Better quality sleep last night, but I woke up earlier than I wanted. Probably the best quality sleep in several weeks. When I have bad sleep, it’s best to get a larger quantity of it and wake up later. That helps set up my day a lot better. It actually feels very strange to me to get decent sleep. It’s so foreign. Waking up earlier is really a good thing, but I’m used to having my day set up with waking up later because I’m so used to crappy sleep.
I have a procedure scheduled for tomorrow morning. I started this website in February to hopefully get this kind of help. I needed to have this procedure a long time ago. It has been one hell of a fight to get this done myself, and to make it to this point in time. I haven’t been able to get any help from anyone to get here, which is incredibly unfortunate. I even put a giant “HELP” post on this website, hoping someone could help me get to this point much sooner, but I didn’t get the help I needed. I’ve been in this fight alone the whole time, and it’s obvious I will have to continue onward by myself also. It is so very sad that nobody is willing to help someone who is so very much in need of it, but it is what it is. Whenever I give specific help requests to people, they balk at helping. It seems nobody wants to do anything beyond saying, “Get well soon.” That’s never been the kind of help I needed.
The procedure is Radio Frequency (RF) Ablation. They burn the nerves in my spine using radio waves. Unfortunately, the positive effects only last 6 months to a year, which means things will derail again, and I’ll have to go through all of this pain and madness again. There will have to be a permanent fix at some point, so in some respects, this is kind of a diagnostic step. If it works for a short time, but the pain comes back, that is a good indication that a stabilization surgery of some sort will be helpful. I know that is what will be needed in the end, and I personally prefer to jump ahead to the final fix, so I can get on with my life and leave the pain and madness behind.
For some reason they will only be doing half of the procedure tomorrow. I think because it ties up the doctor for a lot of time, they want to split it up. They have to leave the probes in for a certain amount of burn time, and the doctor can’t do anything but sit and wait while that’s happening. They will only be doing the left side tomorrow, but 2 levels (L2-L4). I’ll have to go back in late August to finish up the other side. I’m not really expecting any dramatic changes until the second part of the procedure is completed.
Just did a church walk. I had a few difficult days recently sorting out medication issues. That’s paying off right now. Add in the good quality sleep I got last night, and I dare say this is an actual good day, not just decent. I haven’t had an actual good day in maybe 2 months. Ideally I can keep it rolling into tomorrow’s procedure. The procedures are pretty painful and can often trigger a fibromyalgia flare, but the pain reduction it offers should quickly ease the flare up. If I go into feeling good, I have a better chance of avoiding the flare up altogether. I’m never that lucky though.
Pain ramped up right at dinner time. Must have been the effort of cooking. I put on an ice pack and it’s feeling better. It’s scaring me a bit. I have the feeling it will keep ramping up. I’ve been through this a million times. Got a call from the medical center confirming the appointment tomorrow morning, so we’re good to go. Now to hope something actually changes and the pain gets reduced.