Is this the new normal?

So today I am not a happy bunny.

I should have been at a school event, helping the next generation with their job search and employability skills. Instead I am at home, not too far from the bathroom, and with a foggy head.

Last night I went to bed early because I had this event to get to, which would mean an early start to get there for 8pm. I did everything right pain wise or so I thought.

However, about 2am (might have been 3...) I needed to go to the loo and take my thyroxine tablet and more painkillers. So that's what I did, I took some co-codamol because I knew I had to be sharp witted early and a Zapain wouldn't do that. And that all bounced I'm afraid. Straight back. So another thyroxine tablet and a Zapain, which is much easier to swallow and indeed stayed down.

Back to bed: more pain, so more Fenbid gel on the spot.

More pain. Strange dreams.

So by 5am I knew I wouldn't make this event, and I feel bad for having to let people down at the last minute.

It's now 10.30 ish, and so far I've taken the extra strength painkillers, more Fenbid gel and a blast with the Tens machine - and that damn pain ain't going nowhere. I am out of ideas.

Trial and error

I now have a TENS machine courtesy of Janet.

Having managed to put it together and make it work, I'm trying to work out where to put the pads so I get the best pain relief from it.

(If you're not familiar with TENS machines, here's a link to the NHS website explaining it: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/transcutaneous-electrical-nerve-stimulation-tens/) 

I have the version with two pads, which you put on the affected area and switch the machine on. It delivers electrical impulses and has a painkilling effect. Allegedly.

Having read the leaflet, the first session had the pads either side of the shoulder. Well being amply padded, the pad on the front part of the shoulder moved a little so it was more on the flesh at the top of the armpit. Could be better. Oh and don't run it at top speed!

Next, having read another website I decided to put the pads along the fleshy part of the back of the arm which is where I get a lot of pain. All this did was push the pain to the front of the arm and resulted in not much sleep and lots of codeine. Harumph.

Sally advised me it was trial and error, maybe put one pad next to the base of the cervical spine and the other on the shoulder. However, I can't reach that part of my neck with my other hand (falling to pieces, dontcha know)...

This morning's effort was one pad at the front of the arm and the other at the back of the arm. Still no joy, though there's no pain at rest. It just bloody hurts when I move.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

A loooooooooong wait!

So I rang the departmental secretary today and she informed me that:

• I was on Week 8 of the waiting list, and
• They are now booking people on Week 25!

So I sat down and worked it out. Week 25 for me is week ending 12th July!

Well that is interesting. You see, hubby works at the Great British Beer Festival every year, this year being no exception. He will probably be going down to Olympia at the end of July and returning in the middle of August, which will mean I will need to either get into a care facility for that time or hire in carers.

Let's hope that I get a cancellation then, which isn't likely to happen before Easter. Now that's good because it means I can organise the work stuff I need to organise.

The positives are, I guess, that I can try and earn some more money from doing treatments in the interim period. I can also get more done with the students at the Centre and supervise some of their case studies before I have to hand that job over to Lindsey and Victoria.
On the other hand, I have to put up with a malfunctioning shoulder for longer. A helpful physiotherapist friend suggested I get a TENS machine, so I'm going to talk to the Centre's physio on Saturday about that. And I've found a Very Interesting Product to trial, which is on order and I will, of course, be blogging my experiences around that.
I will also need to create a fundraising platform outside of Facebook as that one ends on April 15th.
My thanks also go to Mitchell Wheeler of AO Holistics, who paid me an impromptu visit yesterday and did some healing on my shoulder, which has been much better today.

I'm no good at sums!

Maths was never my strong point.

I asked my doctor to change my prescription so I got the 8/500 co-codamol painkillers, and not the 30/500 Zapain. This is because if I take what the GP thinks I ought to be taking, which is 2 x 30/500 4 times a day, I become like a constipated zombie! My brain turns to mush and my gut turns to stone. Neither of which is good for someone who has to massage clients and teach students. And I was relieved when I did get the lower dose in my bag this month.

The issue with paracetamol is that you can only take 8 x 500 tablets per day, otherwise you will overdose. A paracetamol overdose is fatal, as it destroys the liver and the only thing that will save you is a transplant. I've had the grim details from my sister-in-law, who used to be a nurse on the liver ward at the hospital. And as I said, maths was never my strong point.

So here's what I have to do. First thing in the morning and last thing at night, I rub Fenbid Ibuprofen gel into my shoulder, so I can (a) get dressed and (b) lie down. This means I can't take Naproxen because of the high dosage of Ibuprofen. However, I can take 2 of the 200 Ibuprofen, just not at the same time as I rub the gel in. But the reason why I wanted to stop taking Naproxen was the effect it was having on my gut, with little bleeds every so often which only show up when my poo gets black and sticky. yuk!

