It has been a tough couple of days. Wednesday, I had my psychological evaluation that is required before going in for the SCS trial. We had to leave at 8 am to make it there by 9 since we were having a winter storm that started coming through just as we walked out the door. It consisted of 344 mental health questions, followed by an additional 20 more questions, followed by more questions... and then an hour long interview. I was there for a little over 3 hours. Luckily, they did have a recliner where I was able to elevate my foot up for the interview, but not while answering the questions. Although that appointment was a little lengthy, it was so nice to be able to talk to someone about some of my concerns difficulties that so many of us are faced with while dealing with this amount of pain. If I feel like I need to talk to someone again, I would gladly go back.

I scheduled the evaluation so that I would be able to go directly from their office to my PM's office to take the required SCS class, which was just a couple of miles away. I don't really understand why the class is required. The instructors new very little, only told us the exact same information that was posted on the Nevro website and was unable to answer all of the questions that we, the students, had for them. There were about 10-12 of us all crammed into a small board room without enough seating for us all to sit for an hour. You would think that they would manage the number of people attending so that we would not have to suffer for an hour while they told us what we could have read on the manufacturers website. By the time we left the class, roads were salted and somewhat plowed but a little better than when we left.

Yesterday, I had another appointment, but this time with my disability lawyer. He was well prepared to have someone who needed to keep their foot elevated. We are not too thrilled with the ALJ that is assigned to us, but the I guess the occupational specialist is rather fair in how she proceeds. The lawyer described the ALJ as being an emotionless, heartless drone who would rather see nobody on disability. He basically told me my case could go either way but was dependent on how detailed I can tell my story. if I don't use too much detail, it will probably go against me. If I am able to be as detailed as possible, it should not be a problem.

All of this running around the last couple days, out in the cold and snow and unable to wear anything on my right foot at all, has left me in a lot more pain than usual. It was all necessary, but I sure did over do it.