Ok...But why are my arms numb?

As some of you may or may not know, I've had issues with lower back pain for years.  It's chronic and thoroughly annoying.  There has been no great injury or tramatic event that I can recall that would cause such a thing.  I was pretty fairly active as a young kid and young adult so perhaps it's some type of sports injury come back to rear it's ugly head?  Perhaps it's due to the many many nights I helped Rick "roadie" his heavy music gear around from place to place.  Perhaps it's bad genetics?  The Doctors can't tell me the reason and since I have no real idea why either I can't seem to point them in the right direction.  Le sigh.

Also some of you may or may not know that I have a rather irrational fear of Doctor's, Hospitals, Clinics what have you.  I become very anxious whenever I have an appointment for anthing and I very rarely have reason to actually go to the E.R.  As they used to say in my family "if you aren't bleeding you're fine".  My blood preasure tends to rise when I get closer and closer to an appointment and it truly makes no difference what I am there for.  A head cold/strep throat?  Sweaty palms.  A blood test for health insurance?  Racing heart.  Gynocologist exam?  Are you kidding me?  Racing heart, sweaty palms, butterflies in my stomach etc.  So it goes without saying that I am always anxious when I have an appointment with my Orthopedic Doctor, he's a very nice gentleman with kind eyes and a genuenly simpathetic outlook.  The only thing I don't like about him is his handshake.  My Dad tought me that you can learn a lot about the person by the grip of their hand when it shakes yours.  My Doctor is rather wimpy.  This is what I gather from his hand shake.  He's a very tall gumpy sort of man, light brown/blond hair, big square glasses and this very unfortunate hand shake.  Regardless I felt comfortable with him in every other aspect, and due to his very unthreatening persona I felt he was a good choice due to my irrational fear.

It was my husband who finally convinced me to have my back checked out.  Either he was truly concerned for me, or else he was just sick of hearing me complain about it.  So I finally got up the courage to schedule an appointment with my regular family practice doctor - a very different sort of man.  My family practice doctor reminds me of Santa Clause; full head of white hair, a gray/white beard and a jolly figure.  He's kind of short and I think he lost most of his bedside manner 40+ years ago after he started this profession.  I'm not saying he's mean or anything, just very straight, no nonsense to the point, you're in and out of there in 15 minutes tops.  His office is also very busy all the time, so perhaps he just doesn't have the time for niceties.  Anyway, he did some X-rays and after seeing those suggested I go and see an Orthopedic Doctor with more experience in my particular area of need.

I've been seeing my Ortho doctor for about a year now and I've done every thing he's asked me to do.  Physical Therapy for a while, medications, various home systems that come from physical therapy (EMPI), home calestetics, more medication, MRI (nerve racking but painless), EMG (nerve racking, literally, mildly painful, not as bad as I feard) and finally what we are trying now - Epidural injections of steroid.  A quote from the Lumbar Epidural Injections hand book they gave me: "There may be even more pain at first" and "When to call the office; increased numbness in arms or legs".  Well crap.  I have been avoiding getting this proceedure done for a few months because I am a chicken shit.  I was very afraid of what the shot would feel like and how my body would react to the injection.  I am scared to death of pain, like a little girl is scared of the Boogie Man.  But I had an epiphany and this is what made me decide to get it done; I've started really working out.  Actually taking heathy living seriously and putting it into action to help change my life.  A sort of New Year Resolution if you will.  I decided my current choice of lifestyle wasn't working for me any more and I am now in a good head space to make a significant change. 

Due to my new outlook on life I had started by working out approximately 30-45 minutes every other day, doing a combination of cardio and calestetics at my home.  But I had a problem; both my Eliptical machine (which jars your hips back and forth) and doing standard sit-ups and crunches were creating a huge pain issue for me.  It wasn't "oh I worked out and I'm sore" I know what that feels like.  It was more "holy shit get that knife out of my hip!".  Very accute to one side and as I built up my work out routine and it's frequency it got worse and worse to the point I was limping.  Unable to lift my right leg the way I wanted to when I walked.  It was pretty horrible.  Pain scale was about a 7 on a scale of 1-10.  10 being the absolute worst pain you've ever experience and 1 being a fall on a fluffy pillow.  I've had a 10 before.  Actually it was more like a 15.  I had an explosive head ache one day while at work.  It came like a freight train out of no where, my head thumped so badly my vision was blurred.  I was on the phone with my husband at the time and all he remembers me saying is 'oh my God my head, my head, my head".  When it finally lost some of it's grip I drove myself home and headed to the E.R. fearful of what was causing this incredible pain (pain scale was approximately an 8).  I get mild head aches from time to time - it comes with my job.  But nothing like this.  This was violent.  It scared me.

