Jan 02 The Pain You Feel Today Will Be The Strength You Feel Tomorrow ~Anonymous

It’s been eight weeks since the last round, so it was back to Indiana today for more prolotherapy.  Just recently I have had some upper rib/neck pain on my right side that has been waking me up at night, so I was eager to see what Dr. Cantieri thought, and if he would be able to treat it. 

It was an uneventful trip to Mishawaka, listening to a Widespread Panic show on Sirius.  The trip flew by and once we arrived, we had time to get gas, eat, AND go to the Life is Good store.  That never happens.

At Corrective Care, it was the same ol’ drill: blood pressure, heart rate, rate my pain…except wonderful nurse Deena asked if I wanted to use my weight from last time.  I had already spit out “YES” before she had finished asking.  I feel like I have been eating my way through the holidays, and was dreading stepping on that scale.

When Dr. C came in, we caught up, chatting about the new year, his new grandbaby, and the bowl games.  Then it was time to get down to business.  I showed him where I have had most of my pain recently, and he did quite a bit of manual, manipulative medicine on my ribs.  He felt that my ribs had subluxed and were pinching a nerve, giving me some numbness in my hand.  He was able to decrease my pain quite a bit, by gently guiding my ribs back into place, but decided that he would also try some injections to see if they would do the rest of the job.

As Dr. Cantieri examined me, and mapped out all of the injection spots, it was really encouraging that my lower ribs were not giving me problems, and I had less places for him to inject than ever before.  It was clear that my areas of focus for this visit were my upper back, neck, and jaw.  As he began the injections, I did what I always do…talk and talk and talk Dr. Cantieri’s ear off, to forget what is happening.  This strategy was successful until he got to my jaw.  It’s kinda hard to chat someone up with needles sticking in your jaw.  And those ended up being the most painful.  Go figure.

Anyways, after having my jaw injected, I was finished for another two months.

I like to call it having my EDS tune up.

I have been drinking lots of water and sleeping most of the afternoon.  I’m definitely in recovery mode, and will be a slow mover the rest of the day, but hopefully I will be good to go work in my classroom tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

(For those of you who want more info about prolotherapy, you can read more about it here.)

Or feel free to ask me.  I am definitely not a doctor or an expert by any means, but I’ve had enough treatments that I feel I can help explain the actual treatment, and my take on it.  I always tell people, that so far, it has saved me from having a skull-c2 fusion and to me, that makes the travel, money, and pain all worth it.

Warning: I bled, and swelled up quite a bit this time so hopefully the following pics don’t make you want to throw up.