[Nairek]

Hi everyone. Just stopping by to let you know I'm still hanging in there. Things have been super busy lately & when they aren't, I'm just plain anti-social.

I'm still dealing with the "new" pain on the left side of my lower back which appeared after surgery. My PM doc was convinced that it was my SI Joint so he suggested that I have another SI Joint injection. I made the mistake of telling the anesthesiologist that I have undiagnosed sleep apnea & she decided that she wasn't going to give me much sedation. I have to tell you, I don't think this chic gave me ANY sedation cuz I was awake & almost screaming thru the whole thing. And the outcome: it took the edge off for 1 1/2 days & then it was back to the same old pain.

We flew down to Florida 5 days later & I have to say that I didn't feel too horrible while we were down there. We went down to look at houses & were in & out of the car quite a bit for the few days that we were down there. I took less pain meds down there than I did at home. The worst pain that I had was the occasional throbbing/stabbing sensation but it was different than the pain I usually feel. Surprisingly enough, I was able to get out of bed & walk the next day & not be in an incredible amount of pain.

I went back to work last week. I work 2 P/T jobs. I started with working 1 for the 1st 3 days & then the 2nd one on Thurs & Fri. I'm not in horrible pain. I just feel very sore. On Friday evening, after working for 8 hours, my right leg did hurt when I was walking so I took some pain meds. I fell asleep on the couch on my left side & woke up on Saturday morning with the pain now in the left leg. It hurt enough that I had trouble walking. So again I took some pain meds, went back to sleep (in bed) & woke up a few hours later in no pain so I went to work for 3 1/2 hours. Talk about weird!

Also, my PM doc seems to think that I may have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I have had issues since the surgery where 1 foot feels much warmer than the other & it gets worse the more I walk/sit. The warm foot isn't painful, it just feels like I've been standing on my feet all day when I haven't. I have noticed that I feel a little tingly in that foot. Hopefully it goes away.

I am still dealing with discomfort near my abdominal incision. I can't bump against anything without wincing. Sometimes even jeans are bothersome. It's just sore when you touch around it. Pretty annoying.

Anyway, it's really late. I'll try to stop by more often. I promise! I have my 12 week post-op visit this week. Hopefully I can get some answers.