The E.R. is no better for me than any other Heath Care location - racing heart, sweaty palms, butterflies in my stomach.  Thankfully my husband was with me and held my hand the whole time.  When they rolled me into the C.T. room all of the nurses were very nice to me - probably because my husband fixes said C.T. when it goes down so he knew them all.  They kept the lights on low and gave me a wash cloth size towel to put over my eyes.  It was sweet and I appreciated it.  Later in my room the nurse was attempting to insert an I.V. of their special Migrane Cocktail, however she was having difficulty finding a vein that would cooperate.  4 pokes later she called in the "expert poker" nurse who got it in one try right on top of my right hand.  They started to pump the medicine but something felt instantly wrong.  My forearm became extremely cold, like numbingly cold, painful cold.  I said "Oh my arm, my arm, what tha?"  And the nurse said "that's just the medicine traveling up your vein".  But I knew something wasn't right, what could I say though?  She didn't understand what I was feeling and my head hurt so bad I couldn't articulate what was wrong.  Slowly it started to fade and the actual migrane cocktail began to take it's sweet affect.  I'm fairly certain it was a combinaton of Benedryl and Toradol and maybe something else?  (You medical folks can fill in the blank).  Well before long I was passed out sleeping off my discomforts.

When I woke, they unhooked me and gave me very specific instructions on what sysmptoms to watch for, they were afraid I had menengitis (sp?) due to it's sudden onset and lack of anything serious on the C.T.  I refused the menengitis test (have you heard what's involved there??) and opted to head home feeling much better, albeit quite sore in my right arm.  I remember that was Fourth of July weekend, the Friday before the holiday.  That weekend we planned to have some friends over on the Sunday before the Holiday and bar-b-que some of my husband's famous ribs.  It was also at the very end of some home projects we were working on, all we had left to do was finish cleaning the house from all the construction.  I remember I soaked all the blinds in bleach that weekend and spent most of my time hunched over the bathroom sink scrubbing the dust off of them.  Probably not a good idea since my arm felt like it was broken.  BROKEN!  Pain scale sailing far beyond anthing I had ever felt before.  A possible 15 on the pain scale.  My arm was red and very swollen and it was all I could do to manage and get through the weekend.  After our friends had left (and after a mild kitchen mishap where I sliced a piece of flesh off my knuckle while shredding carrots for the salad.) I looked at my husband and said with a heavy sigh "I think we have to go back to the E.R. something is not right with my arm."  And so we went.  The P.A. who had attended to me two days earlier was working again and she said when she saw my name on the chart her heart sank because she thought I was back with more headache issues.  To her surprise I held up my arm and asked her what the hell was wrong with me.  She explained that what had happened was the Saline they used accidentally got pumped straight into my arm as opposed to the vein.  Therefore my arm was swollen with Saline and it needed time to work it's way through my system.  She gave me a script for anti-inflamatory and anti-biotics and sent me on my way.  We spent the evening in the parking lot at the Walgreen's watching the fire works while waiting for the Pharmacy to finish up.  I was advised to follow up with my Family Practice on the next business day, which unfortunately was on the following Tuesday due to the holiday break.

When I saw my Family Practice he advised me to get a brace for my wrist, gave me pain killers and a note to stay off work for a full week.  He explained that if I used my hand too much I risked the saline causing a blood clot that could travel up my arm to my heart and causing severe damage.  Thanks for freaking me out even more Doc.  Anyway the point of the story is that this was the most painful thing I have ever experienced.  Somewhat similar to a major tooth ache (of which I've had a few, and something I do not wish on my worst enemy).  So by comparison the pain I felt after working out quite a bit was not as bad as this, but still enough to make me stay off the Eliptical until I could see my doctor again and discuss my issues.

Very typical of any Doctor, when I explained my problem he said "Well if it hurts, don't do that."  Something I grew up hearing my Dad say who is a P.A., however, unfortunately not very helpful.  He then suggested getting traction done at Physical Therapy.  But again, being the chicken shit that I am and hurting as bad as I was I was afraid to go.  I was afraid it would make it worse and I was already limping and really couldn't handle anything like traction at the time.  Now that I'm feeling more healed from that I may give it a try but it will depend on how this Epidural works out.  My thoughts for finally going through with the shot was that maybe it would mask any hurt I feel while working out.  I won't go all G.I. Jane on it, but hopefully it will allow me to continue this healthy change and eventually maybe I will have done enough that I won't need the shot.  It's my hope anyway, it may be total flubber but it's helping me make it through.

