Aa
ice cream headache all over
I have some strange pain going on that morphine isn't making go away. It is like an ice cream headache, but it's in my arms and legs instead of my head. I don't know what this is or what it would be called or caused by. I have arthritis and fibromyalgia, but this is neither of those. currently I am on increased steroids and so all the joint pain and stiffness is let up or controlled by the morphine that I take, but this pain isn't touched by the morphine. I wake up with it immediately. it just won't go away. if I get cold it gets worse. i I get hit with a cold breeze it gets much worse. has anybody heaed of this kind of pain? Does anybody know what would cause it?
Yup. that is what the traction therapy is primarily intended for, I believe. Those other therapies sound mighty primitive. :) the hot and cold soaks sound ok. One thing that I use to do for my rheumatoid arthritis was to soak my hands in one of those parafin wax things. that helped my hands a lot. Maybe one of those would be helpful? it feels really good to soak hands in warm parafin.
So far, I have not yet worked with a physical therapist. The first consultant, the ortho dr who first diagnosed me, had see me, told me to get a scrub brush, and scrub a large square pattern on a counter, or floor 4 times a day. That has helped some what.
A nurse, who attends the same church that I do, told me to get a tennis ball, cut a slit in it, and squeeze it. Squeezing it hurts, and is hard to do, but will probably help. She also told me to wash dishes using warm water, scrubing them with my affected hand. This helps. Also to alternate hot and cold soakes for my hand.
Your neck traction therapy sounds like it would be nice for my cervical spondylosis (which is a real pain in the neck :-P ).
RSDS_Pain
A nurse, who attends the same church that I do, told me to get a tennis ball, cut a slit in it, and squeeze it. Squeezing it hurts, and is hard to do, but will probably help. She also told me to wash dishes using warm water, scrubing them with my affected hand. This helps. Also to alternate hot and cold soakes for my hand.
Your neck traction therapy sounds like it would be nice for my cervical spondylosis (which is a real pain in the neck :-P ).
RSDS_Pain
My doctor has been giving me B12 shots every week for the past 3 weeks and that has fixed the ice cream headache all over pain. However, I still have the pain in my legs and my feet have been numb about halfway up to my knees now for a few weeks. I cannot attribute that to the B12 shots because I have has this happen before for periods of time. However, this time round, it is much worse and causing me to stumble when I walk. My pain doc's assistant did a neural scan yesterday and although they said it wouldn't hurt, it did hurt. By the time I felt anything, the sensation I felt was pain like being poked with something hot. I have no idea what anyone is going to do to help me at this point. The doctor has not yet evaluated my test, so I don't know what it showed up. The assistant said it was odd because my L5 had a much higher threshold than the other nerves and that it was the same on both sides. I guess that would make sense because I have the pain and numbness problem on both sides. I wish that someone would do something to make this go away. I cannot do my job at work because it requires sitting in a chair, and I cannot do that without excruciating pain in my legs that my pain medicine is not able to control. :( Unfortunately, my pain level is very high. If I am lying down on my sofa, it is about a two, but if I am standing, it is about a four and if sitting in a chair it is a big ol 7 or 8. That much pain is too intense for me to be able to deal with and be able to concentrate on writing software. My primary care physician did up my FMLA papers, so I will just have to take a break from the chair for a while. If I go a day without sitting, the next day at work isn't too bad. However, if I do the sitting in the chair for 2 days in a row, it is really bad the second day and crazy bad on the third day. Today is Wednesday and so I am giving my nerves a break and I'm going to work from home while lying down on my sofa. Thank goodness for sofas, laptops, and remote access.
My pain doctor has done some nerve blocks and they help for a couple of days, but the relief doesn't last. At least the B12 she was injecting me with at the same time has been helpful. What kind of physical therapy are you getting? Is it helping? I got physical therapy for a while for the problem I was having with my neck, it was traction therapy, but not really what you would think of as traction therapy. Really, they just massaged my neck while stretching my head out from the rest of me. That was very helpful. I vote that you get that kind of therapy too, even if it isn't required. It is very relaxing and really helped me with the radicular pain I was having in my arms. :)
My pain doctor has done some nerve blocks and they help for a couple of days, but the relief doesn't last. At least the B12 she was injecting me with at the same time has been helpful. What kind of physical therapy are you getting? Is it helping? I got physical therapy for a while for the problem I was having with my neck, it was traction therapy, but not really what you would think of as traction therapy. Really, they just massaged my neck while stretching my head out from the rest of me. That was very helpful. I vote that you get that kind of therapy too, even if it isn't required. It is very relaxing and really helped me with the radicular pain I was having in my arms. :)
The specialist, that I saw last Tuesday, confirmed that I have CRPS / RSDS. Since my pain level is not too high, (even without hydrocodone) about a 2 or 3 on a scale of 0 (no pain and feeling good) to 10 (worst pain I can imagine), he decided to wait on doing a sympathetic nerve block. He recomended more physical therapy.
