Sorry that it has been so long in between posts. I've just felt pretty lost and down lately leaving me not wanting to post anything. Plus we've been moving.

As I said, the pain specialist started me on a combined regimen of Zonegran and Cymbalta. After being on the Zonegran for almost a month and a half and the Cymbalta for 2 1/2 weeks I called him and let him know that they were doing nothing for my pain. When I say nothing I do mean nothing. I am in just as much pain now as I was almost three months ago. His only reply was that I hadn't been on the Cymbalta long enough and needed to stay on it. Then he refused to give me anything at all to help with the pain until the Cymbalta supposedly kicks in. :(

At this point, I'm not a good person to be around. After almost three months of nonstop pain I am grouchy, short tempered with Vin, and just don't want to do much of anything because moving hurts so much. So much for the Cymbalta helping the pain much less my mood. Junk!

The only thing that came from that phone call was me ending up crying and them moving my appointment up a week. Needless to say that on September 1st the pain specialist better be ready for me because I'm at the end of my patience meter. I swear if he pushes basically wanting me to have depression one more time I'm firing him and just going to the general practioner to start over on regular pain meds. If this pain is suppose to last 4-6 months then by the time I make my way through them all again the pain should finally be gone.

First it was I had to give the Zonegran time to take effect. That was three weeks almost a month with no results. Then it was well take the Zonegran AND this Cymbalta for the next six weeks. Two and half weeks into that... nothing. You would think I would at least be feeling SOMETHING by that point but no. Continue taking it and see you in 3 weeks he says. Jerk!

So anyway- I'm in pain, still have this "thing" in my forearm because I haven't been able to make it down to Tampa, and I've been feeling pretty sick lately. Another lovely new thing that has come up is the fact that everytime I sweat I itch. If I sweat on my neck it feels like someone has wrapped a piece of fiberglass around my neck. It itches so badly and I break out in a lovely red rash. My old neighbor said she had heard something like that before and it was an allergic reaction to the person's own sweat brought on chemically from a med they were on. I got to thinking and stopped taking the Zonegran for a few days. The first day after I stopped we were moving and I sweat and itched but only about half as badly with the same red rash. The second day I only itched about 1/4th as bad as usual and the rash was alot lighter. By the third day I only had slight itching and no rash or pain. I could be wrong but I do believe it started shortly after I started on the Zonegran. I plan on calling the doctor AGAIN tomorrow and letting them know. If they'll even listen.

The kids had bloodwork done about a week and a half ago. I had full blood counts done on both just to check everything with them. Everything of Sis's came back fine and her thyroid levels are stable so she doesn't have to up her dosage. Her calcium has also continued to stay great. Everything for Big B came back fine except his thyroid levels. His calcium is looking good and we will start backing down on the Calcitrol for him to one daily for a week and then one every other day for two weeks when he will go back in for more bloodwork. If his calcium still looks good then we will stop the Calcitrol and go back in another three weeks to see if his parathyroid is working on it's own. Big B's thyroid meds needed to be increased yet again to 137mg daily. He is now on a higher dose than I am! I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that he is so active or what. I really do need to research thyroid info so I will know what's going on.

Last Wednesday Big B, Sis, and myself all had an appointment with the dermatologist. I just had Big B's keloids in his neck scar checked and acne/skin checked just to make sure he was looking okay. He was given the option of having a steroid injection to smooth out the scar some which he decided he wanted to try. It looked painful but probably only pinched a little. He was also prescribed some creams for acne.

I had my keloids checked, my moles checked, and my acne as well. With the keloids it was the same option as Big B or I could get some silicone sheeting to wear on my neck 12-18 hours a day. I told him I wasn't too worried about how it looked right now. I just wanted to find out if scar tissue could be causing some of my pain. He said that no he didn't think so and I told him I would check into the injections after the pain thing was taken care of. My moles are noncancerous so that was pretty great. To finally have something on my body be NONcancerous! WOW! lol. I'm going to have some of them removed later on because they rub on my clothing and get caught sometimes. As for the acne, I was given creams as well.

Now, on to Sis. I had her keloids checked in her neck scar, the discolored itchy patch on her back, and the alapecia on her head. She was given the option of injections for the keloids and said no way so that was fine. I wasn't going to make her do anything she didn't want to. The dermatologist said he felt the patch on her back was a form of eczema and prescribed her a medicated tape that we have to apply to her back about once a day. So far it itches even more and drives her nuts. lol. The tender spot on her scalp where she had the alapecia he had to take samples from to check if a fungus might be causing the tenderness. We should get those results back in about a week. So everything was pretty mellow and easy.

That's basically it for now. I'm tired and beaten up from moving. I sweated too much and probably should have upped my steroids but didn't think to. If I feel sick in a few days then I will take care of it. For now I'm just too tired to care. :)