Prolotherapy Appointment

I had my first round of prolotherapy injections into my left shoulder this morning.

Turns out, all my fears about the local anesthetic were unfounded, as this one didn't cause searing pain, and amazingly offered some relief during the injection process - enough that it froze the skin, and some soft tissue, but the lovely *poke* into the bone wasn't comfy, and the fluids going in were unpleasant as hell. The doctor did listen to all of my concerns before the injections, and he answered all of my questions afterward. I think he might have been having an off day last time I saw him, because he was nothing but nice today.

On my way to the appointment, my resting pain level was about a 6... So I wasn't feeling all that great to begin with. During the injections, the highest pain spike was a 9, but it only lasted 2-3 minutes, before settling down to an 8 for the rest of the injections. About 15-20 minutes after all the injections were done, all of the local anesthetic had worn off, and my shoulder pain was down to about a 7.

We're now at 2 hours post-injections, and the resting pain is about a 6 again, but when I move it too much, or in certain directions, it'll spike to an 8 or so for a few minutes.

The next step is (for me) the hardest... Waiting...

Waiting to see if this offers any lasting effects...

Waiting to see if this makes me more functional...

Waiting to see if this will decrease my pain...

Waiting for all of that before I can start on any other joint...

Apparently I did well though. He expected me to cry or something from the needles, and the pressure of all the fluids. But I didn't, because it didn't really hurt any more than my "normal" shoulder pain lately. I did wince a few times, and I think I Grrrrr'd once or twice, but that's about it.

I'll try to update frequently-ish, so you can all see the healing/recovery/regeneration process.

G.I. Appointment

I finally had my G.I. appointment on Tuesday.

Diagnosis: IBS.

Okay, fine, I looked at the symptoms of IBS, and yes, I have many of them. But, I also have symptoms of other things, like delayed gastric emptying, and gastroparesis, as well as extreme problems with choking on everything I put in my mouth unless I'm REALLY concentrating on it.

The G.I. doc listened to my concerns as far as "otherwise healthy person with some digestion problems," but he told me flat out that "Ehlers Danlos Syndrome has no effect on the digestive tract." When I attempted to inform him that, yes, in fact, EDS DOES have an effect on the digestive tract, he completely ignored me.

He also said that EDS is such a rare disorder that even though I'm the first person he's ever seen with it, I'm sure to be the last, and because of that he wasn't really interested in learning any more about it; because, you see, he remembers it from med school... The whole paragraph they taught him how many years ago? He's in his late forties or fifties, and the information he learned is SO out of date as to be practically useless to the current body of knowledge.

I was so furious with him at the end of the appointment, that I must have had a burst of adrenaline, because I had angry, restless energy I needed to expel. So I went home, and started packing up some boxes (because we're in the middle of moving) and I moved them myself to the new house. All the boxes I packed - five in total - were packed as full as I could manage (contents of the fridge and freezer, as well as our canned goods, and non-perishable foods), and I had to take them down a flight of stairs to my car, then up a flight of stairs at the new house. By the time I got all the boxes inside, my adrenaline wore off, and my blood pressure tanked. So I spent 15 minutes laying on the living room floor, watching the ceiling dance, and drinking a bottle of water.

I've also got a really bad cold, which is preventing me from taking the medication I take to increase my appetite, and decrease my pain. Because of this, I'm too nauseous from the pain to eat anything, and I've lost 20 pounds... in a week and a half.

To top it all off, everyone at work has the same cold, and my co-worker (the one whose job is similar enough to mine that we share each others work-load) has been off most of the week, putting a lot of extra pressure on me to get things done. This, right now, is the first time I've had all week where I haven't had at least 5 files on my desk with urgent problems to address, as well as a phone attached to my ear, dealing with another file. She isn't sicker than anyone else here, and it really pisses me off that she feels she can just leave me hanging like that, knowing full well that I'm not the healthiest person to begin with. (Sorry, but I really had to rant about that, and now that I have, I feel better)

Next week is my first Prolotherapy appointment, and I'm really hoping I'll be able to let him know that I don't want to have local anaesthetics injected into my body, without having to resort to the "mom voice." I'm going to try once again to explain the part about paradoxical reactions to drugs. Not just that they are less effective, or ineffective, but that they have a tendency to cause the exact opposite reaction in some people (including myself) with EDS. I'm going to suggest an alternative, if he insists that the solution will be too strong, and that it needs to be "cut" with something. Because, really, it's my body, and I don't want local anaesthetics in it. Simple as that.