Pain Journal #1

Brief history: chronic back and neck pain that radiates to all four limbs, shoulders and head. It’s been 9 months now. Daily pain level in the past week: 3–8 Symptoms get worst with sitting, poor posture or prolonged stressful activities. MRI have found 2 herniated discs, one in the lumbar and one in the cervical spine. Brain scan looks okay, save a benign looking cysts near left nostril region.

Got a nerve conduction study test yesterday, complete package with the needle thing for the muscles too. That was just one hour of electricity, literally. One long needle, inserted 10 total times into my muscles, charged with electricity after the countless number of shocks they already did with ‘ol electrodes.

Today is the second day after increasing my dosage to 30mg of Pamelor, the nerve pain and anti-depressant medciation. What a day it was! I feel so fortunate to have that two and a half hours long field trip around campus to look at all the wonderful plants and tress UCSB botanists were happy to share. Especially when the label on my medication bottle says to “avoid prolonged or excessive exposure to direct and/or artificial sunlight while taking this medication.” So guess shade of red my neck is right now? It was my favorite lab though. If it wasn’t that six hours long headache, I think I would have enjoyed it more. But hey, no shoulder, arm, or leg pain today so maybe the medication really is working! The sunburn is a clear indicator for sure.

Oh update on the sitting time, it really varies now but it’s to the point where I can’t even have the time to enjoy my meals in peace. Had to pause, put that fajita down, stood awkwardly and try to act normal by casually checking my emails for a couple of long minutes, then sat back down to continue enjoying the fajita.

I literally just sat down not even 10 minutes ago, god damnit. My statistics textbook is going over an example of skin cancer cases in men and women right now, haha.

Until next time,

Saline