Pain

I have one word for today: OUCH!

I had the other half of the facet block yesterday. My back was spasming at the time, so as he tried to get through the muscle to the joints in my spine, the muscle decided "no, no, no" and would bend the needles, leaving the doc to try again. Yes, it is as painful as it sounds. Last week went so smoothly, I suppose it was asking too much to have that twice in a row.

The good news is that last week's worked. This one did, too, but the skin and muscle are so sore it's hard to feel the benefit. But the arthritis is definitely improved by the process(which is the point).

So, next week I go in for the real deal-- the RF procedure (RadioFrequency). The two facet blocks were just to ensure that the arthritis in the joints was what was causing the additional pain outside of the bad discs (who are already in check from the spinal injections). They're a temporary procedure which, for me, have only lasted a couple days. The RF kills the nerve entirely, so should work for 6-9 months. Since that's more intense, they do the facet blocks as a test.

Yes, I should pop a pain killer. The problem with that, beside the fact they make me sick as a dog, is that I'm singing tomorrow. My voice is already fragile from my recent cold and its accompanying laryngitis, so I don't need extra encouragement to dry out. I'm tempting fate enough with just a muscle relaxer. I've been speaking as little as possible.

I'm pretty great at day to day pain management. To the average onlooker, you'd never know I should be doubled over (I'm usually a "suck it up" kind of girl). This, however, is pretty extreme.