Decided to go home to the 'rents' today. Was planning on making an early start, but my internal clock is all messed up thanks to my week of night call. So, instead of waking up @ 9am, like a good little boy, I didn't rouse until 1pmish. And to make matters worse, I missed my oil change appointment. GRRRR! Now I have to wait one more week to get this done. My poor Mahal (my car) needs some upkeep, bad.
On another note, my mother, bless her soul, is reliving her version of a medical nightmare... lemme 'splain.
She used to suffer from terrible trigeminal neuralgia...so bad in fact, that the slightest touch on her face would send her into agony. She would have good and bad days, and when they're bad...they put her down good (nausea, vomiting, and intractable pain). She was prescribed lots of drugs: from TCAs to various anti-epileptics, to no avail. Either she'd have rebound pain or the side-effects would be too much for her. So a few years ago, she decided to have Gamma Knife Surgery @ a prestigious NYC hospital, for which she paid a hefty sum of money, out of pocket I might add, since this type of procedure is not covered by normal health insurance...it worked. For 3 years, it worked.
Fast forward to now. She's been having bad bouts of TN and had to resort back to her meds, which zonk her out, preventing her from functioning during the day. Taking it at night is an option, but come morning, the effects wear off and she spends the rest of the day in pain. So, seeing that GK surgery was unsuccessful at permanently keeping her pain-free, and the drugs don't seem to work for her either...I have suggested that my mother see an Osteopath (DO) for some Craniosacral treatment. Being that I'm a soon-to-be DO, I want to see how this treatment, developed by my predecessors, stacks up to my mom's disease process and to prove or disprove (to myself) the validity of said treatment. We've explored all other non-invasive procedures. I hope this one takes, otherwise...it may be another expensive dose of GKS or worse, the real knife surgery.
Song of the day: "The Drugs Don't Work" - Ben Harper
8 comments:
Considered Botox? We treat TN with Botox in these parts. Actually I discussed it with my boss since I possibly had symptoms of a form of it in the Fall, though yes I am considered too young, I had months of facial pain localized in that area, saw my Dentist, GP, ENT and had xrays and an MRI and no one could figure it out but given that it wasn't clearly a version of TN my GP wasn't willing to refer me to a Neuro. Pain disappeared and comes back for a week or so at a time when it feel like it - but anyways this is not about me. Botox - consider it, I can hook you up with a contact to my boss (he was one of the initial researchers on Botulinum toxin years ago) if you want, though I just checked there are also studies on Pub Med.
I am sorry to hear she's suffering - that's really hard to deal with, knowing and not being able to help - wave a wand or have the answer and ease her pain
Thanks for the concern, luv. Yea, I saw the studies in my research as well. My fear is that because she went for Gamma Knife Surgery and her pain has recurred, I'm not sure what Botox would do for her. I'll bring it up to the table with her, all the same. At this point, she's just really frustrated and wants relief. We'll take any option that we can get our hands on.
K well let me know - I know it's not my boss' specialty per say but if you need that contact let me know.
I brought up Botox this morning to her, but mums was very hesitant about it. She's looking for more permanent solutions, thats why she opted for GKS in in the first place. Apparently, this was brought up to her a while back by her neurologist as well.
Thanks for the offer tho. I appreciate the support ;).
Meh, enough of the depressing stuff. How was the weekend pow-wow with Ms. J?
I guess it isn't permanent - though the last patient we had went about year between injections. Anyways I like the stuff but I'm aware that my casual perspective and support is related to being around it for 12 years...
Anywho's - Ms. J and I had dinner at chez moi on Friday as per usual these days - it's nice we get to vent in a safe swearing approved, male absent location - I drink she doesn't and we catch up on TV oddly enough - the series finale of Dollhouse was on Friday, but sometimes we watch the hockey game (she hates sports) so we usually try to save the world with Pandemic at the same time - awesome board game.
Yesterday we went downtown saw - An Education ate horrid movie theatre food and then had dinner and I drank (sound like I really like the stuff, no) and wandered up to the bus and then bused home and respectively ended up conversing over Twitter... in the end we've decided she needs to finish her MPH and I need to do amazing on the GRE so Saturdays will be come a study/work day at a local coffee shop.
Sounds like you had a busy and fun weekend and an even busier upcoming weeks ahead. Way to support the local coffee business and Good luck to you both.
Well Ms. J and I, me more so are addicts, so we already help out the local scene - though the plus side is we can go trolling for equally addicted emo tattoo'd hipsters who wear more black eyeliner than I do, though hopefully more in a smoky sense and not a retro cat eye... Ms J found one today - I don't know what became of it though... Though minus the emo would be really preferred.
Well any social excuse that involves a beverage it is socially acceptable to be addicted to is good, it gets me out of the house for something other than marathon training or work... the celebration of winter sport happening might limit our movements though... If it going to take me an extra hour to commute I will not be going out on weekends as I will have 4 hours of daily commuting time for a whole month to study in - yes I commute an hour to work daily - I work 4 cities over which sounds like a large distance but isn't anyways it's night time for me - 5 45 comes too soon
Hehehe, don't worry. I'm no stranger to commutes myself. Did it for 2 years when I used to teach as an adjunct professor @ my old university. The commute was 1.5 hours...normally I wouldn't mind, but it really put some ridiculous amount of mileage on my (new at that time) car. That, and I don't think the school paid me enough to compensate for my aggravation against stupid freshmen and the daily road rage.
Add to that, my old band approx 45 minutes west of the university, and a "pseudo" girlfriend 45 minutes on the other direction. It was just too much travel and not enough gas or money.
So I dropped the teaching gig, drop the pseudo GF, and eventually dropped the band as I slowly made my way towards med school. Overall, I think I did my health and sanity a HUGE favor.
Little did I know that med school would do wonders (being sarcastic, BTW) for my already non-existent social life.
Still kept the coffee tho, I'm afraid =).
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