Life With Horrendous Pain

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So we’re getting this stuff in Big Sky Country called r-a-i-n and it’s coming in the form of multiple fast-moving thunderstorms — the kind that are triggered by rapid pressure changes. This means… the lovely wonderful rain that we’re getting is triggering really bad migraines for me which are hitting me in the face and head. The Imitrex and Trimitex (Imitrex with Aleve) will moderate out the migraine so that I don’t have the nausea and dizziness but I still have some pretty acute pain. Add in the lovely jaw pain from the TMJ which is probably also triggered by the weather and you have a pretty potent combination of pain.

Yesterday, I managed to spell the pain a bit. Today was to the point where I was either going to take the pain or I was going to start screaming because it was so awful and that was 7 hours of my 8 hour shift. The last 45 minutes of my shift were spent with me in tears repeating Philippians 4:13 to myself to get myself through. I was crabby and I seriously had to remove myself from my work area a few times to avoid screaming at co-workers.

So why don’t I just go home? Because it’s not like that’s going to do anything for me either. THERE. IS. NOTHING. I. CAN. DO. FOR. THE. PAIN. Seriously. I accidentally took twice the safe dose of Aleve today between the two tablets I took at 10 am for my jaw and the Trimitex I took around 1 for a migraine that came on. I can’t do anything at home that I can’t do at work and at least at work, I get paid to be there.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow at 8 am (!!!!). Please pray that they can do something for me to at least kill the jaw pain so I only have one part of my head exploding instead of two.

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Sunday

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So I did make it down to Church of the Incarnation for worship and Father Tim welcomed me very warmly when I walked in. (His welcome alone made the 2 hour drive worth it.) Worship was awesome and if I had actually been feeling like solid food was a good thing, I could have stayed for the parish potluck. Alas… the migraine wasn’t allowing me to do much eating so I made do with an oatmeal cookie from $tarbuck$.

I also got a Wal-Mart run in (which made me feel like my blood sugar had plummeted — thank God for Lipton Raspberry tea) as well as a few other errands before heading back up.

Prayer Request

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So my migraine med and the preventative one are making me alternately spacey, depressed, sleepy, and just… not myself.Â? Could y’all pray that sleep tonight will enable me to get down to Great Falls tomorrow morning for church?

I’m also just really sick of feeling so sick…

Some Resolution

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I woke up hurting this morning and decided that I really didn’t want to try to go to work with a migraine.Â? I couldn’t go back to sleep after Jon left so I decided to make some necessary phone calls.

I called around and got a dentist appointment for this coming Wednesday to deal with the TMJ.Â? I also got an appointment with my doctor for 11:30 this morning and between the two of us, we figured out what to do about the migraines for the time being.Â? She gave me the new wonder pill which is Imitrex mixed with Naproxen as well as some plain Imitrex for the 10 days leading up to surgery when I can’t have any anti-inflammitories.Â? As a preventative, I’m on Topamax.

I know it’s not a full answer to everything but it at least works for right now.

Results of My ENT Visit

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The results of my ENT visit are:

-a neuro consult for migraines (which had better be made PDQ)
-a nose jobÂ? (they’re straightening out my deviated septum on July 7th)
-a dentist appointment to do something about my massive case of TMJ

So… it’s not my sinuses — it’s a bunch of other things and I think I nearly drove the ENT insane yesterday because I was so frustrated about what it was.

The diagnoses are accurate — I fit the TMJ profile scarily well and I experienced migraine hell today at work.Â? My boss is a saint for dealing with me being a weepy mess.Â? Oh yeah… there was also the insane facial pain, the nausea, and almost passing out at a staff meeting because I was so dizzy.

I think I’ll just go to bed now.

More Tales from the Doctor’s Office

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Dr. Awesome’s nurse lacks basic people skills and today, I finally had it with her.Â? She seems to be in a really foul mood much of the time and today was no exception.Â? She refused to let me finish a sentence when she was asking what I was being seen for; she got totally affronted and b*tched me out when I asked if all my records had been faxed to Dr. ENT (which was a good question because one chart note WASN’T because it hadn’t been dictated yet and it was with Dr. Awesome’s husband Dr. Fabulous); and when I told her that part of the visit was because I was hellishly depressed (as happens when I’m severely sick/injured), she asked me nastily if I was taking my medication.Â? (No… I went off it cold turkey.Â? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK, B*TCH?!?!?!?!?!?)

I told Dr. Awesome about how irritated I was at her nurse and she handed me a piece of paper with the name and phone number of the clinic administrator.Â? (I talked to her later this afternoon and she apologized for the nurse’s behavior, asking me to put my complaint in writing so it could be documented for said nurse’s file and gone over with her.)

Meanwhile, my quarterly bloodwork (the main reason for the visit) came back crappy (not unexpected) and instead of making me change meds, Dr. Awesome agreed to let me get my diet/exercise (which has been bad due to being so freaking sick) back under control and re-evaluate in three months.Â? She did look in my ears (which feel like someone is stabbing into them) and my nose/throat and while everything looked normal, she did tell me that she had no doubt that I was in pain.Â? For the depression, I asked for samples of my med at half the dose so that I can take the extra while we’re getting the sinus crap worked out and she gave me 5 weeks worth (I’d asked for two weeks so I’m happy).

As Jon and I are pondering the idea of having kids, I brought up the question of what to switch out my meds for if/when I get pregnant because a bunch of my stuff is schedule C.Â? She actually went to her office, brought out her pharmacopeia book, and spent another 15-20 minutes going through it with me.Â? I feel guilty because I know I knocked her off-schedule but I really appreciate that she took that time to work with me on it.Â? (She’s also certified as an OB so if I do get pregnant, I don’t have to find an additional doctor.)

So… I’m back on the gorilla-dose of antibiotics (in the words of Dr. Fabulous who I would also totally see for an OB and would see if Dr. Awesome wasn’t there) and God-willing, my ENT (who I actually worked with two years ago at the clinic) will find out what’s making me so sick and miserable.

And now… back to lying with my head on a hot water bottle.

Apparently, I’m Insane?

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On Friday, Sheana left a message on the Blogathon website that Blogathon 2008 was a no-go because she and Cat and Heather needed a year off (Cat had left a message previously regarding this). It was sad to hear because Blogathon has become one of the highlights of my year and I’ve made some amazing friends through it like Dreama, Pisco, and Lauren.

Friday night, I felt a compulsion to actually, you know, do something so that the Blogathonners would have an event and for the last two days, I’ve been working on Day of Blogs. It’s not going to be half as cool as Blogathon because I can’t code half as well as Rob and Cat can (I’m OK but not that great) but it should still be a good event.

And of course, I’m doing this on top of my 40 hour work week, my 10 hours of commuting, possible sinus surgery, and everything else.Â? Either God really loves me and is going to give me what I need to do this or I’m the world’s biggest masochist.