Worst. Ride. Ever.

Welcome to my roller coaster, where one thing gets helped but then another thing stands out more, pain-wise.  Tickets are free but you're gonna pay if you get on this ride, believe me.

After my two injections last Thursday, I waited both in anticipation of feeling like a new woman, and in dread of potential side effects that might make me feel horrible for days.  Well, neither really happened.

I don't feel like a new woman.  Yes, I do think the injections helped relieve some pain in my glute and down the outside of my thigh.  But - and I'm conjecturing here - I think that by easing that pain made the nerve pain from the herniated disc stand out more.  Or else it was a coincidence, but man, my standard pain areas (groin, front of thigh, knee) have been hurting bad.  Funnnn times.  So, since I was experiencing a pain flare, I increased my Gabapentin (the nerve medication) by an extra pill, taking two in the morning instead of one, with my standard two in the evening.  It's not like I decided to do this of my own volition; my pain management group told me I could take an extra Gabapentin if I was hurting a lot more.  More on that in a minute.

I was very apprehensive about side effects from the steroid injections thanks to my experiences in the past.  This go-round it was changed up and they used a different type of steroid for the injection in hopes of avoiding them.  I got the standard steroid flush on day two:

It looks like I used the wrong shade of blush for my skin tone...and swiped it over my nose and chin as well as my cheeks and then hit my neck and my chest for fun.

Once the flush appeared I braced myself for the rest of the side effects, but none came, can you believe it?  Something went well for me for a change.

And yes, I realize that more than one thing has gone well for me since this began, but living like this for so long is an emotional and physical roller coaster.  It's hard to make plans because I never know how I'll be doing - for example, we were invited to Logan's birthday party on Saturday afternoon and I didn't know if I'd actually get to go...it all depended on what the steroid did to me.  Thankfully I was able to attend (fun pictures to come in Friday's post), but it's so hard to get excited for something when you know your body might let you down.

Back to the Gabapentin:  I ended up having a pretty rough time with it; my hands were shaking much more than usual, distractions were at an all-time high, and my memory was shot.  So I dropped back down to my usual dosage yesterday.  Also yesterday, my PT gave me some exercises to try when that pain is really bad and after my visit I did feel better so maybe things are turning up.

See?  Roller coaster. 

I Feel Like a Pincushion

I was able to get the injection yesterday.  Well, injections.  Yes, two - one in the SI joint and one in the hip bursa joint.  I have to admit, I was much more apprehensive about this going into it because somehow it seemed like getting an injection into that teeny tiny space was going to hurt a lot more than getting an epidural injection in my back.

Prepped and waiting for the doctor to come in, getting more and more nervous by the minute. 

Turns out, I was right about the pain.  Really didn’t enjoy that, especially once the SI joint injection was finished, knowing that the bursa was next.  Needless to say I’m glad it’s over.  I took a quick picture of the X-rays and got the heck out of Dodge although it was a little late late for that, truth be told.

Left - bursa, right - SI joint.

I spent the rest of the day lying down to keep the steroid medication in place. Oh!  I forgot to say, they used a different type in hopes that I won’t get so sick from it.  So now the waiting game begins...will the injections work?  Will I wake up mostly pain free one day soon?  Will I avoid getting the awful side effects?  I have a feeling I’ll know the answers by the next time I will blog, which will be Wednesday since I’m taking Labor Day Monday off.

Have a great long weekend!

Herniated Disc Update #4

I had an appointment with the PA, Kristen, at my pain doctor's office last week.  Jeff met me there and I am really glad he did because I'd forgotten a lot of the oddities that had happened in the seven weeks since my last visit.

He brought up my blue fingers and the auditory hallucinations, as he called them - I just said there was a party happening in my head.  Off and on, I could hear the murmur of a group of people talking but couldn't really make out any words - it was like they were at a party in the distance.  Yes I know that is weird but it only lasted for a few days and I think it probably was related to going off the Butrans pain patch.

I was nervous to tell Kristen about my decision to not get another epidural steroid injection since the last one didn't help at all - I stayed the same, pain-wise.  Well, I didn't need to be worried; she listened to me and agreed that another injection wasn't in order, whew!  I know everyone is really kind and caring at my pain management clinic, but I rarely challenge a doctor so this was hard for me to do.

Kristen was very thorough with going back through her notes, confirming pain levels over the last several months, and not only where I was hurting, but things like the pins and needles at my knee - did it wrap around the leg or was it only in the front?  Although it happens constantly, I didn't know - isn't that funny?  I got the answer a few minutes later when the pins and needles started again:  it's only on the front.  It happened off and on during the appointment and I was glad that Kristen could see the frequency and also how I wasn't doing anything when they began.  We went over my prescriptions; I was only on Gabapentin at that point.  Oh and four Aleve a day.  Even with that, I still hurt.

That was the talking part of the appointment; next I sat on the exam table while she tested my leg strength.  Then the fun began, with her pressing on my back to see where I hurt.  My back was barely an ouch, but when she got down to my hip area, or the sacrum as I have learned, there were a lot of ouches, especially on the left side.  Then there was more talking:  she suspected that the reason why the last injection didn't help was because the previous one had done the trick and the herniated disc and fragment had moved off of the nerve root.  So the injection did nothing because there was nothing to be done...in that area.

Jeff and I got an anatomy lesson at that point, where Kristen showed on a skeleton model the area that was hurting on me.  She explained that everything sort-of overlaps in the back and one issue can lead to another, and I was experiencing sacroiliac joint pain, or SI pain as it's commonly known.  The areas where I was still hurting (glute, groin, leg) can be caused by the SI, and she was pretty confident that was where my lasting pain was coming from.  Of course Jeff and I both said "wait, was there a herniated disc??" and she said yes, very much so, as shown on the MRI.  So while the herniated disc is under control (fingers crossed, PLEASE BE SO), now we can see that the SI joint is inflamed.

The treatment for this?  Taking Meloxicam, an anti-inflammatory drug, plus getting an injection in that joint.  Yes.  Another injection.  Yippee.  Obviously I am not thrilled about that because of how sick I got from my last steroid injection, but if this works I will be mostly pain free and that will be worth it.  The good thing about this is that if the injection doesn't work, there are alternatives, such as a plasma-rich injection - but that isn't covered by insurance so we might as well start with the one that is.  Hopefully the steroid injection will happen later this week; my doctor's schedule is pretty full plus he's on call at the hospital, so we'll see.

If it sounds like I'm throwing everything at this and hoping something sticks, I kind of am...with the advice of competent medical professionals, of course.  But I'm tired of hurting, I'm tired of not getting to do much because of the pain, and I'm tired of this dominating my life.

I'm still going to go to the neurosurgeon consultation appointment in September.  At this point I still want to hear what his take is on my injury and what he might recommend.  I don't think I need surgery but I'm not a doctor and I could be wrong - shocking, I know.