Nerve Block #3 and other things

On Thursday I had my third nerve block plus more ketamine along with it. I woke up that morning with a migraine, so of course I was nauseous going in and I couldn't take anything for it. My mom, because you need a driver, told them about my migraine, so the anesthesiologist gave me something for it through the IV, I don't know what it was. After this block I had a really crazy dream that was just lots of bright and vivid colors that kept rushing by quickly, and it seemed to go on for a really long time. I guess you could say it was some kind of tripped out dream? I woke up on my stomach, as always with the blocks, and usually it takes awhile to become aware of each body part and work them all together as you wake up (it's weird and hard to explain unless you've been through it, but if you have you know what I mean) but this time I was so dizzy ever since I started waking up. Everything in the room kept moving, and I would see things that weren't there. After the required time to be on my stomach, the nurse came over and told me I could flip over. I did, and right after that she had me getting dressed.

Now I still felt really dizzy, but I'm not the kind of person who will say "wait, I don't feel good", but rather just push through and wait til it goes away on its own. So I got dressed, and I barely finished and I just froze, because I felt so sick. My vision went from double to blurry. The nurse came and saw me and asked if I was nauseous, and I said yes, so she brought me a bowl just in time. But then she took my IVs out and wheeled me out to my car, where my mom was waiting. I was still dizzy at that point, and I couldn't even look at anyone directly. Luckily she gave me a clean bowl to take with me. In the car I recovered from the dizziness but I was just really nauseous. I got sick once on the ride home, and then continued to for the rest of the day. I was a mess, I sat on the couch and for awhile kept drifting in and out of sleep. Any time I tried to eat something I didn't keep it down for long. I would try to do schoolwork on my laptop, but I would have to keep stopping because I felt so nauseous.

I'm really not sure what my reaction was from, but it was awful. I don't see my doctor until the 21st so I won't know anything new until then.

I filed with my school's Office for Disability Services finally. I don't think they'll be able to do much for me, unfortunately, but at least having my professors know now and for the semesters to come about my disease might help me out.

My sensitivity in my knees has gotten worse, and I just can't stand it at all anymore. I wear braces on them whenever I leave the house or am going to be on my feet a lot, but I recently bought sleeves that I can slip on my knees the rest of the time, so I don't always have to wear the braces, because they get to be painful after awhile. These sleeves are great for when I'm at home, because they protect my knees from my pants really well. The freezing cold weather is also not doing good things for my hands, I'm afraid. I get random burning pain sometimes in my hands and arms, as well as my thighs, but only sometimes right now. Also sometimes my hands will become very hot or painful to touch.

~~
Finally, I've been thinking a lot lately about not spending time worrying about things that you can't change; that you have no control over. I've been worried about my grades, for example, because I've had to miss several classes due to RSD, but in the end I realized that there's nothing I could have changed, so it is what it is. I think that's a good approach for anyone to go at life with. If nothing can be done about something, don't waste your time worrying about it, that's what it is. BUT if there's something that you can do something about, then by all means put your energy into helping yourself in those cases :)

Updates

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've just been busy. Here are some updates.

All is the same, basically, on the celiac front. I went to a restaurant called BD's last week that I have visited before many times and love, and I am so glad I can continue eating there now. I highly recommend it to anyone, including celiacs, because it's a delicious Mongolian Barbecue meal, and they have an allergy zone so you don't have to be worried about cross contamination! They have rice noodles, and list which sauces are GF. It's so great :D

For my birthday meal on Saturday, I chose a local Brazilian steakhouse. I've never been to this particular one before, but it has good reviews online. And I contacted them to make sure the seasonings on the meat are GF, which they are. So it'll be a nice meal that I can eat, and I love going to Brazilian steakhouses because I went to Brazil in 2004 and that was the kind of meals I ate there, so it reminds me very much of being in Brazil.

So far the plans for Thanksgiving are going good. We're celebrating at my aunt's house, and the way she's cooking the turkey is fine for me. I'm also bringing pumpkin pie which we're making homemade and GF, and we're picking up GF rolls for me too. So there should be enough I can have for a meal :)

I saw my pain management doctor last week, and she thinks it's good that the first nerve block worked for 5 hours, so I'm having another one tomorrow morning, and hopefully this one will last longer. She also doubled my dose of gabapentin (from 300 mg 2x a day to 400 mg 3x a day) and I haven't had any problems with side effects from that, which is good. The increased dose might actually even be helping my pain a little bit! It's hard to tell right now if it's the meds working or I'm just on a stretch of good days. I guess time will tell.

I'm going to start looking into meeting with my university's disability office. I keep missing or being late to my first class since I can only park in the closest lot due to the pain, and that lot is so packed that you have to keep circling around waiting for people to leave, and hoping you're in the right place at the right time to get a spot.

I really need to wear gloves any time I go out now that the weather's colder, I think. My hands are super sensitive to the cold. I had mild frostbite in my fingers and toes a couple years ago, and I think that could increase my risk of the RSD spreading to them?? I don't know, I'm definitely no expert. But I want to take as many precautions as I can.

Oh and I told my doctor about my left foot that keeps getting hot, many times a day. She took note of it, and said it's a symptom. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn't mean spreading to my foot.