I have been dreading today for the past 3 days...I knew it would be a long one. I dropped my kids off at school and drove 1hr to downtown to the med ctr and saw the RD...we decided that the chest pain was not respiratory sooooo I was good to go with my Remicade infusion. After I finished that it was 1230, time for lunch and then I drove down the street to see the new pain mgmt doc. My appt was for 2 but he was running behind so I sat in the wr for 1 1/2 hrs and made friends. Finally I got called back, saw the doc who did more pushing, pulling and tapping on my joints....well he was doing nuero tests...but it wasnt pleasent on my joints. So we are going forward with the injections in my neck...they are gonna call me to schedule. He and his NP were really nice. I am still nervous about it all.
So I developed a wicked headache on the drive home. By the time I picked up my kids from my mom...and then drove home it was 7.
I had to help my son get going with his bath, help my daughter with math homework that she was not interested in at all...and then I zapped some tv dinners in the zapper.
So here I am...on my second pain pill in 1 hour...with a killer headache...my hips, knees and ankles are throbbing they hurt so much...and if I just lay here it is worse...so I am on AI for some distraction from the pain.
What a day!
ahhh...one bright spot in my day....the scale at the docs office today said 160...and that was after breakfast and with jeans and shoes on!!! yea!!! thats at least 4 pounds down!
Hey Crunchy!
Congrats on the weight loss. I'm jealous
So what do the pain mgmt people do for you? Did they hurt your joints worse?
Is the remicade working for you?
Hahahaha....yeah...they did alot of poking and pulling and strength tests...but the deal is I am going to have dye and steroids and lidocaine injected with 2 small needles into my neck. The theory is that if the inject into the right spot then I will have pain relief to my neck, shoulders and mid back for maybe weeks or even months. If it doesnt work...then I get to have neck surgery.
Um..today was my 3rd Remicade infusion...so no big changes yet..I am still tired alot...but I have noticed that I have more days with minimal hand/foot pain and the "morning" stiffness seems to only last in the morning...not all day like before.
So...we shall see. It has been hard to differentiate some of the pain and problems because I have been having severe muscle spasms in my back, chest, and shoulder that I dont know if it is just over shadowing the other stuff. Although the migraine didnt seem to stop my hips, knees and ankles from bothering me tonight. HHHMMMM who knows with this crazy stuff?
What a long day for you...hope your head is feeling better soon.Hey kel...thanks...its getting there.Crunchy, I don't know how you do it all, especially with children. I admire you and everyone else who have children and who are battling this disease. It's an everyday battle and takes so much of your time just to take care of yourself. If there were awards for RA moms I'd be pinning them on you. You all are an exceptional group of women.Hope you are feeling better today. I also hope the injections work for you.
In the meantime, rice bags on the neck gives me some relief and my tens unit if I can get it positioned right. For the headache, sometimes coffee will help when you've already tried all your meds.
Also, if the headaches continue, they can find something that targets just those kinds of headaches so bring that up to the pain specialist as well.
Don't know how you do it.
I don't drink a lot of soda or caffeine, but if I get a bad