Maybe a sympathetic nerve block would help you.
Maybe a sympathetic nerve block would help you.
I am fortunate that I have a pretty good job and disability insurance and all that. It is really difficult trying to keep the job and keep from having to use the disability insurance. My job requires a lot of concentration and it's pretty difficult to concentrate when having an ice cream headache all over, especially when they like to keep offices around 72 degrees and the lowest temp i can stand is about 78 degrees. If sounds pretty difficult for you with not having any specialists around and being disabled. If you are trying to disability from social security, just make sure that you have an attorney. I think that they just have a blanket policy of rejecting all claims unless an attorney is affiliated with the case.
My last employment ended in January of 2001. I am too disabled to work, but not disabled enough to collect disability. :-( I am a vetern, so I get my meds through the VA; even though the nearest VA medical center is almost 200 miles away, in the next state. I live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere. The entire county (large) has fewer people in it than many towns (a little over 10,000). I live less than 3 blocks from the only hospital in the county, but it is only staffed by 5 family practice doctors.
thanks for your reply. I knew that you were only a patient with the disorder, so I didn't expect expert knowledge. however, you have been helpful. Sucks about nearly running out of pain medication. I am lucky to have a pain mgmt doctor, so I am lucky there. I would be a total unemployed basketcase if i didn't have the pain mgmt doctor. At least I am able to function well enough to keep my job... thus far. :)
I am just a patient with RSDS, and no expert. Most of what I know of this syndrome I learned on the internet.
Mine developed after I fell and fractured my left distal radius (wrist), last July. I have only been dealing with this for a couple of months, I was diagnosed last Sept. 26. Next Tuesday, the 23rd of October, I have an appointment to be evaluated for a sympathetic nerve block.
My hand sweats more, now, than it did before I fell. It is thought that RSDS messes-up the sympathetic nervous system, which controls sweating, among other functions.
For pain I was perscribed hydrocodone, but only one bottle, and now that I am nearly out I have cut way back on my dosage.
Mine developed after I fell and fractured my left distal radius (wrist), last July. I have only been dealing with this for a couple of months, I was diagnosed last Sept. 26. Next Tuesday, the 23rd of October, I have an appointment to be evaluated for a sympathetic nerve block.
My hand sweats more, now, than it did before I fell. It is thought that RSDS messes-up the sympathetic nervous system, which controls sweating, among other functions.
For pain I was perscribed hydrocodone, but only one bottle, and now that I am nearly out I have cut way back on my dosage.
Additional Note: My doctor used to have me on a fentanyl patch which worked really well. I was on the 75mcg one. The problem was that because I always run a low-grade fever, I was absorbing the full contents of the patch within the first 36 hours. My doctor would allow me to change the patch every 48 hours, but would not change it to 36 hours. Therefore, she changed me over to methadone which didn't help me at all. After 2 weeks of that, during which time I used up my whole month of breakthrough meds because the methadone did nothing for me; she changed me to 24 hour release morphine which is expensive and is better than the methadone, but I still have to take breakthrough meds at least once a day. The next time I go back I am going to ask if I can get a lower dose of the fentanyl patch to use and change at 36 hours. I am hoping she will go along with that because I am not functioning very well because of the degree of the pain. I can't sleep because it wakes me up every couple of hours, and I am in pain non-stop from the time I wake up until I fall asleep. So, the additional note question has to do with the types of opiods. I don't know if you know anything about this. But if you do, do you know why it is that fentanyl works so much better than methadone or morphine? The fentanyl does make me a little sleepy and that is unfortunate, but at least I can function without being in so much pain constantly.
I looked this up and it mentioned sweating. Do you know what is up with that? I ask because one part of the problem is that no matter how cold I am, I frequently break out in a sweat and actually sweat so much that I end up sort of dehydrated. I'll be totally freezing and in really bad pain, and have sweat dripping off of me like I have been running a marathon in a heat wave. I have told the doctors about this. I also run a low-grade fever all of the time around 99.5 to 100.5 even while I am freezing and. Have you ever heard of this type of thing happening? I keep a bath towel with me walking around the house and driving in the car because I sweat so much. I don't take it into the office with me or into the grocery store because that would just be too weird, but I need it to wipe the sweat away because having all of the water on me makes me even colder which makes the pain even worse. Please let me know if you have heard of this and what causes it and how I could maybe stop it. Thanks.
Please check my reply to Hoku in the Burning excruciating pain in thighs thread.
The fact that if you get cold the pain gets worse, and a breeze is excruciating leads me to suspect that you have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSDS / CRPS). From what I have read, fibromyagia sometimes goes along with this syndrome.
Google this syndrome and see if it fits. Hope this helps. You are not alone in your pain.
The fact that if you get cold the pain gets worse, and a breeze is excruciating leads me to suspect that you have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSDS / CRPS). From what I have read, fibromyagia sometimes goes along with this syndrome.
Google this syndrome and see if it fits. Hope this helps. You are not alone in your pain.
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