Cervical epidural

The steroids kicked in this morning.  I was feeling much better early this morning.  Believe it or not, after that and after taking my medication (newly upped dosage starting yesterday), I had a few minutes with no pain!  It was awesome!!!  After about 3 hours I decided to go outside.  It is very sunny today.  My youngest daughter and I were walking the dog and the stabs just came on very intense.  It has been back ever since.  I am feeling sorry for myself now.  :-(   I wrote a desperate email to my neuro asking for help.  I am so sick of this whole illness.  It has been such a rollercoaster.  When the pain is better even for a little while then comes crashing back, it is so devastating not only to me but also to my family.  It is such a happy time when I feel like doing things, then all of a sudden I am going to bed with my ice pack because of the pain.  I really don't feel that I have ever done anything so bad in my life to deserve such an illness as this hemicrania continua.  Ok I will quit venting for now before I am totally wallowing in self pity here.  Hopefully I will hear something back from the doc soon.

Nervous about tomorrow

Tomorrow I go for the cervical epidural at my pain management office.  I am nervous.  I have never had one.  I have to have a driver so I am assuming this means there is some sort of light sedation involved or something.  I forgot to ask so I guess it will be a surprise tomorrow.  It has now been almost a week since I called my newest neuro's office to ask if he had come to any conclusions yet as to what options I have.  I have yet to receive a call back.  This is so annoying.  I am getting really tired of dealing with doctors and their staffs.  I thought this was going to be a much better place for me but now I am wondering again.  I have been having more and more days with the hot red cheek and more of the red irritated eye also lately.  I was hoping to talk to the neuro about how I have been progressively worse.  #*&^ I am really grumpy today! 

On a better note, I finally received a copy of my psychiatric evaluation I had to do for the occipital nerve stimulator implant surgery.  The psychologist had it all sealed in an envelope with her business label on the front.  She said she did it that way so whoever requested it would know it wasn't just something I wrote myself.  No, I am not making this up.  Of course I was way too tempted not to open the envelope and read what she said about me.  It was just a plain white sheet of paper with an office visit transcription from the day I saw her for the evaluation.  It said some things that made me laugh out loud and some things that made me wonder if she mixed me up with someone else, but at least at the end she said that I was a good candidate for the surgery and she saw no indications of any problems that would cause any postoperative complications, etc., etc.  This was the last of my medical records that I requested copies of, so now I have everything of course except for records from the new neuro doc.

I think I will go soak in a warm tub and try to relax for a little while at least.  Wish me luck tomorrow!  I promise I will try not to be a big baby.