Posts Tagged ‘disability’

26
Dec
2020

Since I haven’t actually mentioned this here…

categories: personal; word count: 318 words

At the local pain management clinic, I was put on 2,700mg of Gabapentin to see if it affected my migraines. I titrated up to it over the course of a month. Doctors have people titrate when they’re going up to higher doses to try and minimize the “medicated” effects that the medication is more than happy to provide, but I got there. And as I got there, a numbness began to form in my left hand that I didn’t pay much heed to until I realized that I could only really use my index finger and thumb, that I can not bear weight at all in my left hand, and if I want to type coherently with both hands I need to watch exactly where my left hand is because I hunt and peck by memory. The numbness kind of goes up my arm on that side, and I have milder numbness on the back of my left foot. Since it is helping, the decision was made to leave me on it for as long as is safe and tolerable, and I am adjusting in the meantime. I am also back on Fioricet, and recently had my dose upgraded from one pills to two as needed. If I can get away with it I only take one pill, but I know myself well enough by now. If the side effects from Gabapentin persist or get worse, I will titrate back down.

I was also put back on Olanzapine as needed for migraine abortion, but this medication has made me gain weight. Too much weight gain adversely affects my spirometry, and if it keeps going, my ability to breathe (so then there would be weight gain on top of my already pre-existing asthma). I take it only as I need it…

I am also thinking about having my primary care doctor upgrade my nortryptline from 50mg to 100mg, too.

20
Dec
2020

I should have done this awhile ago…

categories: personal; word count: 406 words

For the most part, I’ve transferred my neurological care from the neurologist that I was seeing one town over to the local pain management clinic here in my city. My primary care doctor was, and has been, in full support of this and thinks that it was (is? how do I phrase this?) the right thing to do. We discussed Botox when I was seen for the first time, which I am amenable to attempting… we just need to get insurance approval for it, or know that insurance denied the clinic’s attempt to seek approval for it from me so that we can appeal the denial. So far, no one relevant has heard anything back about whether it was denied or approved… so I guess that’s a waiting game, and we’ll see when we see. In the interim, and to have it on hand in the event that I need it, I’ve been prescribed Fioricet again, and we are currently working on getting me the highest dose and frequency of that medication which works, but not go beyond that unless we have to so that I don’t inure to it the same way triptans do in that they no longer work on me at all. “Fioricet is love, Fioricet is life” has become one of my biggest inside jokes, because to be honest, it works decently…

For me, for someone who very often doesn’t get a lot of pain relief other than by waiting it out, this is huge.

I also found out that I am on nearly the largest dose of Gabapentin. That is 3,000mg, and I am currently on 2,700mg. I’m also not sure if I’ve mentioned it here, but I’ve begun to develop peripheral neuropathy on my left side due to it… but as long as it helps migraines, which it does, I am reluctant to give that up unless I am made to give that up. The only major downside to this is that I am left-side dominant. My left ring finger, left pinkie finger, and the area going downward from that to my elbow is numb now. I also can’t bear weight on or with my left hand. But like I’ve said, if it makes a sizable dent in the pain, I am willing to live with all that.

The back of my left foot is also numb, which means that I have to be careful walking, but… see above, heh.

22
Nov
2020

I was so busy that it actually skipped my mind.

categories: consoles, personal; word count: 367 words

Part of me did want to give NaNoWriMo the “old college try”, as they say, but I became so busy during the month of November that it completely skipped my mind. At some point I do want to participate in it, though. Or, at the very least, compose an entire manuscript in a month’s time (or… approximately a month’s time).

I’m not sure if I covered it here or not, but I’ve been reunited with Fioricet to treat the most painful of migraines, and I’m finding that it works better than any triptan ever has… but the bar is low for that, because triptans do not work on me. I get most of the side effects from taking them, but I stopped getting substantial pain relief years ago. I feel like the local pain management clinic is taking me more seriously when I tell them which medications do not work on me at all as compared to which ones actually help, especially now that I’ve had two visits with them. Around here, you visit with them monthly once you’re an established patient.

In other news, I bought Bub Sackboy for the PlayStation 4 since actually being able to purchase a PlayStation 5 seems like it’s closer to an act of God. At one point, I had one in my Walmart cart ready to check out with it, but the site crashed so badly that by the time I could load my cart to check out, all of them had already been sold. This annoyed me quite a bit, and it continues to annoy me that Sony has mismanaged the pre-ordering of this console and the actual ordering of this console as badly as they have. I’d just like to be able to buy this without there being any massive hiccups along the way preventing me from doing so. But Bub is down for the LittleBigPlanet life, so he’s not going to mind what console it’s on as long as he can play it with me and it runs well. (Still, though, I would like to get my hands on a PlayStation 5…)

And I’m making a Christmas list for myself since the kids’ Christmas lists are more or less complete.

20
Nov
2020

That didn’t go that bad… I hope it didn’t.

categories: personal; word count: 359 words

I feel like my disability hearing went alright. It could have been a lot worse than it actually was, but I’m bracing myself for the potential impact of being denied and having to continue to fight for disability benefits by putting in a new application after the sixty days that I can appeal the judge’s ruling have elapsed. Just as with the presidential election, I brace for the worst possibility and hope for the best. I’ve begun to see the local pain management clinic, and they put me on Gabapentin since I had been on Topamax for years and… well, it didn’t seem to be working that well if I was having migraines at this frequency and severity. I was also put back on Fioricet, which has worked better for me than any triptan ever has, although I’m to take less of them a month. I guess that’s because we don’t want this to stop working like the triptans obviously have.

We’re also in the midst of another COVID-19 (coronavirus) spike, presumably because people still took their kids out for Halloween in spite of the consequences and risk. Bub and Monster stayed home with a bag of candy that I had intentionally bought for them to give to them on Halloween, and I had to explain to Monster a few times that we weren’t going out for Halloween this year and why in a manner that he could more easily understand. I don’t think we’re going to have any problems come the Thanksgiving that we… don’t celebrate for ethical reasons, simply because we’re not inviting anyone over or really even going anywhere.

I need to fix my treadmill, too. The track that you walk on (do you call it a track? I’m not going to look this up right now)… moves from left to right as you walk, if that makes any sense, rather than staying firm on the treadmill and only moving backwards when you walk. This has contributed to me being clumsy on the treadmill. I’m going to get a lot less out of it if I have to walk slower and constantly watch myself using it…

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