Update-Facet Joint Injections Day 3

Just a quick update... (for some background click here)

I can no longer start a bonfire with my face...happy day!

Morning

When I woke up, my face was no longer hot to the touch and I slept better too...no insomnia! I did notice that my knees hurt...this also happened the last time I had a steroid shot. Last time the knee pain lasted approximately 2 days, so I made a *note to self* to have my acupuncturist address this later on.

Mid-Morning Acupuncture

My acupuncturist did normal needle acupuncture and some bloodletting on each cheek, on my left jaw, and on my third eye area, in hopes of relieving the neck pain and face pain caused by laying on my stomach during treatment. I felt immediate relief after the bloodletting in my jaw. After my treatment, my knees felt better and my cheeks were flushed again and warm to the touch. This went away after a few hours.

Evening

My left cheek still felt warm to me...but not to the touch. My neck was still tender from where the injections were, and I felt like I had more energy this afternoon...but that could be from the acupuncture.

The best part of the whole day was the random act of kindness that was gifted upon me...you can read about it here.

A Random Act of Kindness

This. 

This is what makes the world a better place.  And no, I'm not talking about the chocolate cupcake...although chocolate cupcakes DO make the world a better place.  I'm talking about...

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS.

I found this chocolatey treasure at my front door when I got home from acupuncture.  I haven't been feeling well the past couple of days, and may have possibly, kinda sorta mentioned it via social media.  When I saw the gift of love, I figured it was one of my awesome peeps who wanted to put a smile on my face.  And I was right.  And it did.

 

A friend of mine, who has been keeping up with my blog, decided to leave me this deliciousness to cheer me up.  Just because.  Not wanting anything in return.  Just to bring a little cheer to another human being.  She took the time out of her busy life to leave work, go to the store, purchase the yumminess, drive to my house, and leave it at my front door when I wasn't home.  Heaven points galore.  Many blessings to this wonderful woman!

How about that Karma?  I'll be driving my friend to the train station next week...an hour away, early in the morning, in rush hour traffic.  I agreed to do this on Monday...and Wednesday I get awesomeness at my doorstep.  Coincidence?   I think not.

After Gorging Revelations

Funny thing is that I totally ate it before I even knew who left it.   I figured someone left me a message via facebook or email (which they did) and that I'd eat the little piece of heaven first and check later.  Priorities people!  What I realized later on was that someone could very easily poison me with a chocolate cupcake...seriously...I'd be dead before I could even lick my fingers clean!  Snow White is to apples as Katie is to chocolate cupcakes.

Yessss...I even managed to work in a Disney reference...booya!

Update--Facet Joint Injections Day 2

Yesterday was the day after I had the facet joint injections on the left side of my neck at the C1, C2, and C3 levels.  Read about the injections here.  My neck was pretty sore, as well as the left side of my face a bit. On a pain scale, it was probably a 4-5 by the end of the day.

At least my body is predictable, as I suffer the same side effects whenever I get any type of steroid injection.  This is the third type I've had...the others being: occipital nerve blocks, an epidural steroid injection, and now the facet joint injections.  The three worst side effects I suffered yesterday are:

• Insomnia
• Neck soreness
• Flushed cheeks

I stayed in bed all day yesterday because the night of the injections I suffered from insomnia, probably due to a combination of the neck pain and the steroid.  I was hoping to nap during the day, but my body wasn't too keen on that idea.  Oh, and I felt guilty that I kept my hubby up all night long...and not in a good way.

The neck pain was the worst in the morning and by the evening it turned into more of a soreness...like if you sleep on your neck all wrong and it gets kinked up...except a little worse.  I could move my head right, but when I tried to move it left it hurt.  The site of the injections were tender but not black and blue.

My cheeks were flushed when I woke up and my left cheek got really hot by the afternoon (approximately 24 hours after the shot).  I tried putting a cold washcloth on it, but it didn't help much. It was on fire I tell ya!  I thought my face was going to spontaneously combust it was so hot.  I took my temperature because I wanted to check and make sure I didn't have a fever.  Weirdly, my temperature was 97.4...even though my cheek temperature was probably a million.

