My new 'most favorite thing'

[capt. apathy]

I'll try anything to get rid of them well...except for a spinal tap.

I know the feeling well.  until I found this I was starting to give into the thought of checking out the cures involving needles, crystals, hippies, and rattles.

[Curval]

Hey man...that is great news.

Hopefully this will allow the damage to heal now.

[MRPLUTO]

MRPLUTO

[Nash]

About those percocetes you'll no longer be needing....



Great news Apathy!

[capt. apathy]

About those percocetes you'll no longer be needing....

 

Great news Apathy!

sense of humor??  you must be starting to feel better?  
keep up the fight.

[Rutilant]

Originally posted by capt. apathy
I had an cervical epidural today.

basicly they inject steroids and some local anistetic, into the joints of your neck.

as some of you might know I was injured at work last spring. one of the symptoms was the 'headache from hell',  for the last 5 months or so I've had it 24/7, no breaks at all,  on the good days it is mearly excrussiating. on the bad days it's the worst pain imaginable. a give-up and lay in bed all day kind of pain, sea-sick, loss of balance, partial blindness, 5 or 6 percocete in as many hours, no sleep for days on end sort of thing.

anyway, at 11:00 I got this injection in my neck.  I have to stay in bed for a day or so to see how it goes.

 but as of now I'm 3 hours without a headache.  this day rocks.

Wow, that's great! But i've always wanted to ask..

Is pain something yo can grow accostumed to, like a bad smell or an annoying persistant noise?

[Sundiver]

Yeah Rutilant, it is. Like I said I've had mine since I was 13, I'm 36 now. Had every kind of test imaginable run no one can nail down the root cause. People have tried treating them as migraines and tension headaches to no avail.

Dr said after doing the EEG's etc that I live with a level of pain that would put most people in the hospital. Has nothing to do with being butch. You just get used to it, it's always there, always hurts like a dull toothache. Coupla times a month it'll spike and I go to the ER for the serious drugs. Other than that, you do what you have to so you can live day to day.

[Rutilant]

Jeeze, that's rough..

[capt. apathy]

Wow, that's great! But i've always wanted to ask..

Is pain something yo can grow accostumed to, like a bad smell or an annoying persistant noise?

yes, but to a point.   Sundiver, is right though, it has nothing to do with being tough and mostly to do with a lack of other options
 
 

but most pain can be dealt with.  I weld for a living. you learn to block a large portion of pain. for instance I can generaly weld for another 30-40 seconds ( to get to a good stopping point) while a molten peice of steel burns it's way throuh my flesh.  you tune it out, you 'build a wall' between yourself and your body.  the pain is happening to your body (a thing), you are mostly isolated and safe, and depending onthe intensity you can keep it up for quite a while.  most days I can smile and laugh while in excrusiating pain, because "what else are you gonna do?  whine about it and bring others down"

I've been injured a few times before.  shattered an arm a few years ago (3 surgeries to get it back to 20%), tore my knee-cap loose putting it through the dash of a car in a head on.  shot twice in highschool (.22 to the leg and shotgun from a distance, nothing requiring hospitalisation).  and a youth spent on horses and motorcycles, have made me fairly familiar with pain.

lets put it this way,  I've had dozens of faceless nurses say "so where would you rate your pain on a scale of 1-10" (those of you who've been injured knw the scale I'm tralking about)

I've always hated when they ask that.  they stuff like upto a 4 you can handle whit ithout medication, 4-8 you can handle it with medication, 9 you can't handle it at all, 10 worst pain imaginable.

my thought has always been- "thats stupid, it either hurts or it doesn't, if you give me meds I'll handle it with meds, if you don't give me meds I guess I'll handle it without meds.  I mean how exactly do you not 'handle it',  just say that's it I can't handle it anymore, and it stops?  no you suffer you toughen up and you handle it because you have no choice.  what would 'not handling it look like anyway?'.  you have responsabilities, your kids will be fed, you deal with it.

that was me 6 months ago.  this year I was introduced to "not dealing with it".  not exactly my proudest moment,  37 yr old, father of 3, construction worker, used to be 'bad-ass', who laid in his bed and cried like a baby for hours on end.   my God, I used to break horses for pocket money and I was taken out by a F-n elevator door.

when someone said headache I used to think "ya, and I got a splinter, get over it" it was on the same plain as pms cramps, and a stubbed toe.

I've new found respect for every one I ever met who has regular headaches.  there is no 'building a wall' between you and the pain, it's in your head with you, there is no escaping it, no ignoring it, it just kicks your prettythang, and it never gets tired.

anyway, enough of that.  12 1/2 hours, my necks a bit stiff but still no headache. WOOHOO  that DR is going on my Christmas list.

[Udie]

^ Yup!  I've had 4 surgeries, teeth pulled, broken limbs, bad burns and none of it even remotely compaired to the steady pain of a cluster headache or a migrane.  Those things stop me in my tracks.  I have to get completely still to get any kind of relief.  If I move it sends throbbing convulsions of pain through my head and has made me sick more than once.

