Dear Friends,
I went to see the doctor at the pain management place and I really liked him. So did my husband. I had a good feeling about him when he walked in the door. He was very interested in my problems and had several suggestions for me. First, he didn't want to add any new pills to the 22 that I take a day. He did start me on a titrating dose of Topamax and if I tolerate it well we will do away with the neurontin. (If you remember..increasing the dose of Neurontin put 25 lbs. on me in 2 wks. ) The good thing about the Topamax is that it will be twice daily instead of the three times daily as is the Neurontin. The problem with my arm and shoulder is definately RSD or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. He would like to inject the shoulder joint with steroids to see if that would calm down the arm some. I have to contact my surgeon first to see how he feels about that and then get back with him to make the appt. He is afraid that I may not be a good candidate for a nerve block for that area since I have had 4 cervical disc surgeries and things would be shaped differently. He would of course do the block under flouroscopy. One downside of this procedure because of where it would have to be done is that it can temporaraly paralyze one side of my throat. That could be a big problem since the right side is permanently paralyzed already. My luck both sides would be paralyzed and I'd have to end up with a G-tube or something. If all of this didn't work he thought we should think about a spinal stimulator. I pray that we don't get to that point. Anyway, I fell I was certainly blessed today because this new doctor has a genuine interest in trying his best to make me as pain free as possible to make my daily life better. I literally could have hugged him when we left the room as I was a little concerned that if this didn't go well that I didn't know which way I would turn next. Oh, another thought that he had was that if I didn't tolerate the Topamax that I would give the Lyrica another try. He said that the dose I was on was not near enough to have given it an adequate trial and that he would get me up to 300mg per day and see how that went. So again, there is another idea to think about.
I hope each of you have had a better day today and I will pray that you will be able to get some peaceful rest tonight.
Nurse2