What to do, what to do...

Always_Believe · 01-23-2016, 09:53 PM

I had my first official day in the RIC pain program. Boy oh boy.

My mom went with me. We left her house at 7:30am, after parking (& me popping out for a quick smoke), we went to the 8th floor to get my schedule.

1st appointment was PT (2nd floor). Did a bit of range and cortical disinihibition. He sent me home with a 'results' sheet & instructions to perform it twice a day on each leg.

2nd appointment was psychology (8th floor). Discussed sleeping habits, how pain has affected my mood. Homework was to read specific chapter in the book I received with my schedule.

Lunch break. We were told we could sit on the 6th floor. As we were finishing up, someone came in & told us we could not sit there, it was an employee floor.

3rd appointment was with pain doc (8th floor). Got up, called back, vitals taken. Doc pokes his head in & says he was running late. Asked if I could go to my next appointment & return after.

4th appointment was OT (2nd floor). 2 assignments: 1) "Love Rub" on my foot. 2) Wear a shoe on my foot for 20 min 3 times/day

Back to pain doc (8th floor). Said he was thinking of trying trazadone for sleep but decided to (re)try amitriptyline. Started low, will increase next week.

Arrived back at my parents at 4:30pm. Took a few steps inside and my knee was hurting so bad I could not bear weight without excruciating pain. I sat on my walker & my dad pulled me around the house.

One of the things that was mentioned is that my "brain" is conditioned to"think" my foot is cold because I wear a sock (and leg warmer as the cold travels up). Because we need to re-train my brain since "the injury is healed" (ummm....no...I have permanent damage to 2 nerves in my leg. "Did you have an EMG?" Yep. Two of them).

My mom was showing my daughter how to do the dysinhibition thing...I asked her if it was just me, or did my leg look swollen. She didn't think it did. I rolled up the pants on my other leg & put them side by side. She said "Oh my! That IS swollen, and a bit purple looking!" My foot did not feel cool to touch, which was good. But....when I go home, I pulled out the infrared thermometer. Right foot = 97.5 degrees. Left foot = "Lo" (per the instructions "Lo" means it's out of the low range. Low temp range starts at 90 degrees).

Here's where the difficulty really begins:
My daughter is not very helpful with much of anything. Unless I specifically tell her (like she's 3) to do the dysinhibition test, it won't get done and even then, I might need to get upset before it gets done.
My left foot is still too swollen to put the shoe on, let alone give it a "love rub".

I don't have a good feeling about this. I feel like I went through 10 hours of uncomfortable positions, listened to therapists tell me it's in my mind and I have to develop a better relationship with my leg that resulted in not being able to walk....which I am sure I could take an amitriptyline and my pain would lessen (sarcasm) for nothing and only to push myself through more pain during the week to do it all over again.

If you were in this program, how far along would you go? Where would you draw the line at 'this is hurting more than helping'? Would you push through the pain & do the exercises? Would you tell them you did, if you didn't?

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