No changes

The good news is I had an MRI last Saturday and it showed nothing. No rotator cuff tear (I knew that but everyone kept jumping to that), no bursitis (surprising since everyone's told me I've had that for ages). All good, and I am definitely relieved b/c if it was a tear then I'd have to contemplate shoulder surgery and who has the time (or energy) for that? I've already decided to push back my hand surgery till the new year so I will have a full FSA account and days off.

But the question still remains, what the F*** is going on w/ my neck??? I see Dr. Ahmed (the anesthesiologist/pain dr) on the 6th. The other drs think he will want to do another epidural. Fun stuff! But if it works then it's fine because the pain has actually been really bad this week, especially in my shoulder and upper arm. I am praying that it will work this time because tomorrow is 10 weeks and I'm seriously going to lose my mind, or what's left of it!

Humpty Dumpty strikes again

ARGH! I just want to scream! Or jump off a roof, or in front of moving bus, but there's that daft thing in my head called a conscience that won't let me. I CAN NOT TAKE THE PAIN ANYMORE.
Tomorrow will be FIVE WEEKS of agony with this neck thing. And it's bad. I can handle "normal" pain, after all I've been through I definitely have a very high tolerance, G-d knows, but this is slowly driving me delirious.

I am sad to report that the shoulder cortisone injection and the trigger point injection did absolutely NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. I emailed Dr. Panagos on Monday and didn't hear back, he's busy I get it but I'm being a selfish person for once and need help. Tuesday I rang his office, and his assistant said he was on the phone but would ring me back directly. Unfortunately he didn't get to until Wednesday am. He did leave a message apologising and I rang him back as soon as I received it. He asked me a bunch of questions and agreed that something needs to be done. I have no life, I get to work, by about 16.00 I'm dying in agony, then I go home directly after work and lay on the couch until bedtime, and in the middle drink wine and take klonopin hoping it will help me sleep. I still can't even lie flat on my back. Anyway I digress. Dr. P said he had put a call into Cornell for a consult as he wants me to have the spinal epidural in a hospital setting. I'm ok with waiting an extra day or two so it's done correctly but I need to know that it's going to be done soon. He said he'd ring me back and I told him I'd be in the office until 16.00 and then had a hand dr appointment and he could ring me on my mobile. Sadly I did not hear from him at all. I ended up sending him an email around 20.30 asking if he had "any news at all???". My mother laughed at that. Hey, I'm desperate. I did ring his office about 20 minutes ago and spoke to his assistant. She said he was doing a procedure and would get to him as soon as possible. I said even if he just has a message and she rings me back, I just need to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel because I'm in misery. I did apologise for being completely brain dead as all this pain has made my brain turn to mush, even more than normal!

On another note, I saw Dr. Melone yesterday. I've been putting off this appointment because last year he said if the cortisone injection didn't work I'd have to have surgery. After my trip to London though and only using my big camera for 3 days, then suffering for a week after, I had to sort something out. At least the surgery is much more minor that the last 4, and the recovery seems to be quicker. I will have a splint on but will be able to use my fingers and go back to work in a day or so. I need to find out how long it will take for my hand to be in "working order" as well as if I will need PT after. Both from a time and health insurance perspective, since they only give you a very limited number of PT visits TOTAL per year. That might work for regular people but not the special ones! I also can't schedule it till I have this back thing sorted out. I can't believe I have to have another hand surgery. It didn't really sink in until today.

Anyway that is where I am at the moment. At least I have a gorgeous new niece and brilliant nephew to divert me on occasion.

if it's not one thing...

well, it's actually many. I've changed the quote.

Saturday I was feeling okay, weather was a bit hit or miss, and I took it easy. I had decided I would go to the pool on Sunday as it seems slightly less insane than on Saturdays. I also had plans to go out with some friends to Uncle Nicks - a must - for the flaming cheese! It was great! We ordered a bunch of starters and some wine and watched lots of flaming cheese! After we went next door to a bar that makes pretty damn strong drinks. This is a dangerous thing, but a fun one too! I'll just leave it at that. It was a great distraction from my pain though, as I barely knew what was bothering me! Gotta love that!