So I scheduled an A.M. appointment for today, my arrival time?  7:45am.  If you've read my previous blog you know I am not now nor will I ever be a morning person.  Second downer?  No eating or drinking for 6 hours before the appointment.  I was so partched by the time the proceedure took place I was caughing a lot.  I had a damn tickle in the back of my throat.  Nothing to do but try and tough it out.  So I've barely slept, and I'm dying of thirst and I'm about to go through with something that has scared the crap out of me for months.  They took my blood pressure when I got there it was 115/75 which is a bit high for me.  I've been trying to pay attention to these things as of late.  I was clearly anxious.  Thankfully my husband was with me yet again, he not only held my hand as we walked in, but gently kept his hand on my leg while I waited.  He knew I was very nervous and was very sweet about it.  He's a good guy.

When they took me back to the X-ray room where the proceedure was to take place I was trying to calm myself by taking deep breaths and staring at the ground.  I could hear the nurses talking to me, telling me what they wanted me to do and what they were doing (lay on your stomach, scootch down, I'm going to lift your shirt up a bit and pull your pants down, I'm going to clean off your back, this will be cold...etc.)  The Doctor talked me to briefly, he explained the proceedure to me and talked to me about my pain and where it was localized so he could pin point the best place for the injection.  Due to the fact that my pain starts on the right side but gravitates to my left he thought two injections were in order.  Yes.  Two.  One on each side.  Did I mention they pulled my pants down to the bottom of my bottom?  So my cheeks are just out there, getting cold and feeling insecure while two female nurses moved around me quickly and the Doctor began the proceedure.

Doctor: "One prick and it will sting and burn for a few seconds"
Me: "Ok" and then "Ouchhhhhhshhhit."  Followed by me squeezing my eyes shut.
Doctor "And scan that" a pinch to my skin "And scan that" another pinch "And scan that" and then "Ok this is going to feel like pressure on your back and it will go down your leg"
Me: "Great."  Eyes still pinched shut.

This repeated on the other side and then thankfully it was all over.  The Doctor said it went nicely and they rolled me onto yet another gourney and offered me a soda.  They knew I was thirsty as hell and I eagerly accepted the cold Pepsi.  They had to take my blood pressure two more times before they would let me leave, I asked my husband to read it off to me the first time it went off 109/70, already more normalized.  I was feeling better albiet quite numb.  The nurse to checked me out asked me to rate my pain again but I couldn't on account of the fact that I couldn't really feel anything in my back at all.  Just discomfort but nothing serious.

The drive home was a bit worse, I guess sitting like that didn't help anything but I started to feel more and more uncomfortable and every time I moved I felt a pinch of some sort near the injection site.  Probably the band aid pulling my skin.  I was told that I would need to take the day off of work to heal.  But no one could tell me what it would be like, this recovery.  No one from my Ortho Doctor to the Nurse specialist who scheduled the appointment to the nurses doing the actual proceedure could explain it in any way that made sense.  When I told them I just felt weird they resonded by saying "until you've been through it, it's hard to explain what it feels like" Yea, no shit.  Its like the worst kind of aching.  My whole lower back just aches and aches.  No position is comfortable; sitting, laying down, standing it all sucks and I find myself adjusting every few minutes.  And yet, I'm still hopeful that this will help.  Apparently it can take as long as 2 full weeks for the steroid to take full affect and for me to feel better (so much for instant gratification), and still, I'm hopeful.  Maybe I'll be one of those people that gets results after only a few days.  Here's hoping.  So I've spent the day in varying degrees of pain and discomfort hopful that I will feel better tomorrow after I've had a chance to sleep it off. 

After a flustered post on Facebook I received a call from my Dad (the aforementioned P.A. or Physicians Assistant) to discuss my proceedure and give me some advise on moving forward.  I have always counted on my Dad for sound medical advice and I view his opinion in much higher esteem than any of the other doctors I have seen recently.  He was not too keen on my having had the shot citing that it's only ever a temporary fix and can make the situation worse.  He gave me some ideas for different types of physcial thereapy to try; Alexandria Technique, something that has been very affective for professional athletes and dancers.  I am a former Highland Dancer and it's very possible I have a long standing injury as the style of dance is extremely aggressive and hard on your body.  I will check it out, at this point I just want to do what ever I can to make my situation better.  I need to get through my every day life without pain or at least reduced amounts of pain.  I will give anything a shot at this point, hense the shot.

And so there it is.  Some of my current medical conditions coming from the mind of someone uneducated in these things and hopful for things to get better. 

Ok...But why are my arms numb?  My arms feel like they fell asleep hours ago into some kind of coma that they refuse to get up from.  Highly annoying.  If it gets any worse I'll head back to the E.R. as suggested by my P.A. Father, otherwise I'll call the Doctor's office tomorrow and let them know the situation.

C'est la vie.