dayton

Well I had my appointment this morning. Get your coffee cup as this may be long! I told them about the weight gain. They asked what my weight was and is now. I said I weighed 132 when this happened and put on neurotin and now weigh close to 170. They agreed that the excess weight and neurotin and elavil together are causing my legs to swell and the weight gain. So they are weaning me off neurotin then we'll start on topomax.

I told them I basically have no support at home so I'm in this alone. They said unfortunately it makes their job all the tougher because if you can't talk about it, you tend to bottle it up inside and then wham-o, stress which aggravates any disorder. I told them I have my beloved chocolate Lab. There is no better dog than a Labrador Retriever.

They gave me a prescription for a very small number of pills for vicodin. They said it's fairly well tolerated.

They want me to start back on my treadmill because they said your body gets used to working and it needs exercise to kick start the system into loosing weight. I am to increase my calcium. I'm taking about 1200 to 1500 per day. They said I should go to 2,00 PER DAY because they put steroids in the injection and steroids deplete your body's calcium. Oh, yes, it must be calcium with magnesium or is it calcium plus D. Anyway something like that. So please take plenty of calcium. They said rsd causes osteoporosis too.

Here's an interesting note: I asked about my symptoms and told him I'd only had 1 night of severe pain and one day at a 4 level. They said I was "atypical" with mild presentation, but feel that we have started blocks early enough to hopefully stop it's progression. They also said there's no such thing as a window as each patient is an individual and has unique symptoms which require different treatments. Most people don't get to pain management until they're at stages 2 or 3. I'm fortunate to have remained in stage 1 with minimum amount of discomfort. However, they want to do one block on my left foot which has started to have mottling and swelling. They said I should call then when I am having symptoms and not just continue to have blocks when I'm not having symptoms.
They pushed on my back, neck, hips, and arms. It really hurt and they said that's the fibro. I told them it's hard for me to distinguish between rsd and fibro. They said most fibro is upper torso. If it continues at this level they would like to see me in a water therapy program. They said it helps patients with rsd, fibro, arthritis, and other disorders. I don't know if my insurance will pay or not.

After that appointment I seriously thought of holding up an armored car on the way back to the office. However, because Tom Selleck, Willum Dafoe, or Tom Barringer wouldn't be driving, I discounted that and just went to Mickey D's and got a hamburger....

So hopefully in a few weeks I'll be all sleek and slim and back in my cowboy shirts and boots!!