Sunday I went to the pool and had a good workout, pushed it a bit. After some lunch I went to sit in Central Park for a while, it was so beautiful out. My favourite weather, not too hot, not too cool - just right! I was feeling pretty good but still took the bus from my flat to the park, but I did end up walking home. I've been a bit sore since (yes even remembering to take my Mobic) so think I might have overdone it a bit. But still, I feel like I have to make some progress and not just do the same things all the time.

Monday was a pretty good day, weather lovely and I was even able to stand for a bit when I met my friend Stan out for drinks. I was still v. happy when the girl next to me finally left so I could nick her bar stool. :-) Yesterday did the pool again and hips were definitely not happy after, so I made sure to ice them both when I got home. I have to say that my back is still tight and my neck feels like there's a pinched nerve in there. I am thinking it's related to the arm exercises I've been doing in the pool. Tomorrow at my massage/chiro I will ask him to address that area.

Don't even get me started on my hand/wrist. It was hurting so much last night I put a lido patch on under my splint. Thankfully that worked so I didn't have the pain all night, but now it's back to hurting, plus I'm having shooting pains up and down the arm. Such fun. Have I mentioned how much I DO NOT want to have another hand surgery?

Anyway, for the most part, I've been good. I've slept well the last two nights (with assistance) but who cares, it feels great to sleep through the night! And I am off on holiday in two weeks so all is good!

Could be worse

PT on Monday went well. We did everything the same as last week, sans the balance board, and I think that made all the difference in the world. That balance board and I have been enemies from the beginning. I've never done it without getting some sort of pain from it. And the best is I have not limped since the weekend! How exciting is that? Now the really exciting part of this story is that last night I wore my v. v. high heels - 3" heels - to be exact. I haven't worn those in probably a year or so! And I was okay standing and walking at the Purim do I went to. Yeah! (Ok, to be honest I have a slight ache in my groin, but it's not too horrible so I'm not complaining.) I missed the pool yesterday but will go after work today so we shall see how I fare with that.

Today was my appointment with Dr. Melone. I must add he is an amazing doctor. After all of my experience with the medical profession I feel I have acquired the expertise to judge these things :-) That and the fact I can still use my hands because of him!

I admit I was quite nervous about the visit today. My greatest fear was him saying the last surgery didn't "stick" and we'd have to go back it. That has happened before with my hand/wrist so it was a real concern. Thankfully though he sussed out immediately where the pain was originating from and saw that there was - now be ready because I'm sure you'll be surprised - INFLAMMATION! How shocking! Me? Have something inflamed in my body? Never! Ha ha. I did fill him in on all the recent excitement between hips and shoulders and genetic doctors and the such. The result of the hand/finger pain was he gave me an injection into the base of my thumb area where it meets my wrist, and I've been given another splint to add to my collection! I am only to wear it for 24 hours and then only at night. He also wants me to use puddy to play with to strengthen the hand as well. Now I know the next question is - what happens if the injection doesn't work? (BTW, the injection hurt like hell, but it was nice and numb for a bit. Sadly that wore off so now it's just sore from the needle and the splint.) Well, the S word was mentioned. He was funny - said to me "Oh you've never had minor hand surgery have you?" I was like, hmm, not that I'm aware of. He said if he does have to do that, he cuts in that area where the injection was done and does something to the tendons. Yes, I know I usually pay much better attention but once he said "SURGERY" my brain turned off and I didn't hear another word. The scar would be about an inch - another one for my collection :-) Yes that part I heard. Frankensteins monster likes to know how big the scars are going to be. The surgery itself takes about 20 minutes (which for me would probably be double, if we go by past history) and it's done under a local and outpatient. To be fair, it wasn't my worse case scenario so I'm pretty relieved over all. Now it's just a waiting game. I'm really hoping the injection works because I can't comprehend any more cutting, even if it's "minor" by some opinions.