 Glad you'rs is still gone Capt.

[miko2d]

capt. apathy: "this is a deer?  like babmbi?",  "Bambi tastes good."

 Since my son was 1 year old, he was educated in this matter.

 Ask him (while pointing at any cute furry animal of your choice)

Q: What do we do with rabbit/calf/lamb/chicken?
A: Shoup!

 I wish you get well.


Sundiver: ...except for a spinal tap

 It's not a big deal. My wife tried to give natural birth but it did not go that well. After three hours she relented and got combination of spinal tap/epidural. It was not a big deal - even when administered by an intern.

 Spinal works much faster, so the procedure can be delayed and amount of drug administered by epidural can my much lower - so much lower that a woman does not feel pain but otherwise retains complete sencitivity and control - and that in turn leads to much easier and much less damaging birth.

 miko

[Sundiver]

Miko, having had a spinal tap within the past year and a half, I can speak from experience on the subject.

 There is a LARGE difference between a spinal tap and a epidural. In the tap they're withdrawing one the most important fluids in the body of which you have only a few ML's to begin with this can lead to all sorts of complications. In the epidural they're giving you groovy pain meds..

 The doctor in my case, /missed/ the first time and grazed along one of the discs without actually achieving puncture. Now, having had headaches all my life, broken bones, skull trauma you name it,  I have an incredibly high tolerance for pain. They said they heard me screaming in the lobby. Having spoken with many people afterward who've had spinal taps performed I can say that with very few exceptions they all experienced similar levels of pain.

 The truly bad part was the Doctor informed me before the proceedure that it would be no worse than having blood drawn. After I recovered from the missed attempt I informed him if he missed a second time I'd be strapping his prettythang to the table and showing him just how much it felt like having blood drawn.

 And to those friends who've lived with migraines? I can tell you it's like a spring day compared to what's called a spinal headache that I had for sixth months afterwards.

[miko2d]

Sundiver: Miko, having had a spinal tap within the past year and a half, I can speak from experience on the subject.
 There is a LARGE difference between a spinal tap and a epidural.

 As I've said, my wife received a combination spinal and epidural.
 She got the disk punctured with a huge needle through which the second needle was fed to puncture the spinal nerve cover, whatever it is called. They did not withdraw any fluid (except to make sure they got in correctly) but rather injected some stuff, but it is hardly different from what you've got.

 After that they fed a plastic tube through the needle and left it there outside spinal cover to introduce epidural drugs. Epidural meds start working in about 30 minutes, even if introduced in large quantities - and that screws up with the birth process, that is why the spinal was used, as it's effect is immediate and allows much smaller epidural dosages.

 It sounds like the bad uncture you've got was the main point. My wife also got her puncture on the second try.

 My wife was screaming for three hours before going along with the anesthesia. I believe the nurcing personnel of the facility were serilusly traumatised since they are not used to such occurence. Usually the women get anesthesia as soon as they come in and everything is quiet.

 She had uncontrollable and extremely painfull contractions every 5-10 seconds - so you can imagine how hard a job the doctor had sticking that huge needle. My wife could not possibly keep sitting still - hard to see how any woman could, so it was more like throwing/punching a dart than gradually inserting a probe. It depends a lot on the doctor's skill. Maybe the next time you ask for an anesthesiologist from the department of obsthetrics...

 And she is facing it again in a few weeks. I tell you guys - we get off easy in procreation matters.

I can tell you it's like a spring day compared to what's called a spinal headache that I had for sixth months afterwards.

 Spinal tap may cause excruciating headaches for days/weeks after the procedure. Doctors speculate that it is caused by drops of blood or spinal fluid seeping through the puncture. Fortunately my wife was spared that.

 Sundiver, doctors told us that such post-tap headaches can ease if you hold in a horisontal position - basically lay in bed for a few weeks. Is that true?

 miko

[Sundiver]

Not at all, and from what I've read recently on the proceedure, the doctors are now thinking it only prolongs the onset not the severity. Best thing I found to help was just walking, alot of walking even if it's in circles in the living room. I had the blood patch done, etc..to no avail.

The big difference is in a lumbar puncture they withdraw some of the spinal fluid. The brain is bathed in spinal fluid, when the fluid is withdrawn until the body can replenish it the brain settles in the skull and is apparantly more prone to jarring. Hence the spinal headaches.

 If the puncture fails to self-seal the fluid can contain to leak from the spine, nothing life threatening but it can certainly leave you incapacitated from the headaches until the blood patch is done.

[gofaster]

Originally posted by lazs2
I heard that stuff was made out of dolphins.
lazs

Yes, but only the ones that are herded into lagoons and clubbed to death by Japanese fisherman.  All that blood in the water makes the dolphin oil more potent.  They can't use the dolphins they catch in tuna nets because the tuna makes the dolphin meat too fishy.