Update
For those of you who are following this thread.
My Dr.'s appointment last month was a waste of time. I declined Fentanyl and was offered Lyrica. So I didn't do either. I don't really know what I expected. My expectations were too high. So I'm working on mentally lowering my expectations since I'm going to have to live this way for the rest of my life.
I had an appointment today with my new physical medicine doc. He's quite brilliant, actually. He's an M.D., Ph.D. in his field. Today was the follow-up for the Botox. He's going to lower the dose of Botox since I had quite the pain episode when the drug peaked out. My shoulder and arm pain is from the release of the upper trapezius. When it relaxed some, my shoulder lowered which put stress on the muscles in my neck and arm, thus the left arm pain. My PCP wasn't able to make the connection and thought I had common bursitis in my shoulder. This new doc is brilliant! I know I said that already. =) He gave me occipital nerve blocks today to help with the headaches. I don't know if it will work because the injections caused more pain and it contained two anesthetics. It's the steroid in it that's supposed to reduce the inflammation from around the occipital nerves. We shall see. I go back on Tuesday for some trigger point injections around the scapulae. These won't contain steroid, which I'm fine with. He's worried about too much steroid dropping my cortisol. He seems to remember everything. I'm very sad to see my old physical medicine doc move away. He was very good, too. But the new one is trained in doing the more dangerous procedures, and does a lot of them. I'll need some work on my left scalene which is attached to the first rib and VERY close to the lung. I'm not quite sure what the plan is there. I'll find out on Tuesday. He seemed a little disturbed by how out of whack my neck and upper back are. I have a bony prominence at the base of my neck, which is either part of T1 or part of the first rib which is very displaced.
The pain I experienced from the Botox releasing the few muscles treated is just a drop in the bucket to what would happen with a fusion that straightened that area. I concluded that to him out loud and he told me that would be putting it mildly! The possibility of having fusion really scares me now that my muscles have developed and been so short in places for so long. I don't know how you all survive. My whole arm went numb after the Botox! I still can't bring it straight up and out to the side without a fair amount of pain. I'm trying to get my mind around how this surgery could make anyone feel better when they have it done in middle age or later. Maybe it's just because of where my particular curve is and more muscles are involved. Dr. Tribus did tell me that I wouldn't be able to raise my arms after surgery. Now I know why he said that.
All in all the appointment went very well. I'm actually feeling better these last couple of weeks and have begun the weaning process once again. It would be nice not to be on this rollercoaster, but that's life. I hope everyone is having a great day! =)
I'm thinking of JennaKB especially today. She's having her long-awaited surgery tomorrow. I hope all goes well with her!
Take Care!
For those of you who are following this thread.
My Dr.'s appointment last month was a waste of time. I declined Fentanyl and was offered Lyrica. So I didn't do either. I don't really know what I expected. My expectations were too high. So I'm working on mentally lowering my expectations since I'm going to have to live this way for the rest of my life.
I had an appointment today with my new physical medicine doc. He's quite brilliant, actually. He's an M.D., Ph.D. in his field. Today was the follow-up for the Botox. He's going to lower the dose of Botox since I had quite the pain episode when the drug peaked out. My shoulder and arm pain is from the release of the upper trapezius. When it relaxed some, my shoulder lowered which put stress on the muscles in my neck and arm, thus the left arm pain. My PCP wasn't able to make the connection and thought I had common bursitis in my shoulder. This new doc is brilliant! I know I said that already. =) He gave me occipital nerve blocks today to help with the headaches. I don't know if it will work because the injections caused more pain and it contained two anesthetics. It's the steroid in it that's supposed to reduce the inflammation from around the occipital nerves. We shall see. I go back on Tuesday for some trigger point injections around the scapulae. These won't contain steroid, which I'm fine with. He's worried about too much steroid dropping my cortisol. He seems to remember everything. I'm very sad to see my old physical medicine doc move away. He was very good, too. But the new one is trained in doing the more dangerous procedures, and does a lot of them. I'll need some work on my left scalene which is attached to the first rib and VERY close to the lung. I'm not quite sure what the plan is there. I'll find out on Tuesday. He seemed a little disturbed by how out of whack my neck and upper back are. I have a bony prominence at the base of my neck, which is either part of T1 or part of the first rib which is very displaced.
The pain I experienced from the Botox releasing the few muscles treated is just a drop in the bucket to what would happen with a fusion that straightened that area. I concluded that to him out loud and he told me that would be putting it mildly! The possibility of having fusion really scares me now that my muscles have developed and been so short in places for so long. I don't know how you all survive. My whole arm went numb after the Botox! I still can't bring it straight up and out to the side without a fair amount of pain. I'm trying to get my mind around how this surgery could make anyone feel better when they have it done in middle age or later. Maybe it's just because of where my particular curve is and more muscles are involved. Dr. Tribus did tell me that I wouldn't be able to raise my arms after surgery. Now I know why he said that.
All in all the appointment went very well. I'm actually feeling better these last couple of weeks and have begun the weaning process once again. It would be nice not to be on this rollercoaster, but that's life. I hope everyone is having a great day! =)
I'm thinking of JennaKB especially today. She's having her long-awaited surgery tomorrow. I hope all goes well with her!
Take Care!
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