I best stop typing as I was told to rest the hand today.

my lovely new spint

Background

OK, so I guess I should give some background as to how I got here though that seems to be the big question. How did I get here? I never had an accident or injury to my hip. I do not do heavy duty sports either. So how is it my hip decided to fall apart on me?
Well, my brief medical history is as follow:
age 14 - diagnosed with bilateral chondromalacia in my knees
age 18 - right wrist started to hurt, A LOT! went to 7 dr's in 3 years, most of whom had no clue and one who even told me to call him instead of my mother when it hurt, b/c he was convinced it was in my head.
age 20 - met the hand surgeon of my dreams. (yes this was more important than any other average man!) his team diagnosed me straight away and i was off to have surgery in two weeks time. surgery was relatively successful, until...
age 23 - my right hand/wrist developed chondromalacia so i had to have surgery no. 2 to fix that. then at
age 25 - my left wrist was so jealous that it decided to want surgery too, actually this was surgery no. 3
age 30 - my right hand/ thumb and other bits decided to become a crazy mess of instability so i needed surgery no. 4

Now, in between all of these joyous surgeries, I was diagnosed with fibromyaglia syndrome whilst living in London when i was 22. I love, LOVE, L O V E London, but the weather over there puts me through the ringer. turns out low pressure and high humidity are one of my FMS triggers. I was in PT over there and when I came back to NY. My hand surgeon would not operate until I was stable with that and doing better. He sent me to a rheumatologist, who turned out to be not the brightest or most enlightened or even open to anything other than drugs.
OK, so moving along, my hips have been annoying me for ages, but not to the point where I couldn't really walk or exercise or bike ride. The would hurt, I would shift around, and relatively soon they would be quiet.

That was until last summer...

Ah, last summer. The right hip especially started to pop and click and do all sorts of wonky things on a much more regular basis. I was used to the occasional hip sublexation/dislocation that had been happening for a while, but this pain became all too frequent. It was hurting mostly on my outer hip, which I would later learn was trochanter bursitis.
I had a trip booked to London for a week in October. I decided I would wait to make an appt. to see a dr for the hip after the trip. I wanted to enjoy myself and not worry about appointments or diagnosis or anything of the sort. After all of the medical issues I've had, you start to put of the inevitable.
Big oops by me. I arrived on a Saturday am and left a week later on Sunday. During this time I walked a lot! I usually walk a lot, but in London somehow it always seems to double, especially now that the tubes are horrid. One day I went riding in Hyde Park, something I'd been longing to do. That made all the muscles in my legs ache for a couple of days so I was actually walking funny. I guess one shouldn't do an hours ride when one hasn't been on a horse for a bit! Still my hip wasn't doing hurting too much (I did keep lidoderm patches on it so that was probably masking the pain).

Saturday my friend and I went to do a walking tour in lovely Hampstead. Now, if you've not been, Hampstead is a very, very hilly village. So here we are on the walking tour, going from one lovely old place to another, and on one incline, POP! There goes the right hip. I seriously don't know how I was still standing from the pain. My friend was quite happy to turn back, but I am a bit stubborn (to put it mildly) and refused to let my last night in London be ruined by my crap body, so on we went. All I can say is thanks be to G-d for all the pubs in Hampstead that we stopped at on our tour! Afterwards, I hobbled onto the tube, then to the rail to go out to my friends house where I was staying. I was just hanging in there, and sitting on the train helped a bit, but then I had about a mile walk to his house. That was the longest walk of my life. To this day I do not know how I made it. I was able to take about 3 steps at a time. Stop, whimper, talk myself into moving again, and then another 3 steps. Longest mile of my life! I was a wreck when I got back and literally had to pull myself up the stairs to bed. At this point I'm thinking - yeah, really should have made that dr appointment already! Daft me.
Back in NY I ring some dr's that my main dr recommended. I had to go to the darling rheumatologist that I had written off a few years ago (long story) b/c she was the only one I could seem to get an appt with in the near future. My logic was at least I would be able to have the xrays and mri's started and then hopefully I would know what type of dr I needed to locate. The x-rays were fine, perfectly normal, the MRI not so much. After finally getting the radiologist's report she said I had an FAI, labral tear, bursitis, and some other random things. (btw, my right shoulder had been bad too so she did an xray of that which was fine, but not an mri, something about insurance not doing two mri's at a time). The rheumatologist told me to go see an orthopedist. I asked her for more details, as all of these words were like a foreign language to me, but trying to get an explanation out of her was like trying to find water in the Sahara desert during a drought. The only good thing she did was send me in Dr. Kelly's direction.