This is gonna be pretty short cuz I feel like warmed over death. But to get everyone up to speed...
About a week ago it was decided I have developed tendonitis or something similar in my right achilles tendon. The verdict on that? Imobilize that sucker for 4 to 6 weeks! OK, that sets us back a month or 3 on that foot. However, Gus (my orthotics guy) is working on a brace that will allow motion of that foot to a point so I can use it and exercise it as much as it can be. As it needs to move more, he can adjust the brace to allow the increased motion. The downside is that's gonna take another two weeks to get made. In the meantime I'm wearing one of those Klingon mukluks I have and that, in turn, is killing my back every time I stand up, much less walk. Not much we can do there.
Yesterday we went on a crusade to get some answers from doctors.
On the 13th I took the last of mu suboxone. Almost immediately I started having some nasty experiences, beginning with not being able to go to sleep until 4, 5, or (as last night) 6 am. There are other things happening but we'll just say it isn't fun.
So we started the day with my neurologist who swears my anti-migraine meds are not playing a factor in all this and he talked to us about a bunch of stuff. Cool.
Next up, my GP. He looked at blood work and other tests and it looks like, from a pure numbers standpoint, I'm healthy as can be. No signs of diabetes, or anything else. The only thing is that this season it seems I'm a bit more reactive to allergies.
Finally, we hit the pain management folks. These are the ones that have been prescribing the suboxone for general pain, lyrica for nerve pain, and ambien to help me sleep. Well, we dropped the suboxone, the lyrica seem sto be doing little good, and with all the new symptoms, the ambien doesn't work.
We thought my problem was suboxone withdrawals. They say suboxone was suppressing the lyrica side effects so now we are weaning me off lyrica. To help me sleep, they are switching me to lunesta. Haven't tried it yet.
So the docs are still using me as their own little chemistry set and we'll see where this boat takes us. But right now, I am exhausted, in some form of pain most of the time, and extremely frustrated. I beg your patience as I work my way through all this.
Love to all and thanks for your support.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Well, We've Been Having Fun
The past couple of weeks I've been having some pains,especially in my right ankle area. We had been working pretty hard with the PT and I had gotten some brand spankin' new orthotics, so there were a lot of reasons to be sore. So to fix that, we backed off the PT a bit and we went back to Gus to adjust the orthotics.
Well, Friday, we got the new orthotics in and they felt fantastic! The others were just too much of an adjustment all at once, so we'll work into those. Saturday we went about our business and I was able to walk pretty well with a pretty good reduction in pain all day long and even puttered around the house with some stuff well into the night (by my standards anyway).
The came Sunday.
I woke up and stuff was hurtin' and hurtin' bad. I tried to stand up. Bad idea. I just couldn't. In fact, it hurt to even move my right foot. So even to just go the short distance to the bathroom, I was back to using the wheelchair. And just getting to the chair was a painful experience.
So Sunday I stayed in bed and we babied that right foot, applying a lot of ice packs and heat.
Monday rolls around and it ain't no better, so another day in bed with ice, heat, and my laptop to I could get some work done.
Tuesday I had a PT appointment and an appointment with my surgeon. The PT appointment was canceled since I couldn't do anything and off to the doc we went.
He took some x-rays, and MRI, and blood work. Then he started talking about the possibility of another infection flare-up and, what scares me the most, removing some of the metal. So we got the x-rays (they do that there in his office) and they looked fine. We went downstairs and did the blood work. We couldn't do the MRI until yesterday (Wednesday) morning.
The MRI at Austin Radiological (ARA) was a BIG disappointment. The techs tried and tried, but I have so much metal in my feet, that the image was completely obscured and totally useless. We were sent home empty handed while they info'd the doc.
Later yesterday afternoon, we get a call from ARA saying Dr. Dalton had ordered a CT scan and asked how soon can we could get to one of their locations. Luckily these folks are all over the place and we could get to the local one very soon. We got there and did the CT with no problem.
This morning I wake up and the swelling on the right had gone down dramatically and so had a lot of the ankle pain. Even the tendon area felt better, but that changed pretty quickly when I stood up the first time. But still, it was not as bad as it had been. So we get our act together and head off to see Dr. D. again...
* The blood work showed no signs of an infection.
