It hasn't been a good week - so I'm here

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-14-2005
It hasn't been a good week - so I'm here
3
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 3:57pm

I swear there's something about me and vacuuming that just doesn't go together anymore. All things considered, I've been feeling relatively decent - pretty regular stiffness & soreness in the neck & shoulders, occasionally the aching back - but Advil seemed to be doing the job alleviating it for the most part - just not a real unmanageable outright pain for awhile. Tho I'm still basically not doing a lot of moving around or really using those muscles. Mostly sitting at my desk working on HW (a lot - can we say I think I'm in "burn out" mode w/school work :), doing laundry non-stop, & occasionally cooking. Always keeping in mind the docs admonition I'm not going to do any damage, I just need to be prepared to hurt if I push or pull those muscles outside my "core" (keep it close to the body as possible).

I finally got into the "pain doc" the 10th. She seemed to think I was asking quite a lot when I responded to her question about what I expected the treatment to accomplish - & I told her I wanted to be back like I was before the accident - this myofascial stuff sounds like it should be fixable to me w/o having to live on pain pills the rest of my life! She prescribed Ultram (Tramadol) - it's suppose to be a time-release, one a day kind of pain reliever in the opiate family so I don't have to take so many pills, and Motrin 600 (rather than the OTC Advil). I think the Tramadol makes me anxious - I've gotten the shakes a couple nights - especially if a get a bit chilled - my back, shoulder, & neck muscles tense up so tight it's out of my control - I tried sleeping w/a heating pad a couple nights. By the time I got to my first massage therapy appt. last week, I was so jumpy and tensed up it was hard to relax into - I even had a charlie horse in my calf. I thought about not filling the Rx but figured I'd give it a try but at this point, am still really not too sure that it's at all beneficial for me & I've been on it for over two weeks now. Plus all-in-all I feel worse all around. I'm having a harder time staying focused on doing my HW (& I'm down to the last stretch of two big final papers & a math exam in linear algebra).

S18 must be really bored cuz he got a wild hair & cleaned up his side of the basement, so I vacuumed the rest to get rid of the cat hair since S21 is coming home for Thanksgiving while the housekeepers did their thing on the main floor. I vacuumed, moved some of S18's weights off the carpet onto the concrete floor, & helped DH switch the dbl bed mattresses. The power head wasn't working right (turns out the belt was all stretched out) so I mostly sat on the floor using the smooth floor attachment and sucked up the cat hair. I have hurt since I got up Thursday morning & literally feel like I've been hit by a truck (& that was in June). Now it's from my left shoulder blade, all the way around and up & over the shoulder to the chest muscles in front (same place the seat belt caught me) and even down my arm feels a bit cut off. Had DH rub me down w/some Bengay last nite plus see if he could notice anything - that seems to be most of my problem - it's not something readily seen - but it lets me know it's there!! He could see it's swollen where it hurts - so I know it's not in my head - but if this stuff I'm taking is supposed to be for pain - why do I hurt when I need something to make it stop!! At least the stuff they gave me this summer when I needed it, stopped the pain - now I'm just hurting so much I'm having a hard time not tensing up my shoulder muscles, which is of course making it that much tighter and it hurts more...

I'll call the office tomorrow afternoon when they open & see if they can give me some direction, but I'm not scheduled in til 12/1 for the 1st trigger point therapy - tho I have another massage scheduled for Tuesday. That gal was quite concerned w/the stiffness & tenderness in my neck last week & is cutting it to a 1/2 hr just focusing on the back, shoulders, & neck for now.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003

Hi Jo


That is a very gentle hug. I am sorry you are having such a hard time but seems to me the medication they gave you is causing some other problems which are causing the tensing and swelling of your neck muscles. Or you have just over done it and now cannot seem to get them to relax again. I sure hope the Dr can do something and help you get your pain level to a more managable level. Getting back to where you were before the accident may never happen my friend so maybe that is something you will just have to decide to accept. However a managable pain level is not to much to ask for.


Let us know what the Dr has to say. One more gentle (hug)


Love ya


                          &n
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-12-2003

I'm sorry you're so uncomfortable, Jo. I would talk with the doctor again. If the Tramadol isn't helping after trying it for that long, it probably won't. Maybe there's something else your doctor can prescribe that might work better for you. It's so awful when you have that constant sort of pain that just makes it difficult to do stuff after a while. I hope you find something soon that helps. Or, better still, that it starts healing faster.


Sounds as though you are as busy as usual. It's kind of hard to find a balance between moving around enough to keep the muscles from tightening up...and doing too much and causing further damage. I hope you're being careful.


Take care, Jo.


Kat

Avatar for cl_campmum_of3
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003

Wow Joanne, that is not good!


I would think that if you are in that much pain then they ought to do something to alleviate it, there has to be something more that they can do now until the other methods start to work for you.


I am surprised you are able to concentrate on any of your HW feeling this poorly!