Never assume you've reached rock bottom. That's just a challenge to life to prove you wrong. I didn't think I'd made such an assumption, but clearly I did something wrong! Well, perhaps not. Here's the deal:
My left arm started bugging me yesterday. Not the same as my usual fibro pain or bursitis pain or pinched nerve pain... but not nice. It's particularly difficult to describe, but here's the best I've come up with:
*that feeling when you fall asleep on your arm, wake up with it dead asleep, roll over and in a painful rush the blood refills the parched blood vessels. Think of that painful rush lasting hours rather than seconds.
*the way I'd imagine an arm would feel if it was passing a kidney stone. Can't hold it still, can't stand to move, trying to find some position that eases the pain.
My arm hurt when I was going to bed. I took my normal handful of pills with omnicef instead of the dreaded amoxicillin and took another pair of benadryl. I fell asleep quickly... and was awake again in 4 hours. I figured the benadryl had worn off as I was itching again. I took two more benadryl and fell back asleep. Two hours later I was awake and knew that itching wasn't the problem. My arm burned, throbbed, ached... it was not conducive to falling back to sleep. I gave up and got out of bed thinking maybe I had just legitimately put my arm to sleep -- despite the fact that I was sleeping on my back.
After an hour and a half nothing could distract me enough to handle the pain. It was now 5:30 am. I woke up Hubs and asked him to just help me. I couldn't handle the pain alone. He sat up and talked to me for a while, and let me cry. Then he convinced me to take a lortab (I take one rarely for fibromyalgia pain that prevents restful sleep). I then got in a nice hot bath and he set his iPad up at the end of the tub and sat on the floor by me while we watched an episode of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. At the end of that hour of hot water and medication I was still in massive amounts of pain. I hit the phone and arranged for some help from family while Hubs hopped through the shower and got dressed. Then we dropped The Daughters off and headed to the emergency room.
Since I had severe pain in my left arm (and a blessedly slow weekday morning) I was taken straight back to a room. The unfortunate part is that it also happened to be right at shift change, so the doctors were not immediately available. I did have an EKG pretty immediately, but had to wait ages for any pain management. I was exceedingly grateful that the doctor took me seriously. When injury or illness is not readily apparent I always worry that maybe they'll think it's all in my head. Or what if it is all in my head?!?! Of course I don't ever think it is, but....???
My EKG results were ready fairly quickly and apparently they were a bit "off" from a couple of previous EKG's I've had done (reflux or esophageal spasms cause chest pain and they automatically run all the tests to rule out cardiac involvement, so I've had it done before). He said it wasn't alarming, but to be on the safe side he wanted to do the full cardiac workup. I had a great deal of blood drawn and sent for labs, including checking cardiac enzyme levels. I had a chest xray to rule out any enlargement or fluid around the heart. I also had an ultrasound of my arm from the jawline to the wrist to rule out deep vein thrombosis (which is very rare in an arm).
I was allowed a dose of pain medication which helped take the pain down to a manageable level. It went in waves from manageable to painful and back again even while on the iv meds. Finally various test results trickled in. My blood tests were all normal (well, a few were off, but only what is to be expected with a double ear infection); cardiac enzymes were normal. Chest xray came back completely normal; happy lungs and happy heart. Ultrasound came back normal as well; veins are thumping along nicely. All this was great news; except it didn't tell us what is causing the pain.
The decision in the end was that I have active inflammation in my body right now (the hives, though they're starting to improve) that needs to be cleared up. I'm going to take a steroid pack to try to kick the inflammation. My hands (especially the left hand) are rather swollen. Hopefully the steroids will get rid of the hives and swelling and help quash this pain. If not, then I need to follow up with my PCP and perhaps work with a neurologist. Tangentially, I am also following up on the unusual EKG with a cardiac stress test next week just to be on the safe side. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid a cardiologist also!
Mystery pain like this is difficult to work with. It leaves anxiety and second guessing -- what if I'm wrong? what if it's something little that I'm making a big deal out of? what if it's all in my head?. At the same time, when you do give in and decide to rule out scary things it's wonderful to know that it isn't something awful while simply emphasizing the anxiety and second guessing! So I'm happy, and at the same time I'm frustrated. I can't literally cross my fingers on account of the uncomfortable swelling, but I have my arms crossed in prayer that the doctors and I will have the wisdom to understand what is going on and to learn how to manage it. This pain is not something I can add to my daily pain, it is simply too much.
I am grateful for friends and family who have been so supportive and helpful. Just having a note that says "I'm thinking of you" or "I'm praying for you" helps me feel comforted that I am understood, at least a little.
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