I've been fixed!

The stimulation from my SCS is kind of a weird sensation.  The only way I know how to describe it is that it's kind of like being electrocuted but it doesn't hurt.  It's hard to imagine missing that sensation but I have to admit I did.

I met with the rep from the company that made my stimulator yesterday.  She set up my new programmer so I'm back to having stimulation.  She also noticed a problem with the wand attached to my programmer.  She put in an order for a replacement and that arrived today.  I'm all fixed up!

The minute I was able to alter the sensations and strength I felt like a had a long lost friend back.  I missed you, old friend.  You're back just in time.  The weather has been playing games again, as it tends to do in the Spring around this area.  It was almost 90 degrees F a couple of days ago and I woke up to 32 degrees F this morning.  They're calling for rain over the nest couple of days.

The pain levels aren't yet back down to where they had been before, but it's getting there.  Just a few days more.  I'm excited to get acquainted with my newly adjusted programs.

Stockings are the devil

The husband and I were recently invited to attend a ceremony, for which we would be required to dress up a bit.  We agreed.  The day came and it was chilly outside.  It was maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit (that's about 4-5 degrees Celsius for the foreign readers).  I had to wear a skirt, but I don't dress up very often so I didn't have any stockings to wear.

I called my mom, who has always had an abundance of stockings, to see if she could lend me a pair. She agreed and off we headed to pick them up.  I decided to try them on there, and it's a good thing I did.  I pulled the right leg of the stockings over my right ankle and all of a sudden the pain was so bad I could barely fight back tears.

What had happened here?  I'd worn stockings as recently as a few months ago without a problem?  I assumed it was because my mom is much more petite than I am and I asked my sister if I could borrow a pair of hers instead.  Same result.  I got the stocking jut over my ankle before the pain became so bad I had no choice but to immediately remove them.

I couldn't understand what was going on.

I decided I wasn't wearing stockings.  That seemed the only solution.  I opened the door to leave and discovered that was not a solution at all.  As soon as the cold air hit my leg I was in even more pain than I had been with those devilish stockings on.

I asked my mom if he had anything else I could wear on my legs.  She asked why and I explained the conundrum. It was either severe pain from wearing stockings or severe pain from not wearing stockings.  there was no winning solution.

That's when I got my answer.  My mom had purchased stockings that are meant to "grip" your legs tightly, constricting the blood vessels.  Well, there you have it!  I can barely wear socks because constricting the blood vessels in my leg causes intense pain.  We first discovered this the first time they casted my leg after I got CRPS.  I'd forgotten how much pain that cast caused, but it's vivid in my mind now.

I was eventually able to find a pair of regular stockings, which are still restrictive, but at least they aren't that bad.  The night turned out lovely and although my leg hurt, it could have been so much worse.

My stimulator is still broken.  It looks like Tuesday next week might be the first chance I have to get it fixed, but even then, the Rep hasn't called back to confirm :-(  I'm still crossing my fingers that Tuesday is the day.  The pain is driving me batty.  I can't sleep when my leg hurts this much.

Update to The Downfalls of Heat:
I tried laying off the heat for a while.  It didn't seem to make much of a difference.  Lately I've been using the heat a lot more, trying to ease some of the pain.

My stimulator is broken!

When I said a while back that I was lucky that I hadn't had any problems with my stimulator, I my have spoken too soon.

I went to turn on my stimulator the other day.  I've been doing this long enough now that I don't really pay much attention to the programmer.  I have the motions memorized.  I decided to turn on a program I hadn't used in a long time and got a "program corrupt" message.  Uh-oh.

Oh well.  I simply selected a different program and moved on.  Then...

A couple of days later I went through the same motions and when I looked down at the programmer's screen I noticed there was nothing.  It was black.  I had hoped it was because the batteries in the programmer weren't seated properly, or maybe it was a case of the wand not being inserted properly, so a few quick adjustments and we should be back in business, right?  WRONG!

That was okay, though.  I know my programs by heart now.  There are a select few that I use the majority of the time so I could just go ahead and switch programs by memory.

I did put in a call to the company that made my stimulator, though.  It was Good Friday and the office was closed but the very friendly Customer Service Rep I spoke with offered to put in an emergency ticket to get it straightened out this weekend.

I'm sure there are people out there who are in much more dire situations than myself, and since I could still switch my programs by memory I told him that was unnecessary.  He said he would put in a regular ticket and someone would call this weekend or on Monday.

Good, problem solved.  Last night I tried to change the stimulation so I could sleep (my daytime program is much higher than my nighttime program.  There's no sleeping while running the daytime program).  No matter what I did the program wouldn't change so I had to shut the stimulator off entirely.

Since it's the weekend, and I have a lot of downtime this weekend, I can't run my daytime program.  It's simply too much stimulation.  My simulator is now turned off and my leg HURTS.  I really had forgotten how painful the CRPS is until my stimulator stopped working.  My foot is so cold and in so much pain!

Now here's to hoping the technician will call Monday and be able to fix it then.  Otherwise, this upcoming week at the office is looking to be a long, painful week.  Someone get the painkillers and heating pads ready!