Which is still good news thankfully, though the other night I thought it was becoming bad news very fast lol.

I went to see my pain specialist on Saturday and after a discussion it was decided to go ahead and try out some peripheral nerve blocks. Because of my recent fall and the pain spike, this should hopefully calm everything down nicely...hopefully.

He injected anaesthetic and cortisone into the saphenous nerve and popliteal nerve at my knee, a very simple procedure and not that painful at the time (though my knee is actually still sore from one of the injections 3 days later!). I got almost a day of initial pain relief from the anaesthetic and have been told that the cortisone may take up to 8-12 days to have an effect. Fingers crossed it does as my physio has made it sound like heaven!

I'm still very sensitive to touch of any kind so he said to stop the capsacin cream and just use the lignocaine and see if that helps with the shoes and socks problem. I like this idea because I was having a lot of trouble tolerating the capsacin. I said I really need to be able to wear my shoes (for long periods) before I get back to uni and he agreed.

I also found out that having them fill in the forms for the tramadol will mean that I wont have another review for a whole year! I am so relieved that I wont have to find the money to pay for them.

I have another appointment for just before I go back down to uni, so I can iron out any concerns I may have which is really helpful. I do like how he is good at knowing how things are just from how I act, I find it so hard to actually say out loud how things are as I feel like I am complaining, though I do know I need to get better at this, its not fair making him work it out.

So, all in all, several good things:
A good pain specialist visit.
A hopeful block
And a rx for more tramadol-thank goodness as it was worse than I imagined without it.

2 comments:

Lisa Moon said...

That is wonderful, wonderful news!

What a relief about your medication being covered; I know how horrible that one is!

And I should be asking for lignocaine/lidocaine for my foot to help with wearing shoes! I'm so tired of wearing "Croc" knock-offs (because the look-alikes are softer than actual Crocs) as in this weather (winter here) it is COLD having holes in your shoes!

I'll look forward to hearing how the blocks help, too, of course!

Sounds like you've got a great doctor there! THAT is an amazing thing in itself with CRPS!

Tough Cookie said...

Great news! I hope you get some relief!!! Sometimes, it may take more than one and many people do a series of blocks, so don't get down if the first one doesn't cure you (although I'm praying it does!!!!).

Big Hugs!