Black Panther has been seen! By me!

[lunabee34]

I really enjoyed the movie. I kept cringing in my seat at pivotal moments, certain that Shuri or someone else was going to die, but all the Wakandans survived! Yay! Shuri was my favorite character; she and T'Challa had an amazing sibling vibe that I really liked. Visually stunning; great score and soundtrack. I felt so sorry for Killmonger; he's kinda like Magneto--totally the bad guy but also making a lot of sense. I wish it could have ended with him still alive. Pleasantly surprised that Bilbo the CIA agent survived. Favorite scene: the rhino licking Okoye's face. I loved that the movie ends with T'Challa deciding to open Wakandan borders and share their knowledge.


In other news, my knees have started hurting again, and I mean really hurting again. For most of my adult life, I've had chronic knee pain. Sometimes it didn't hurt as much; sometimes it hurt really badly. When we lived in Oxford and it snowed, I'd wake in the middle of the night in excruciating pain. When I was pregnant with Emma, I had to use crutches; Josh carried me up and down the stairs a few times. But mostly, it was just chronic pain that I learned to deal with. I mostly didn't even notice it anymore until it hurt super bad or was gone (and, boy, were those rare absences of pain LOUD). Well, when I started losing weight after going gluten free, the knee pain pretty much disappeared. I'm not talking just background levels of pain; I mean, it well and truly went away. Once or twice in the last two years, I've had knee pain but that's it. IDK if it was the losing weight part or the gf part treating the autoimmune disorders (and could be a combo), but it worked. And not hurting felt so weird for such a long time. I didn't realize how much and how often they had hurt before until they didn't. Well, about the beginning of February when we started having this bizarre weather (lots of rain, 32 degrees yesterday but 80 today), my knees starting hurting again. Badly. Can't go to sleep cause they're hurting, waking up in the night, uncomfortable sitting for long, hurts to sit down and get up, stairs hurt. I want to say this is worse than it was before, but I don't think I can really say that. I got used to not hurting, and I think it's possible this is pretty close to what I used to consider low levels of pain, but IDK. Anyway, it's just so sudden and acute and unremitting, and I'm starting to worry that this is another autoimmune disorder rearing it's head. Once you have one (and I have three diagnoses plus a fourth that my doc and I agreed is likely but is not worth pursuing a diagnosis at this point), your chances of another go waaay up. I think if I keep hurting, I'm going to go see the doc; I'm terrified of rheumatoid arthritis. Bah.

Comments

[kore]

I'm terrified of rheumatoid arthritis

Me, too. My left shoulder already does this terrifying crispy-crunchy-crackling thing and sometimes when I raise my hand above my head a certain way the whole thing is like HAHA NOPE, and my mom had terrible problems in the same location. Bleah. But it's great that it went away for so long though. Maybe it's an external trigger that can be avoided.

Is moisture supposed to make joint problems worse? Or is that just an old quacks' tale?

[lunabee34]

Is moisture supposed to make joint problems worse? Or is that just an old quacks' tale?

My understanding is that it's temperature (extreme cold) and changes in barometric pressure (brought on by rain or temp changes). But IDK.*throws up hands in the air* It's all so undefined and nebulous how our bodies work. I want a tricorder, dammit.

I'm sorry about your shoulder. That blows.

[kore]

Yeah, I have what is apparently an actual GENETIC DEFORMITY (that's how they describe it) where my elbow's ball goes way too far back into the socket and the ulnar nerve gets entrapped and something something canal of Guyon (which sounds like a nice holiday destination, no?). It's like carpal tunnel, but affects the pinky and ring fingers instead, and a little bit of the grip. I can do the same back-bending party trick with my knee joints, and it's easy for me to turn my feet in 'fifth position' to either the inside or outside (I did this once for a doctor and he looked like he had just sucked a lemon). I completely baby my wrists/fingers and take breaks while typing and don't do a lot of repetitive motions (vacuuming, dishwashing, that kind of stuff). This meant I basically couldn't work since my main skill was I typed 160 wpm and people wanted me to do that, sitting down, all day. Haha no. The shoulder has always been crunchy, but the pain on lifting it is new -- blah, blahblah.

IN CONCLUSION: WHERE IS MY VIBRANIUM ARM, T'CHALLA

[lunabee34]

Oh, wow. That sounds very annoying and painful. Does it just hurt all the time now, or did you push it too far and injure it?

I am so ready to have Shuri push a little magic ball into my knee and fix it. LOL

[kore]

It only goes painful when I lift it in a VERY particular way, but the pain cuts through four pills of Advil, which is no good. Probably the cartilage (which I cannot spell) is all pulverized in there, IDEFK.

SHURI. <33 She was just such an absolute delight. Well the whole movie was, but especially her. She probably fixed up Wakanda with a super-internet.

[lunabee34]

Oh, ouch. :(

Shuri is awesome. I love her fashion choices. And her videoing T'Challa getting knocked on his ass. And their super secret sibling fist bump. LOL When Bucky puts his arm back on, she's going to have made him the most awesome arm ever. Tony will cry with envy.

