*DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, therapist, or health professional of any kind. I’m sharing things that I have been taught that have helped me (or not). This is my experience.

Translate

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

My (Physical) Health

My back pain has been pretty unbearable and I had no choice but to go to the hospital on Friday (the 10th).  They gave me a strong anti-inflammatory and it helped some.  They changed my daily NSAID to something stronger and gave me a muscle relaxer to take up to three times a day.  I've been taking them as prescribed with no improvement.

I went back to the doctor on Monday where my doctor said he believes it's neuropathic pain, which is pain caused by dysfunction or damage to the nerves.  My doctor is worried that my medications are causing the nerve problems because some psychiatric cause diabetes type symptoms.  He did blood tests and referred me to a pain specialist that I will see next week.   They are also going to do EMG tests which test the function of your nerves.  The blood tests came out normal and I have started taking prednisone (just this morning) in a very desperate attempt for some relief.

I have also had some problems swallowing for the last few months.  I have to take a drink after every couple of bites or whatever I'm eating gets stuck in my throat.  I just attributed it to the antipsychotic I'm taking and it hasn't caused me enough trouble to worry me.

When I go to physical therapy they say they don't find any muscle tension and the STEM treatment they've been doing is not helping.  When I was there last time my leg began to jerk for several minutes and then stopped.  This worried me some, but they didn't think it was anything important.  I told my doctor about it anyway.

After doing a lot of research on neuropathic pain I have found a lot of things that scare me.  Most of the information I've read says that this kind of pain is so hard to treat that many patients don't even get partial relief.  Another thing I found is that neuropathic pain is very frequently found in MS (multiple sclerosis).  My grandmother has MS and I have read that it can having a family member with it can give you a predisposition to having it as well.  Trouble swallowing and muscle spasms are also classic symptoms. They can diagnose it by your symptoms or by an MRI of your brain.

My grandmother has been in and out of a wheelchair for as long as I can remember, even when I was a little kid.  I am 25 and she is only in her late 60s now.  She has had so much pain and it seems unbelievable how she goes from so bad to so much better so quickly.  We always gets so worried about her.  It really scares me to think that that could be my future.

I'm very impatient about waiting for my pain appointment next week.  It has crossed my mind to call my doctor and ask him for the MRI to rule out MS.  He said we still had some options so I think I should wait until after the appointment and the EMG tests to talk to him.  I don't know if that is going to happen though, I'm just so anxious about it.

No comments:

Post a Comment