Tough Week

This past weekend has been a tough one for a couple of good friends of mine as well as me. My friend's grandma past away late last Tuesday night. She was also like a granmother to me as well. Growing up I only really had my Great-grandma and Grandma on my Dad's side. These particular friends let me call both sets of grandparents Grandma and Grandpa. Ive always felt like I was their grandchild so for me it was like losing a grandparent. Her memorial service was yesterday. To help out the family my mom, dad, and I helped with the food peperation and just helped provide moral support. Since I am on Spring Break this week my mom and I are going to try to stop and see her husband ("my Grandpa"). I am hoping to make and bring him some Vegan Brownies I found a recipie for.

On the lighter side of things I found a great recipie for Vegan Banana Bread which I am going to make tomorrow. I am happy to be home so that I am able to experiment with Vegan / Vegeterian Recipies. At Walmart tonight I found the meat substitutes for ground beef, ch'kn
nuggets, and even bacon. I know they are made out of soy but at least I will be able to get some protein and eatting healthy while not giving up some of the things that I once loved. I am eatting my green veggies too. My stomach has been bothering the last few days. I am guessing this is due to the death of "my grandma". Spring Break came at the perfect time.

I will let you know how the Banana Bread turns out once I make it.

Sending Healing Thoughts to all of you!!

Pain Management

I have always been blessed when its came to Pain Management. When I was first diagnosed at 12 yrs old by a Orthopedist I was referred to the Cleveland Clinic's Pain Management Dept, to the Orthopedic's college who happens to be the head RSD Dr. in the Department. Since then I have gotten great care.

My Dr. has always listened to me, my file is even red flagged, not by my choice or my mom's but my Dr's. He understands that if something is wrong that we would want to get in asap, and does his best to do so. He has fit me in between his scheduled appointments before. I am very grateful that I have my Dr. He's treated me for the last almost 8 yrs. He has never given up on me and as said by his Nurse Practitioner that Im one of his miracle patience, since I was able to re-gain my life.

I think its important that people are able to get the pain relief that they need. If its going with traditional western medicine, non-traditional eastern medicine or even a bit of both. Pain affects your body by causing other parts of your body to hurt. Having ways to help treat that pain whether it be pain medicine, SCS, acupuncture, or even food is not only going to help you feel good knowing that your doing something to treat your pain but actually reducing that pain.

I have had a supper busy week. For my pain I am back on my original medicine, ultracet and tramadol. My Dr has suggested I take two Tramadols since I haven't tried that yet. I have been on two ultracets but taken off because the amount of tylenol. I was then reduced to one tramadol and the pain was bad. I was then put on the one ultracet and one tramadol (taken together) to help reduce the Tylenol amount but get the benefits of the Tylenol). I am still deciding what I am going to do since it seems that my body needs the tylenol in the ultracet for the anti-inflammatory affect. It would also help if it stoped snowing!...lol Driving home today for spring break it looked more like winter break, especially when I got to my exit which is right were the snow belt is.

Here is a youtube video of my Dr, Dr. Michael Stanton-Hicks on Pain Management
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QIc4hZlRJQ

The Affects Of Pain Medication

Pain Medication can be a RSDers best friend and worst enemy. For me I absolutely hate taking medicine. The more medicine I take the more I feel like my body is being stuffed with substances that shouldn't be in it.

On Thursday my new pain medicine, Nucynta arrived at my house. My mom brought it up to my school so that I could switch myself over. I didn't think I would have that much of a problem with it. I did realize that the Nucynta was stronger than my current medicine but didn't think much of it since my pain has gotten worse. I started on Friday and just simply thought my body was overly tired from my massage. I was entirely wrong. All weekend instead of catching up on studying like I normally do I just wanted to sleep. Since I wanted to sleep during the day my body didn't want to sleep at night. This has never happened to me before when switch or going on meds so I caught on very quickly. Since the Nucynta was every 8 hours I tried not to take any pain meds when I woke up in the wee hours of Sunday night / Monday morning hoping to get all of the Nucynta out of my system. Since most of it is out of my system and I am back on my original pain medicine I am somewhat starting to feel like myself. I should have went with my gut instinct and stayed with the original medicine.

Since I had a bad reaction my mom is calling my Dr tomorrow to let them know how things went. She called today but my PM and his Nurse Practitioner both were not in the office. Hopefully they will be able to find a pain medicine that I will be able to function on. I need to be able to think clearly and not want to sleep all day, after all I am a college student.

