Tag: CRPS (formerly RSD)

Aggravating Tuesday

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Aggravating Tuesday

I am just in a “lovely” mood today. I made several calls about my father that got me no where. I give up. He dies, he dies. Everyone has to do it sooner or later and he is pushing the envelope for sooner. Not my problem. The aggravation lies in that he won’t help himself. Then my mother was sick this morning so I didn’t want to leave her alone. My plans for going out were hindered. She was fine by the afternoon, but still. Someone should be home with her just in case. Diabetes is an unpredictable illness. Sugars can drop unexpectedly as I have learned over the years.

I had therapy. We talked about grounding as I was having flashbacks and intrusive memories over the weekend. She wants me to ground myself. She had to explain what she meant by it because I haven’t ground myself in a very long time. I don’t usually have flashbacks or memories that keep playing like records in my head. Then we discussed that I don’t really want to be on sertraline and she said I needed to be. Her whole demeanor changed when I said no. If she could have written the script, I would be on it right now, that is how much she wants me to take it. I told her it’s going to be at least two weeks for it to work, if it does without making me sick. She said my father isn’t going to get better in two weeks so there. I asked her if I seemed depressed to her and she said that I did. I just have a hard time believing it.

Thing is, I don’t feel depressed all the time. Most of the time I am irritable. Noises set me off or loud voices. I still don’t have an appetite. Sometimes, like last night, I was eating because I hadn’t eaten anything all day and then in the morning, I wanted nothing to do with food. I’ve been wanting a tuna sandwich for most of the day but I just can’t get myself to make it. Doesn’t help that pain meds have been making me tired all day because my ankle is still being a brat. I woke up this morning around 7ish with my feet out of the blankets. I was covered but my feet weren’t and they were freezing. My ankle didn’t like that at all. I had to wear thermal socks again to warm them up. I had 4.5 hours of sleep. Miraculously, I didn’t tell my therapist about the drinking adventure I had last night. I came close though but stopped myself.

I keep asking myself if I am in a clinical depression again. I would have to say yes because this stuff has been going on for more than two weeks. And it doesn’t show any signs of getting better. I thought with my appetite returning, I would feel better but that hasn’t been the case. I don’t know if I am going to get better this time. I don’t feel hopeless, but I do feel like this is going to drag on and on.

Pain and its Awareness

by Midnight Demon, posted in chronic physical pain, mood disorders, suicide

Pain and its Awareness

Pain in my ankle just hit a new level. I have been resting the last couple of hours in my bed. Just listening to music, reading Twitter and Facebook. Not really doing anything. And then I move my ankle just a little bit to get a little more comfy on the bed, and WHAM! I get hit with pain. And for some reason, I am wondering why it seems I can always feel my left ankle but my right, never a peep. I don’t even know it’s there most days. I know it’s attached and all, but I don’t feel it like I do my left. My left is constantly hurting and I am more aware of it than any other body part. I just find it a little lopsided. I try not to favor my limbs, but with this level of pain, it’s hard not to.

I am glad only one body part is affected. I can try to be more aware of my good ankle and notice that it is not bothering me. I wish my left would get the fucking hint and be like the right. But the left has been injured more than the right has. Suffering from a sprained ankle when you have foot drop is not a good thing. I have never recovered from it. See, before I went to the big hospital in Boston, I went to a smaller one outside of Boston because it was closer. I thought it was a good hospital. I couldn’t have been more wrong. So after basically doping me up and sending me on my way with no treatment or precautions if things got worse, I was wheeled to my friend’s car. It had started snowing and I couldn’t stand on my left side without pain. I fell and my ankle rolled. I should have known something was seriously wrong because I went one way and my ankle went the other. I didn’t feel a damn thing. I should have been smarting more than my back and leg pain. But nope. Not a thing. It wasn’t until two weeks later when I got feeling back in my leg after surgery that the sprain pain began. I was relearning to walk and my ankle hurt like a bastard. In the fall, I also sustained a nice bruise on the side that I fell on. I didn’t feel that either because I was numb. I thought it was the result of surgery as I had bruises everywhere.

Because I had foot drop and they were rushing me to get me on my feet, the sprain never healed correctly. This is all in hindsight. I didn’t know that the sprain would haunt me 12 years later and give me a pain syndrome. Course it didn’t help that I re-sprained it a year before the syndrome decided to take hold of my ankle. I remember thinking, during the day, that I was in a lot of pain. I almost always have my pain at night. It almost never happens during the day, but syndromes don’t care what time of day it is. It’s going to hurt you whether you are awake or in a deep sleep.

Once I noticed that this pain was different or possibly the start of something worse going on with my back, I got checked out. I must have seen 15 different doctors of different specialties and no one could figure out what was wrong with my ankle. They still don’t. Three have told me that I have CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. They were two physiatrists and my neurologist. But did my PCP believe them? No. He just kept sending me off to new doctors to see what was going on, to get me better. I don’t think I am ever going to be better. I don’t think I can recover from this much damage. And that is ok as long as I get my pain meds or the PCP is going to sign my death certificate. I don’t abuse my meds nor will I try to end my life on them. I am too fearful of the Tylenol content to wreck my liver before killing me to try and go that way. Besides, who needs pills when I have a rope?

