Pain Relief

My leg has ached for days.  The only thing that I was doing that was any help was using a heating pad and taking Panadeine.  The heating pad was more help because the Panadeine was making me more sleepy than anything.  Sure, it is taking the edge off, but I am currently loopy from taking Panadeine earlier.  It is like operating in a fog.

I saw my GP on Friday morning.  Brendan came with me.  He had strict instructions to make sure I stayed on topic of my leg hurting.  I was in a Panadeine fog for the appointment too.  So I gave my wonderful and patient GP a rambling, somewhat confusing account of my leg hurting.  Then I told him I wanted some pain relief, and asked, "So, you got any questions?"

He did have questions.  Did I remember injuring it? No.  What kind of pain was it?  That one is a bit more difficult to answer.  It aches constantly like a toothache, and the joints ache like arthritis pain.  He asked some other things, but I forget what they were.  There was questions about it being connected to the MF.  He also commented that I probably knew more about my condition than he did.  That is somewhat true.  I have been doing a lot of research.

He did a physical examination of my legs, and he was impressed with my flexibility.  I was proud of that; all those Dana-modified yoga stretches are still doing their job.  He seemed to accept that an injury had not occurred.

Then we began talking about MF and how this was probably a symptom of it.  That is what I suspected from the beginning.  We discusses compression stockings.  (They are really expensive.  Around $120 seems to be the going price.)  He didn't seem to think the expense was worth it at this point, and he suggested I get something he called "Tubigrip".  He also gave me a prescription for Ibuprofen 400mg to take 3 times a day.  I also got a sleeping pill prescription because the pain is messing with my nighttime sleeping.  He also told me to keep doing what I was doing: heating pad, resting my leg and Panadeine for breakthrough pain.  He wants me to talk to my dermatologist to make sure the pain isn't a side effect of the narrow band UVB treatments.

Off to the pharmacy and I put in my scripts. When I asked about the Tubigrip, the assistant had no idea what it was either.  After a brief description (that I stole from the doctor), she showed me a similar product. I am modeling the beauty of the thing in the previous post.

So far, the regime seems to be working.  I am in less pain that I have been in days.  I hope the pain is only a short term annoyance, and it will go away soon.