As the title hints, today’s musings are going to be somewhat picture oriented. Partly because I’m in a picture sort of mood, but mostly because I had all these screenshots lying about for a post, and instead of making a million posts, I figured I could wrap them all up into one 🙂
On Raiding
Many things have happened since we spoke last week! First and foremost being that we had extra time in our raid week this week to finish up the last of the achievements that most folks needed for the Glory of the Cataclysm Raider meta. We still have a few more to trudge through for folks, but the majority of our raid team walked out Wednesday Night looking a bit like this:
Glory of the Cataclysm Raider
We also found the time this week, after several sub-10% wipes, to knock out heroic Rhyolith. In fact, we went in last night and nailed it so quickly that I regretted our “warm up” on Beth’tilac, as it meant that we didn’t get the opportunity to start Hard Mode work with her. So it goes! Gives us a full raid night to circle back for some of the last few achievements folks need for the T11 meta – and I’m OK with that! Oh, and here’s the video of our kill. I may or may not have used Walk This Way as the music for it. Don’t judge! I found it hilarious.
I have spent enough time with the encounter in learning it that I feel comfortable enough to go ahead and work on a video guide for the fight, so you should see that here in the near-ish future.
Heroic Rhyolith Video (guide incoming soon!)
Oh, and before I forget. Guess who got the fire kitty staff from Fandral last night? That’s right! THIS TREE!
Fire Kitty!
On Dailys
I’m still trudging through my dailys each day. I can’t say that I’m overly thrilled by them, but I will tell you that the other night when I opened up the Druid of the Talon dailys Brade and I had a good bit of fun doing the achievements together. The kicker of this whole daily mess is that I don’t need anything from them. But being the pet collector and odd, fun thing fanatic that I am, I find myself obligated to trudge through them to get my toys. Although I have yet to expand past doing them on anyone but Beru.
Speaking of dailys. Guess who I found in my Setheria’s roost quest group the other day? None other than EJ’s Gurgthock himself. When I noticed I hollered “OMG I HAVE GURGTHOCK” to Brade – and then we both took a few minutes to explore his extremely creative attire while having a good laugh over the whole thing.
I wonder who his tailor is.
Meeting Gurgthock
On My Hands
They are still bothering me quite a bit, sadly. I’ve been back to the doctor about it again, and they ran blood work for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I haven’t received the results from those tests yet (someone remind me to call the damn doctor and find out what is taking so long), but I remain on the quest to improve the pain on my own. You all may recall that I purchased a new chair awhile back – and it’s wonderful. I absolutely love it. And while it did solve some of my posture and back pain from extended time spent in the chair, it did not, unfortunately, alleviate all of my hand pain.
And so I continue to make improvements to my home office to try and help. This past weekend I altered to top of my desk so that I could attach a keyboard tray. While I know that it’s better ergonomically for me, the jury will remain out on if it makes it less painful for my hands. I am truly at the point that I’ll try almost anything if I think it will help.
On Non-WoW Activities
I am going to tell you all something that may make you think less of me. Brace yourselves.
I am completely, 100%, addicted to The Glee Project on Oxygen. I’ve always been a Glee fan, but I am seriously loving this show, I can’t even tell you. I have my favorites and my least favorites. And every week I cross my fingers that my favorites don’t get selected to be removed. It’s silly, I know, but it’s a lot of fun and a good way to wind down after a long night of Sunday raiding!
Non-Glee related, I am still working through the first Song of Fire and Ice book. I think I’m about half way through and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. Even though I watched the HBO series and know what’s going to happen, I still find that the author’s writing is page turning and at times I have a bit of a hard time putting the book down.
And because I can, have a cute picture of my dog.
How was your week?
Falling Leaves and Wings 
Who is your favorite on the Glee Project?! I must know. 🙂
I really like Hannah and Cameron! I think those two are probably my favorites 🙂
For your hands, is it joint pain, muscle pain or generalized pain? Is it worse in one hand or equally bad in both? Are you doing anything for it Ice / NSAIDS?
Where to start…
I have swelling in my knuckles, stiffness in my fingers, and swelling in the soft tissue in both my fingers and the top of my hands. It started with my right hand, but it is pretty equal in both now. The pain in my fingers is fairly sharp pain – and I would say that it’s muscle pain, but I could be wrong as it’s hard to tell if the pain is in the actual knuckle or in the muscle in between. The tissue swelling on the top of my hands comes with a more burning type pain.
I am debating asking for a referral to a specialist, as my primary care doctor has been less than stellar with dealing with it (or me for that matter) and I am not sure I trust her (perhaps that’s a sign it’s time to find a new doctor?).
I’ve been gaming for at least seven years and about five years ago I started to notice lots of pain (back, shoulder, hands, legs, etc). Of course it would get better when I wasn’t on my computer but it would still stick around – I thought it was computer-related such as repetitive strain injury. We tried lots of things but it would only alleviate the pain slightly.
Eventually my doctor decided to test for the most unusual (we had done all the arthritic testing and whatnot). It turned out I had fibromyalgia. The testing is simple and your doctor can do it right in the exam room by testing your myofascial trigger points.
Things didn’t get immediately better but as I learned to look for signs, took some daily medicine, exercised and dieted… my pain became less.
I can’t say that’s what you have and I’m not quite suggesting it is… but I had all the same signs as you did, and then it turns out I had FM. Worth looking at I think!
Also, ice and Voltaren Emulgel is great for hand pain. Great!
And, I really need to get back into raiding. We had some great players in T11 but some not so great ones… and it just sort of drained the will to raid out of my boyfriend and I, who is the guild and raid leader. But I guess we gotta tough it out xD
Thanks for the feedback! I will definately ask about it 🙂
What is Voltaren Emulgel? Something that I can pick up at the drug store?
It’s one of the brands of topical Diclofenac – a NSAID. Yes, you should be able to get it over the counter.
It is very good.
I am very surprised your doctor didn’t at least suggest trying it. NSAIDS are a pretty standard way of treating inflammation, either as a topical gel like Voltaren or as a tablet like Mobic (Meloxicam-which needs to be prescribed). Maybe she is thinking down different pathways and not sharing her thinking with you?
My husband would tell you that once the pain is bearable you should try to limit your use of the gel as much as possible, as it comes with an increased risk of peptic ulcer (but he works with adverse events and doesn’t ever deal with the millions of people who DIDN’T get a peptic ulcer.)
Yeah, it’s an NSAID and you can get it at a drugstore easy. I don’t know as much as Deppi here, though!
Aleve is another good NSAID, but yes… always limit your use. Liver disease can occur… even with too much acetaminophen.
Good luck with everything 🙂
i have chronic hand pain as well and i found that the only thing that has helped me was going ot see a chiropractor! when i was first referred to one i was in shock and totally not into it but dang did it help and they not only worked on my hands but on my neck and shoulders too they said alot of my hand pain was being caused further up the chain so if they are not finding anything wrong with your hands they may need to look farther up. do have to say my hands were a work related injury and they could not find any cause of the pain just that it was there and it will never go away fully but that a chiroprator is the only relief i got from the pain was amazing good luck with your hand pain!