E:\LETTERS\2017DARR.TXT 21 October 2017 ------------------------------------------------------------ meralgia paresthetica in excruciating detail: I slipped on oil and landed heavily on my left hip in the eighties. It seemed to heal normally, but a long trip in our Fiero proved that it hadn't. Pain and tingling ran down the outside of my left leg seldom enough that I didn't connect it to the injury until after I was diagnosed, and remembered how it felt to ride in the Fiero. When I had hair on my legs, shaving the outside of my left calf felt funny. When we moved to Winona Lake in 2001, I learned that walking more than a mile would touch off what I now know was paresthesia, and I would have to sit down every chance I got on the way back. When I became accustomed to walking, this stopped happening. After my crippling back-ache the Easter before last, the pain moved into my hip and has been more-or-less constant. Numbness etc. seems mostly confined to the thigh. For the last few months, I've been noticing the pain, and it often hurts to walk. On Saturday 7 October 2017, when I took a ten-mile bike ride, walking hurt enough that I grabbed a shopping cart first thing whenever I entered a store. On the following day, as a prophylactic measure, I pushed my walker to church, but left it in the cloak room, and climbed my usual quota of stairs. I did use the walker as a resting place both going and coming. On Friday, 10 November 2017, I rode twenty-five miles with no discernable effect on the hip and thigh. My knees started dropping subtle hints after fifteen or twenty miles. I try to avoid standing still for any length of time. ------------------------------------------------------------ meralgia paresthetica, short versiom Meralgia paresthetica isn't yet restricting my activities. My hip aches most of the time and has started to notice long walks. The outside of my left thigh is numb, but very rarely tingles. The leg seems normal below the knee. My bicycle rides this summer weren't as long or as frequent as they used to be, but that's been mostly a matter of declining motivation -- and rainy spells long enough that I'd get out of shape and have to start over. I'm afraid of slick roads and will probably be confined most of the winter. ------------------------------------------------------------ The rotator cuff injury I got from the crippling back-ache in 2016 took a very long time to heal, because what I thought was coddling it was actually aggravating it. It healed reasonably soon after I caught on, but in late July, 2017, I drove to Frankfort, stayed a few days, and drove back. The rotator cuff ached continuously on the way back, save for a brief interval when I was walking between the scycamores at Deer Creek. It stopped hurting as soon as I got out of the car at home, but I fear that I've done myself a permanent injury, because when I drove the pickup to Rentown near Bremen on August 24, my arm started to ache almost as soon as I got onto US 30, and has been aching whenever I pay attention to it ever since. It doesn't mind driving the car to local shops. I think it's straight roads that annoy it. I had been neglecting exercises for the spliced clavicle because until recently, keeping the toaster on the top shelf had been enough. I'm trying to get back into the habit of raising my arms and waving them around now and again. I sometimes hear and feel a click in the left arm when I do. ------------------------------------------------------------ I hardly ever notice the neuropathy in my feet. I don't get the wrinkled-sock sensation, but sometimes feel that something is stuck to the ball of my foot when I walk on a bare floor. At night, I sometimes feel that I've been wearing shoes that are too short when the sheets brush my toes. I have given up trying to find shoes in my size, and wear sandals all winter. I have always gone barefoot when I could get away with it. ------------------------------------------------------------ When I next see Dr. Hickman (in August of next year) I intend to discuss having my cataracts removed. Dr. Hickman brought it up at my previous appointment. ------------------------------------------------------------ Get a print-out of blood presssure when printing this document. -----------------------------------------------------------