I also have some aspirin, both as 300 tablets, and as a combination pain control tablet available OTC with paracetamol and caffeine. Now the plain aspirin doesn't seem to work, but the combination does - I just can't take it in the middle of the night because of the caffeine element. And bearing in mind what I said above about the paracetamol, I have to choose when to take it.

Therefore, my pain regime currently is the following:

8am Rub Fenbid gel in, take 2x combination tablets. Total paracetamol: 2
10am 2x 200 ibuprofen. Total paracetamol: 2
12 noon 2x 8/500 co-codamol. Total paracetamol:4
4pm Now then. Can I do without here, or do I need to take some more ibuprofen? One evening last week I couldn't get the car to reverse as I didn't have the strength to get the gearstick into the correct place. Steve had to do it for me. So really I should take some more ibuprofen.
9 or 10pm Rub Fenbid gel in, take1 x 30/500 Zapain Total paracetamol:5
2 - 3am 1x 100 Levothyroxine, 1 x 30/500 Zapain. Total paracetamol: 6
BUT If I am teaching the morning after, no Zapain for me! I can just about make do on the 8/500 co-codamol, or if I'm in too much pain, it's 2 x 500 paracetamol plus more Fenbid. Total paracetamol:7.

I am sailing close to the wind, and if I forget, or take a paracetamol dose instead of an ibuprofen dose, I've had it. I need my wits about me!

So what can I do alternative wise? Heat patches have some effect, I have some wheat bags which microwave very well. I can try the wintergreen salve from Oomeo, or Arnica salve with some helichrysum  essential oil mixed in, sometimes they help, but they are more for muscular pain. They do work on the underlying tendonitis, but not on the root cause which is the complete lack of cartilage in my shoulder joint. Therefore, that is very limiting.

Why do I need a shoulder replacement op anyway?

I thought I'd show you a couple of photos which illustrate why I'm having a shoulder replacement op. The first one shows me  waving away with my right hand:

And this second one shows me attempting to do the same with my left hand:

As you can see all I'm succeeding in doing with that arm is raising the shoulder itself, not the arm.

Now if you look at the first photo again, you'll see the great feature of this top: it has a batwing sleeve, which means it is really flexible. I can pull the top up from the floor or down over my head, and because the sleeves are big, I can put my arms through them sideways - or not as the case may be!

In fact, I decided to start wearing it now because it is really awkward to get dressed even now, and at least this top helps with that. My thanks to Susan Bush whose contribution has helped pay for it, and another similar top that came in the same post.

https://www.facebook.com/donate/547861202375025/

Before I have the operation, I am of course in quite a lot of pain with the affected shoulder and arm. As there are bony overgrowths where the cartilage should be in the shoulder, I have inflamed tendons which send pain shooting down my arm to my thumb, but mostly the pain is just above the elbow and around the shoulder joint. This is worse at night and so I get painsomnia, the inability to sleep because of pain.

A typical night: I go to bed about 10pm, slather my affected arm in Fenbid gel, take a Zapain, and hopefully I will get to sleep. I will wake up about 4 hours later because the painkillers have worn off, get up, go to the loo, take a dose of my levothyroxine and some more painkillers, and get back to sleep for about another 3 - 4 hours.

That's the plan anyway.

You see the trouble with Zapain is that I get brain fog. It's cracking as a painkiller/sleeping tablet, but if I take more than one per night, then I have great trouble operating mentally the day after. And as I teach on Fridays and Saturday mornings, then if I want to take a painkiller during the night, I can't take Zapain.

If I use Fenbid, which is a 10% ibuprofen gel, I can't take Naproxen but I can take Ibuprofen, just not at the same time as the Fenbid.

I have some "High strength" painkillers available from the shelves at the supermarkets, but they contain caffeine, which isn't recommended to take at 2am.

I can take paracetamol, but I have to be very careful as it's easy to overdose on paracetamol - over 8 tablets in 24 hours and you risk liver failure. Which is a bit drastic as it needs a transplant to cure it, otherwise you die a very nasty death in 3 days. (My sister-in-law did a stint on the liver ward in her nursing training)

So what can I do on teaching nights? 2 doses of Fenbid, maybe a lower dose of co-codamol which you can get over the counter, and some paracetamol should do it.

Except on Thursday night it didn't. This means I didn't get back to sleep after 3am, which made teaching on Friday a real struggle.

Now the point of this blog is to tell you how I manage things using complementary therapies. How did I manage the insomnia on Thursday night? By getting up for a couple of hours, then going back to bed and dozing for a while until the cat woke me up.

On Friday night I decided to do something called Autogenic Training, which is a mild form of self-hypnosis and works at a very deep subconscious level. I find that this really helps with all sorts of things, so tonight the affirmation I used was "It sleeps me". Well that worked. I did get back to sleep without having to take Zapain or co-codamol, in fact I don't think I finished the meditation I used!

Things to tick off on the list of therapies to use: Autogenic Training. The book by Dr Kai Kermani is the one I recommend.