January 14, 2008

Worst Flare of My Life

I used the compound for months and saw some improvement. I didn’t grow a beard and I’m naturally always in the mood when I’m around my man, so as far as I can tell the testosterone did nothing but improve the condition of my skin.

But the compound only did so much. The most effective way to quiet a flare was still higher dose of Lyrica.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I did 4 stupid sit-ups on a hard floor. It became uncomfortable, so I stopped. This VERY careless action started a flare that I couldn’t get under control. 4 stupid sit-ups! That’s all!

Unlike my normal flares, I was in pain virtually all the time. My only break from pain was when I first woke up in the morning, but as soon as I got to work and sat for a little while the pain came right back. And yes, I was sitting on my doughnut!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the pain seemed to clear up. From Friday to Sunday of that week, I was pain-free. But only an hour and a half into Monday that same constant burning returned. It was then that I realized that sitting was causing my problem.

I made an appointment with my doctor to discuss my conclusion. He agreed that sitting for 8 hours a day was most likely contributing to my pain condition. He suggested I try a block to see if that could knock out the flare.

He had never suggested a block before and I wasn’t sure what that meant. For a block, the doctor goes through the vag wall and injects a steroid and a numbing medication into the pudendal nerve. At this point, 5 weeks into the worst flare I had ever had, I was willing to do anything.

In order to have the injection, I needed someone to drive me home. The numbing medication sometimes made people a little wobbly on their legs, which could be very dangerous when your legs are controlling the progress of a moving vehicle.

I didn’t have a driver, so I needed to reschedule and come back. Because I was going to be traveling in the coming days, I decided to wait it out and try the injections over the Christmas holiday.