HS: email, pain
Apr. 13th, 2006 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocI sent an email to my dermatologist - hooray technology. I said I didn't get the full dosage of Remicade last week, and I've got a golf-ball sized inflammation at the same place as I originally presented to him with a base-ball sized one in Feb 2005 (it'd been since Dec 2004). Told him that hot compresses 2-3 times a day hadn't been helping, it started Monday, and I was taking 200-400 mg of ibuprofen 2-4 times a day for pain management. Asked permission to start Levoquin, which is a super anitbiotic that always helps, but we don't want my bac's to develop resistance. I expect a reply by the end of tomorrow.
I don't think my derm entirely gets the pain management part. I can't blame him (much), most skin diseases probably aren't painful. But... I'm working on convincing him, trying to get the reality of my pain through to him. Last night could've been worse, I only woke three times during the night when I moved my arm, but that's three times more than a sound night of sleep. I have difficulty typing. I gasp a few times while putting on clothes. There's tension and further aches through my whole upper body as a result of trying to ward off pain in my armpit. I take ibuprofen so the pain dulls enough to fall asleep. I dug through my shirts to find one that doesn't have any tightness near the armpit, or reveal my armpit at all - it was hard to find one, I nearly went with a sweater instead. (It's 60ยบ out.) Pain shoots through my whole left arm when I use it, like cooking dinner, or picking up my keys and putting them in my pocket. (Because of this, and the fact that the pain comes when I move my arm around, I often say it's my arm that hurts, rather than my armpit.) In a few minutes I'll be driving to work using only my right arm. (But hey, I'm driving!) This one hurts *more* than a thumbtack shoved into the skin, I'll have to come up with a new analogy.
Time to stop moping, despite my fears and worries. Time to go to work and give a test, yay.
I don't think my derm entirely gets the pain management part. I can't blame him (much), most skin diseases probably aren't painful. But... I'm working on convincing him, trying to get the reality of my pain through to him. Last night could've been worse, I only woke three times during the night when I moved my arm, but that's three times more than a sound night of sleep. I have difficulty typing. I gasp a few times while putting on clothes. There's tension and further aches through my whole upper body as a result of trying to ward off pain in my armpit. I take ibuprofen so the pain dulls enough to fall asleep. I dug through my shirts to find one that doesn't have any tightness near the armpit, or reveal my armpit at all - it was hard to find one, I nearly went with a sweater instead. (It's 60ยบ out.) Pain shoots through my whole left arm when I use it, like cooking dinner, or picking up my keys and putting them in my pocket. (Because of this, and the fact that the pain comes when I move my arm around, I often say it's my arm that hurts, rather than my armpit.) In a few minutes I'll be driving to work using only my right arm. (But hey, I'm driving!) This one hurts *more* than a thumbtack shoved into the skin, I'll have to come up with a new analogy.
Time to stop moping, despite my fears and worries. Time to go to work and give a test, yay.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 03:52 pm (UTC)The best thing of all would be to find a total cure, but there isn't yet one, and the Remicade is the closest that the medical industry has so far.