Monday, January 07, 2008
i had another doctor's appointment today, at the pain clinic. it was a reasonably good appointment, some things i was hoping to figure out got worked out, and a couple of things got worked out in a way i'm not entirely fond of.but coming away from it, i find myself disappointed, frustrated and sad. frustrated is mostly b/c i now have *another* doctor to see; they want me to see their in-house psychologist. blech. i saw one of their psychologists last year, and she felt like she had taught me all she could, etc....
but i think that i'm frustrated and sad for reasons i don't entirely understand. do i still subconsciously think that the doctors are going to FIX this whole thing one day? that i'll go to an appointment and they'll have figured it all out? i don't know. it's the kind of thing you hope for, but know that it's probably unreasonable. my doctors seem to feel like any improvements we see are going to be incremental. i think my pain clinic doc may feel like i need to learn to deal with my pain better, as it may be around the rest of my life.
i just have got to believe that we will cut down on the frequency....
to all my migraine and headache friends out there: have any of you been to the diamond headache clinic (in chicago?) if so, tell me all about it.
Labels: doctors, migraines, pain, pain clinic
link | posted by Emily at 7:40 PM
Monday, December 18, 2006
Another pain doc. appointment
it went well - i was feeling pretty low beforehand, so i'm glad. i needed it.we talked about pain control, and also talked about trying lyrica. decided we would start the lyrica at a low dose, stay there for a month, and see how it goes. if we need to go up, we'll go up next month. the 'hope' is, that the nerves are firing for no reason (obviously we don't really want that, but if that's the case, lyrica will supposedly help). already, i am a mystery. *sigh*
i also asked about the possibility of a daily pain control med. she gave me tramadol to use for the worst pain, to see how it works for me. i am no limited to only 3 per week, which is fabulous. what is NOT fabulous is that it doesn't seem to work at all for me. i had a monster of a headache going, so once i filled the script i took one. it's now an hour later, and i can't tell any difference. :( bummer. the idea was to see how it worked, and then if it helped, we could work out a daily 'schedule' of sorts to take it. i guess now we'll have to find another pain med.
i'm just hopin' that the lyrica can work some miracles. i could really use one.
Labels: headaches, meds, pain clinic
link | posted by Emily at 8:30 PM
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
it's a bust
the physical therapy was a bust. i went in, and she poked me and prodded me and 'massaged' the trigger points (this sounds like it would feel good, don't be deceived). it was painful, but obviously i'm still pretty gung ho while she's working. then she's done, and asks how my headache is. 'worse', i tell her.this was not the right answer, sadly.
she says most people feel better after this. hmm. so sad.
sooo she says there's nothing she can do for me in physical therapy.
and once again my doubts of there being a muscular basis for these headaches increase. i think the whole idea is bupkis. not only does it not make sense with most all of my symptoms, but on a deeper level, it just doesn't sit right with me. and now this? what's up guys?
also while she was reading my charts she noticed that my docs were referring to my headaches as 'trigeminal neuralgia'. WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?!? you'd think they'd mention this if they thought it was a possibility, much less a diagnosis! i'm steamed.
but there's always some good news, right? she gave me some ideas for getting some cardio exercise. this makes me happy, i know a lot of people find relief for migraines through a regular exercise program. so for a couple of weeks, i'm going to try using a recumbent bicycle, and see how that goes. so far, it's just the same as walking (in that it makes my headache worse, and it stays worse for 2 or 3 hours).
Labels: exercise, headaches, pain clinic, physical therapy
link | posted by Emily at 10:38 AM
