To be honest i am not surprised to be awake at 4am this morning and yet again no attack that has woken me up just a slight feeling of pressure on the side of the head today. This is the shadow feeling that i talk about all the time and its a horrible feeling. Like someone is constantly pushing down on the side of your head and you can feel the swollen nerve along the top of the head. This is something that would normally set of an attack but since i have started taking the Pregabilin i have been getting less and less attacks each day and the shadow doesn’t always set off an attack.
I saw my doctor at 4pm yesterday to discuss my future treatment and what is going to happen. They are starting me on the Verapamil at 80 mgs twice a day as well as keeping me on the Pregabilin and this will then increase either weekly or fortnightly depending if i can arrange an ECG local or not. As there is a risk to my heart with all the different medication i am on they have to do an ECG each time they increase the dosage just to make sure nothing will happen to me. That way if they see a problem arising they can discontinue the medication. At the moment the ECG are done in Barry for some unknown reason and that is a long journey for me to go. It would take me 2 busses to get there, if i am able to go on the bus. Half the time i am just too bad to be able to ride on a bus so may have to arrange an ambulance to come and get me.
If we can contact the specialist and ask for the ECG’s to be done locally or at the Heath Hospital then i will be able to do the weekly increases as the specialist requested but if not then the doctor will have to wait for the results and can take up to a week for them to come back from Barry so i may have to increase every two or three weeks instead. Its good news that the medication is working as the specialist hoped it would and that hopefully with the combination of drugs i should be able to manage my condition. We are hoping that the attacks will go into remission and that will stop all these pains i get all the time.
With regards to my back it is agreed there is something else going on and the worry of arthritis in the spine is a reality. The doctor is now referring me to the Back Pain Specialists to see exactly what is going on. The trouble is it also looks like i will have to go to Barry for that appointment as well. This could be a couple of months of painful travelling ahead of me if i can’t get them changed to my local hospital.
The doctor was also talking about sending me to Physiotherapy to see if they can help with the pains i get when walking and sitting. I don’t like the sound of being put on a tread mill and told to walk as far as i can whilst they gradually increase the angle to see where and how the pains appear. It all sounds like torture for no reason. They know i am getting pain in the back i can’t see why they have to test the theory and see me suffer but if needs must then so be it!
Well lets hope its another pain free day today. I did well yesterday and didn’t get an attack until i went over the doctors. I think the attack only came on as due to the sun was shining i didn’t wrap up like i normally do if the weather is cold and just went over in a sports coat. I could feel the cold on the top of my head as i was walking so i am assuming that is what triggered the attack as there was no sign of one building before or after my doctors appointment. Normally i feel an attack building and can prepare for it but the one i had yesterday was only a small one and there was no sign it was about to start it just decided to begin when i sat down in the doctors waiting room to wait for my appointment. Thankfully i took my injections with me so took it at the first sign of pain and within ten or fifteen minuets the pain stopped and the attack aborted.
