Dystonia Diary

This is what it's like to have cervical dystonia - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Actually, there's nothing good about it.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Botox day

I had 16 shots of Botox today, and I can't believe how sore I was later! The shots were around 7:20am, and it's a little after 8:30pm, and I still ache. That's unusual, but I did have a lot of shots, and a little more Botox than usual. I actually had to take aspirin!

Before the shots, during the "how are you today" interview, the nurse asked me what my level of pain was on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being very little pain). Today at 6:45am? I told her Well, it was about a 2, because it's still early, and the pain is always worse later in the day. She seemed surprised, but I didn't care. The truth is, I have very little pain early in the morning, and it gets worse throughout the day. Like now. *lol*

A nice little extra they did today was let me use a "squeezy-ball", a small rubber ball to grip during the injections. A very handy thing indeed! I was going to bring my own today, but I forgot. Now that I know they have them, I can just ask for it the next time. And the next time. And the next time...

Friday, April 14, 2006

Good news!

I got a call from my Dr's office with the news that the Botox shots have been authorised! I go in for them this Tuesday. I'm surprised that it was authorised just 3 days after the request was submitted. Well, resubmitted to the authorisation board, instead of directly to the adjuster.

I'm also taking more Baclofen. 10mg in the morning, 10mg in the afternoon, and 20mg at night, then 12mg of Tizanidine at bedtime. Sheesh! At least it's doing some good.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Not half bad

Before I get to the relatively good news, I have to gripe about this...

Recently, my Dr told me to take one extra pill of both my meds. I was assured that there would be no problem with refilling them early (since I'll run out earlier than before). Well, there was a problem. The insurance company wasn't going to authorise the early refill, since they weren't informed about the change in dose. I had to make a call to the Dr, and a couple of calls to the pharmacy, and after about 3 hours the Dr's receptionist got things straightened out.

So now I have both my meds. Too bad the tizanidine isn't doing much good. I fall asleep faster, but I still can't get any uninterrupted sleep. The extra Baclofen is helping a little, though. The spasms aren't quite as tight, I have more flexibillity, and I'm no more drowzy than usual.

Speaking of drowzy, this lack of sleep is really messing up my focus and concentration, and that is messing up my memory. Hopefully my Dr will have some advice for how I can get some uninterupted sleep. At least 5 hours would be nice.

I still haven't heard if I'll get more Botox. The insurance company didn't waste any time raising a stink about my early refills, but it's in no hurry to let me have the only treatment that really works. Maybe my Dr will let me take more Baclofen. It's realatively cheap, so the insurance company shouldn't have a problem letting me have as much as I need.