sox, i'm sorry your mom has been ill. i hope she improves quickly and gets home.

i went to PT this am. she's going to ask the dr for 6 more visits.
she suggests going to a kind of pump at home. it compresses the arm and it should be about 20"/day. i just havn't had luck with the wrapping and the compression garment hurts my arm at the bend. it's also so hot.

then she wants to combine that with some sort of soft tissue work.
my breast still hurts so we hope that will all help. lymphedema is a chronic condition and it won't go away, only be controlled. great! another piece of carp to deal with. i'm so sick of all this. my attitude has taken a dive lately.

i see the "pain dr" tomorrow. i hope he's really into pain mgment. i'll see.

cindy, how's the smelly bot foot working? what adventures have you been on?

i'll report tomorrow on this appt.

*smack*

The bot foot does NOT stink! It ROCKS!

*smack*

Sox, that doth sucketh, it's really hard to see our parents suffering. Hang in there and tell her AMN is praying for her. I have the unlimited minutes plan with God.

Judy, geez, you need more excitement and doctoring. I'm sorry this is giving you such a sucky time of it! Are you serious, 20" a day? Your arm must weigh a ton on top of the pain.

I'm getting along, it's way too hot out there for me, I just melt. Today I chose Target for my indoor walk and they had their bloody AC as good as off! I was furious when I found out it is controlled by the district offices (that are probably cool and comfortable).

My skinny girl clothes are feeling a little better, but STILL! Not as loose as they should be. This is ticking me off in a big way!

It's finally cooling down out there now and I need to go shuffle some stuff in the car before bed.

hi cin, it's 20 minutes a day of the machine compressing. maybe twice.
they have to contact me and bring the machine and do the teaching.

ok, i won't make any more stinky jokes about your rocky bot foot. so there!

will check in later. almost time to leave.

Hey all! It's me~ AWOL DM. Gosh, we are only home from Sun to Thurs due to camping, so I just haven't had the time to get online.

Started w/the new P.T and this guy has magical hands. He's been working on my neck/head etc and working to make the muscles looser. I'm still having some headaches, but not as intense every day. I go back to the Dr next wk, so she can evaluate my progress, as she's thinking the next step may be neck/muscle injections.

Sounds like you all are busy and Summer is slipping away fast. I've heard those nasty loud locusts every night and that's always a downer, knowing that sound is the link to Fall.

Hope you all feel better and that AMN washes her YES, they are ''stinky'' feet!!!! Phew!

Hang in there Judy dear and praying for your Mother, Soxs. I remember seeing the changes in my dear Mother and not knowing what was going on at the time, was so hard. Take care all.

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!

ps...sandy, how are jim's legs? i hope he's better. we all have to keep searching for answers to our problems.

i got 6 more PT visits approved for the lymphedema.
in a wk or 2 i'll start the pool therapy.

boy was i tired today. i laid down 3 times. a record for me.
the muscle pain is better but my butt and legs are relentlessly tight.
maybe the pool will help. i hope i can do it. it's 92 degrees. may be too hot.

my friend and i got tickets to see Yo Yo Ma in dec. i got the last 2 tickets for the handicapped section on tier 2. pretty good seats. only thing is it's at 1930. i'll really have to plan to be able to tolerate being up that time of day. doesn't that sound ridiculous? 1930! the shank of the evg and i'm getting ready for bed at 2200. mostly it's the pain so hopefully by then it'll be better. i've already dug on my binocs.