Ahhhh so much craziness!
Lets see if i can remember everything thats happened since i last updated?
Well, theres the medical stuff, thats what stands out most on my mind, and the most recent.
So, me and gabe have our pain management, right? and we're on opiates, its only pill type of pain releif thats worked, ever. we've tried anti-inflammitories, anti seizure meds which are meant for nerve pain, anti depressants and anti anxiety meds and synthetic this and that and all kinds of shit, then the usual TENS unit and fentanyl patches and then various other patches and creames and hot and cold packs and many things i dont remember the names of. Theres still some stuff on the table left to try, im sure, i've even found one that im going to seek out for my nerve pain, electrostimulation of the nerve root for the various nerves that are being compressed by my frequently subluxing vertebre. Actually, some of the good news health wise is that I found out about my nerve pain in general and found out about that treatment! I have an appointment on monday for my primary care physician to get a referal to an anesthesiologist pain doctor who might be able to do the procedure. I found out the type of nerve pain is called "Radicular Nerve pain", where one or more (in my case many, due to the nature of my condition) nerves along my spine are being irritated, pinched, compressed, or in some way damaged by either an injury of some sort to the spine or in my case, subluxing and dislocating vertebre along the spine. The most common form is when one nerve is pinched on the lower part of the spine and its the sciatic nerve, it has its own very popular name, Sciatica. I would say I have sciatica since that nerve is effected but whats the use when it effects so many other nerves in many other areas of my spine? So Radicular nerve pain it is.
Anyway, back to the other medical things, in this case involving my fiance!! My darlin has been through so much the past month or so. He had a minor surgery on his toe, and ended up using up is pain medication faster that month because of htat, plus an ongoing tolerance he'd been building to the medication. Not knowing what to do, and wanting to do the right thing, and suffering from horrific opiate withdrawls, we spent the entirety of a day, from early into the morning until late the evening, calling every number we could for help. We called the pain management center to tell them everything and ask what to do, and basically got told that they were going to drop his treatment plan and only give him one more appointment, and no more meds. And since we wanted to get gabe safely detox'ed from the meds and off them for a litlte while so when he takes them again they are more effective while taking less than before, we needed an inpatient detox center. But apparently not ONE place in the state of Oregon accepts his insurance, medicaid/medicare/Oregon health plan. The only options were in Washington! WE HAVE NO CAR! no way to get to any place like that.SO, feeling absolutely hopeless and at our wits end, we go to the Emergency room, which we were not looking forward to since we go there so much already they've ran out of ways to help us!!! and trust me, theres enough jerks that work there that sometimes its not worth a trip. Anyway, we go there, NOT asking for pain meds but for something to help the withdrawls that would just last him the next couple of days. Well, the doctors were amazingly nice and even though we told them we wanted to detox off the meds they said its stupid that the pain management center isnt working with us and is making us detox when obviously Gabe has a chronic pain issue that isnt going to go away but instead get WORSE over time!!! So, we took the precriptions and they sent us on our way, and things were looking up.....but then we had no money for copays, i borrow some money from my sister, just five bucks was all we needed, then its all the drama of trying to get to the pharmacy before it closes without havin a car and then my cellphone dies and such and so forth.......aaaaaaaaagh......but we make it there ok and my father brings over the money and things are looking up again.......and BOOM. slap in the face. the insurance denies the prescriptions, so the only way to pay for them is completley out of pocket, and the first script is 187 dollars, the other is 94. WE COULDNT EVEN AFFORD 5 BUCKS! so the day ends on a shitty note, we're left back at square one. Not only that, but when we get home, gabe's toe that had surgery done 2 weeks back was BADLY infected and turning black on the tip and hurting worse than ever. AGH! SO barely surviving the night we wake up brainstorming again. I figure out a way to get some money i know we could pay back (our checks were coming just the next week, but we needed the pills IMMEDIATELY!) and we were able to get the cheaper prescription, and after that and seeing gabe's toe even WORSE, we decided to make our SECOND trip to the ER. Especially since the podiatrist that did the surgery wasnt calling back when i called to ask about possibly getting some antibiotics to fight the infection for gabes toe. Anyway, the ER visit goes well, they slice his toe open (it had abessed on the inside where the black spot was) and drained it, got him two types of antibiotics and bandaged him up. They stuck some gauze IN the toe, it was weird looking, came out a few days later. Gabe had to stay off his feet for 2-3 days, and i changed the bandages. And then that monday, we saw the pain management, and explained everything and they said that they would talk to the head guy of the practice to see what he thinks, and on tuesday, we got the call saying that if Gabe goes to physical therapy, counseling, and comes in every week and brings the pills, that they would continue his treatment, but with less meds. sigh, small victory! those terms are easy cheesy. The PT and counselor were things Gabe already planned on doing, and we can come in every week easy, we have nothing to hide they can count anything they want! SO thats good now. Then Tuesday he saw his podiatrist and he gave him some ointment to put on the toe and such and so forth and it seems to be healing nicely. Poor gabe, the curculation from the toe being perminately dislocated and the lymphodema in his legs just made him SO prone to infection! Now we just gotta keep on eye on it!
