Aug 19 2014

Wow so I do not know where to start. It has been a long time since I have took the time to update this, but I want to get it done. Alot has happened since the last time I have wrote. Lets go back to the first week Aug 2013. That was a very ruff week in regards to the pain. I had met with Jacob the medtronic rep and he had looked at my batter. It appeared that my battery was in a very poor condition and needed replacement. Jacob was trying to coordinate surgery to have a new stim battery put in asap. Well Aug 7th 2013 came and I woke up feeling very weird.  The pain that day was un-real and almost as bad as it has ever been. I spent a few hours on the floor laying on ice packs and taking my meds, but nothing was working. I finally decided to call my Dad and have him come down to take me to the ER. We took the trip over to Kaiser North ER and by that time the stimulation feeling was just about gone ( I knew the battery was almost dead as Jacob had told me that this was going to happen). As always Kaiser North ER staff took great care of me and the ER doctor was fantastic! Long story short I was admitted to the hospital and was also highly medicated. The next day the battery was replaced. Since a change in technology took place this time I got a different battery. This type of battery is a rechargeable battery (I have to recharge it about every 4 days and it takes 4-5 hours) I was told that this battery would handle my settings alot better (which it has) Aug 8, 2013 I was sent home and Nicole and my family took great care of me. Don't let me forget that Nicole was pregnant with our son at the time (Due Sept 2 2013)   Lets say that I was still very sore when Joey was born (Sept 3, 2013) and I was also still on medical leave.  Since Aug 2013 I have had the programming of the stim changes a few times. I want to say its been changed 3 times now since it was put in. Since the last update I was also diagnosed with myofasical pain syndrome, fibromyalgia (Nov 2013)  and a complicated form of sleep apnea.(a few months ago)  To help with the MPS I have got 2 different sets of trigger point injections (Nov 2013) and today (8/19/2014). I went back to work a few months after the stim battery was replaced.  Within the last 20 days I have started using CPAP when I sleep. Right now its a love hate relationship. It does help with how I feel in the morning, but it is not comfy at all!  I am starting to get use to it though. Today I also got to meet a new rep from medtronic (Katie)  She came in today for my apt because Jacob was not able to. Katie was very nice and took the time to listen to what has changed in the stimulation and how the pain patters have shifted. She completely erased all of my programming and started over. The changes she has made has helped  so far. Today the pain has been about 2/10 where for the last 3-4 weeks it has been 7-8/10.  So far I am very happy with the changes Katie has made. For those of you that know how the stims work Katie also opened up the pulse width setting. With this setting I can change the coverage area and shift the stimulation around to different areas if I need to. This will be very helpful on days where the pain is really bad. Overall I was glad to meet with Dr. Youseffi today and get the trigger point injections. We hope this set lasts as long as the ones did in Nov 2013.  I also hope these settings will cont to provide a great amount of relief.  Before I end this I do want to say that being a father is one of the greatest things that has happened! It has been so fun watching Joey grow and playing with him as he develops and changes every day!  I also want to give a big thanks to Nicole for standing by my side every day and night making sure I keep my head up. I also want to thank all of my family and friends for every thing you have done and I will do my best to keep this updated more frequently :) ~ JR