hi guys,

sorry i've been awol on my own thread. pain was the issue. makes it hard to sit at the computer.

i had my visit with the pain dr and yes, finally, he's really a pain dr. he's a DO, has 2 board certifications. one of which i can't remember, the other one in pain. he also does injections and has lots of referral info should i need it. i was there an hr and we talked about a lot. some of which i can't articulate. wish i would have taken a friend. maybe next month.

we didn't want to change too much at one time so just made 2 med changes. he told me to take 300mg of lyrica BID (twice a day) instead of 150mg QID (4 times a day). he actually thought that would increase my blood levels and keep them up longer. it's only been 48 hrs and i do believe the nerve pain in my feet/legs is less. and the stabbing pain in my feet is much less.

then he put me on AMRIX. it's a muscle relaxer. i take it an hr after dinner.
he told me to stop the ambien if i sleep on this and miraculously i have. and, i've forgotten my ambien before and i'm miserable. for 2 straight nites i've slept 5-6 hrs straight. woken up and met DM in the hallway and then slept another 2-3 hrs. i've also taken naps and still slept.

he said i couldn't take the ultram with the amrix because of a risk of seizures. but, he said i could take 1-2 percoset/day. i've done that and my pain is better. i had a long massage yesterday but today i feel better. i even went grocery shopping this am.

he affirmed my muscle pain by physical exam. he could feel all the tight muscles. thank God. someone could feel it besides me! he said that i would be 1 of 5% of his pts that he would ok narcotics for. he could try other things also. but, we'll start here.

he also offered me some muscle and SI joint injections but i'm done with being stuck for awhile. then he said something that had me confused. i have to ask more about it when i see him next month. he said that i WOULD be a candidate for the ablation. he didn't seem to agree with the dr that did my prior injections. but, i tabled that for more discussion.

so maybe i'm on my way to being tx'd for all this pain. better than going to my neuro time after time only to get no plan of care.

i'm laying low this wk/e. stuff to do at home.
well, off to watch the BRONCOS play. yay football season!