I made an appointment with the podiatrist too, im just not so sure it will do much good. I know theres nothing they can do, but I would just like to hear what he has to say. My pinkie toe is disformed from the EDS, i have problems with the tendons in my ankles and dislocations of my toes which are perminently curled, plus the nerve pain and other pains in my feet, and how im slowly losing my arch, and i have bad circulation issues as well and swelling. but what can he do about it? i dont know, i dont want to waste his time. i feel stupid for making the appointment. We'll just see how it goes.
just a lot happening in a short amount of time. and now the appointments are really going to be piled up, between my psychologist, gabe''s psychologist, our podiatrist, regular doctor, pain management, physical therapy, and eventually the neurologist or neurosurgion gabe needs to see, and the pain doc i'll need to see, and gastrointerologist and hell, probably even the dentist.
shooooot meeeeeee.
we have no social life.
plus we need new friends. sigh
OH! well we went camping. i think that happened after the last blog i posted? if i already talked about it im sorry i cant keep track of anything. But yeah, camping=fun. horning's hideout kicks ass. i have pictures up. woots
img]/media/members/8/03/393038/177041/2774938_attach.jpg[/img]
anywho, enjoy the weekend everyone whenever that comes
Lets see if i can remember everything thats happened since i last updated?
Well, theres the medical stuff, thats what stands out most on my mind, and the most recent.
So, me and gabe have our pain management, right? and we're on opiates, its only pill type of pain releif thats worked, ever. we've tried anti-inflammitories, anti seizure meds which are meant for nerve pain, anti depressants and anti anxiety meds and synthetic this and that and all kinds of shit, then the usual TENS unit and fentanyl patches and then various other patches and creames and hot and cold packs and many things i dont remember the names of. Theres still some stuff on the table left to try, im sure, i've even found one that im going to seek out for my nerve pain, electrostimulation of the nerve root for the various nerves that are being compressed by my frequently subluxing vertebre. Actually, some of the good news health wise is that I found out about my nerve pain in general and found out about that treatment! I have an appointment on monday for my primary care physician to get a referal to an anesthesiologist pain doctor who might be able to do the procedure. I found out the type of nerve pain is called "Radicular Nerve pain", where one or more (in my case many, due to the nature of my condition) nerves along my spine are being irritated, pinched, compressed, or in some way damaged by either an injury of some sort to the spine or in my case, subluxing and dislocating vertebre along the spine. The most common form is when one nerve is pinched on the lower part of the spine and its the sciatic nerve, it has its own very popular name, Sciatica. I would say I have sciatica since that nerve is effected but whats the use when it effects so many other nerves in many other areas of my spine? So Radicular nerve pain it is.
