It's been a while since I gave a hand update, so here goes.

I went to the rheumatologist yesterday. Remember how the hand surgeon said I had trigger finger on my index finger and a torn ligament on my thumb, but I thought he was wrong? Well, the rheumatologist, Dr. S, agrees with me. Yay! I'm not crazy! (Well, at least not about this...)

Anyway, he said that it's highly unlikely that that's what is wrong with my fingers. It's more likely that it's some type of arthritis. Actually, he said it could be:

Rheumatoid arthritis
Osteoarthritis
Gout
Lupus
Lyme Disease
Psoriasis

Yeah. Wow. That's a whole lot of options right there. Some of them are interesting. Gout? Really? And psoriasis -- isn't that some kind of skin condition? Believe it or not, though, if there's a "perfect storm" of conditions, such benign diseases might react by inflaming tissues and might cause the hand problems I've been having. Quite interesting, indeed.

I'm having bloodwork done this week to either rule out or confirm the above conditions. Honestly, I just want to know either way. It's been seven months -- seven loooooong months -- and it'd be really nice to just have an answer as to what the heck is going on. And it's a sad state of affairs when Lyme Disease would be the best option, huh?

Ah, the joys of getting older. Ain't aging grand?