Greetings!
Summer has been good to me. First, I get a break from the Fibromyalgia pain that plagued me over the winter (despite a small flare caused by stress from the person that I referred to in my last post). But more importantly, I can't say enough good things about the medical team that is taking care of me right now. My physical therapist is truly committed to her profession and is far more educated and practiced than the last PT I saw. The results are amazing! I went an entire 4 days without taking any percoset, and it is very rare that I need to take more than one half of a pill in a day. Keep in mind, I was up to as many as 6 per day just two months ago.
Aside from that, I am so grateful to be past the first 6 weeks of the bladder instillations. While the medical staff is amazing, the treatments are incredibly painful for me in the short term. However, the long term benefits are outweighing those rotten days after the treatments. I'm about a month and a half into the Elmiron, which is the drug that forms a new layer on the inside of my bladder, making it impossible for new adhesions to grab on to my bladder walls. So...if I've lost you along the way...adhesions cause my own urine to absolutely burn while sitting in my bladder. Because of the burning...I have to pee all of the time because the nerves in my bladder freak out and want me to push out everything that I can. A new coating on my bladder wall and the removal of existing adhesions from the bladder instillations mean that I won't have that constant bladder pain. The problem is that the treatment is not necessarily 100% effective, but I will be able to enjoy a significant reduction in pain...and be able to eat some foods that are more acidic that I am desperately missing right now...specifically chocolate, tomato sauces (especially on pizza!) and coffee!
On another note, I finally had the MRI that was ordered a couple of months ago to figure out why the back of my leg is numb (basically, a line down the center of my hamstring). I am super, super claustrophobic, so I was DREADING this one. Since I'm finally getting off of the painkillers, I just didn't want to be sedated for this one. It was a rough 45 minutes, but the tech was really great--she put a towel over my eyes before sending me into the tube so that I wouldn't see how enclosed I was. It worked! Afterwards, they burned a copy onto a CD for me and told me to take it to my next appointment (which I don't have scheduled), and then the doctor who ordered it can view it at that time. In the meantime, she will be given the notes. Well, at my PT appointment today, my awesome PT was kind enough to peek at it for me and read the notes, though she made me promise to act surprised when I hear it from the Dr, since she's not really supposed to tell me anything. Unfortunately, the MRI found something completely unrelated...story of my life. The disc between my 4th and 5th vertebrae is bulged and it's affecting something on the right side. Unfortunately, it's my LEFT leg that has numbness. So...we'll wait and see what the doctor says and what I need do to about that. The PT said that they will most likely order an EMG next, which should pinpoint the nerve damage, and hopefully even diagnose where it came from.
For now...off to bed.
Peace out,
-S
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