Pain-Yesterday and Today

Last night I was in a whole lot of pain. My lower back, right side only, was very inflammed. There was mild flank pain but severe inflammation of everything else in the area, including muscles and joints. It was pretty bad. All I did was rest yesterday. I tried ice packs first but they didn't help much. The pain was too deep and widespread for the ice pack to cover it. So I took a pain pill, always my last resort, expecting relief. It didn't end up helping at all. The pain was just uncontrollable. I paid close attention to it, though, because the location made me feel suspicious that it might be connected to the kidney situation. It's hard to sort out, though, because it could've just been a joint pain flare. I decided to just watch it closely and see if it improves. It's always troubling when pain medicine doesn't off enough relief because there's no where else to go from there. I usually try NSAIDs, muscle relaxants, ice and rest before I take an instant-release morphine. If none of that helps or the pain isn't controlled well-enough to function through whatever it is I need to do, then I feel a pain pill is justified. I don't take them very often. When even a pain pill isn't enough, there's nothing else I can do medically. I can't take more than one and I can't overdo any of the other meds either. I can use relaxation and guided imagery to cope with the pain but that's about it. Last night, nothing helped. Even on all of that medicine,  all I could do was lie there in pain and hope it would go away soon.

It did. It was much better when I woke up this morning! I haven't had to take any extra medicine for pain or use any other coping mechanisms today. Perhaps it would've been wise to take that pain pill earlier on yesterday, before the pain got so bad. That's the thing about pain management. It's typically easier to keep pain levels at a constant than it is to bring down a high level of pain. It's smarter to take the medicine before the pain becomes a crisis so that it isn't up against such a high level. My problem is that I wait for it to get bad because that's the only way I can justify taking it. I use it sparingly and I intend to keep it that way. But, again, sometimes it's better to use it as a preemptive measure to keep pain at a more constant level. I'm still not good at knowing when to do that. I'm trying though. Anyway, the pain was much better by this morning. It's been very mild all day. I'm still too tired to get out of bed. I haven't left the house in days except to get some blood drawn. I have plans to hang out with my best friend tomorrow. She's going to make sure I get out of the house for a while. She really looks out for me. When we hang out, she takes such good care of me. She makes hanging out, getting out of the house and enjoying good distractions a lot easier. What would I do without her?

Also, I've been taking 4 methylprednisolone tabs for 4 days in a row now and the skin pain is nearly gone. I've also been retaining less fluid and that's a good sign. I was 5 lbs lighter today! I hope it's not a fluke but rather the beginning of this stuff finally getting better. I'm going to use the steroids for now, even though they're not ideal, because they will keep the inflammation low and keep my body from having fight or flight responses. Once the inflammation is controlled for a few days, I'll back the dose off a little. 

Ok, that's it for now. I've already been up for too long and am getting pretty sleepy. The sedatives are kicking in and that means it's time for bed!