain got worse, and worse still.  I noticed it was worse in the mornings. Making the bed or squeezing a pillow to pick it up became torture. 

Strange things started happening. Like the day I was driving Lexie somewhere and my hands were hurting like they did every day by then, and then like a little fire the pain suddenly and rapidly spread all the way up my arms.  My SKIN hurt. 

That made me pay attention. 

Over the next few days the pain just continued to spread.  Every day would add a few joints and some other random spots just for fun. Finally, when I woke up and every single thing from my neck down hurt I went to the ER. The doctor poked in various spots, squeezed others, all while he listened to me prattle off the progression of what had been ailing me. He threw out a couple of possibilities and then ordered some blood tests. Six tubes of blood later I was released with a prescription for a hardcore anti-inflammatory. 

A few days later, the pain receded as quickly as it had progressed.  Each day I had a little less pain, a few more joints I could move without wincing.  Some of the tests are still out and I see a doctor Thursday to go over them. Candidates on the table are Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lyme, Lupus, or Fibromyalgia.  

Not a fun diagnosis in the bunch. 

In the midst of all this, Roi and I had a pretty substantial fight, and Kyd stopped in to stay over for a night. The upshot of both of these events is that I still don't trust Roi a bit even though there have been few signs in months that he's continued with dishonesty, and Kyd has boarded the Midnight Express to Bottom. 

Kyd was irritable and spacey while he was here. Almost every conversation sent him into a froth in short order so we didn't have many conversations at all. He tried to swindle me into giving him more money than the $40 I was already doubtful about giving him (for food). He complained about dinner, he was contrarian about everything anyone had to say, he left blankets and pillows all over the living room, and nearly took my head off in the morning because I didn't know where the iPod car adaptor was.

In short, he was a mess. 

He DID say thank you and hugged me good-bye when he left in the morning. I added that to my mental gratitude list and left the rest alone.