I feel dizzy. I didn't throw up 'cos I had a mint (for those who didn't know, mint settles your stomach). It feels really hot in here but I've got all the windows open...and I opened the front door too, and the patio door, to get some air moving...LA is too hot. I should move. Remind me...

It's hurting quite a bit now. I think if someone was trying in earnest to scrape out the flesh from my bones along my lower back, using a spoon or the edge of a hardcover book--it might feel like this. It comes and goes in waves.

I'm drinking Corona Lite (ugh) also, in an effort to maybe speed up this process. Usually beer helps.

Mom said I could call her and she'd come and get me in the middle of the night if she had to, and take me to the emergency room for morphine...but the last time we did that they kept me waiting from 10 am to 7 pm before they gave me anything at all for the pain. I don't want to go back in, and I don't want to confront all that going back to the hospital would entail...

I'm writing this in an effort to (a) pull myself out of it a little bit and (b) to share the experience, because there are other people out there with this (altho the disease is rare--so rare that my doctor clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Wow! This is so interesting!" when she gave me the diagnosis).

I've started to sweat some now. I don't know what that means.