Book

7. Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich

The latest in my "read the books I borrowed so that I can return them and get them out of the house" quest. I'd been avoiding this one too, but this time I know why-- I'd borrowed Ten Big Ones at the same time and was starting to get bored with Stephanie Plum. I understand why series writers try to avoid a lot of character development, since if there's too much, you change the character so much that it's no longer the same character and you lose readers. The big attraction to Stephanie Plum is the bumbling bounty hunter who is way out of her league. If you let her learn too much and get better at it... there goes the major attraction. But after a while, I got really tired of the same "jump in without thinking" bullshit, and the same two-dimensional love interest(s).

Which is why I found Eleven On Top to be such a pleasant surprise. Stephanie actually LEARNS something. She does real, honest-to-god investigating instead of stumbling into the answer, though she still manages to find herself in mortal danger and in need of rescuing by the end of the book (well, I did say earlier that you can't change TOO much without losing the spirit of the character). She still jumps in foolishly, but there's a small conversation between smart Stephanie and stupid Stephanie beforehand, and you get the feeling that she's making progress. Joe stops being quite so much of a stereotype, and works a little on anger management. (Actual quote: Stephanie: "You're pretty calm about all this." Joe: "I'm a calm kind of guy." Stephanie: "No, you're not. You go nuts over this stuff. You always yell when people go after me with a sledgehammer." [That makes sense in context, honest.] Joe: "Yeah, but in the past, you haven't liked that." Go, Joe!)

Grandma Mazur still rocks my world. Stephanie still loses cars at an alarming rate. Ranger is still strong, silent, mysterious, and sexy. Lula is still... well, I'm hoping that in future books the character development will extend to Lula too, though in fairness she did stop and listen to Stephanie and do what she was supposed to do once near the end of the book, so that's progress as well. I laughed more with this book than I did with any of the prior Stephanie Plum books, and it's restored my interest in the series.

Pain management

Saw the pain management doctor today. Despite my irritation at how long I had to wait for the appointment (why, WHY on earth would an office specializing in pain management make someone wait nearly a week for an appointment? I called for an appointment last Thursday!), I really like the doctor. He coddled my inner techno-geek by going over the MRI films with me, explaining what I was seeing and which specific pictures contained the problem, which is so amazingly cool I can't begin to explain it. We discussed drug options (I'm allergic to codeine, Darvocet makes me unpleasantly loopy and it's pretty much the weakest narcotic there is, and the only non-narcotic non-over-the-counter pain medicine gives me migraines that are worse than the pain it masks), treatment options, and he was understanding about the fact that I'm going to fly to California then get in a truck and drive across country next week come hell or high water. His only response to that was "Well, I would normally have you come back to this office on Monday for treatment, but I don't think you should fly the day after, so we'll set you up with an appointment for an epidural at the Bloomfield Hills office tomorrow instead."

The upshot is that tomorrow I will get jabbed in the back with a large needle full of steroids. It's intended to help heal the bulging disc rather than to control the immediate pain, and because the pain stems from pressure on the nerve and the injection will put more fluid into the thing putting the pressure on the nerve, there is a possibility of even more pain for two to three days afterward as the disc heals. (Hence the "It's not a good idea to fly right afterward.") Once that pain subsides, it should take a lot of the existing pain with it (in a real, heal-the-underlying-problem manner, rather than in a mask-the-pain-so-you-don't-feel-it manner), and it should make the cross-country trip substantially more pleasant.

When the doctor described the procedure, he indicated that it would be a local anesthetic and "pressure" with the potential for some pain during the actual injection, which would take about 30 seconds, maybe a minute at the outside. When I went to set up the appointment, though, the nurse(?) asked if I wanted to be sedated. Given a choice... yes. The upside is that there will be no pain during the injection, and probably not for many hours afterward. The downside is that I can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight, so I had to choose between getting up early or starving. With my Hobbit-like attitude towards food, I took the "be here by 7:45am" appointment.

Wish me luck!

Pain management

Saw the pain management doctor today. Despite my irritation at how long I had to wait for the appointment (why, WHY on earth would an office specializing in pain management make someone wait nearly a week for an appointment? I called for an appointment last Thursday!), I really like the doctor. He coddled my inner techno-geek by going over the MRI films with me, explaining what I was seeing and which specific pictures contained the problem, which is so amazingly cool I can't begin to explain it. We discussed drug options (I'm allergic to codeine, Darvocet makes me unpleasantly loopy and it's pretty much the weakest narcotic there is, and the only non-narcotic non-over-the-counter pain medicine gives me migraines that are worse than the pain it masks), treatment options, and he was understanding about the fact that I'm going to fly to California then get in a truck and drive across country next week come hell or high water. His only response to that was "Well, I would normally have you come back to this office on Monday for treatment, but I don't think you should fly the day after, so we'll set you up with an appointment for an epidural at the Bloomfield Hills office tomorrow instead."

The upshot is that tomorrow I will get jabbed in the back with a large needle full of steroids. It's intended to help heal the bulging disc rather than to control the immediate pain, and because the pain stems from pressure on the nerve and the injection will put more fluid into the thing putting the pressure on the nerve, there is a possibility of even more pain for two to three days afterward as the disc heals. (Hence the "It's not a good idea to fly right afterward.") Once that pain subsides, it should take a lot of the existing pain with it (in a real, heal-the-underlying-problem manner, rather than in a mask-the-pain-so-you-don't-feel-it manner), and it should make the cross-country trip substantially more pleasant.

When the doctor described the procedure, he indicated that it would be a local anesthetic and "pressure" with the potential for some pain during the actual injection, which would take about 30 seconds, maybe a minute at the outside. When I went to set up the appointment, though, the nurse(?) asked if I wanted to be sedated. Given a choice... yes. The upside is that there will be no pain during the injection, and probably not for many hours afterward. The downside is that I can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight, so I had to choose between getting up early or starving. With my Hobbit-like attitude towards food, I took the "be here by 7:45am" appointment.

Wish me luck!