Something snuck up on me. It was one of those slow sneaking things just like a cat does when it's stalking a bird. By the time the bird realizes the cat is there, it's just too late. This is a post about pain. It's about my neck and my spine and how, well, there are issues.
Somewhere around this time last year or maybe at the beginning of the year this year I started feeling something in my left arm. It was vague bits of paresthesia running down the top of the shoulder. I thought, "well, that's not good, let's hope it goes away." It came and went and it was vague and not that often and I hoped it was an alignment issue in my spine.
I had the chiropractor do an entire workup on me, including X-rays, to help them as they adjusted my spine. I didn't want to know the results, but since they hadn't gotten any diagnostic information since 2005, before my first fusion, I though it was time. The one thing I did talk to them about was where things were getting worse and that wasn't a surprise either. My spine is fused from C5-C7. The area that was degenerating the most was C4-C5. My spine surgeon had considered fusing it back in 2005, but decided not to.
I have high bone density so I was fairly certain my vertebra were doing that thing they do oh so well, growing bone and working towards fusing that junction all on its own. But I hoped it would get better and leave the left arm out of it in the process.
It didn't. The paresthesia got more prevalent and towards the latter part of the year was happening a lot of the time. This means there is pressure on either the spinal cord itself, or the bundle of nerves coming out of the spine, heading down the arm.
As the year drug on something else happened that I didn't quite connect. I just didn't want to work out any more. I didn't want to run; I didn't want to go to the gym and I really didn't want to do anything like train for a race. I just wanted to get in bed at the end of the night and sleep as long as I could until the children woke me up.
Things just hurt. It was like nerve pain all over when I moved and it was frustrating that I couldn't really get out of nerve pain. I thought I may have brought it on myself because I stopped taking anti-inflammatories, but after several months without, there had to be a sort of leveling-out. Besides, the pain I was feeling (for the most part all in the trunk area) wasn't inflammation pain. I know all about inflammation pain. It was like my nerves were just angry—and that anger was spreading and getting worse.
I saw a commercial for Lyrica and nerve pain and I made a decision I was going to do something. I was going to go to my doctor, get a referral to a pain clinic and see if I could do something for a few months to calm my nerves down. I talked to my neighbor about it (the doctor) and she said that like a wildfire, sometimes you need to quell the entire fire and that looking into something made a lot of sense to her.
I had been saying of late how I felt so old and how nerves seemed to get more sensitive with time and that I'd heard the saying that older people felt their, "bones ached" and that I felt like that all the time. How was I going to make it to be a grandmother if things were this painful now.
But back to the Lyrica commercial. I had been prescribed Lyrica almost ten years ago when it was newly out. It helped. I remember it helping a lot. What if I was just having nerve-related spinal cord myalgia? Would some Lyrica help?
I made an appointment with my general practitioner and saw a new doctor I'd never seen before. I was quite impressed with him. He understood my reticence to take medication and my feeling of pride in not being on any medications. I was on so many for so long and I don't want to go back there. Having to be on a prescription medication now makes me worried it's the beginning of the end and it will never get better from here on out.
He though Lyrica would be a good idea to try and understood I wanted to do it for a few months and see how it helped. He put me on the lowest dosage you can be on and I'll see him again in a month. Then, he did some tests to see how my strength was and if there were any nerve issues.
I had had progression of the arm situation in the last month, meaning it was getting worse. I now have phantom itching down the arm a lot of the time. I know that's not good. I also know I need to get it checked out to find out what needs to be done next and I plan on doing that. I also worry that's going to be the beginning of the end as well, but it's got to be done. He told me everything looked great...except the left arm. He showed me reactions and compared the two arms. The left has nerve damage and it was quite easy to see when he showed me. Oh well, I knew it was getting worse.
But on the up side, I've been on the Lyrica for four days now. I have been looking forward to going to the gym and it hasn't been awful when I'm there. I don't dread getting down on the floor to help my children get dressed and I've found myself expecting things to be painful that turn out to be not at all painful.
For example, I was in the kitchen and something dropped on the floor. I leaned over to pick it up and exclaimed, "ugh" because I knew that motion was going to be painful for me to do. But it wasn't! I didn't need to say ugh at all. I was so surprised. I was so relieved. I was so excited. Then yesterday I was putting my daughter into her seat and she dropped something between the car seats. I looked at it and thought, "well, I'm not getting it, it will have to wait until we get home." And then I realized that I was thinking that because it looked painful to lean over. But was it? I reached down, got the toy and smiled...because it didn't hurt.
I hope things keep not hurting. I didn't really realize how bad it had gotten. The spine problem is still there, but this is a good step for now.
The Big Boy Update: "I think he's at the exercising house." Uncle Jonathan sent me a link to a funny YouTube channel. It's a comedian and body builder making fun of all sorts of things that happen at a gym. My son came over and wanted to sit on my lap, asking what the person on my screen was talking about. I told him he was at the gym (cringing as the man spoke an uninterrupted chain of swear words). My son was entranced. He wanted to know all about this working out thing (he's never been to the gym with us.) After a minuted he told me, "I think he's at the exercising house." I told him I thought he was right.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter had a speech and language screening test today at school. Her Receptive Language Skills (language comprehension) and her Expressive Language Skills (language usage) were at a "pass" level. She was also a "pass" for Fluency/Voice (rhythm and smoothness of speech). Then there was the Articulative Skills (sound/pronunciation) section. She got a "Pass with age-appropriate errors". I wasn't at all surprised at the errors that listed: "Used W for L, W for R, F for TH, B for V"
Fitness Update: We stayed for extra time today and did ten minutes more workout than normal...and I was okay with it. The reduction in nerve pain is making a tremendous difference in my overall mindset and ability to do things.
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