Holy Nerve Blocks Batman!!

Hi everyone, (all maybe 2 of you who read this humble bloggie! 😉 )  I hope you are ‘both’ keeping very well? :p

Thursday, this week, was the day to get my Sacroiliac (lower back/top of pelvis near the hips) and Occipital (Back of the skull near the very top of your neck) Nerve Blocks in Croom Orthopedic Hospital with the Good and Great Prof. Pain Specialist (as I shall refer to him!)

I really like this guy, he is friendly, thorough, very helpful and LOVES History! 😀 When he speaks with you, if he gets a thread of a piece of history he may know about in the conversation, he will pull that thread and see where it goes! He likes to talk and looks like the epitome of a Pain Specialist, Tall, Slim, White Lab Coat over a nice suit and tie or sometimes he may be in blue scrubs, and there he stands with an ultrasound probe in one hand and an intimidating looking injection in the other and usually a large grin on his face! :p

Anyway! I had found the last 3 weeks or so very bad with pain, especially at the base of my skull and the top of my neck and shoulders and as I have been given admission in Harolds Cross from the 8th of February for at least one week and perhaps more, so I needed these before going, gladly, I had the appointment already given to me since my last admission in October where I had gotten my first Occipital Nerve Blocks.

It was a really long wait, my appointment was at 12 and I didn’t get in for the injections until after 2pm! He asked me how I was doing, reviewed my pain and pain meds and went in for the kill!! These injections are sore but not impossibly so. They have anesthetic in them so there is a numbing effect which kicks in after a couple of minutes, but the injection itself will make you squirm, just a little.

I got the injections under ultrasound and while looking at my neck he said he wanted to send me for an xray and following that an MRI. I will be called for those soon but he said he wanted to check for possible instability or anything that might give away what might be going on in my neck. He said it sounds like instability of the neck to him but it cant be seen or confirmed without proper scans and tests.

He explained that the clarity and contrast between a regular xray and an MRI wouldn’t have much in the difference but that it would be a proper start to the investigation of what is going on in my neck. Depending on what shows up or what doesn’t show up on these xrays, my next trip to London may involve an upright MRI to investigate deeper for instability or other complications.

This is the pain progression from when I woke Thursday morning (First Line) during the hospital wait and injections (Second Line) to when I finally got home after the injections!

While behind me giving the injections in my sacroiliac joints he grabbed my ponytail and said,

“Perhaps getting this hair cut may help ease your discomfort? especially before starting in Harolds Cross”

When I asked if he really thought it would help he said he didn’t see why it wouldn’t at least help ease the pain, anything to cut any bit of weight off the neck is a good thing and that having to deal with hydrotherapy, pools and showers on a daily basis while in Harolds cross, would probably add more stress and strain to the neck so he thought it would be best to get it cut sooner rather than later! …so, I will! 😮

I had been planning for near months to get the mop cut anyway, its been over a year and its in dire need of a nice new doo!

My plan then for this week is to get ‘mah hurr dunn’, Relax and recover from the nerve blocks before starting in Harolds Cross. They take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to kick in properly to kill the pain, so there is a small improvement at the moment, nothing spectacular just yet but I am hoping as the next couple of weeks go on, the pain will ease even more (I hope!) I have had them done many times before and sometimes they have worked great for a few weeks and then sometimes, I felt they didn’t do much at all. I will just wait and see how these go! 🙂 I have a Pots outpatients Clinic Monday Morning at 10am and have to meet my GP during the week to sort out my scripts to have ready for going up next week.

I have nothing major planned until I head to Dublin on the 8th of Feb, when I start in Harolds Cross, but I do want to update you while I am there also. I need to sort my WordPress app out on my phone, if not I will have to just take notes and do a full fill in when I am home!

Either way, I hope to find out if it is worth it for people like us.
I reaaaaaally hope it is! It would be lovely to have a place that provides safe respite for people with rare musculoskeletal conditions. I will keep you posted!

Until then, please keep up to date over on the Facebook Page, Twitter and of course The Private Support Group if you would like to share your stories, experiences or questions with like minded and like bodied people like ourselves in a private and safe environment, please feel free to join us, just send a request and ill be sure to let you in 🙂

Syncope in the Hydro Pool, Caused a Small Panic!

So there I was, after putting down 2 weeks of being ill and fainting all over the place, I had canceled hydro and physio a number of times due to the flare up, there was just no way I could physically do it.

I was finally feeling better, no faint in about a week and I was sitting on the transfer chair in my swimsuit, waiting to be lowered into the water.

“Hang on”, said the physio.

The assistant stopped turning the crank and the chair stopped dead, my feet hanging off the end, just above the water. I was suspended like a prisoner as she took a look.

“You’re looking pale, how are you feeling now, are you sure you are able for this today?”

I reassured her that I felt well, which I did, at the time… but that I could not guarantee that I wouldn’t faint, as that is the nature of the illness!
She looked at me skeptically and gave in.

“Alright then”, she gestured for me to be lowered in and down I went.

I felt the warm liquid envelop my skin like I was being evenly coated in wet cellophane. Regular pool temperatures reside at about 28ºC while this and all other Hydrotherapy pools stay at about 35ºC  which feels… lovely, actually 😀

Warmth and Pots don’t usually go well together, this had never bothered me before now.

The physio kept a skeptical eye on me as she gave me some exercises to do and went over to help another patient in the pool.

Leg raises, looking around, warm pool, sunlight pouring in the windows… No warning…

Darkness… a sound of water in my ears… muffled, panicked voices, bubbles, water in my eyes, ears, mouth, I cant breath… Darkness…

I cant remember anything only those snippets until I woke up suddenly, some time later  with pretty severe pains in my chest and ribs. I woke but my eyes were still closed, I could hear a siren going off. Urgent voices, someone counting… that pain in my chest again…

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …

Chest compressions, well that explains that!! I must have made some sort of movement or noise, though I couldn’t talk at that point, the physio scooped up my head and asked me to open my eyes.

BLINDED!!! oh gawd, just white light for a few moments then I could see… everyone!!!!
where there was only the Physio and her assistant before, now there were a tonne of people standing and kneeling around me!!

A few nurses, a couple of surgeons (no seriously, he was the only head doctor on call that day so he and his assistant came down from surgery in full get up!!)
A couple of porters, a load of physios that I had never seen before, and some lady in a suit asking a load of questions and rushing around filling out paperwork!!

I had to be kept on the ground for a while to keep an eye on me and to try and wait for my BP to rise again, apparently I frightened the crap out of them!! When I was out, the physio couldn’t find a pulse so decided to start chest compressions on me after they got me out of the water… I was nursing those ribs for a good 5 days after it but how can I complain? She did her job and did it well with what happened!

Anyhow, making a long story slightly longer… That is the end of Hydrotherapy for me for the moment as they don’t want me back until the syncope is under control. I am peeved to be honest, I found it very good, but I understand why I cant take the risk so Ill be sticking with dry physio for now!!

Not much going on at the moment other than, still waiting on the Motorised chair, no idea when that is coming. I am due a load of different hospital appointments but no sign of them yet, I have to be called for painkilling injections in my sacroiliac joint and hip, again, no idea when they are coming and other than that I am just tipping away trying to keep myself busy.

So, How are you folks doing, any news for me??