Re: EMG Results

OG, I actually got that note and emailed you back - I'm assuming you didn't
get my reply, so I'll put it here (copied and pasted from my "Sent" box)...

----------------
My "friend" is already gone. Completely. Totally. Eternally. Gone. I finally
got it through my thick little head that she's not good for me - was *NEVER*
good for me even before any of this came up, and never *will* be good for
me. It is better that I have no friends at all rather than have her as a
friend. I'll probably go through something like a grieving process over the
loss of a 47 year long "friendship", but I'll get over it and I have plans
of learning how to make other friends.

I'm still hanging on to the hope that it's *NOT* RSD - as I said in the note
to my PCP doctor, I'm NOT getting the edema, I'm NOT getting the
purple-mottled skin, the sweating on one side and cold hand on one side
isn't constant, I'm a *little* sensitive to the touch, but that could be my
fibro (it doesn't feel like what people with RSD say Allodynia is like) - in
fact the only thing that is constant is the pain in my neck (even the arm
pain eases up some times, or is at least eclipsed by the pain in my neck).

I had the Epidural Steroid Injection done yesterday, and despite a horrific
experience, I think it may have worked just a bit (and let me tell you this
experience so you'll know why I'm not entirely sure).

First, last week when I went for the Stellate Ganglion Block (which didn't
work at all), it was a great hospital experience (one of the best I ever
had). I was zoomed through intake, brought to my bed, had my IV inserted
quickly and painlessly, brought right to the OR, fell asleep, and woke up in
recovery ready to go home. They gave me a nice cup of diet coke (poured into
a cup with most of the fizzle taken out so it wouldn't choke my dry throat),
then took out my IV, and escorted me out to their valet parking.

Yesterday, my procedure got pushed back and I was stuck in the noisy lobby
for an hour. I finally got upstairs into chaos. They had a nurse-in-training
try to insert my IV into my hand using 1 glove - the *wrong type of glove*,
you know the bluey loosy ones not the whitey tighty ones! She dug around
there for five minutes before taping it all over like a mummy's hand. I
couldn't flex my hand or move my arm without feeling this tearing feeling. I
flagged down another nurse who was rushing by and, instead of redoing it
herself, she had to call "God's Gift To Mankind, The Anesthesiologist
(GGTM,TA)" to look at it. He ripped all the tape off of it and pulled up the
tube and said, "here's the problem <dripping sarcasm>, somebody put the
stop-tab on the tubing". "Um, no sir," the nurse said, "I put the stopper
there to keep the solution from flowing into her hand rather than her vein."
With a sneer, and no reply to the nurse, he jerked the needle around in my
hand a few more times for good measure and then taped over the whole thing
again.

So, half an hour later and nobody has put on my bp cuff, my oxygen cannula,
my heart monitors - or gone out to the lounge to tell my husband he can come
back to see me.

They finally got all my paraphernalia on me and drove my stretcher into the
back where a nurse's aid used it as an ad hoc bar and stool to hold court
with all the other nurse's aids waiting for the GODS to come out of their
lounge and minister to these lowly patients. After about 45 minutes of this
I realized that either a) some of the IV fluids were actually making it into
my vein or b) subcutaneous fluids can also get to the kidneys. I told the
nurse's aid who had been kicking my stretcher around that I had to go to the
restroom, but she said it was too late to go now. Then we waited there
another twenty minutes.

When I finally got into the OR they had me lie down on my stomach and put my
face through a little hole - just like when you get a massage. I can't ever
get a massage because when I lay like that my sinuses fill up the to point
that icky stuff drips out of my nose like an open tap. And breathing through
my mouth makes my mouth so dry that my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth
and my throat feels like it is closing up. (Yes, I KNOW it is impossible to
suffocate like that, but my Limbic system kept insisting that I was dying
and pumped large amounts of adrenaline into my body insisting that I either
run away or fight back.) I started gasping that I was having trouble
breathing. That's when GGTM,TA leans over and says, "Put your mouth in the
hole in the table and breath." Really, should I really do that? You mean I
just can't hold my breath the whole time so I can REMAIN STILL so that the
injections have SOME CHANCE of reaching the right places? Of course GOD
hasn't finished his mid-morning tea and crumpets yet, so I lay there for
another 10 or 15 minutes with my hindbrain going completely mad trying to
scratch its way out of my skull.

