Travel + Doc Visit

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

To everyone who responded to my request for advice on traveling, thank you so much for your input.

I've decided not to go to go on the planned two week trip to CA. My decision has nothing to do with the terror alert. It is just about my pain level. I just can't handle it. Just to get to my destination would have taken 14 hours of upright time (without any delays), but I never go more than 8 hours without lying down. I can't. My pain is too severe and lying down is the only relief I get during the day, beyond my meds. I'm taking 10 mg Oxycontin 2 times a day, Cymbalta 60 mg daily and 5 mg of Ambien every night. I tolerate the meds well, except that I'm always a bit sleepy but can deal with that as long as I get 10 hours of sleep per night. If I increase the meds, I wouldn't be functional enough. Now at least I can manage a trip to the grocery store or a movie or dinner out, but that's about it, one per day, aside from my daily exercises. Doing any of that makes the pain worse, of course, but ..... I lie down for at least an hour and a half every afternoon. That's too little time for a lot of relief, but it does help. By bed time, I can barely stand the pain, but I'm generally pretty much pain free when I awake in the morning. The pain gets worse and worse as the day goes on. All I've done today are my morning stretches, showered, ate breakfast, and straightenedd two shelves of my pantry (which are at eye level and are rather small, pull-outs), and the pain is getting really bad already. I believe it is piriforrmis muscle pain, mostly, with a good nudge from my SI Joints.

My pain has been getting worse year after year. I've hesitated to tell you guys just how severe it is because I don't want to spook anyone about revision surgery. I am still glad I had my Harrington Rod surgery because it gave me 20 good years and just as happy to have had revisioin surgery with Dr. Boachie, because that gave me the last 8 and a half years. No doubt I would have been worse off without my revision surgery. No doubt at all. I went back to Dr. Boachie for every post op visit, annually after the first year till year 5 and then 2 years after that. So the last time I saw him was May of 2005. Since then, he has seen a CT scan of my back and SI Joint and concurs that I have SI Joint issues. He has consistently suggested pain management and I've been seeing a wonderful pain management doctor. I've had SI Joint injections and then piriformis injections. But that's just not good enough any more. I think I need a fresh pair of eyes to take a look and see what's going on and if anything besides pain management can be done. So, I have an appointment with Dr. Bridwell, on Sept 1st. I have not yet had the botox injection in the piriformis that the pain doc suggests we try next, because I think it's better I see Dr. Bridwell before I get the shot.

Well, that's it for sitting for a while.

Bonnie