Situation resolved

So with the help of my lovely physio I am now back on tramadol, with enough to tide me over till my Saturday appointment with the pain specialist.
As soon as she saw me this afternoon she knew all was not right and was on the phone to organise an interim supply.

Apparently part of my symptoms, the not being able to keep still were withdrawal symptoms-whoops on my part. Apparently I am on enough that its not a good idea to go cold turkey.

One thing it did prove though was I do need the meds, so it wasn't all for nothing-and I dont want to do that to myself again!

Todays physio session was focusing on pain relieving strategies so that was also helpful. We worked out the best things for me to do in the water to relieve pain when I am in a flare. All I can say is thank goodness for people who are there to help.

Its time to celebrate...

...if only I had the energy!

Finally the university year has come to an end and my last exam has been completed, it was touch and go for awhile whether I would actually make it this far.

After the last post I decided to focus my energy on getting through my exams, supposedly in one piece but life had other plans. I certainly didn't have any spare energy for updating here, I decided that I had more important things to think about.

Life is always exciting when you wear my shoes lol, I am currently sporting a very dashing green cast on my left wrist (not my dominant hand thank goodness) which may or may not be immobilising a scaphoid fracture...no definite fracture has shown up on x-ray as yet. Moral of the story? there is no moral-though I'm sure Jess would say it was dont use the stairs!

I caught my foot and superman dived down some pretty majestic concrete steps less than 2 hours before my first exam...my friend took me up to our paper coordinator and she patched up my dripping knees after having a hard time finding anything big enough to cover them. My stupid wrist was really sore but I had an exam to sit and no time to investigate so the trusty bunch who watch over me, dressed me in my lab coat, put my glasses on and helped me up the DR stairs.
By the time we had finished our 8 station anatomy exam (3 and a half hours for me) it was too late and I was too tired to think much but promised if my wrist was still painful in the morning I would get properly checked out (all the while hoping it would not).

As aways seems to be for me, things were not simple in the morning, so I duly took myself to be checked and several hours later (after being sent for x-rays) emerged with a plaster cast for my troubles.
I have since had practicals (boy were they fun with an arm in plaster) and then more x-rays and more indecisiveness and am now sporting this funky green fibreglass cast for yet another 2 weeks of frustration!

I'm am very relieved that I made it through my exams, now comes the waiting part to see if I made it to a pass, I am hoping I did but a bit worried about the anatomy exam (I was in quite a bit of pain because of the fall) and also the pharmacology exam but for now I am going to throw my worry away and enjoy my days of rest before I go back home!

World Physio Day 08-09-08 Active-for Life!

One of our most important roles is to encourage people in pain and afraid of moving, to become active.
We do this by teaching how important keeping active is, education is an amazing thing and once someone knows how important it is to do something and how it may benefit them, they are more inclined to try. Also we may need to help them get over their fear, fear avoidance is such a big thing and largely unconscious driven so it is particularly hard to retrain ones thinking in regard to keeping active when it may not be so easy. Having a person with appropriate knowledge guiding your rehab and providing reassurance has a lot to do with creating a positive outcome.

For people in chronic pain this is especially important, we tend to forget how important it is to keep going when all we feel like doing is staying in bed, but the extra effort we put into being active goes a long way in keeping us as healthy as we can be.
Motivation in this situation can help tremendously and as a physio to be, I look at this trait as one of the cornerstone attributes a physio must have and something I must never forget to use, I keep this alive and healthy by using it on myself everyday to get out of bed and start the day!

Keeping active makes for healthy lives and happy people who are able to be an active contributing participant in our society.

Lets be Active-for Life!

Not a good start...

First day back at uni and things weren't going so well.

I couldn't wear the pair of shoes I was going to wear, luckily another pair felt marginally better.

I left important information that I had specifically searched for behind at home-second bad thing.

I couldn't sit still in class this whole morning and had to remove the offending shoe as soon as I sat down.

By the time physio balance program appointment came around I was limping badly...

I freaking FELL OVER during the first 5 minutes of physio (so maybe I should be more honest about pain from now on...)

That was the end, tears poured forth and life was temporarily not worth living.
I was in so much pain I was useless and so frustrated that I was wasting a whole physio session.

Lovely physio came to the rescue...she found me a mirror so I could "compose" myself (no I am not vain, it was to do some mirroring to calm the pain down a bit) and then we rescheduled for in two weeks time, this time a morning appointment so should hopefully fare better.

I came home early as we don't have specific labs this week and I was not able to think about the assignment I was supposed to be getting on with.

Day starts to get better....

I get a letter in the post from my med student friend with a special gift : )

I get to chat with a friend in the States who also has RSD and we talk about random things to take my mind off everything, sometimes all we need to do is be able to talk to someone who understands without feeling guilty that we are forever complaining.

Oh the joys of life

Progress

Its the best thing in the world to be told that someone is really pleased with your progress...it makes all your hard work worth it and sometimes in this journey that is crps, hard work seems like a waste of time.

My Mum drove me out for physio the other day, every time we say that we went to Kaiapoi for physio people look at us strangely and my auntie commented that it was rather a long way to go from Dunedin hehe-at least my Mum didn't have to drive all that way! But it is worth it, I haven't found anyone else who works the way she does and she has a totally different approach from the sports/rehab/manual physio's who are the norm.

She totally understands people in chronic pain, never makes you feel like you somehow brought it on yourself and makes you feel more in control of everything.

I am coping much better overall on the new med combination and combined with the tens and mirroring I get through most days. I have my days (as you all know) when despite all this I do not cope well but this is no miracle cure, just a management plan. I am getting out and about more and have a bit more confidence in myself though I still have a long way to go on this.

She has tweaked my balance program a bit so that I am able to do it without constant flaring (I have been very slack in doing it because of the immediate painflare) so hopefully that means I start progressing with this too.

She seemed a bit concerned about the fact that I still have quite prominent swelling from my hip surgery (last surgery was June 07), I asked her about the pain along my incision and she thinks some will be due to all the swelling. So now I have to see if I can wear some fitting leggings and see if the light pressure helps at all and go ahead and get a steroid injection but to get my pain doc to do it rather than my ortho surgeon.

I also have weak hip external rotators probably also left over from surgery and the fact I never make this leg do anything. And you know she said it was pointless to specifically try and strengthen them, that it is functional movements that will help this muscle so I need to concentrate on standing up better initially and I am doing mirror movements-apparently it is proven that mirror movements will strengthen a muscle on the other side by 30%!

When I come back home after exams in November she is going to take me to the pool and give me a hydrotherapy program!
So all in all, a very productive visit.