I haven't written in a while...partially cause I've been trying to live my life rather than report on it....partially because everything I would write was negative...and I was boring even myself.
I'm laid up today so I thought it was time for a blog about one of the most effective treatments I've had for my condition...in case anyone else is looking for relief: Trigger Point Injections.
These little puppies make me a little queasy just thinking about them but they have...usually have...excellent results. The doctor basically injects either steroids or in my case two types of anesthetic (long acting and short acting) deep into the trigger point. A trigger point is the happy little "knot" of muscle that forms around an active nerve. The whole point of these injections is to dampen the nerve and therefore cut off the pain process. Of course, like everything, it's not a walk in the park. I am on day two of recovery. The night of the shots, I had a numb tongue, and I felt very light headed. By bedtime, all the muscles around my trigger points were tight and extremely painful. This is normal for trigger point injections. Yesterday was more of the same minus the tongue and adding a dose of nausea (but that was probably from an increase in gabapentin that my doctor prescribed at the same time as the injections). Today I woke up at 7:30 am and haven't been able to fall back asleep because of the terrible aching in my neck and shoulders. However, if this follows the same pattern as my old injections, by the end of today I should be feeling better.
So why endure more pain? If it works ( and I should clarify, it doesn't work for everyone with fibromyalgia...it just has a fairly good track record so it worth a try if you are really in pain) the pain should diminish or leave for a couple of months. And that would be a wonderful break. It's not a cure...but it's a vacation and hopefully will give the gabapentin a few weeks to kick the pains ass a bit.
