After weeks and weeks of cold and gray and cold and windy and cold and rainy and cold, did I mention cold?, today it is 73 F (23 C, I think) and is going to be above 60 (16) all week. With sunshine. Actual sunny sunshine. Wow. I am impressed, Mother Nature.
I bought some just like these on Saturday. It’s like sunshine in the house. I put them where I can see them when I wake up. Nice.
I am still struggling with pain and fatigue, although I think it’s leveling out a bit after three weeks on 8mg pred. Of course, today I went down to 7. I have to get off this. I just have to suck it up and get through the really bad days without giving up. I would have gone down to 7 1/2, but I just didn’t have it in me to cut all those teeny pills in half. It’s bad enough trying to quarter Gertrude’s, cause they are really small and pretty much just crumble.
This is not my back. 🙂 I have the pain clinic on Wednesday. More shots in the back. I hope they help more this time, because I can barely stand. I just read, and had forgotten, that shots in the back with meds from a compounding pharmacy here in Mass, killed or injured several people a few years ago. The owner was just acquited of murder, but went to jail for a bunch of other charges. So I am nervous now, but I think after this, they are probably pretty careful, she said optimistically. I need to be able to stand and walk with less pain than I’m having, so I’m going.
Well, actually, just took a few minutes to google, and Mayo Clinic and WebMD seem to think they are not really a long-term solution, and there are some significant risks besides greedy pharmacy companies sending out meds with fungus in them. Ewww. So I asked my friend Tess what she thinks, because there’s nobody else to ask, and I always like to get a second opinion, because I have severe brain fog sometimes and just THINK I know what I’m doing. 🙂 Waiting to hear back from her.
It’s really disheartening to see how little integrity there is left in this country. Everyone is out for as much as they can get, and to hell with the consequences, because there don’t really seem to be a lot of consequences.
But it’s finally spring and I am NOT going to dwell on the bad stuff. The trees, what’s left of them, should be in bloom soon. That’s always a happy thing.
I am off to make the shopping list, and prepare the return box for the Rubik’s cube I got instead of the desk vacuum I ordered. Weird mistake to make. The Rubik’s cube looks like a Rubik’s cube, 
and the vacuum looks like a mushroom.
Hmmmm.
I almost kept the cube, but I’d probably drive myself bats drying to solve it. So no. 🙂
strangely peculiar 
Shots in the back do really help some people, so my husband says. Especially if they help them to get more mobile and if they can keep this up, because that can make them stronger, which can help reduce pain. So it can start a kind of positive feed-back loop. I really hope it helps you!
I opted to not go. From what I’ve read, they are not a long-term solution, you have to keep going back, and there are some serious risks. I am looking into alternatives.
They aren’t a solution, but they do help. Himself gets them every 4 months, and his dr said that he’s done studies that show that when you get the first shot, a follow-up should occur within a couple months because they work better in twos. When the shots wear off, there’s a HUGE difference in his pain level…he can barely move because of it. Yes, there are dangers, but there are dangers with everything anymore, and less pain is worth it. He’s nervous ever single time.
His back problems and pain are a lot worse than mine,though, so I did not think the risk was worth the gain. I am exploring other options, like exercise and how to sit, stand, etc. to east the strain. Putting hour back in a C shape is bad, bad, bad. You know, like hunching over the computer. Which I do a lot.