Here I am at the clinic again (not the first time since my three month appointment; I've been in for Chiropractic treatments and nerve blocks intermittently). It's my six month anniversary and so much has happened since March!I guess to start with the bad, I was in an auto accident exactly one month ago. The word was never passed along to the clinic even though I called one of the staff the day that it happened, so Dr. Piper and everyone else was unaware. We had pushed my appointment back a whole month due to my work schedule but I was called up and beckoned in ASAP once they found out about the accident.
I'm currently sitting in the exam room (they're running a little behind) and just had my CT done. I'm really nervous! My airbags didn't deploy during the accident (a defect that I'm sure saved my fat grafts and I'm forever grateful for) and I didn't hit my head, but I have a sprained neck. The past month has been pretty painful with the intense neck pain, increased jaw pain, more severe headaches, and now back pain. Ice packs, anti-inflammatories and lots of resting have been my ritual.
Within the past week, I've reduced my diet to no-chew or very limited soft chew because it's just been too much. I'm anxiously awaiting Dr. Piper's arrival and the results of my CT scan as well as any word on the possible growth of my right jaw whose growth was stunted when I was a kid. In my last post, I mentioned Piper was hoping for it to grow, so fingers crossed.
To move on to the good things that have happened, I've played beach volleyball, started volunteering regularly for various causes, met amazing new people, settle into St. Pete even more, and started working primarily in an Outpatient Rehab Clinic, which I love. I also was paid a visit by an amazing, special, beautiful girl I met through the Piper network who had the same surgery and is three months behind me in recovery!
He also said that my grafts are okay and that they weren't damaged during the accident. He said that from looking at my CT, I may have lost a little curvature in my neck.
He did nerve block injections which really helped immensely with the neck pain and headaches. I only iced my neck once today and had just a few come-and-go headaches that weren't too severe. I was pain free yesterday following the blocks, and my pain levels were reduced greatly today, which means the blocks worked great!
Worshiping my ice pack and waiting for the injections!
Once I'm at the six-week mark with my accident, we might consider different treatment options for my neck as chiropractic and palliative care haven't been advantageous to me so far. I'm going to stick with what Dr. Piper and Dr. Hobbs say and recommend, and see how it all goes. I'm hoping I can start working on range of motion, strengthening and correcting my posture at that point to get rid of some of this pain.
ALSO! Something that happened during my visit that was a total shock and I was completely unprepared for... I signed a form back in November agreeing that if I receive any blocks for an unrelated trauma, I would be financially responsible. So fast forward to June and I had completely forgotten about that form, and got slammed with a bill for almost $1,000. They didn't inform me ahead of time and I'm going to be billing it under auto, but it created quite a bit of shock! Something to keep in mind if anyone experiences the same! All of my other blocks have been covered under my global fee paid to Piper because they were related to surgery pains and recovery.
Dr. Piper increased my splint time (I was down to 10 hours a day including sleep and he bumped in back up to 12) which I am totally comfortable with! I've been doing more hours than recommended just for comfort and pain relief, so hearing from him that I was on the right track was good.
I wanted to back off of the soft chew meals and do more no-chew and stick with the consistency of eggs, soups, rice, soft breads, etc. but he disagreed and said that my jaws need the exercise.
All in all, I'm feeling much better today mostly due to the nerve blocks and being reassured that nothing has changed too much or is wrong to a concerning extent.
Hoping for the best from here on out! My jaws are doing great, it's just the all too regular aches and pains and now symptoms from the auto accident that are making me feel like I'm back in the chronic pain rut. I'm lucky enough to have an amazing support group who have been through tons of ups and downs and provide great insight on anything I might have a question about, and as always so much love from my family and friends.
Anxious to see what 9 months has in store!
