Pain whine

It's been a bit of a rough week with my back. I went to acupuncture a week ago Monday and he did something different than usual, putting me on my side and putting the needles into all the spots in my hip and thigh and lower back that hurt all the time. I spasmed pretty badly that afternoon and evening, but was hopeful that that would be the worst of it. Unfortunately it just kept going, every single day since then. I spent some time looking up side effects for narcotic pain pills over the weekend as I just can't live with this pain all the time. Yesterday morning I thought I was feeling better, I woke up sore, but nothing more than a normal day. Z. and I got in the car and drove to a shopping area about a half hour away to do some shopping and I was fine in the car. We got to the first store and as we walked to the back of the store to get what we needed all of a sudden my back started spasming bad. This is not the way my back pain usually works, it's hard to explain, but it's usually always there, even if I am not feeling pain, and then semi gradually comes on stronger, not in an instant from fine I can deal with this to omg I can't.

We pressed on because we were there and needed to get the shopping done but I took an ibuprofen (I had taken one at breakfast). We went to a 2nd store and I had Z. hold my backpack purse for me, we got our shopping done but occasionally I had to lean into the racks and hold my breath for a bit. We were supposed to go out for lunch but thankfully Z. wanted to go home for lunch so we decided to drive back home. It was excruciating, I have not had that level of pain with my back while driving before, and I had to do this for a half an hour. It was a white knuckle drive. I put Z.'s playlist on my iPod on the stereo which kept her quiet and I did my best not to moan out loud.

Finally we got home and Z. went and made her lunch and I told her I'd be upstairs. I took a muscle relaxant (which I hate to do during the day, they make me so sleepy) and laid down on the heating pad in my bed. Amazingly after a half hour or so the pain stopped and I fell asleep for a short bit. I got up and had lunch and started downing the ibuprofen 2 at a time at 4 to 6 hour intervals. I felt pretty good till I got in bed when it kicked up a bit again, but spent the night sleeping on the heating pad (set on medium at least, but I hate it, I already have night sweats from menopause so sleeping on a heating pad means I am sleeping completely drenched). I'll be seeing the osteopath on Friday so I hope he can help me get out of this spasm circle I seem to be in.

In the meantime I am concerned about my blood pressure which has been getting steadily higher so that I am getting hypertensive readings at home now. In my research on meds this weekend I discovered that Megace also raises blood pressure, so I've got the ibuprofen, the Megace, my natural tendencies (and genetics) and the pain factor all raising it. I think that there is no avoiding going on medication at this point, which I hate, there is always some other side effect or interaction that each new medication causes.

Speaking of which, at the dentist last week (Z. and I both had good checkups) the dentist and the hygienist both noted that my mouth was dry. Luckily, they did not see any of the negative things that dry mouth can cause, like gum problems, as everything looked good. But there's definitely been a change, which could explain why I am having such a difficult time with my chronic salivary gland problem this year. It's been bothering me at least once a week (this means it fills up and I have to go through gyrations to get my face not to look like a chipmunk). The dentist and oral surgeon I saw earlier this year also commented on the lack of saliva, even when they "milked" the glands. So my regular dentist said maybe it's an interaction between the various meds. I don't think that anything has dry mouth as a specific side effect, but I could be wrong.

This is turning into a whine, but when my pain steps up like this it makes me whiny. It's a real struggle to stay focused and optimistic. It always amazes me how quickly my mood shifts when I hurt or when I feel better, it's pretty striking. Well, hopefully today will be better, so far it's not too bad, the usual below 5 pain I have most mornings. That intense spasming out of nowhere thing yesterday though has me a little spooked, I hope that doesn't happen again!

So, I'm not sure where I want to go from here except that I want to see what the osteopath can do for me Friday. I don't have another acupuncture appt. scheduled for another 2 1/2 weeks and while it is tempting to just cancel it, I don't think I will. I have been going to this guy for over a year now and this is not the usual response my body has, although early on I did have something similar happen. He adjusted some things based on my response and I had some of my best relief for a couple months after that treatment. So while it's tempting to say forget it, I want to at least give him that chance.

I am wavering on the pain meds thing. I had been pretty adamant about not trying narcotics (or something called tramadol which is not a narcotic, but has many of the same side effects as narcotics, which my internist suggested as a 1st step). I've been concerned about the side effects, the sleepiness, nauseousness and constipation that come with using them. But often times when one is using them for chronic pain the sleepiness and nauseousness at least will decrease as the body adjusts to the medication. It's a big step for me though, and I'm not sure if I am ready for it or not. But being on daily ibuprofen for 2 years isn't good for me either, even though I try to get by on the absolute least amount that I can (and take prilosec otc every day to help avoid the stomach problems, which so far is working pretty well). So it's a hard decision but one I was revisiting during this painful week.

Sometimes I think these treatments (acupuncture and the osteopath) really help me a lot, other times I'm not so sure. This back thing has a life and mind of it's own and there's no predicting how it's going to behave. It will be 2 years of this in a couple of months. I've gone from being a die hard side sleeper, flipping from one side to the other over the course of the night, to a one sided sleeper, to now being a back sleeper as I can't even sleep on that one side anymore. I have no other sides to sleep on (tummy does not work at all) so I'm out of luck if sleeping on my back stops working. Actually I've made another accommodation that has helped with the back sleeping (which is tough for me, I sleep lightly on my back and wake up a lot). We have a very good latex mattress with the top of the line soft stuff on the top, but we have a tempurpedic pad that we used to use on our old mattress and I decided that we should try it out on top of the latex mattress. It's been great, it adds a layer of cushiness, yet does not affect the good qualities of the mattress (that really does help with my back a lot) so I am finding that my sleep is a bit sounder as I am more comfortable. I also have a wall of pillows around me, a long body pillow on one side that wraps around under my knees and a regular pillow on the other side, so I'm sleeping in a pillow fort (poor A. has to do battle to come over and see me LOL).