Degenerative Discs & Pain Management

[goody2shuz]

Blessings~ Glad to hear that despite the back you are back into the swing of things. I have found in the past that a massage will feel great right afterwards but somehow it caused more discomfort the following day. I was told to drink lots of water to rid the body of all the chemical stuff released by the muscles etc. Probably too late for you this time but perhaps you can try that next time.

Goody developed a fever & chills late yesterday afternoon.....at first I was concerned because you shouldn't take any aspirin products with the meds I am on....but thank goodness I could take tylenol. I had big plans and thank God the tylenol kicked in just in time for me to attend dinner with my family who were attending my daughter's opening performance in "Godspell" The play was absolutely wonderful.....I brought my back pillow & it saved the day. I was pretty much comfortable & thouroughly enjoyed the play.....my aunt, mom, & cousin who attended with me couldn't say stop talking about how wonderful a performance it was. And of course my daughter was a shining star I am convinced she will be on Broadway one day Her voice teacher also attended. I will be attending again tomorrow night for the final performance with my husband and can't wait to see it again I am just so glad that I made it to the opening one....thank God the tylenol allowed me to attend and for the most part I felt fine. This morning I am tired and have a low grade temp...but no other symptoms. Could be a side effect of the med...will check with the doctor.

I am so sorry that you had to cancel your trip....hopefully you will reschedule it again soon. Goody leaves a week from today....have no idea how I will manage to pack, will do it slowly and thank God my girls are old enough to do their own. And hubby will do his and that will leave me in charge of my own. Seems that everytime we go somewhere we bring way too much....this is my husband's doing since we have to pack all our own snorkel gear, fishing gear & other toys. We have been doing this forever...on our honeymoon in Jamaica they actually asked us it we were moving there!!!! But I can't wait to go......Goody really needs this, it's been way too long feeling cooped up. Yesterday it felt so good to get out...we were out from 4pm-12am after going out for ice cream and all. And it was heaven. Only thing is I had to tolerate my mom's driving at "Granny" speed But as long as I got out, that's all that mattered.

Hope your week ahead is pain free....despite my long outing yesterday my back is feeling great So I think by Monday if things go as well I can start to decrease that muscle relaxant

Heartland....didn't take the Airborne....actually didn't think about it but I am leary about taking much of anything else in fear that it may interact with the meds that I am already on. Even some of these herbal remedies can cause more harm than good if they interact with other meds you are on. So I had some OJ like Nini suggested, ate some extra garlicy food and had the tyleonol and thank goodness some good karma came Goody's way .......Goody

[BlessingsGalore]

Yes, Goody, this ole gal drinks lots of water anyway, but I learned the water tip a long time ago about getting rid of the toxins, but thanks for the reminder.

I am shocked at how much better I am feeling. Better for me is not being in cry baby excruiating pain at this point. I am able to SIT longer periods of time and the pain is wayyyyyyyyy down. I think the hyalouronic acid is helping too. It's synovial fluid in a pill supplement.

I'm sorry to hear about your fever, chills...yuck. You can't get sick now. Get some garlic tablets and started downing them. They are the best for knocking that out for me.

Where do you live ? (if you feel comfortable saying....general area) Aren't you in the Northeast ?

We tooooooooooo take wayyyyyyyyy tooooooooooo much stuff when traveling. We'll be going to a wonderful Lake for the weekend in the MOHO and even so, I still take toooooooooooo much......I'm a WHAT IF person...a good GIRL SCOUT....."BE PREPARED", kind of girl.

We are about to have some million dollar weather this next week after having storms/tornados all week here again. I'm soooooooooooooo tired of that...

We just felt it was best not to take our trip at this time. We try to YEILD to what the Lords leads us to do. It's usually in our best interest. We have so much travel planned this year.......it's not a big thing.

Okay....I have my TIMER on........for SITTING at this puter....so I'm off, got emails to answer.

Have a great weekend and I wanted to mention that I think the LODINE is really helping me too.

I was sore the day after Massage, but can't believe how well I have felt since then. AND can't wait to go back.

Hope you and everyone are pain free for the weekend to spend with your loved ones.

Blessings....... for now...........

[goody2shuz]

Blessings ~ Glad to see that the meds are kicking in & making for a comfortable weekend for you. Enjoy your weekend by the lake, it should definitely lift yur spirits after the stormy week you describe.

