GP appointment

Its been a few days since I posted so I thought I would write a few words to let you know how I am getting on.

Yesterdays Dr's appointment went well. I am having a course of acupuncture to try and help with my back pain. I can lightly touch 4 vertebrae in my back and be in absolute agony. It has been this way for years. My new GP Dr J wasn't aware that my back was in such a state. He asked "Is it like that all the time?" To which I replied "all day, everyday". Luckily one of the Dr's at the practice is trained to administer acupuncture so I don't have to pay for it as it will be on the NHS. I hope it works although due to the Ehler Danlos Syndrome I do tend to bleed and bruise where the needles have been inserted. It always horrifies the acupuncturist as its so unusual for people to bleed or bruise as the needles are so very fine. That's EDS for you.

We discussed pain relief and the next level is morphine. Although I am in pain and I am still in pain despite paracetamol, tramadol, naproxen, amitriptyline and a iburprofen gel its currently at a level I can manage. I don't want to move to serious opiates yet. I will live for another 40 years (hopefully) and once I go down the opiates route I am running out of pain management solutions. That's a long time to be without adequate pain relief. Believe me there are some days where the pain is so bad I would sell my own grandmother to have some morphine to reduce the pain for a few hours. However that level of pain isn't constant, if it was I would have taken the morphine without so much of a backward glance.

The GP is doing referrals for Physio and Neurology. We have decided that I will not be returning to see my previous neurologist. To be honest I was dreading the thought of having to see him again. He doesn't have anything useful to add and can not think outside the box which is what is needed in my case.

As for my general health I'm not in a good way today. I had two falls yesterday which have left me hurting all over. The first fall was after the Dr's appointment, I was transferring between the wheelchair to the car and I managed to get the hem of my trousers caught on the foot rest. I ended up falling flat on my face onto the passenger seat. Thankfully no one was around to witness this, other than my husband as I would have been so embarrassed! The second fall was in the evening I got out of bed and managed to get one foot caught under the laptop cable and one foot caught under the electric blanket cable. One step forward and I toppled onto the radiator. I made such a bang hubs shouted upstairs to ask what was I doing, my response was "break dancing!". That response means he will run upstairs to check on me as that means I have fallen over.

So today my hands, fingers, shoulders, back, hips knees and Achilles tendons all hurt. I have taken my medication cocktail. I am now lying in bed trying to get comfortable.