It's one of those interesting evenings... The late nighters are in rare form, we've got a thread hijacked in the name of sarcasm and beached on the isle of surreal, and earlier my three year old daughter informed me that she was, "still a rock star, she's got her rock moves, and she doesn't need me."
My wife actually needed to explain the last one as my music tastes congealed somewhere around 2000, and I typically only allow a new song in every six months. Still don't know where exactly she picked it up from, but one of the older girls at daycare is suspect. It was enough for me to swap out my avatar for one of my favorite pictures of her.
I couple of people have PM'ed me, and I realized I never posted an update on the biopsy and visit to the ENT. First off, the biopsy of my quad came back "normal" WOOT WOOT! That is a piece of good news.
Rose - you were right about the scoping... the Afrin combined with the anesthetic was pretty gross. The whole thing reminded me of a time as a late teen when one of the guys I knew demonstrated his talent by working a piece of spaghetti up his nose and out his mouth. The ENT said that everything looked ok structurally. He said it reinforced his opinion that the swallowing difficulty was likely neurological or more generally muscular in nature.
I go back to the local neuro on the 3rd. I'm going to review the journey thus far, and see where he wants to head next. Both the rheum and the ENT have said the ball belongs in the neuro's court.
Thankfully, the swallowing has stayed about the same. The general muscle soreness and fatigue are still a crimp on the day-to-day, and I don't use the tw@#$% word. Some days are better than others. Most of the soreness is focused in my neck and shoulders, although my fingers feel really stiff and sore making it a bear to type. I've only have one thing that has progressed some more causing me additional stress.
While hauling all the luggage and tired three year old around, it felt like my left wrist and forearm were a little more sore than usual. I noticed that they have thinned a bit making the tendons pretty visible. It's kind of like I have a little trough running from my wrist to about a third of the way down my forearm. If I make a fist it is really noticeable.
I had my brother take a look at it, and he agreed that it looked and felt smaller than my right arm, plus the tendon prominence (I'm a lefty, source of my offbeat humor and thousands of doodles on notepads during boring meetings). He recommended gentle stretching, and to trying not to worry about it too much in between medical appointments. I'm going to bring it up with the neuro in a couple of weeks.
Thank you all for the never ending support and safe haven,
Robert