Scattered Thoughts . . .

B y mid-week last week, I started using my cane because my lumbar spinal pain was making it difficult to walk.  I would also get stabbing pains in the tops of my feet that would hit me like lightning.  At the time, my constant pain level was in the four to five out of ten range.   Unfortunately, this pain did not pass quickly...  definitely not as quickly as I would like.  By the weekend, my pain level increased to the unbearable seven to eight range.  I could not get comfortable.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't do anything.  The pain was constantly unbearable. I took two Aleves on Saturday but they didn't touch the pain.  I got no relief whatsoever.  The pain continued to get worse into the night.  By 1:30am, even dozing for a few minutes was impossible.  Getting to the bathroom in the wee hours of Sunday morning was unbearably excruciating.  All day Sunday, the pain was well in the eight to eight-plus range.   On Saturday and Sunday, I used an ice pack on my lumbar spine a

Not a day goes by when I don't turn a certain way or lift something incorrectly or simply breath incorrectly that I am instantly slammed with spinal pain that is enough to trigger my body to involuntarily buckle at the knees.  In those daily instances, I manage to catch myself before hitting the floor.  This morning, I awoke with spinal pain in my lumbar spine.  I got up out of bed and instantly fell to the floor, a heap of red-hot nerves in excruciating pain... wedged between the wall, the nightstand and the little step-stool to help get in and out of our rather tall bed.   I've had a nasty cold...  perhaps the flu, I don't know which nor do I care...  for the past three weeks.  I still have nasty, thick phlegm running down my throat at night so I try to sleep propped up on three pillows to keep me from choking.  This helps me breath, typically, but it is terrible for my spinal injuries.  Anyway, the cold is still lingering, causing problems, and getting my abnormally ex

Late last night, my spine suddenly was on fire... I had difficulty getting up out of my chair... I had difficulty sleeping... rolling over was excruciating. Today is even worse. The pain has been absolutely brutal.  The pain is a searing, burning pain in the lower half of my spine... radiating to my hips, around my kidneys and through my groin... whenever I try to put any weight on my legs, my legs experience tremors and the pain instantly jumps to a big fat 10 on the 10 point pain scale.  There are times when I almost ended up on the floor because I could not stand on my feet without actually seeing stars due to the intense pain. Reaching out for the couch, the bed, a chair and the kitchen table helped me keep from being a heap on the floor. This has been an exceptionally bad day. Most times, despite my extensive spinal injuries, I get around just fine (with pain, but I get around just fine) but there are times when my spinal injuries are excruciatingly painful. During these pai

Those of us struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis, and all its variants, have to contend daily with a long list of symptoms. These symptoms are sometimes mild and sometimes debilitating. The symptoms can affect my legs one day and my brain the next. Sometimes symptoms are neurological in nature and sometimes they are affecting my organs. Sometimes symptoms affect my gastro-intestinal tract and sometimes symptoms affect my skin like a burning, hyper-sensitive rash. Sometimes the symptoms can be widespread throughout my body all at the same time. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. One common symptom which can be relatively mild or excruciatingly debilitating is bone and joint pain. Today has been excruciatingly debilitating with this far too typical bone and joint pain.  All my long bones hurt... this is a deep pain felt to the core of my body. All my joints feel like they are being stabbed particularly when using them. Even opening a previously opened jar is so painful