Anyway, back to the other medical things, in this case involving my fiance!! My darlin has been through so much the past month or so. He had a minor surgery on his toe, and ended up using up is pain medication faster that month because of htat, plus an ongoing tolerance he'd been building to the medication. Not knowing what to do, and wanting to do the right thing, and suffering from horrific opiate withdrawls, we spent the entirety of a day, from early into the morning until late the evening, calling every number we could for help. We called the pain management center to tell them everything and ask what to do, and basically got told that they were going to drop his treatment plan and only give him one more appointment, and no more meds. And since we wanted to get gabe safely detox'ed from the meds and off them for a litlte while so when he takes them again they are more effective while taking less than before, we needed an inpatient detox center. But apparently not ONE place in the state of Oregon accepts his insurance, medicaid/medicare/Oregon health plan. The only options were in Washington! WE HAVE NO CAR! no way to get to any place like that.SO, feeling absolutely hopeless and at our wits end, we go to the Emergency room, which we were not looking forward to since we go there so much already they've ran out of ways to help us!!! and trust me, theres enough jerks that work there that sometimes its not worth a trip. Anyway, we go there, NOT asking for pain meds but for something to help the withdrawls that would just last him the next couple of days. Well, the doctors were amazingly nice and even though we told them we wanted to detox off the meds they said its stupid that the pain management center isnt working with us and is making us detox when obviously Gabe has a chronic pain issue that isnt going to go away but instead get WORSE over time!!! So, we took the precriptions and they sent us on our way, and things were looking up.....but then we had no money for copays, i borrow some money from my sister, just five bucks was all we needed, then its all the drama of trying to get to the pharmacy before it closes without havin a car and then my cellphone dies and such and so forth.......aaaaaaaaagh......but we make it there ok and my father brings over the money and things are looking up again.......and BOOM. slap in the face. the insurance denies the prescriptions, so the only way to pay for them is completley out of pocket, and the first script is 187 dollars, the other is 94. WE COULDNT EVEN AFFORD 5 BUCKS! so the day ends on a shitty note, we're left back at square one. Not only that, but when we get home, gabe's toe that had surgery done 2 weeks back was BADLY infected and turning black on the tip and hurting worse than ever. AGH! SO barely surviving the night we wake up brainstorming again. I figure out a way to get some money i know we could pay back (our checks were coming just the next week, but we needed the pills IMMEDIATELY!) and we were able to get the cheaper prescription, and after that and seeing gabe's toe even WORSE, we decided to make our SECOND trip to the ER. Especially since the podiatrist that did the surgery wasnt calling back when i called to ask about possibly getting some antibiotics to fight the infection for gabes toe. Anyway, the ER visit goes well, they slice his toe open (it had abessed on the inside where the black spot was) and drained it, got him two types of antibiotics and bandaged him up. They stuck some gauze IN the toe, it was weird looking, came out a few days later. Gabe had to stay off his feet for 2-3 days, and i changed the bandages. And then that monday, we saw the pain management, and explained everything and they said that they would talk to the head guy of the practice to see what he thinks, and on tuesday, we got the call saying that if Gabe goes to physical therapy, counseling, and comes in every week and brings the pills, that they would continue his treatment, but with less meds. sigh, small victory! those terms are easy cheesy. The PT and counselor were things Gabe already planned on doing, and we can come in every week easy, we have nothing to hide they can count anything they want! SO thats good now. Then Tuesday he saw his podiatrist and he gave him some ointment to put on the toe and such and so forth and it seems to be healing nicely. Poor gabe, the curculation from the toe being perminately dislocated and the lymphodema in his legs just made him SO prone to infection! Now we just gotta keep on eye on it!
I made an appointment with the podiatrist too, im just not so sure it will do much good. I know theres nothing they can do, but I would just like to hear what he has to say. My pinkie toe is disformed from the EDS, i have problems with the tendons in my ankles and dislocations of my toes which are perminently curled, plus the nerve pain and other pains in my feet, and how im slowly losing my arch, and i have bad circulation issues as well and swelling. but what can he do about it? i dont know, i dont want to waste his time. i feel stupid for making the appointment. We'll just see how it goes.
just a lot happening in a short amount of time. and now the appointments are really going to be piled up, between my psychologist, gabe''s psychologist, our podiatrist, regular doctor, pain management, physical therapy, and eventually the neurologist or neurosurgion gabe needs to see, and the pain doc i'll need to see, and gastrointerologist and hell, probably even the dentist.
shooooot meeeeeee.
we have no social life.
plus we need new friends. sigh
OH! well we went camping. i think that happened after the last blog i posted? if i already talked about it im sorry i cant keep track of anything. But yeah, camping=fun. horning's hideout kicks ass. i have pictures up. woots
img]/media/members/8/03/393038/177041/2774938_attach.jpg[/img]
anywho, enjoy the weekend everyone whenever that comes