Finally, by the time GOD makes it into the OR, I am in gasping mode - taking
large, shuddering breaths and praying that they put me to sleep quickly. I
was waiting for them to adjust the X-Ray machine so they could watch the
needle go in. Then... GGTM,TA is either really sadistic, or the IV really is
*NOT* going into my vein, because I am feeling every stick put into the back
of my neck and down into the dura surrounding my spine - GASPING the whole
while. On top of that I'm speaking quite clearly, OW, OW, OW - so I'm going
with sadistic. The three injections were done in 20 seconds flat and, zoom,
off went GOD back to his tea and crumpets.

They rolled me back to my holding stall where I had to BEG for some tissues
to clean up the mess running down my face onto my chest (they gave me two
whole tissues). She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I asked for a
diet coke - she brought me an unopened can. I asked her to please take out
my IV so I could get the heck out of there and go home. When she finally
clued in to the fact that I was upset she said she'd have to go get GGTM,TA
before she could take the IV out. He was busy, at the end of the hall,
joking and laughing with some of the other GODS. We had to wait the 25
minutes for him to finish his conversation before he strolled over to ask me
what was wrong. By that time I was more than ready to tell him. He smirked
the whole time I was telling him why I was so upset, denied what I was
saying, insisted that I was asleep through the whole procedure even though
he was talking to me and laughing at me the whole time. Then he just
shrugged and turned his back on me and walked away.

A little after that GOD strolls over to see what the ruckus was about and I
just condensed the story enough to express my concerns over the injections
being placed correctly because of my heaving breaths. "Oh no," he replied,
totally *AGHAST*, "***I*** placed those injections exactly were they needed
to go. Your neck feels better, yes?" I said, "No." "Oh, that's just the pain
from the injection, but your neck does feels better, turn it," he commanded
So I turned my neck and said, "No, it really doesn't feel any better." He
frowned and said, "Of course it does. You wait three days you won't feel a
thing and then you can come back for the other two in the series."
Completely ignoring what I was about to say/ask (which may have been a good
thing because I was about to come off that bed at his throat), he turned and
said to the nurse, "Give her some Atavin." The one little sympathetic nurse
(always in the background) had already, kindly, taken the IV out. I could
see she was about to announce that and probably get in trouble so I raised
my voice over hers and said, "No, I don't want any Atavin, I just want to go
home." So GOD left to go back to his (hopefully, by now) cold tea and
crumpets.

But, as I said about 6 chapters ago, my neck actually does feel a bit better
overall this morning - especially seeing as Monday and Tuesday morning were
pure h*ll on earth neck-pain wise. So maybe, dear God, maybe it did work
some. And this is the reason I think I'm going to let them repeat this
torture to see if I can get a handle on what's going on with me. The pain in
my should, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand and ring finger I've always said
could be attributed to RSS. That's a very common malady when you bang a
keyboard and move a mouse all day long.

So, the upshot of this novel is, yes, I'm going to keep pushing and trying
to find someone who can help me - either whole or piece-by-piece.

Sorry, I can't talk any more - I have TONS of work to catch up on at work
today, so I'll try to touch base with the group and you later.

-------------------
Actually, today it does feel better (I know that, ironically, because my
shoulder is hurting really, really bad and that pain is usually lost in the
"noise" of my neck pain). So my next Epidural Steroid Injection is tomorrow
and the last one is next Monday (and if I'm still hurting after that I'm
going to ask him if I can do a second set). And if that does take away the
pain in my neck I'm going to ask him if he can inject steroids into my
shoulder and then my elbow to see if that might help the pain that runs down
my arm from my neck.

I'm so sorry you didn't get my reply to your email - you must have thought
me very rude!


