When I set out to write this, I had an elaborate plan, with an outline, Amazon links for ALL the products I tried, whether or not they worked (and yes, I would have let you know which products didn't work), a fair critique of the VA system, and an attempted stab at making it humorous.

Sorry, I took my meds, and now I'm just kind of zoning out. Let;s start with that. Oh wait, I'll just summarize the main problem. I've got a 5.6 cm tumor/mass/whatever on my scalene that is pushing against the spinal cord on the left side. Considering it just swole up big enough for me to notice two months ago, and having noted a small pea sized bump scooting around my collar bone last year, I'm going to bet it's also pushing into the nerve cluster, too. From the MRI, they don't think it's cancer, but until somebody gets off their ass and schedules a biopsy, I won't know. I'm certain at this time that this will fuck up my DEFCON trip.

Now we can do meds

Currently (not going over the evolution now), I'm scripped to 60 mg amitriptyline, 750 methocarbamol, and I should be but not currently on an oral steroid. OTC is Voltaren and Tylenol.

The most recent combo that worked was 60 mg amitriptyline, 20mg Prednisone, 1500-2250 methocarbamol, 800-1600 ibuprofen. However, the VA fucked that up badly this week. so no fair critique for them. Too much anger and pain at this moment,

What the combo that worked did was not only get rid of the pain, but to reduce the amount of trigger points on my left arm, upper body, and neck. The steroid played the bigger role in this (as far as my non-medically trained brain can tell), and the muscle relaxant helped to let them fade out. But three days off the steroid and the trigger points were in full bloody pain mode, having returned completely. One day off the relaxant, and my back, shoulder, and neck were dancing the spasm ballet against each other. All four days off the amitriptyline involved short periods of sleep, usually broken by pain.

Oops, I did 50g of delta-8 last night, and got 4 hours good sleep. I'll go into CBD and Delta-8 another post.

I finally got the amitriptyline and the relaxant today, and I'm praying for good sleep tonight. I just today started the Voltaren, but it isn't working as much as I'd like, and will give it 3 more days before I go back to ibuprofen (or maybe aspercreme).

Personal Hygiene and Appearance

I let go shaving completely back in Feb, IIRC. I did shave back the beard about 6 weeks ago, when we found the tumor (I had silly thoughts that we had found the problem and would get a quick fix in...HA). I kept thinking I looked like Moses, but people kept calling me Santa, at which point I would raise my good arm up and yell "Let my people GO!" Nobody got that joke. I've let bathing and brushing teeth slide to once or twice a week, but recently I've been up to two or thee times weekly. Bathing wasn't bad because I'm usually in the pool two or three times and it stays well chlorinated. My teeth worry me not only because I can't sit in the dentist chair without the pain popping up. I am catching a somewhat fecal smell that I think but can't verify is from my mouth.

It may come from the chair I'm sleeping in. I've got a hefty daily load of flatulence to release. But the chair is not as funky as I thought it would be.

UnFinished

The pain just grabbed me bythe arm and is swining me around damn it. i'll finish this uo another day