Kathy, I thought about you the other day and I've been meaning to post what happened at my doc appointment Wed.

My doc noticed that I looked much better than when he normally sees me. And it took me a minute to figure out the difference... He saw me within 5 or ten minutes of when I walked in the door, when it's much more common for it to take between 45-60 minutes. He responded that he was surprised that just my sitting escalated my pain. So, I explained about how the environment and the people in the waiting room, were the cause and went into detail. His waiting room is not loud or crowded, either. I know I've described that I have these issues to him in the past, but for him to see the cause and effect (or I guess lack there of on this occasion) was eye opening.

We then discussed his behaviors around me that effect my pain levels-and he said it was a good reminder to him that he needs to try to be more gentle. (He already wasn't bad.) But, I haven't ever attempted to "train" him either.

There are some people that are very "quiet" in their movements and speak softly--these are the type of people that are the easiest for me to be around physically. There are all kinds of little habits most people have that escalate my pain. If I'm going to be around someone on a regular basis, I inevitably have to try and get them to stop doing some perfectly "normal" habits. This is an incredibly awkward thing, and there have been times, I felt like I sounded like I was scolding a fidgety child...