Free Books, Pain and Other Things

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders, suicide

Free Books, Pain, and other things

I went to bed late last night because I wasn’t really sleepy until my pain meds kicked in. I had received an email from my favorite mystery writer, Lawrence Block. He had written a blog about five of his books being free over the next five days. I love him. He is such a brilliant writer that I even bought his how to book on writing. The books are available only after midnight Pacific Time. I wanted to get the first book as I have not read it but it was too early. I am on Eastern Time. So when I woke up in pain at 0430 and became aware of my surroundings, I downloaded the first book via Kindle. It’s called “After the First Death”.

I can easily read Block’s book in a sitting. My favorite series of his is Matthew Scudder. I fell in love with this character back when I first became suicidal. I was looking for books to kill myself and came across his book “Eight Million Ways to Die”. Seemed like a good book to read. However, it wasn’t what I was looking for. It was about Scudder and a prostitute killer and about how Scudder came to terms with his alcoholism. Throughout the book, people die in weird ways, hence the title. Unfortunately, I can’t give an example from the book but I can give you one that I learned yesterday. A manhole cover became dislodged on the highway and killed the driver of a car. She was a young art teacher. I don’t know why there are manhole covers on the damn highway, but apparently, they are killers. It was a sad story.

Block also has other books with different themed characters. My other favorite of his is Keller the hit man. When I first read “Hit Me”, I laughed because the assassin was in therapy. He would go around the country, killing people he was hired to kill, and then see a therapist. Toward the end of the book, he feels the therapist is getting to close to him so he kills her. There are five books in this series. When I get paid in a couple of weeks, I plan on getting these books. Unfortunately, none of them will be free during his special days.

My ankle is really hurting and I don’t know why. But then, I never really know why it hurts. That is the million dollar question. I am so sick of being in pain. I wonder if other chronic pain people feel like I do and just want to end their lives because they can’t stand being pain. My pain is controlled by medication, so I should be grateful for this but the chronicity I feel about it drives me to suicide. I am suicidal without pain, too but I am wondering if being rational about ending my life is a good or bad thing. I really want to end my life and plan to in a couple of weeks. I have just had enough. I don’t know if you would say that I “snapped”, but I really hate the routine of pain increasing, taking medication, then being forced to sleep because the meds make you sleepy and if you don’t, you feel sick. I am also tired of having to take medication for my other chronic illnesses, including my bipolar disorder. I take more than 10 pills a night. I am sick of it. I don’t want to take these pills but I have to. Otherwise, I just get sick.

One of the pills I take is for my GERD, better known as reflux disease, a stomach condition. I have been taking it or some version of it for a long time. But lately, I don’t think it’s working anymore as my stomach has been hurting and I keep on feeling bloated. I have never been scoped to see what my stomach looks like because I will be damned if someone is going to shove a tube down my throat to figure it out. I know you are pretty sedated but the idea of it, I am not fond of. So I just keep taking the pill, hoping my stomach feels better by limiting what I eat.

Pain Flare up while out

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders

Pain flare up while out

I didn’t carry my cane today though I should have as the weather was nasty. I thought I would be okay until I around 1330 came around and my ankle exploded in pain. I didn’t have any meds on me. It was about an hour later we left the hospital and I had to wheel my father to the exit. It was twinging on and off but there was nothing I could do about it. Damn nerves were inflamed. I was wearing boot so I am not sure if that set it off or not. I just tried to keep my ankle in a somewhat stable position and tried not to move.

We had a wait but not as long as it was on Wednesday. I brought my tablet with me but I didn’t feel like reading it. I did some reading when the called my father in. I finished the chapter I was on and then called it quits. People talking were disrupting my reading voice and there was a kid that kept laughing. It was annoying after a while. I just wanted to take a nap but I couldn’t relax enough to get comfortable. Plus my ankle going off every now and then kept me on my toes, so to speak. I wish I brought my writing with me. I could have written something or made some more edits.

I went to Starbucks to have my latte, sandwich, and a donut. I got really full after all that. I started writing in my journal. I basically brought the journal up to speed with all that is going on. It’s been a while since I last wrote in it. I wrote about how difficult yesterday was and that my psychiatrist still hasn’t answered my emails. At this point, I will be shocked if she replied. I haven’t heard from her in weeks.

I’m glad the pain didn’t cause an anxiety attack while I was out. That would have been awful. I never know what brings about the anxiety. I wish I could say this or that, but it’s hard to pin down. Sometimes I do have anxiety with pain and other times I have it without. Usually, I will have it as an anticipatory attack if it’s around the time I usually get it. It’s just so weird.

I didn’t wake up with my shoulders hurting me this morning. Yesterday I slept wrong and was in some pain until I got the kinks out. It was still bothering me throughout the day. I know I sleep funny on my right side and my shoulder sometimes acts as a pillow for me. Bad habit but I am sleeping most of the time so I can’t break it. What I did to my left shoulder, I have no fricken clue. There is a spot that hurts like a SOB and I try to avoid touching it because it hurts more if I touch/rub it. I haven’t lift anything or moved my shoulder in a weird position. It just hurts.

I mailed off Valentine cards today. One of them I sent to my therapist. I just felt like I should send her one as I have never sent her one before. Sunday is my 15th anniversary of my first cauda equina diagnosis and subsequent surgery that left me with my ankle being messed up. I spent the rest of the month in the hospital. Two weeks after surgery, I developed a staph infection and had to go under the knife again. That really messed me up. I developed kidney failure, my liver enzymes were through the roof, and I just felt like shit. I almost needed a blood transfusion as my crit dropped to a dangerous level. Luckily, it stabilized on its own, though I was still anemic. I had to take iron pills for months afterwards to build up my blood.