Posted 9/11/2012 5:49 AM (GMT 0)
The short version - increase patch strength and wait to see what neurosurgeon says on Wednesday.
Full kit-n-kaboodle: I arrived in tears because that was the longest car journey I have driven since this all started getting worse about a month ago (we live in a small town and my work is less than three miles from home - hubby would have driven me, but I sometimes have to wait a while and I wanted him home for the kids). I was in some serious pain! Brought to more tears the minute he asked me how I've been doing. I showed him tne pain journal I've been keeping since school started. When I told him that I am seeing the neurosurgeon on Wednesday, he seemed to relax a bit, as if his approach may have been a bit different had I not had the other appointment scheduled.
Since I had an injection end of July, we were trying to figure out how much, if any, relief it gave me. I remembered that hubby and I had planned a ride on the motorcycle for the first weekend post-injection and that our plans were up in the air because we needed to see how I would be feeling. While I can't remember exactly how I felt, I told him that I must have been ok since we went ahead with the ride. However, on that ride, a gust of wind came at me, caught me off guard and snapped my neck completely back, till my helmet hit my back. Hubby heard me yelp and immediately pulled over. I was ok, as far as I could tell, but I was wondering if this major increase in pain could have anything to do with the wind incident. Of course, there's no way to tell.
Doc then went on to explain RFA to me and offer it as another option, as it would appear that the last injection may have given me some, if only a few days, of help. Not sure how I feel about that, just yet.
We talked about my meds... A couple of summers ago, we backed down on my Fentanyl patch dosage. The reason was that since I am already on a fairly high dose, this would give us somewhere to go in anticipation of the upcoming Winter. I handled the decrease fine after about a week of feeling pretty miserable, due to the lower amount of Fentanyl, not necessarily pain related and have maintained on that lower dose without the need to go back up... Yet! Today, we decided to go ahead and take it back up to where it was before that decrease. He said that ideally, we should probably switch to a different extended release altogether, as obviously, my tolerance is increasing. He said that the switch would be pretty uncomfortable (getting off of Fentanyl altogether) and he just doesn't want to put me through that while I'm so miserable otherwise (I thanked him for that :-P).
Once I'm settled with the Fentanyl increase, he wants me to do a trial with decreasing my Neurontin as I'm having some short-term memory problems. I think it's more an issue of me being so totally focused on the pain that it's more down to attention and concentration (or lack of). Oh well, I'll give it a try... and who knows? I might be able to shake a med off of my many, many! Less could be more?
I'm rambling (dontcha wish you'd stopped at the short version? :-P)... He wants to see what the surgeon's recommendations are. I plan to discuss whether or not the surgeon feels as if the RFA would benefit me at this point, in addition to considering any and all of his suggestions. So, that's the plan. A lot hinges on this appointment Wednesday. I'm not sure what I expect, maybe I don't really have any expectations? I only know that if something doesn't change, and quickly, I honestly don't know what I'll do. I truly canNOT get through many more days like I'm having. Truly.
Oh, and this evening, our one and only car died, only half an hour after my husband got the phone call that he lost his job (yes, I previously stated that he is unemployed, however, he *had* a one night / week gig dj'ing / kj'ing at a local bar... it pretty much paid for our groceries for the month). This is a hit we just can NOT afford! I honestly do not know what we are going to do.
Thanks for giving me a place to vent, anyway.