Bactroban Nasal ointment

The Bactroban Nasal video! NSFDT (Not Safe For Dinner Table).

Give it up cause I'm BACK

I wish this pain would give it up already.
I had a couple good years. I don't mean to sound defeated and pessimistic, and I'm not saying that the surgery wasn't worth it, it def was. Without it, I'd still be walking with a cane, unable to stand up straight or hold up my upper body. I am having leg pain, throbbing pain, like a heartbeat, after activities that require lots of walking or standing on hard surfaces. Had to coat my legs in Tiger Balm last night and use my fists to pound some additional circulation into my muscles in order to relieve it somewhat. For some reason, I have in my mind that pain can only be relieved with something equally as violent, hence the fist pounding, and before you make an assumption of masochism or anything, I learned it from a yoga instructor (the fist pounding, not the weird idea about pain relief). This was after a day of running errands and doing an hour yoga class in the morning, not exactly running a marathon. Incidentally, I'm wondering out loud here why the hell I need to cram all my errands into Saturday when I'm unemployed and can go to the post office and CVS and Bed Bath and Beyond during the week? W/E.
I also have sciatica pretty bad again, and I when I say pretty bad I mean moving a certain way which I might add, is still completely unpredictable, gets me a lightning bolt of pain down my leg, like a filament of an old light bulb, white hot and quivering.
The other large issue now is my neck. A few weeks ago I had xrays and an MRI. I'm now able to read xrays and MRI films pretty well, and I was shocked, as I was 20+ years ago when I saw my thoracic spine twisted like a vine around a tree in that set of xrays, to see my C5 disc completely collapsed. The physiatrist I saw was a joke, writing a script for muscle relaxers I can't take for obvious reasons and NSAIDS that I can't take because of stomach problems. Dr. Spivak, who was recommended to me by Dr. Balderston, says he can go in and TRY to fit in an artificial disc, but, like the sitch with my lumbar spine 5 years ago, it's collapsed and he probably won't be able to pry it apart to fit the disc in. Aside from that, I have bone spurs and arthritis in there and he says he can clean it up and I may get some relief.
I need relief. My left arm and shoulder kill me a lot, and I can't depend on the left side for anything (which makes chaturanga dandasana a challenge and sometimes a comedy routine and sometimes just a balasana (child's pose) until I'm able to use it again.
But I keep going. I keep doing yoga, I keep hiking, I keep trying to lift stuff with my left arm, cause if I don't that'll mean I give up and I don't.

Physical Therapy yet again

I'm back for yet another round of Physical Therapy. Those of you who know me know that I am not crazy for PT for a variety of reasons.

So I had my first appointment last Tuesday. The therapist was nice enough, but not nearly as aggressive as I'd like her to be with the massage. I hadn't been to acupuncture for a few weeks and I was needing those knots to be worked out; her gentle massage just didn't cut it for me. Then, and this is really weird, she gave me the heat pack at the end of the session (don't they usually do that at the beginning, to warm the muscles up to work them?)and to top it all off, she put this huge heat pack under my shoulder so I was laying on top of it and all uneven. It really threw me out of whack and I hate myself for not opening my mouth sooner but she was with another patient and I didn't want to be a noodge. I had sciatica all the way home, I think from being all out of whack and not laying flat. I'm telling her not to do that again when I have my next appointment tomorrow.

Had another follow up with Dr. Bartoli. She (and her med student) did a nerve function test on me and, thank goodness, all is fine with my nerves. She thinks the numbness and "funny bone" feeling in my fingers is from the muscles in my shoulder and thoracic region not pulling their share of the weight so to speak and putting pressure on the nerves that affect those parts. I also got a few blessed trigger point injections, which never fail to please.

Cortisone shots SUCK !

Big time.

I barely slept Wednesday night either. I'm not looking forward to the next shot, but at least I know now how to prepare. Dig out the anxiety meds and dose up trying to calm down.

Neck blog?

Yesterday I got the first of a series of cortisone injections in my neck. I had a MRI a few weeks ago that showed my C5-6 was bulging and also that the hole that the nerve goes through had narrowed, causing the worsening pain in my neck and upper back and shoulder. The lidocaine she used to numb the area before the steroid was nice, I had a pain free neck for an hour or so. Then it wore off. My neck was a bit stiff, which they'd warned me about; they also warned me that the cortisone might make me a bit "jittery," like I'd had too much coffee. That was an understatement.

I did not sleep A WINK last night, and my heart and mind are still racing. I'm due for another shot next week and think I'll ask for a sleeping pill on my way out! I sure hope this helps with my neck pain. Hmm, maybe I'll change the name of the blog to "A Pain in the Neck." What do you think?