Red Wasps

&$!*#% that hurt. That pretty much sums up my procedure today. Luckily I had an amazing doctor that talked me through the procedure, my options, and my future treatment possibilities. I’ve really been lucky to have some of the greatest doctors to help me through this process. What happened today was that I had four trigger point injections in some of the most painful places my syrinx has affected.  Those, to put it mildly, feel like the largest red wasps in history stinging me for about 10 minutes in each injection site. That was absolutely four of the most painful shots I’ve ever had in my life. I’m really lucky I have a pain tolerance as high as it is or I would have jumped off that table.

We have narrowed down some of my treatment plans for the future and these injections are the starting point of my pain management treatment. I have also been given neurological medications which have some not so happy side effects. I’m hoping that they will help me much more than they can harm me. I will need to continue on my treatment path with a lot of stretches with my physical therapist. They are going to refer me to one today so I will begin that journey shortly. I am hopeful for that process because it’s my last option before surgery. I am going to give it my best and hope that it will help with the Syringomyelia symptoms.

Now today, as I mentioned earlier, I had my trigger point injections. Those were very painful and were to hopefully relieve some of the pain within the first hour or so. I had the injections at about ten this morning and I have yet to feel relief. I am still hopeful that I will gain some relief tomorrow. Let me describe briefly what these injection sites now feel like for a moment. I had injections in both shoulders and inside each of my shoulder blades. There is still a lot of resonating pain between my scapulas (shoulder blades) and to touch them…sheer agony. The shoulder on my right side felt a mild improvement within the hour after treatment; however, I did gain a shooting pain up my neck about ten minutes after the relief set in and that has remained. The left shoulder was the most painful of the four shots. Ironically, this was the one of the four locations that had the least intense pain…that quickly changed. I now have a large knot at the injection sight and to touch that feels like I’m stabbing myself.

 I do, though, have a high hope that these injection sites will stop hurting tomorrow and relief will ensue. I am just so grateful that I finally found something that MIGHT help. If these don’t help I will go back and get some other treatment because by God something will work someday. I just have to be patient and keep on trucking.