* The x-ray was, as I said, completely normal (for me anyway).
* The CT scan showed that everything looked completely normal as well.
So it looks like I just have a ticked off tendon. The achilles got aggravated somehow and I may have even gotten as far as developing some level of tendonitis. Without the MRI they can't be 100% sure what is going on, but there is no infection and everything else looks stable.
So my right foot is back in a boot to stabilize the tendon and keep me from messing it up more. I may get that swapped out for some kind of brace that Gus can make that I can wear with my tennies. I have to keep that tendon as stabilized as possible for the next 4 to 6 weeks. I can stand on it but I just can't move it or let it do much, if any, work.
In the meantime, Scott will do all the PT work he can on the left foot and right ankle to keep them loose so we don't lose any more progress than necessary. Also, he can do this thing where we get a prescription filled for a 10% hydrocortisone cream and he can use his sonogram equipment to infuse that directly into my tendon. It is not as effective as injections of steroids, but it can help with the healing and pain and doesn't involve the painful shots into the tendon. I like that!
So that's where things stand now. It's a bit of a setback, but I have a lot of smart, good people working on getting it resolved.
Well, Friday, we got the new orthotics in and they felt fantastic! The others were just too much of an adjustment all at once, so we'll work into those. Saturday we went about our business and I was able to walk pretty well with a pretty good reduction in pain all day long and even puttered around the house with some stuff well into the night (by my standards anyway).
The came Sunday.
I woke up and stuff was hurtin' and hurtin' bad. I tried to stand up. Bad idea. I just couldn't. In fact, it hurt to even move my right foot. So even to just go the short distance to the bathroom, I was back to using the wheelchair. And just getting to the chair was a painful experience.
So Sunday I stayed in bed and we babied that right foot, applying a lot of ice packs and heat.
Monday rolls around and it ain't no better, so another day in bed with ice, heat, and my laptop to I could get some work done.
Tuesday I had a PT appointment and an appointment with my surgeon. The PT appointment was canceled since I couldn't do anything and off to the doc we went.
He took some x-rays, and MRI, and blood work. Then he started talking about the possibility of another infection flare-up and, what scares me the most, removing some of the metal. So we got the x-rays (they do that there in his office) and they looked fine. We went downstairs and did the blood work. We couldn't do the MRI until yesterday (Wednesday) morning.
The MRI at Austin Radiological (ARA) was a BIG disappointment. The techs tried and tried, but I have so much metal in my feet, that the image was completely obscured and totally useless. We were sent home empty handed while they info'd the doc.
Later yesterday afternoon, we get a call from ARA saying Dr. Dalton had ordered a CT scan and asked how soon can we could get to one of their locations. Luckily these folks are all over the place and we could get to the local one very soon. We got there and did the CT with no problem.
This morning I wake up and the swelling on the right had gone down dramatically and so had a lot of the ankle pain. Even the tendon area felt better, but that changed pretty quickly when I stood up the first time. But still, it was not as bad as it had been. So we get our act together and head off to see Dr. D. again...
* The blood work showed no signs of an infection.
* The x-ray was, as I said, completely normal (for me anyway).
* The CT scan showed that everything looked completely normal as well.
So it looks like I just have a ticked off tendon. The achilles got aggravated somehow and I may have even gotten as far as developing some level of tendonitis. Without the MRI they can't be 100% sure what is going on, but there is no infection and everything else looks stable.
So my right foot is back in a boot to stabilize the tendon and keep me from messing it up more. I may get that swapped out for some kind of brace that Gus can make that I can wear with my tennies. I have to keep that tendon as stabilized as possible for the next 4 to 6 weeks. I can stand on it but I just can't move it or let it do much, if any, work.
In the meantime, Scott will do all the PT work he can on the left foot and right ankle to keep them loose so we don't lose any more progress than necessary. Also, he can do this thing where we get a prescription filled for a 10% hydrocortisone cream and he can use his sonogram equipment to infuse that directly into my tendon. It is not as effective as injections of steroids, but it can help with the healing and pain and doesn't involve the painful shots into the tendon. I like that!
So that's where things stand now. It's a bit of a setback, but I have a lot of smart, good people working on getting it resolved.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Latest
I have not written much because there's just not a lot to tell. Things move pretty slowly these days.