Heartland ~ since I know you are a man of updates I thought I would leave you one. Goody is reaching a level of frustration. I am starting to realize that I need to decide which is the lesser of the two evils...Pain vs. meds. Either way my life seems incapacitated and I am starting to have a difficult time dealing with it. You see...in the past I could tolerate the level of pain that was always in my back which is similar in degree to what I am experiencing now....minimal but just enough there to know that I need to take it easy. And that was without any meds. I would save the meds for times that the pain increased and put myself on them until I returned to my "normal" state of pain and stay on an extra week for added insurance (after a trial & error of seeing if I took myself off them too soon I would be back to square one) This all worked well for me over the past 16 years and just last night I shared with Tom that I am afraid that with the way I feel the pain in my back, which is minimal, I will be on these meds for a while and I hate it. I just went through the 1st perscription of them and will need to pick up a refill this afternoon. This is frustrating me because when I am late for a dose of the muscle relaxant I find that my pain only increases and this tells me that if I were to stop them or even attempt to wean myself down at this point in time, I would be back to square one (unable to walk).
Tom & I did laugh yesterday at an example of just how these meds affect me. I went to brush my teeth and I asked Tom why the water was coming out hot and after a while I finally discovered that I had the hot faucet on instead of the cold but my mind thought it was the cold That's scarey!!! We laughed but inside I just wanted to cry because I don't like this feeling...almost to the point of dementia. So what's this girl to do??? My mind and it's intactness are important to me and so is my feeling of overall well being in terms of pain. I'm going away for two weeks which will be good and I guess when I get back I will go for an MRI and see what we're up against. The best case scenario is if I could just get myself off this muscle relaxant...even if I have to stay on the antiinflammatory for the rest of my life I will be okay.....just to have my whole mind back is all I want.

I have a nail appointment in 45 minutes and will be back, but thought I'd vent a little because while Goody is usually seeing the good in the bad....today it's seems to be an only seeing the bad in the bad day. And we don't have many of those around here, do we??? .....Goody

[heartlandguy]

Originally Posted by goody2shuz

Tom & I did laugh yesterday at an example of just how these meds affect me. I went to brush my teeth and I asked Tom why the water was coming out hot and after a while I finally discovered that I had the hot faucet on instead of the cold but my mind thought it was the cold That's scarey!!! We laughed but inside I just wanted to cry because I don't like this feeling.

Goody, for several weeks now I feel like I have lost my metaphysical friend. Your last post seems to agree with my thoughts. Both of us sense that the meds don’t allow you to be the Goody of several months ago. Has Tom talked to you about this at all? (I sense that he doesn’t talk to you sometimes as much as you’d like… especially about things like this. Please tell me that I’m wrong.) You really seem to fear the effects of the muscle relaxant… have you talked to your doctor about an alternative med with fewer side-effects? Thanks for the update and keep them coming.

[goody2shuz]

Originally Posted by heartlandguy

Goody, for several weeks now I feel like I have lost my metaphysical friend. Your last post seems to agree with my thoughts. Both of us sense that the meds don’t allow you to be the Goody of several months ago. Has Tom talked to you about this at all? (I sense that he doesn’t talk to you sometimes as much as you’d like… especially about things like this. Please tell me that I’m wrong.) You really seem to fear the effects of the muscle relaxant… have you talked to your doctor about an alternative med with fewer side-effects? Thanks for the update and keep them coming.

Wow...I honestly didn't think this had affected our friendship in anyway Is it that bad??? Please let me know what changes you see in me because I honestly thought that things were okay and I was pretty much myself here other than the reality of some of the stresses going on in my life and thought I was doing pretty well. I do honestly think that my advice to others is the same coming from the heart....and if you could point out some of the things I may not be seeing due to the meds, I'd appreciate it.

Sometimes, I do sense that you are rather protective of me in the sense that you back off in seeking my advice in the sense that you feel that I have too much on my plate and don't want to add to it. And then I feel sometimes guilty seeking your support when you have other things to focus on in your life and we are perhaps walking on eggshells so as not to overburden one another. Maybe that's why you feel like you've lost your metaphysical friend????

So as to alleviate your biggest fear....in terms of Tom's talking to me about all of this....there's only so much we can talk about without it becoming the center of our lives. He is well aware of my frustrations and is extremely supportive in the sense of doing all the things I cannot do in order to get me resting and off these meds....and he knows that medically I am more than equipped to make the necessary decisions. Emotionally I think he feels inferior as to how to make things better for me in alleviating my frustrations but he has made great efforts in the sense of taking me out for dinners to get me out of the house and suggesting other activities to keep my mind off of things. Tomorrow we will be going out to the summerhouse again....he will set me up on a lounge with a book and iced tea while he paints the jetdocks and does his share of home projects.

As far as another med...all muscle relaxants have the same effects, as a matter of fact I was on flexoril years ago which was far worse...had me depressed and crying at the drop of a hat. he wanted to put me back on that & I refused and that's why I am on the one I'm on. When you think agbout what the med is suppose to do...I don't think you can find a med to relax your muscles without relaxing the brain as well So....my focus is to pray that it does it's job in alowing my back muscles to relax enough to heal in order to decrease the inflammation and then decrease the pain and pressure on the nerves. I have hope that this will happen because it did on Easter and it will again if I just don't go jumping around again right away I vented here like you taught me to....normally I would in the past take my frustrations out on Tom..but I have learned to take them out here where they belong (lucky you )

Well...I hope I reassured you of our friendship.....of course Goody is not at her best when so much happens at one time. We will be attending my daughter's final performance tonite and I am looking very much forward to it.

I have an update on my brother which I will post next. Thanks for being here.....Goody