After

    After some questioning and reassurance that my steroid shots wouldn't be sourced from New England Compounding Pharmacy, I accepted the procedure as scheduled. The nurse at the pain management doctor was very kind and informative, and the doctor was too. The procedure was uncomfortable but well worth it if it helps.

    My neurosurgeon's thinking is twofold concerning the cervical facet block injections. First, maybe it would help relieve some of the pain resulting from my neck popping and cracking. Second, it would be diagnostic, such that if it does help, then we can talk about further, more permanent solutions including surgery. The popping and cracking haven't gone away, but the pain seems a little less so far.

    My pain doctor has me keeping a pain diary for the next two weeks so we can see how well the shots helped. I'm supposed to rate my pain three times a day on a scale from one to ten. So far, I'm hanging out in the six to seven range, but hopefully the steroids kick in over the next week and bring that number way down.

    One unexpected side affect of the steroid shots was the horrible waves of nausea I felt this morning. I didn't expect that at all. The pain doctor told me to call if I developed a fever or chills, or if I started getting severe headaches that went away when I laid down. I don't know what the nausea was all about, but it wasn't any fun and it lasted well past noontime.

    I did get in to see my primary care physician today so we could synchronize her record of my activities and so she could see how I looked herself. She updated my company's FMLA and disability documents for the additional missed days from work and she checked out the injection sites to make sure they looked okay. Finally, she wrote me a referral for some physical therapy. Even though the muscle relaxer is working well, she still detected how stiff my neck muscles are and suggested that PT could help loosen me up and increase my strength. I'll call to set an appointment for that after my three week wait to see my pain doctor is over and I see what he says.

    There is one very pleasant development to add. The pain nurse took my blood pressure three times yesterday, once before the shots and twice afterwards. Each time, my bp was perfectly normal, which is great because it's been running high for the last several years. My primary care doctor also took it today and it was also perfect. She confirmed what I thought, which is that stopping the ibuprofen and adding the muscle relaxer was helping my heart and kidneys work better, thus lowering my blood pressure. We'll see if this keeps up, but it's good news.

    I'm scheduled to meet the company nurse practitioner tomorrow at work after the shop's morning meeting. Hopefully I feel well enough to go and hopefully she clears me to get back to work. That would be nice.