I'll catch you up as briefly as possible...
I had put in a call to my doctor last Thursday afternoon and never got a return phone call. At 7:30 am on Friday morning I called and scheduled a same day appointment with the nurse practitioner who is filling in for my doctor while she's out of town. (I do not love my doctor at all, never have, so I was ready to see someone new anyways. My doctor sweeps in, barely says hello, and looks at and types on her laptop the entire time I'm in her presence. She isn't clear about what she's doing or what she may be looking for (no idea why she sent me for x-rays the other day, she just did without any explanation as to what she was looking for or anything). When I ask questions she comes off abruptly and dismissively in her answers and she herself doesn't really ask any questions. So, I'm moving on.) It ended up being a hectic morning because I wasn't moving around that well with my arm throbbing as it was, Landon missed the bus which meant I had to drive him to school and then also drive Harper and Dakota since it made them miss their bus. I was able to accomplish everything but I was near tears I was so frustrated with it all.
The doctor came in and wasn't carrying a laptop (awesome) and immediately greeted me and told me her name (small pleasantry, nothing major and all I expect). She asked me dozens of questions, had me demonstrate all kinds of ranges of movement with my head/neck/shoulder and then pressed on those parts for reactions to pain. Nothing really hurt terribly until she pressed a point under my arm, near my arm pit. Every time she pressed there it made my fingers tingle which she found strange. She said she wasn't sure that a nerve from my cervical spine ran there and had to go look it up, so she left and was gone a minute or two to look it up on her computer. When she came back she explained that it seemed that a thoracic nerve may be what is causing the underarm pain but to really know what's going on I'd need to have an MRI.
To get me through the weekend and following week until the MRI (scheduled for this Friday 4/13) she prescribed some new medications since I feel that the others aren't doing anything to curb the pain.
- Hydrocodone
- Methylprednisolone
- Skelaxin
- Refill of the anti-nausea, Zofran
I didn't end up filling the Skelaxin because it was just too expensive. I didn't think it'd make any difference any way and I thought I'd try the other ones to see how they did first. I made sure to take the Zofran first and then took the other two. I think they do help a little better than the first medications but I guess removing all the pain just isn't going to happen right now. I took the medications all weekend and by Sunday my stomach was a mess. One of the horrible side effects to taking all this crap is constipation and it is no joke. So, back to CVS I went for some help in that department. It's almost comical how many things I'm taking in the morning and gives me a whole new perspective when it comes to what some people have to do just to feel decent on a day to day basis (for their whole life). Since adding this medicine to my life I've also had to add fiber gummies, Miralax and a stool softener. I already take Vitamin C, Calcium and a women's multivitamin so, yeah, it's a lot.
I had an okay weekend, pain wise, but when I woke up Sunday I was ready to scream. I'd just had enough and was feeling pretty down about the whole thing. But, life goes on and the day wasn't terrible and yesterday was the best day (pain wise) I've had in a long time. I'd get a bit of numbness or throbbing every once in awhile but it felt manageable. I was able to eat normally and I got a lot of stuff accomplished around the house which had been seriously neglected all last week.
This morning was rough, but not so bad at the moment. I'm just hoping to slowly get better, have the MRI on Friday and then hopefully get some answers on what to do next, if anything.
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