Salty Zebra

      Today I saw my physiatrist and received a diagnostic lidocaine injection in my T4-5 vertebrae.  The original plan was to do the T5-6 junction, but when I described my symptoms (pain above my left shoulder blade radiating down my left arm to my hand) he suspected that T4 syndrome might be the cause and decided to do the diagnostic injection at the T4-5 junction instead.       Because people with EDS tend to metabolize lidocaine quickly, we only had a short window to assess the efficacy of the injection.  I believe my pain was significantly decreased (70%+) and that at the thirty-minute mark it began to return, with full return at about an hour.  I believe this indicates that treatment at the T4 area would be beneficial, but what kind of treatment I do not know.     I continued to experience pain in the area between my T5-6 and T11-12 vertebrae.  Again, I think this means that the other areas need to be addressed as well.  When speaking to the PA after the injection, she said that

     Today I visited my Physio's office and we discussed my next steps. Based on the suggestion of the PT who did my assessment, they agreed to try a Facet block at my T5-6 and T11-12 (at different times) to see if it would affect the pain in other parts of my back, particularly my low back. This will determine whether it would be beneficial to pursue Prolotherapy on these joints.           As we talked though, the PA I was meeting with became more concerned with my ankles than my back. I can't tell you how disappointing this was to me. The pain in my back has been so bad for so long and I've been holding out hope that prolo would help it. I let the PA know how much I'd like to do the back first, before the ankles, and she said we can do that if I'd prefer. Now, of course, I'm second guessing that because of how passionate she was about how much working on the ankles would affect.      The current plan of attack is to try a Facet block on whichever back joint is

      I received my third Prolotherapy treatment on August 25th, and, unbeknownst to me, I had COVID at the time.  Earlier that week I had embarked on an overly ambitious trip to Alaska to visit my daughter and on Wednesday I started feeling crummy.  I attributed it to overdo, but took a COVID test Wednesday night just in case.  It came back negative, as all the COVID tests I had ever taken have, and so I went to get my treatment Thursday morning.  It went about the same as all the others, though my doctor had a few extra medical students with him so there were more people in the room.  Over the weekend, I got worse instead of better. On Friday, my husband also came down with symptoms.  He too took a test that came back negative so we just figured it was a cold.  Saturday he ran a fever over 103 all day and on Sunday morning I suggested that we test again just in case.  This time they both came back positive.  So there I was dealing with the results of Prolotherapy on top of COVID - no

      This post is much more delayed than I had planned for a couple of reasons - it all boils down to I didn't feel up to it though.       The day after my second Prolo treatment I had an appointment with my PCP who was concerned that I was showing symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome and had me titrate off the migraine preventative I was on.  While I'm happy to report that the negative side effects I was experiencing have stopped, unfortunately I've had a migraine for all but one of the last 11 days, my pain levels have been much increased, and my fatigue is bad. I've spent the bulk of every day in bed and I haven't been able to do much at all.     How much of this is what Prolo would have looked like if I wasn't on the meds the first round and how much is a result of coming off them?  I don't know.  Maybe we'll find out next round.     So, like the first round, my worst day was the fifth day after treatment.  Unlike the first round it didn't get signifi

      I didn't plan to write a post about this, but it has become an issue for me and so I thought it might be relevant to someone else as well.        Twenty-one years ago I was pregnant with my middle son at the same time my best friend was pregnant with her daughter.  I had the privilege of being in the delivery room with her, but while I was there I witnessed her getting an epidural.  Knowing that I was going to be having a c-section with a spinal six weeks later, this posed a problem for me.  During my first labor I had a c-section after 17 hours of pitocin-induced labor and any pain relief was welcome.  This time, however, I was having a (semi) scheduled c-section and I wouldn't be in much pain prior to the spinal - AND now I knew EXACTLY what they were doing behind me!  That caused no small amount of anxiety for me as the date approached.     Similarly, prior to my first Prolotherapy treatment I was worried because I didn't know what it would be like.  This time I

      Sorry if the picture is triggering, but much of this post is about injections so... Last Monday we headed into The City for my afternoon Prolotherapy appointment.  I'm going to be very clear in this post so if you're sensitive to this type of thing you may want to stop reading now. For others, like me, who are interested in exactly what a Prolotherapy treatment is like, read on.       They went over last minute questions confirming that I had taken no anti-inflammatories for the last two weeks, had a ride home, etc. Then they had me lay face down on a paper-covered examining table with a face cutout. I lowered my pants to an uncomfortable level, but in order to get at your SI joint a fair amount of buttocks must be exposed 😕.  They sterilized the area and then donned lead aprons, giving one to my husband as well who elected to be in the room.  The doctor arrived at that point and carried on a ten-minute conversation with me during the treatment while I was face down.  I

      Last fall I was diagnosed with EDS.  It's something I've had my entire life evidently, since it's a hereditary condition, but I've only known about it for a little while.  With EDS, Hypermobile Ehler's Danlos Syndromes (hEDS) in my case, the collagen proteins in your body don't work quite right.  This means your joints tend to be more lax, or hypermobile, but it can also affect the other collagen-related tissues in your body, like your GI tract and your skin.  When it comes to your joints, there's no exercise that can tighten connective tissue that has stretched.  Surgery isn't a viable option either.  So what's left?  If I chose to ignore it, then likely my injuries would continue to snowball happening with more and more regularity as different parts of my body stopped supporting the others that were depending on them.  For example, if my ankles are very loose (which they are) then that can lead to a higher likely hood of injury in my knees or