Pain clinic and Michael Phelps keeps on winning

The appointment at the pain clinic, this past Thursday, went rather well but the outcome was not what I had expected.  The doctor whom I saw, Dr. Panozzo, concluded that the intense pain I have been experiencing is not from the MS (although it is, most likely, making it worse) but from arthritis.  Arthritis?  All this hell is coming from arthritis???  Oh my goodness!  I cannot even begin to imagine how much worse this pain would be if I did not take Glucosamine Chondroitin triple strength twice per day, every day, for years now!  I was told I had some arthritis in my shoulders many years ago and that this supplement would help in relieving the pain, which it has, so I have been very faithful in taking it.  My chiropractor has also mentioned that I have some arthritis in my hips and back so while I wasn't completely surprised in what Dr. Panozzo said, I was shocked beyond belief by the horrible agony I felt when he poked me in two separate areas.  One was on my right, upper butt cheek, almost at my waist (I think this is called the flank?) and the other was on my right hip.  I am STILL feeling pain where he applied pressure and it's been over twenty-four hours since it occurred.  Damn.  This arthritis is a bitch!

One of the decisions I chose to make, after discussing it with Dr. Panozzo, is that it appears receiving Cortisone injections is my only alternative for relief, unless I wish to take oral medications.  Honestly, this pain is too severe to consider oral meds as the only way out of this!  I asked him how much of a chance there was that the Cortisone would raise my blood sugar levels and he said 100%.  Ugh.  This was not what I wanted to hear.  The good thing is that he said the higher blood sugar could last as little as one day, but possibly as long as four days.   OK, I can deal with that.  I was thinking it would go on much longer than this, so I have chosen to have my first injection this coming Wednesday.  I'm in too much pain to worry over this anymore.  I need relief!

Michael Phelps waving at me.  Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Not much else has been going on with me since I'm mostly home and in pain, but watching the London 2012 Olympics is a lovely distraction.  My television is on from the moment I wake up until bedtime.  I find myself wanting the USA to win more of the events during the summer games than during the winter Olympics, but this could be because I simply adore swimmer Michael Phelps who just finished winning his 22nd career medal (18th gold!), I always cheer on the beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings and I love USA gymnastics (mostly the women although they are really just girls!).  For other events, I base my opinion on who I feel deserves the win most of all.

Michael may be only 27 but ooh la la!  I can still look..

Now I'll just wait until Wednesday and see how the Cortisone injection works for me.  I hope it's as miraculous as it has been for so many others!  I could use such a miracle right about now.