Mar
24

Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?

Posted in back pain, drugs, grumpy as fuck, tmi | 7 Comments
I can easily admit I’m the Queen of Chronic Disorders. I’ve got several. I’ve been on a lot of medications with varying degrees of success – everything from low-grade antidepressants for pain to full-blown anti-seizure meds: Elavil, Neurontin, Vicodin, Voltaron, OxyContin, Flexeril, Xanaflex, Celebrex, Elmiron, Lexapro and my new favorite, Ultram ER. Now, I’m used to a fair amount of side effects. Most of the pain killers or anti-depressants would give me a nice form of cotton mouth or make me a bit sleepy, at least until I got used to them. (And I’m not on any long term drugs at all at this point, so lucky me), but the two worst offenders for me were the Lexapro and the Ultram. I went on the Lexapro at one point last year for anxiety issues – something fairly low dose, and I did notice that I immediately felt a bit more… Read more
Mar
12

Hello Kitty Win?

Posted in back pain, grumpy as fuck, hello kitty | 10 Comments
My Hello Kitty USB hub came in yesterday. It lights up (and changes color). It’s a card reader. It has three usb ports in the back. I paid way too much for it, but I was in a **rough patch and the new computer doesn’t have a card reader, and limited front facing USB ports, so I figured, why not? I’m a sucker for things that light up anyway. ** Rough patch being that I got my MRI results back last week and yes, I’ve got scar tissue all around the surgical site. And the disc above the one that was operated on is now bulging out on the *right* side. And I have arthritis too. I was told that they only see this sort of damage in the spine of people who are much older. (Although, what’s funny is that they then hurried to tell me that this sort… Read more
Feb
18

More Hay, Trigger? No Thanks, Roy. I’m Stuffed…

Posted in back pain, updates | 5 Comments
I had my first set of trigger point injections today. They weren’t particularly pleasant, but they weren’t the worst things ever, either. Essentially the doctor just injected those terrible knots with a solution of lidocaine and cortisone, which numbs the muscle and also forces it to relax. After which I went to PT (my acupuncture center does both) and they manipulated the holy fuck out of them. I feel like a tenderized piece of meat…but the radiating pain is greatly reduced, so I’ll take that. In fact, I’m going to have to – I’ve got 5 more treatments in the next 2 weeks, on top of another MRI (with contrast this time) to determine if there’s scar tissue building up on the surgery site. My SI joint was completely out of alignment too (my right leg was longer than my left, whee). So pain doc reset that yesterday (yes, that’s… Read more
Feb
9

Grumpy.

Posted in back pain, grumpy as fuck, updates | 3 Comments
Not much of an update, but I couldn’t think of very much to blog about today. It’s snowing again. School has been closed for the rest of the week and I’m fairly sure we’re going to be losing power again tomorrow. (They are talking major winds tomorrow on top of the snow.) My back is utterly killing me tonight. I made it into work for a few hours today and went to my acupuncturist. Her husband is PT guy, so he worked my back out, but as I tried to explain to him, when the muscles get like this, ultrasound and heat/stim just don’t do anything. Painkillers don’t work. Muscle relaxants don’t work. I think I’m going to insist on getting another MRI next week when I go back to the doc, but I admit I’m getting a tad worried because the muscle cramps and deep radiating pain I’m getting… Read more
Feb
4

Cupping

Posted in back pain, cupping | 4 Comments
Today at acupuncture, I mentioned to the practitioner that I’d like to try cupping some day – and before I knew it, she had pulled out a box of little glass cups and *poof* – instant suction onto my back and shoulder. I twittered this fact and that sparked a flurry of curious tweets about what it was like, so I figured I’d post up a picture. This is obviously several hours later, so most of the ones on my upper back have already faded (except for that one up there on the left). It didn’t hurt exactly, just felt a little funky when she started shifting the cups to pull on the skin. (She didn’t think they would leave much of a mark as my blood is apparently not very stagnant.) Overall, I think I only had them on for a few minutes. Did it work? Hard to say. I definitely left… Read more