My Saga Of Pain

    I got RSD in my left foot after I had an ingrown infected toenail removed for the 5th time.    It was supposed to go smoothly just like all the other times.  But, this time they used some kind of poison to kill the root of the nail.  So the poison added to the fact that I had had RSD in my shoulder for 10 years kicked back up the dormant RSD still lying in wait.  They didn't give me proper pain control because they just tried to give me vicoden and that doesn't wok on me.  So, they kept trying different medications and more medications.  Then they moved onto different injections.

   They tried nerve blocks ( which made the RSD spread like wildfire until it was my entire left leg from my toes to my hip ), epidural blocks, ketamine infusions, and steroid blocks.  None of these worked, most made the pain worse.  

   Then I tried other methods besides drugs.  I tried a device called a TENS unit which you put little pads over the area where you need relief and attach the wire to a device and it will provide electrical stimulation.  For me there was no relief.  It only made my pain worse.  I tried a Spinal Cord Stimulator twice.  Both times it was excruciating and both times it didn't help and once again aggravated the pain even more.

    Which lead to me my last hope a device called a pain pump.  It's much like an insulin pump except it's all internal.  I wasn't interested in having a foreign object in my body at all.  The thought was just too creepy feeling.  But after hearing there was absolutely nothing left in the Dr's bag of tricks I agreed to the trial.  

  So, after a two and a half week trial ( they said it would only be a week ) I was wheeled down to the operating room to have some weird metal type round pump put in.  But of course this was another surgery.  Not so after the surgery I noticed my pain wasn't decreasing but increasing.  Turns out that the operation to put in something that was to help with the pain has now caused more pain.  Every time my abdomen is touched it's like being stabbed with burning hot pokers, or having a bunch or fire ants nibbling away at my skin, and that's just when it's being touched.

     About every month and a half I have to get my pump refilled.  It's pure agonizing hell!  The Dr has to find the little rubber hole called the port.  He then injects a REALLY long needle into the port and then takes out whatever little bit of medicine I have left and then refills it.  I have almost passed out from this procedure many many times.  It's awful enough in itself but the pain stays flared up for weeks after.  

   I get to have my pump refilled this wednesday and now on top of the expected pain I know is coming I have a horrendous cold.  My nose is so plugged up I can only breathe through my mouth.  I'm as sick as a dog.   This will be an interesting pump refill.