Day 46: Upward Dog

I started off the second half of this adventure with some Yoga X. It was hard but I had the fans on and garage door open. Pretty much all of the yoga experts I consulted told me I was better off doing my yoga with ventilation. The hot yoga I was doing only assists with flexibility. I still find the yoga to be difficult and at 90 minutes it just seems to last forever. However, I'm not suffering like I did in the beginning.

I'm doing the upward dog pose in the photo. My feet are supposed to be pointed but when I move them into that position my neuropathy/neuralgia goes haywire. It feels like someone is shocking my feet with electrodes and it hurts like bloody Hell.

I visited my neurologist today and he says the tests are all coming back negative so they can't determine why my body has triggered this auto-immune response and is destroying the nerves in my feet and hands. The disease is what they call idiopathic, a fancy name for we don't know. However, the progression of the disease appears to have slowed and the pain medication shaves off most of the pain most of the time. Fortunately, the pain medication is not an opioid so it doesn't get me high.

At this point, the doctor is going to ween me off of the Prednisone, which is not working, over the next four weeks and see what happens. I have to come off the Prednisone slowly so my adrenal system doesn't crash. I am very glad to be getting off the Prednisone because it makes me retain water and is affecting my moods. I have been quite a prick lately.

Rather than getting depressed over this whole affair, I am looking at the bright side and that's quite easy to do. The pain is manageable with the medication they are giving me. I just have infrequent bolts of pains instead of constant pain. The medication is easily affordable with my insurance. The disease is not progressing so I most likely won't end up losing motor skills and I do love my motor skills. Also, I've survived open heart surgery when most people with a blocked ventricle would have died. I totaled my car twice and walked away uninjured both times. I have tons of great friends, three wonderful sons, and I met the woman of my dreams this year. Yes, we are very much in love. I guess to quote Dickinson, it's been the best of times and it's been the worst of times.

I have absolutely nothing to complain about. This old dog is looking upward.