Surgery Progress Dec. 31st 2012

     Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed your Christmas. I am excited to share that since my last post I had one of the best weeks since the on set of this terrible condition of PNE in Feb. 2011. Unfortunately it was followed with the worst week and half since returning home from Turkey. Tomorrow marks 12 weeks from having nerve decompression surgery in Istanbul, and December has proven to be my big turn around month. I am feeling back to my pre-op self, and I have even had some of my best days since developing this condition.

     Well let me share the details of my best week. It started Sunday afternoon, I sat on the floor, yes, you read right, "SAT", no laying on my stomach. I spent about an hour cleaning the dusty fireplace out so we could get the fire going. Wasn't too bad sitting there, however when I got up, oh boy did I feel it. I created a flare, the good news was that when I got up the next day, everything was calmed down. So calmed down that as I went through the day I had noticed that most of day had gone by with very little pain. I was amazed that first, my flare didn't last for a couple of days like it would have done before surgery, and also that my pain levels seemed to stay down. So, now it's Tuesday and my daughter has a Christmas concert choir performance. Usually by night the pain has reached it's highest level, but just like Monday my pain stayed really low again. Where I was feeling most of my pain was in my foot. My foot still gets irritated from wearing a shoe, and it had been a long afternoon of walking around in my shoe. When I put my shoe back on to go over to the middle school, my foot was screaming at me with big shocks of pain. Once I got there I thought I'd try to sit, so I could kick my shoe off to get some relief. I was surprised that I had made it through most of the program before I started to get uncomfortable. There were only two more songs needing to be sung, and then the program was finished. I couldn't believe it, I made it almost a whole hour. Between my oldest son and my daughter, this was my fourth concert choir program I had attended in a year, but this was the first one I was able to sit through. Not completely pain free, but definitely manageable. My husband had his annual work Christmas party on Thursday night, and I was feeling pretty good once I arrived, even after a 35 minute drive. I sat during dinner and never once thought "I really need to get up, I can't do this a second longer". Not bad, right? It seems I am making some progress.  Some other things that made my week so great, I scrubbed a couple of bathrooms and vacuumed. I could never get very far into a bathroom cleaning before a flare would kick in, not this time. I was on my last step of wiping the mirror, when I realized there had been no change in my pain level. I waited for it, and even sometimes flares can come on the next day, but it never came. And, when I vacuumed, the flare, wait for it, wait for it, IT NEVER CAME!!! I was 9 weeks post-op and completely shocked with what was happening.

     Here's where the good week turns bad. It is Saturday, and I still had a lot of Christmas shopping to do. I know, I know, cutting it a little close, but hey, give me a break, I had just finally started driving again just one week prior. Anyway, me and my husband had planned to go out and get it all done. We left at 6:00 and got home at 11:00. Five hours proved to be a little too long, not only was my foot fired up, but my in-betweens were angry as well. I went to bed thinking, oh man, what have I done? When I got up the next morning everything was still pretty annoyed. It was Sunday, which means church. This would be my first Sunday going without my leg brace. Only problem, wearing my Sketcher's to church was not exactly appropriate. I struggled finding a shoe that I could wear, and I refused to put on my leg brace, after all, I had gone 9 whole days without it, and I was so over it. Only minutes after arriving at church I was ready to rip my shoe off. I chose to sit with my family even though my pain was higher than the last few days. I thought maybe since I had gotten through the concert choir program and a Christmas dinner, maybe I could give sacrament a try. I did do better then I thought but after 40 minutes I was done. I looked at the clock and I thought 30 more minutes, I can do this. That thought turned out to be a wrong choice. I dealt with a painful flare the rest of the day, pain so bad I just wanted to go to bed. This carried over for the next few days, and by the time I had gotten to my PT appointment for pelvic pain, I was not doing so great. PT unfortunately made things worse, I came home in more pain, and I am still waiting for everything to calm back down.

     I am glad that I was able to experience a low pain level week, but clearly I over did it somewhere. When you feel good it is easy to get carried away, and I think testing my limits is good. Funny how I feel like I can conquer the world when I feel so good. And, how fast pain can take you down, and the desire to do anything vanishes. I just need to find the right balance and this can be tricky at times. The flare is coming down, but I am not back to where I was a couple of weeks ago. It seems that I was getting through my days and getting more things done around the house than ever before, all while keeping the pain levels down. But, sitting is still an issue. I'm not worried though, on the nerves timeline I'm still in the beginning stages, and I think sitting will come with some more time.
    
     As far as my foot goes, it is still showing improvements. After 10 weeks of dealing with excruciating pain, I can safely say my worst days are behind me. Constant pain is long gone, my only issues now, are wearing a shoe, showers, occasional pants or pajama bottoms resting on top, and something as silly as the sheets while trying to sleep. I only use the ice machine a couple of times a week, I am at a point now that it is more annoying to deal with the cords and cuff than the actual pain. When I first go to bed it's not too bad, but after some time I start to feel the tiny shocks coming on. I have learned I can just stick my foot outside of the covers and everything will calm down. At the end of this week the ice machine is due to get picked up, and I can happily say I am ready to finally part with it.

     Over all with a flare and all, I feel much better than I did a year ago. And I am looking forward to what this New Year will bring.