My First Massage

Healing: the natural process by which the body repairs itself

Pain, Hurting: a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder

Pain is when the body is telling us something is wrong. There are many people out there that try to ignore the pain that their body is creating. Even with Chronic Pain disorders our body is trying to tell us that something isnt right.

I had my massage today hoping that it not only help my ongoing headache but my stressed muscles from my RSD as well. When the massage therapist was working on my neck she found my tender spot on the left side. After to the massage she did let me know that since I was so tender there that I could possibly have a deep knot that needs rubbed out slowly. She does believe that this could be the cause of my headache since I am constantly doing homework looking down. Also I carry my books on my left shoulder which puts extra stress on my left side. It was great to get the knots out of my back and shoulders and possibly find the reason for this headache.

I am going to be stretching my neck side to side to see if that makes a difference periodically during studying. I felt extremely tired a good couple hours after the massage and feel asleep for about and hour and a half. She told me this would happen and to stay hydrated.

After the massage I stoped at Target to get a few things for the week.

Strawberry-Granola

Cereal

Tazo Green Tea with Honey

Sending Healing Thoughts!

Let the Healing Start

It is now my turn to a natural way of healing as a way to help my body heal. My Primary Dr left me voice mail today and confirmed that massage therapy would be a good way to get rid of this persist ant headache. She also recommended acupuncture but at this time I am going to just go with the message due to the fact that my skin is extremely hypersensitive from my RSD. I do understand where she is coming from with recommending it I am just not sure I am ready to try it. I have my first message therapy appointment on Friday. I am looking forward to this appointment and Im very optimistic that this will help not only my headache but my RSD as well.

Through this all I have been able to keep up with my school work. I am extremely thankful that I have friends that understand that sometimes I just dont feel well and that sometimes I need to lock myself in my room to study because of my major. I just ask for everyones prayers that this headache goes away as mysteriously as it started.

Lets Start The Healing!

Happy Valentines Day!

The heart is a complex organ, not only emotionally but also physically. The last week My Anatomy and Physiology Class has been learning about the heart and its functions. This past weekend I have been studying about the route of blood through the heart and the path it takes to go through the body to help us sustain life.

To me, Valentines Day isn't only about Celebrating the love a couple shares. It is also about showing our family and friends how much we love them and appreciate them. Last night I went to my sister's house to celebrate 3 Birthdays that take place in the month of February. It was nice to see my family and spend time with them but the increased activity made my rebound headache much worse than I could have imagined. I thankfully made it back to my dorm and after an hour of studying had to quit and decided to pamper myself.

Finally a week after this rebound headache has started it is no longer on the whole left side. I am hoping this means that it is finally starting to go away but I don't want to jinx it. I am going to call my Dr tomorrow if it is still present and to see what is going on with my Pain Management. My new pain meds are suppose to arrive on Tuesday and I am looking forward to some much needed relief.

Soy Milk vs Cows Milk

Since October of 2009 I have had several digestive issues. Thankfully I am being treated with a medicine called Levsin that relaxes my stomach before I eat. Since it relaxes my stomach and the nerves at the end of the stomach the food is able to go into the intestine and be digested from there. If I dont take my pill before I eat or immediately after I get excruciating stomach cramps exactly where my stomach is located. My Primary Doctor and Pain Management Dr isnt sure if this is my RSD or if this is something else at this point.

I have noticed though that I am not able to drink cows milk due to the fact that my body isnt able to digest it normally, or like it one did. I notice one day over Winter Break after I drank a nice glass of milk my stomach ached and ached. A person proposed that I should try Soy Milk even though I was extremely nervous about it. After the first glass I haven't looked back. I am hooked on the goodness of soy. I have done my research on it and I know that people are especially hesitant about it because of the amount of estrogen in it. For me I do believe that Soy Milk is the best choice since I have been raised on Cow's Milk for the last 20 yrs. I am happy to know that Im not supporting an industry that abuses its animals by injecting hormones to make them produce more milk when humans especially adults were meant to be lactose intolerant in the first place. Somehow our genes got manipulated and adults were able to start digesting milk. Does it make since for humans to be able to drink milk when the rest of adult animals are lactose intolerant? For me its Soy Milk, I dont miss the aching, cramping stomach pain that I once had with Cows milk...yippy!

***I still have my rebound headache it is getting slightly better though. My Primary Dr said it should feel much better 48 hrs after the start of the steroid which is tomorrow. I have been a little nausea's because of the steroid due to my weak stomach but thats not a big deal. I may call tomorrow to see what the plan is Pain Management wise since my RSD pain is worse.