Overall, I took it easy but was pretty uncomfortable all day.  The best part of yesterday was that I didn't wear a bra and stayed in my pj's all day.  So that was my "bright side" :)  Hoping today will be better.

I'm not a jerk, I'm sick!

A friend of mine posted this the other day on facebook.  It speaks volumes for those of us who suffer from chronic pain and other invisible illnesses.  The only change I would make to this picture would be to replace the word "shady" with "jerk".

Check it...

I think some people think I'm a total jerk because I cancel plans at the last minute or I'm reluctant to make permanent plans just to avoid having to cancel plans at the last minute.  I'm not a jerk!  I'm sick!

There are times that friends or family will bring up these great, exciting plans... and I sit there with NO reaction at all.  This is because I'm totally conflicted!  On the one hand, I want to jump up and down and tell them what a great idea they have and how excited I am about it.  Then reality sets in, and I think to myself...

• What if I'm not feeling well that day? 
• If I do too much the day before, will it leave me with no energy or put me in pain?
• How far will I have to walk?  
• Will there be places to sit?  (Don't even get me started on the lack of benches in this world).  
• How long will I have to be on my feet?  
• How long before my back (or legs, or some other shitty body part) starts to cramp or ache?  
• Do I have to get dressed up? ...because currently I'm in sneakers...have been for a couple of years now (I've had arizona braces for both ankles)... and will be for another 6-12 months at least (assuming I can start wearing regular shoes again after my ankles are healed up).  No girl wants to be dressed up and wear sneakers.
• Do I have a ride home in case I need to leave early because I'm in more pain than I anticipated?
• How far do i have to travel?
• Do I have something important the next day?  If so, then I'll have to cancel one of them.

You see the dilemma.

Dealing with chronic pain is one of those invisible illnesses that many people just don't understand.  If you don't look sick, then they assume you are fine.  You should see the looks I get when I go to Disney and rent those mobility scooters.  If I'm in shorts, and you can see both of my 6 inch knee scars, then people seem to be okay.  But when I'm wearing pants, I just look like a healthy jerk who is too lazy to walk around the parks. Luckily, the employees at Disney are awesome and never make me feel jerky...I love you Disney! 

Same thing happens when I use handicapped parking...which I try not to use unless I'm having a bad day.  People see some goddess (okay, that MAY be an exaggeration :D ) coming out of the car and think I swiped my grandmother's handicapped tag because, again, I'm a jerky lazy piece of shit.  Well, I'm not a jerk, I'm sick!!

I was telling a friend the other day that I actually felt more comfortable going out after my surgery when I had my walking boot.  People can see the boot.  They're used to seeing many people who are “normal” people who have injuries wearing the boot.  To them, maybe I just hurt my foot while kicking ass on my roller derby team.  Yup, that's the story I should start peddling LOL.  Now that I'm in an aircast and pants, you just see me walking with a slight limp (which is almost gone...working on it!).  Nobody holds doors for you or gives up their seat for you unless you look injured or crippled.  I speak from experience.

Do my friends and family understand my chronic pain?  Well, my very close friends understand...like less than a handful.  As far as my family...sadly, not a lot of them do...but they try.  I really think the only people that really “get it” are fellow sufferers and the people that you live with, who see you suffer day to day.  It gets frustrating at times but maybe by sharing some of this it will help, even in the tiniest bit.

Recently I was introduced to a website that was started by a woman who has lupus, another one of those invisible illnesses.  It's opened my eyes to that fact that it's not just me who's having these experiences.  She has this great “spoon theory”, which is one of the best explanations for invisible illness I've come across.  I encourage everyone to read it in hopes that the more people understand, the more empathetic and less judgmental they'll be.  And that would make a better world. 

Anyone else suffer from an invisible illness?  Do you find people think your being jerky?   How do your family and close friends treat you?  

