Wednesday, August 20, 2008

LET ME PUT YOU ON HOLD FOR A MINUTE ...

Well it has been an interesting few days here in Florida and it should be an interesting week. 

For most of us here on the west coast Hurricane Fay turned into Tropical Storm Faux. In other parts of Florida, that originally never expected to see the storm are now bracing for heavy winds and rain, some already received up to 12 inches of rain from it. Weather is a strange thing.

We live on the coast here and quite a few people south us were put on voluntary evacuation, unless of course you live in a mobile home then you were told to RUN! RUN AWAY!  But better to err on the side of caution with these things these days. 

Seriously though, everyone else sort of prepared for a storm but mostly just prepared for a very heavy summer thunderstorm. I guess they are just used to such things and aren't phased by them anymore. Much the same way that we in the north had gotten blase' about Nor'easters; those blazing blizzards of snowstorms that rage in the winter.  Stock up on food, water, and then have simply go about your business as normal until something serious happens while watching the newly arrived scramble around buying everything in the stores that isn't named down, including nails.  

So, what did we end up with? So far all we got in our area, just north of Tampa, was a ten minute rain shower. The way this weird storm has run who knows where it is going but it appears to have gone away north; possibly coming back onto land around Jacksonville and maybe crossing the state and heading into the Gulf or shooting into GA/AL/MS .

But while we didn't get the heavy rain/winds of a hurricane we did get the ups and downs of the barometric pressure changes; which for me brings big changes in my pain picture. That is not unusual for CRPS and/or Fibromyalgia patients nor people with back problems. For me that is a trifecta!

Since it looks like we will be dealing with this storm system for another few days at least and we have been dealing with it for the last two, I knew that my pain levels would be all over the place as well, mostly very high. Between the fibromyalgia, the failed back syndrome, the sciatica, and what is left of the CRPS, as well as a few other things, I knew that my pain would more than likely be extremely high due to these barometric changes and strong weather patterns, with or without an actual hurricane. 

Why am I sharing this with you? Especially since most of you are probably saying out loud as you read this, "Big deal Keith, me too!" 

Well first of all, stop talking to the computer. Second, the reason I am sharing this is because after discussing this with Doctor Spiegel and realizing that because my pain would be up and down, mostly up, so we would not be able to accurately track my Hyperbaric Therapy this week, we decided instead of taking a couple of weeks off next after this week we would take this week and next week off and then go right back in. 

Did you follow all of that? 

No HBOT this week. None next week. I will be back in HBO Therapy the first week of September. 

To date I have had just under 7 weeks of HBOT, 34 sessions altogether. 

It will be very interesting to see how these weeks off go. Many patients report a decrease in pain when they take a break. That is what I am planning on! Plan your work, work your plan!

There was a quote, on a show I particularly like, that really stuck with me. It reminded me of how some of us deal with chronic pain and/or how we are told to deal with it. 

"Sometimes you can't control the outcome. Sometimes you have to look at the reality in front of you and accept it"

I would add "accept it and move forward". 

So I am putting the treatment on hold for two weeks. But I don't expect the healing to be put on hold :)

Peace, Keith 

Sunday, August 17, 2008

A MIGHTY WIND

Ah, the joys of living in Florida in the summer. Tropical Storm Fay, soon to be Hurricane Fay, is bearing down on us here on the west coast of Florida. As I write this it is crossing over Cuba and heading for the Florida Keys.  We went to the store today to pick up the typical hurricane supplies; water, batteries, canned food, alcohol, sandbags, daiquiri mix, flashlights, etc. It was quite busy. They are talking about some evacuations for the counties below us but it is still too early to know. It may wind up going further into the gulf, or turn inland, just too soon to know.

If it does become a problem and we get flooding we may lose power here and I won't be doing the blog for a few days so I thought I should come on tonight and post a quick note. We do get flooded very easily where we live here but we but some of those foam noodles and a couple of the inflatable floats (the kid with the pillows and drink holders of course) so we should be fine. We even got a little inner tube and some water wings for our cat. 

Ah, you may laugh but when I win $100,000 on America's Funniest Home Video's who will be laughing then huh? Ok, hopefully it will still be you. But I digress.

Wish us luck guys and hopefully I will be able to catch you up on whatever treatments I am able to get to this week! Saying a prayer wouldn't hurt either :)

In closing, something to think about ...

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
... Jack Handey  (a brilliant man)

Peace, Keith

PS _ yes, in response to one of the recent comments left on my blog, I do want to thank Susan Rodriguez of Rapid Recovery Hyperbarics for her help in my dealing with the HBOT. She has been a great help. I have made mention of her website many times in my blog and given out her link quite a few times as well. if you haven't been there, it is ell worth a visit!