I saw my doctor last week about the severe pains in my neck and left shoulder, and the pain medication she gave me didn’t help. I went back to see her today for a follow-up and I just expected her to recommend physical therapy or something, but instead she said, “We’re going to give you a cortisone shot.” Well…um…sure, okay then. My dad has had this done when his back pain becomes severe, so I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. A shot? I can handle that.
She had her medical assistant, a really nice girl named Erin, mix the shot, and had me change into a gown. When they finally came in to do it, my doctor said that they were going to do three separate injections. WHAT? Three shots? In the same place? I didn’t betray my dismay, though, and just told them I was fine with whatever they needed to do. First, they used iodine to sterilize the area, then Erin sprayed this insanely cold compressed air to numb the site of the injection. That almost hurt the most! I could still feel the injection, but not the needles…it was just a low, burning pain in my muscle. Ouchie…not a happy Sleepygirl.
By the time they were getting ready to do the third one, my doctor said she wanted to do one more. Sigh…four shots now? Wonderful. I made it through the rest of the procedure and waited patiently while Erin cleaned off all the iodine and bandaged my injection sites. Now I have 4 big bandages on my back and shoulder, which feels weird (and I know it’s going to hurt like hell to pull them off). The skin is still fairly numb, so I haven’t yet experienced the actual, lasting pain yet, but it’s inevitable. Oh well…I love my doctor, and Erin assured me that she never does this unless she’s convinced it will help. And honestly, the experience wasn’t so bad. It was just a nasty surprise, and not at all how I’d planned to spend my morning.
After I left the clinic, I went to Safeway to pick up a few things, paper towels, eggs, juice, Vitamin Water, and some elastic headbands for my hair. I’m not sure what the rest of today hold for me. I didn’t get very much sleep, even after taking half a Melatonin pill, so I thought I would just sleep some more after I came home, but the bedroom is hot and stuffy, and as I was laying there trying to relax, I started sweating (again…a wonderful side effect of my meds). Now I’m watching the news, trying to relax, and waiting for BF to wake up. I might go out and do some photography later today, but it depends how well my shoulder is…the new camera is kind of on the heavy side. Even if I don’t get out today, I’m still planning on meeting up with my mom this weekend to take some photos around Bainbridge. She has some particular views she wants me to photograph.
I’ve been feeling better for the past day or so, but I’ve been through a pretty rough couple of weeks. I’ve had some extremely low days, where I’ve spent the day in bed, feeling alternately angry and very sad. It’s exhausting to go from crying to hitting your pillow every few hours. I wasn’t able to get an appointment to see my psychiatrist until early October, even though I was supposed to see her next week to follow-up on my meds, so it’s going to be interesting to see how I’m able to continue with the Effexor. I can’t just stop taking it, especially as I’m all the way up to 150 mg, but she didn’t give me any refills. I’ll have to request the refills and have the pharmacy contact her. I don’t want to have to deal with pharmacy issues while I’m trying to get back into the school-swing-of-things. We’ll see…