PS--I really want a shirt that reads, “I'm not a jerk! I'm just sick”.  You hearing me Santa!

Facet Joint Injections and Why I Have Neck Problems

So, I've been having issues with my neck and back for a few years now.  Basically, I have arthritis in my neck joints, and muscle and nerve related problems in my neck due to a cervical fusion I had when I was younger.

Why did I have cervical fusion?  Well, when I was first diagnosed with SED at 15, the doctors took x-rays of my entire body and concentrated on my neck and spine since it's common to have spine related problems caused by my disease.  And I was a winner (go me!) with a little bone chip that was floating in my spinal column high up in the C1-C2 area.  Looking back, there were some signs that we should have recognized.  I remember as a child going on bumper cars and getting bumped a certain way and having my entire body go numb.  Not good.  I also did a gymnastics class once and was doing somersaults and had my body go numb there as well.

The doctors told me that I was very lucky (I would say it's a miracle) that I hadn't been paralyzed (they said I would have been paralyzed to the extent that Christopher Reeve was) and sent me home in a cervical collar and I had surgery scheduled for 3 weeks later.  I had a halo put on about a week before my fusion and was in that for over four months.  I missed half of my sophomore year in high school.

Skip to 20 years later and my fusion has “settled”...like how a new house will settle after a few years.  Mine has settled and gone crooked.  If you know anything about how bones and muscles work together, than you know that your muscles try to protect your bones...and mine were getting very angry with my neck bones being crooked!  I constantly get knots in my neck and suffer from tension headaches.   It had gotten so bad that about 7 years ago I went to a neuro doc to see what was wrong.  It was him that told me that it was very common to see these fusions settle and get crooked, and the best thing for me to do was try to keep the muscles loose.  He recommended physical therapy and acupuncture (it was only years later that I finally started acupuncture).  I went to physical therapy for a few months and was able to get the muscles to a calm enough level and continued on with therapeutic massage after that about every 6 weeks (would have went longer, except that's a total out of pocket cost). 

This kept things at bay until about 2 years ago when my symptoms worsened and I was now also having constant burning down the side of my neck that would radiate to the entire side of my head into my ear and side of my face.  I went to a whole slew of new doctors and was really terrified that they were going to tell me that I needed to have my fusion redone.  Thank God that wasn't the case (seriously--THANK YOU GOD. Thank you, thank you, thank you!).  I was diagnosed with occipital neuralgia and started getting injections into my greater and lesser occipital nerves.  After my ankle surgery 5 months ago, my neck was flaring up again.  The doc who was doing my injections moved away and the new doc who replaced him wanted to try some new things that would hopefully last longer than the occipital injections.  I tried an epidural shot about 3 weeks ago that was supposed to help my neck and my back pain (yeah, I have some back issues too).   Not only did that not help, it was pretty painful for a few days.

And that brings me to today.  I called my doctors office to beg them to see me earlier than the appointment that I had already lined up for the end of November...I didn't want anything to interfere with my ankle surgery coming up.  They said they could see me this afternoon.  Woot!  The procedure I had done is called facet joint injections.  It was a bit painful at times and lasted about 10-15 minutes.  Most of the time the pain was about a 3 out of 10, with the worst of the procedure being about a 6-7.  They said that I should be mostly numb for about 2-3 hours and then I should ice it.  Well, it's been about 1.5 hours and I'm starting to feel sore and I have a very slight eyeball headache.

I was nervous about the procedure, having the epidural shot only weeks before, but I held it together pretty well.  I had a friend drive me (thanks Joan!) and I was glad that she was there in the room with me because after the procedure was over, I felt very anxious and thought I may have a panic attack.  I don't like needles in my neck!!  After a few tears, and a strawberry kiwi juice box (I guess that's what they give their nervous patients), I did my 15 minute wait in the office before I was okay'd to be released into the wild.

Now it's a wait and see if this works.  Fingers crossed...good vibes and prayers welcomed!

Anyone else ever had these procedures done?  Have they worked for you?  If so, how long did you find relief for?