[kore]

In the tie-in comic she brags about fixing Bucky's brain because she's smarter that Tony Stark and everyone else! It was hilarious. (And probably TRUE)

[lunabee34]

Oh hell yes. That's awesome. I love it!

I hope Peter Parker becomes her intern. LOL

[ariadne83]

My shoulder does the crispy-crunchy thing. Turned out to be bursitis so I'm on celexa (anti-inflammatory)

[lunabee34]

I hope it's helping.

[lyr]

I'm sorry you're hurting, and wow, I hope it isn't rheumatoid arthritis.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

Me too! I am certain I am just being overly dramatic. LOL I am a catastrophizer.

[jackandahat]

That sucks - I hope the doctor has an answer and it's something easy to treat.

[lunabee34]

Me, too! *hugs*

[goss]

Yay for seeing Black Panther! Sorry to hear about your knees though. *hugs and sends some good vibes*

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

Thank you!

I really enjoyed the movie. I can't wait to see those characters interacting with the rest of the MCU.

[tamoline]

Hugs and best wishes regarding the pain. Hopefully it'll get better some time soon, one way or another.

[lunabee34]

*hugs hugs*

Thank you!

[kore]

(Also, that is a lovely icon.)

[lunabee34]

Thank you! It's shareable if you want to snag it.

[independence1776]

I'm sorry about your knees. I hope it's nothing serious.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

Thank you. I'm pretty sure it's just plain old arthritis of the normal kind; I just tend to catastrophize. LOL

[sibilant]

I've had RA for a very long time and this is the time to get it. The treatment now is amazingly good. My joints are all fried (despite surgery, injections etc.) because there was nothing that really worked available when I was diagnosed. So you don't have to worry about RA as much now (although obviously it's best not to get it in the first place). Biological therapy is brilliant - I am off painkillers now, which would have been unimaginable 5 years ago.

[lunabee34]

I am so heartened to hear that the new meds/therapies are working so well for you; I'm sorry you had to endure so much pain to begin with.

I probably don't have RA; I tend to catastrophize, and my symptoms (other than fatigue and symmetrical pain) don't really seem to match the symptoms. It's probably just regular old arthritis. But I'm so glad to know that there are effective treatments if that happens to be the case.

[monanotlisa]

Oh, honey. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you that this is just some very temporary issue. I know; AI* disorders are Buy One Get Five Free, but it miiight not be that? I had hyperthyroidism (they didn't look deeper into the reason) that went away again on its own; I had worsening eye-sight that reversed itself to some degree.

Bodies are wack, Lorraine. I understand the utter hopelessness of chronic pain. But I do have hope this is not The Return of The Knee Pain, for you.

* NOT like Breq.

[lunabee34]

Heeee. I love Breq so much.

I think I am probably just jumping to the worst conclusion. This is probably not RA; it's probably just regular old arthritis. I tend to catastrophize, but I can't help the niggling voice that wonders.

I'm so glad those conditions mostly reversed for you. *hugs*

[spikedluv]

Everything you said about Black Panther! *squees*

I'm sorry that your knees are hurting you again. It's weird that it went away with weight loss and going GF, but has reared its ugly head again. I hope your doctor has an answer for you.

[lunabee34]

Yeah, that's the part that's weird for me. If I'd gained weight again, I would think it was a consequence of that, but literally nothing has changed.

*hugs*

[trobadora]

I hope the pain will go away soon! *hugs*

But yay for Black Panther! It was so good.

[lunabee34]

Thank you, sweetie!

It was so awesome. I'd love to see it again.

[trobadora]

I can't wait for the DVD.

[umadoshi]

Black Panther was SO GOOD. *^^*

That sucks so much about your knee pain coming back. *hugs* I hope if/when you see a doctor, they're able to help.

[lunabee34]

Thank you! *hugs*

I loved the movie hard. Can't wait to watch it again.

[the_emu]

Shuri was the hero of the movie for me. The entire ensemble was awesome. I love movies where everyone is right, even when they're disagreeing with each other.

I loved the whole thing, except I wish they'd used Phil Coulson instead of Martin Freeman. It was such a Phil Coulson role, and while I absolutely love Martin Freeman in everything else he does, he felt like a mediocre Coulson here.


I'm sorry about your knees. Chronic pain is such a miserable thing.

[lunabee34]

Thank you! They are actually feeling better this past week and not hurting so much. *crosses fingers*

Using Phil in that role hadn't occurred to me, but I like the idea. I guess they just didn't want to go through the rigamarole of explaining why he's alive (also since none of the characters in this movie don't know he was "dead," there's no natural way to introduce that he's alive).

[ariadne83]

Humidity/barometric pressure can absolutely make joint pain worse :(

I keep ice packs in the fridge for when my knees are really bad, and I have compression bandages. Plus: natural anti-inflammatories include tannins like red wine and caffeine, so you have a legit excuse for more coffee.

[lunabee34]

Sadly, I cannot have caffeine!