Interesting Week

It's been a few days since I've posted.  On Tuesday I had my post-op appointment with the surgeon.  In spite of telling him that I still get pain when I'm too active and I get fatigued very easily, he released me to go back to work as of this Monday.  I also had an appointment for the nerve study (EMG) on Tuesday.  Thankfully it showed no nerve damage and no carpal tunnel.  So my wrist pain is referred pain from my neck and shoulder.  Good to know.  After those two appointments, I came home and crashed for a while.

On Wednesday I didn't have any appointments.  Instead I went to one store just to do a return, then drove out to Whole Foods to do some food shopping.  Exhausted again when I got home so I took another nap.  I got up in time to make a nice dinner - meatloaf and honey sweet potatoes.  Megan ate all of the meatloaf with no complaint.  Jackson eventually ate it after coating it in ranch dressing (special no-vinegar dressing that I was able to find for him at Whole Foods!).  Surprisingly, neither of them liked the honey sweet potatoes!  I don't know where I go wrong.  They only want the sweet potatoes that come out of the can.  : S  Well, at least I didn't cut myself or have any other cooking mishaps while making dinner.

Yesterday was back to running around for doctors appointments.  First was a follow up with my PCP.  She's very understanding and helpful and offers lots of suggestions, but with my short term disability situation still up in the air, there's not a whole lot she can do for me.  More on the STD claim in a minute.  While I was there, I got my flu shot.  You know, just because I felt like I needed to add a little more to the existing aches and pains.  I figured there was never going to be a time where I felt 100% AND wanted to mess that up with the flu shot, so better to get it over with now and not get the flu.  I've had the flu.  It sucks.

After that, I had a few minutes to stop home and gulp down a salad for lunch before heading out to my next appointment.  I went back to the Orthopedist for a facet injection in my neck.  A facet injection goes deeper than a regular muscle-numbing shot, and requires an x-ray while performing the injection to ensure that the doc gets it in the right spot, but not TOO far!  Scary.  But helpful.  Anyway, the nurse was taking my vitals before the procedure and for some reason my heart rate was pretty high.  I didn't feel nervous (I've had a facet injection before, and while scary, I was focusing on the relief) but maybe I was.  Or maybe it had something to do with my body reacting to the earlier flu shot.  Who knows.  Regardless, the shot was successful and I came home to nap.  Unfortunately, once the numbing shot (used before the actual facet injection) wore off, the pain started.  I knew this might happen.  It should go away in a day or so, and hopefully the actual injection will have kicked in by then.  Last time I had one of these, I was in such acute pain that I didn't really feel the pain of the shot.

So I napped for a bit but woke up feeling worse than ever.  Aches all over my body and pain in my neck.  I did my best to get through the evening... made dinner (nothing special last night), helped with homework, got the kids ready for bed, and even tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour (turned off the Phillies game!).  But the pains continued.  I had taken ibuprofen but it wasn't helping.  After trying relaxation music and a change of scenery, I gave up.  I took Tylenol with Codeine.  I figured that even if the Tylenol didn't relieve the pain, at least the Codeine would knock me out!  And it did.  : )

Today I feel somewhat better.  It was tough getting out of bed this morning, but now that I'm moving around I'm ok.  I have to run shortly to an appointment with my neurologist, and then I have several errands to run.  I know I promised info on the STD claim, but I'll have to post about that later.