Showing posts with label PHN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PHN. Show all posts

13 March 2012

Another Great Day

This was me till 11:30 this morning. Well, I did wake up and text my hubby good morning at around 7:30 and took the dog out. But then I went back to bed and sleep blissfully for another few hours.

Good news: docs here FINALLY put me on a medication that works for the PHN. I still feel pain, but it isn't excruciating. I'm sooooo happy. Of course I'm a little p-oed that it took them two months to figure things out, but hey, at least they did it.

More awesome news: today is our 9 month wedding anniversary! Hubby and I have been through a lot of crap and change in the past nine months, but we've survived so far and I believe it's made our marriage stronger. I knew I had married a pretty awesome guy from the very beginning, but as we've pushed through each hurdle with this PCS (and pregnancy), I am in awe over the amount of patience, strength, and perserverance that hubby shows every day.

Babe - I love you and miss you!

02 March 2012

Prego = Parasite

Or so you would think. Nobody wants to touch me. You're pregnant? Well then we can't help you. That's was it feels like. Right now I desperately wish I wasn't restricted to only a few TriCare physicians, and Italian doctors that don't speak a lick of English (or so they pretend).

I have postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) which in short is nerve damage (aka excruciating pain) caused by shingles that I had a few years ago. It sucks, but with great advances in medicine, I got started on a medication that finally worked! That was November 2011.

December 2011...I find out I'm pregnant. Whooppeee! Of course this is great news, but guess what? I can't take any of the meds I was on that worked for the PHN. What can I take? Good ol' Tylenol.

Hate the break the news, but Tylenol might has as well be breath mints...it does absolutely NO good.

January 2012...I explain to the docs here that Tylenol just isn't cutting it. Could we try something else? After three weeks of my papers getting mixed up, I finally get a consult with an Italian pain management physician. You can read about that experience in one of my older posts.

February 2012...we try out some cream stuff but it doesn't work. After a week, I call my physician to give him the update. Two weeks later...I finally receive a call back with my physician wanting me to take this problem to my OB since I'm prego and nobody want's to mess with a prego apparently.

Two months later...sleep deprived...at wits end...20 lbs lighter...I'm still without answers.

Why is everyone treating me like I'm a parasite? I would scream and double over in pain, causing a scene if it helped...but that would just exhaust me more. There is no way that I'm the first and only prego with chronic pain. What about the millions of other women in a similar situation?

Another weekend...no answers. Good thing I have an extensive collection of chick flicks! A good laugh or sappy movie always helps to take my mind off the situation.