Hugs,

CatNipped

"oldgoat" <oldgoatmail@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ab411f0c-2c26-410f-84d0-f567de70cb27@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Cat,

It's a shame you never got my response to the email about the block
you had last week. I'll condense the story. I had a pinched nerve down
in the groin area about 20 years ago. Talk about a lousy and painful
place to hurt, but like you they couldn't find anything. Anyone who
has possessed testicles, their own or a friends, knows the kind of
intensity of pain I am talking about if they're handled wrong. Yea
very close to that. I can't recall if I had an EMG or not, but
eventually I wound up at a pain specialist. He was an
anaesthesiologist. We did about six blocks down there, the first
couple doing not much, but the later ones did just what yours did.
Hurt worse at first, then it was progressively better each time. By
the 5th one it was a lot better. He gave me a 6th for good luck and
it's been gone since.
He explained what he thinks happened to me and I've assumed a couple
things, but you know what they say about the word ass-u-me. I'd had
some surgery a few months before, but never connected the two issues.
He did that. They needed to turn me to do the surgery. I'd gone to
sleep on my back and that's where they needed to go. He said they
sometimes drop people when they turn them..He thought they had dropped
me and pinched a nerve down there when they did. I wondered for years
how true that may be. It may happen, not much in the world surprises
me anymore. I think it doesn't happen as often and as casually as he
made it seem, though.
I think when they dropped me he was the guy passing gas. Or he was in
the OR at the time. He was absurdly cheap, I think I paid $10 out of
pocket the whole way. Mostly he refused copays and wasn't even asking
about a referral. Good samaritan or guilty conscious...

You tell me--og

..


On Jun 23, 11:19 am, "CatEyes" <CatE...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Smokie Darling (Annie)" <Barnabus1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
messagenews:36375212-c563-44c3-96a2-5aeaaea62d79@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jun 23, 7:05 am, "CatEyes" <CatE...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





Well, the EMG wasn't as bad as I'd feared - a couple of pretty whopping
shocks and a few needle pricks, but absolutely nothing at all compared
to
the pain I'm already in. Maybe it wasn't painful because they couldn't
find
any nerve damage - though they did find an unusual anomaly. The two
nerves
coming down from the neck that are supposed to run the hand are, on me,
merged together as one (an odd birth defect) - but that had nothing to
do
with why I am in pain. So, we have another, "there's nothing wrong with
her
that we can find" conclusion - and at this point I'm just stumped as to
what
to do next (besides get the last two in the series of three Epidural
Steroid
Injections).

Hugs,

CatNipped

No, Cat, this is good news. No detectable nerve damage.

That means, that whatever is happening with you, could/should be
treatable, once they get the sh*t the surgeon did, fixed. I know that
you are back where you were, before, but this is better than "nerve
damage due to untreated damage", "RSD because we can't figure out
anything else", "All in her head", that you have been hearing.

See the positive side, no nerve damage. Remember thinking that it
would never go away because you were told you had nerve damage?
<surgeon is an idiot>

================

Yes, I know, but if we still don't know what's wrong with me, we can't fix
it - so it *is* sort of "all in her head" again since they can't pinpoint
any actual damage. I'm hoping that the Steroid injections help - I've said
all along that this feels like the tendonitis I used to have in my right
elbow ("tennis elbow"), except MUCH more painful and in my neck (every
doctor I spoke to I described the pain as like when you strike your funny
bone really, really hard - that shooting, tingling, burning,
electric-shock-like pain you feel). The steroid injections I used to get
for that worked really well until the last one when the pain didn't come
back at all (this was *years* ago since I had that done).

I have noticed that my neck is just a *little* bit better after the first
shot (I can tell because then the pain from my shoulder starts attracting
my
attention. I'm hoping tomorrow's and Monday's injections give me much more
relief. And, when the pain is gone from my neck, maybe they can start from
the top and work their way down the arm until they've hit all the "hot
spots"?

Whatever it is, I hope they find something for it soon because the
neurophysiologiest I saw said that there is atrophy in the muscles on the
right side of my neck (I guess because I'm not using it for fear of
causing
myself more pain?). Anyway, I'm still holding out hope that there's
something, somewhere, that can at least get me to the point where I can
function - with or without pain pills (although without would be my
preference).

One good thing (well two, actually) - now that I know that there is no
physical damage that I could worsen, I'm going to set up some appointments
for physical therapy (and that's where the second good thing come in -
I've
reached my out-of-pocket deductible, so any therapy sessions *should* be
free - unless they charge differently for that than medical charges).

Hugs,

CatNipped- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


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