We are still tinkering with my meds a little bit, but nothing drastic there. I'm about ready to be done with the pain management folks. Except for the questionable effectiveness of one med I'm still taking, they aren't of very much use. Pretty much everything they've tried has been ineffective at best and they've even admitted that there's nothing else they can do for me. So why keep paying the office visit fees?
PT is the same ol' routine except insurance is being a pain. Accordingly, we are cutting back on the visits so we don't run up a HUGE bill we can't pay if they come down on the wrong side of that decision. If they keep pushing I may have to stop going entirely and run my own program based on what my PT folks have told me. We sure can't afford it on our own.
I got some new orthotics last week. The jury is out on their effectiveness. I think they have helped some, but certainly not as much as I had hoped. They probably need more adjusting some more. Of course, my feet were REAL beat up and feel differently from hour-to-hour and they hurt in different ways or are hard to walk on at different times and under different circumstances. So I'll play along, keep an open mind, give 'em a chance, and see how that goes.
I've not heard from work about going back in except that HR would just as soon I keep working from home as long as my bosses are cool with it. Up to now they've been talking about how they'd really like to see me back. I guess they're afraid either Julie or I will get hurt there or something and sue the daylights out of them. So I suppose I'm still working from home for the foreseeable future, but I've not heard a definitive answer from my bosses yet so we'll see. In the meantime we save oodles of gas money!
As many of you have already heard (and it's no secret) my company is being sold. We don't know yet to whom so we have no idea who will be kept or dumped when it happens. So come springtime I may be scrambling around looking for a job again. Soin the words of Rosanne Rasanadana, "If it's not one t'ing it's a-nudder!"
The biggest thing lately is that my right ankle and achilles area has flared up and has made it VERY difficult to walk. We've cut quite a bit out of my PT routine to try to rest it a bit, but it just isn't giving up this time. It's better than when it first acted up, but it is still causing plenty of difficulties. If I can just get past that, I think I'll be in pretty good shape to make some more progress.
I just realized how rambling and disjointed this is. Sorry about that!
Well, I guess that's about it for this time. Thanks, again, to everyone for your support!
We are still tinkering with my meds a little bit, but nothing drastic there. I'm about ready to be done with the pain management folks. Except for the questionable effectiveness of one med I'm still taking, they aren't of very much use. Pretty much everything they've tried has been ineffective at best and they've even admitted that there's nothing else they can do for me. So why keep paying the office visit fees?
PT is the same ol' routine except insurance is being a pain. Accordingly, we are cutting back on the visits so we don't run up a HUGE bill we can't pay if they come down on the wrong side of that decision. If they keep pushing I may have to stop going entirely and run my own program based on what my PT folks have told me. We sure can't afford it on our own.
I got some new orthotics last week. The jury is out on their effectiveness. I think they have helped some, but certainly not as much as I had hoped. They probably need more adjusting some more. Of course, my feet were REAL beat up and feel differently from hour-to-hour and they hurt in different ways or are hard to walk on at different times and under different circumstances. So I'll play along, keep an open mind, give 'em a chance, and see how that goes.
I've not heard from work about going back in except that HR would just as soon I keep working from home as long as my bosses are cool with it. Up to now they've been talking about how they'd really like to see me back. I guess they're afraid either Julie or I will get hurt there or something and sue the daylights out of them. So I suppose I'm still working from home for the foreseeable future, but I've not heard a definitive answer from my bosses yet so we'll see. In the meantime we save oodles of gas money!
As many of you have already heard (and it's no secret) my company is being sold. We don't know yet to whom so we have no idea who will be kept or dumped when it happens. So come springtime I may be scrambling around looking for a job again. Soin the words of Rosanne Rasanadana, "If it's not one t'ing it's a-nudder!"
The biggest thing lately is that my right ankle and achilles area has flared up and has made it VERY difficult to walk. We've cut quite a bit out of my PT routine to try to rest it a bit, but it just isn't giving up this time. It's better than when it first acted up, but it is still causing plenty of difficulties. If I can just get past that, I think I'll be in pretty good shape to make some more progress.
I just realized how rambling and disjointed this is. Sorry about that!
Well, I guess that's about it for this time. Thanks, again, to everyone for your support!
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