Life as I Know It: "There are no gains without pains." ~Stevenson

Hopefully, this post will be coherent since I am pretty sleep deprived. I had my second treatment of prolotherapy yesterday, and let's just say this time, it really kicked my booty. I went into it thinking the second round would be easier than the first since I knew what to expect and I have been experiencing some benefits from the first round. Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I was NOT expecting that this second round would be way more painful than the first and make me sick (throwing up) from the pain. It's been a long 24 hours.

Before Dr. Cantieri started the injections we discussed how I did after the first treatment. I told him I tolerated the shots well, and the day after I was up and moving around pretty well. I said that I have been feeling a sense of better stabilization in my upper back but in my neck and in my lower back, I was still feeling a lot of looseness and muscle guarding pain. We decided that it would be best to try other areas on my back that he did not inject last time, in hopes of strengthening the ligaments. As Dr. Cantieri mapped where he was going to inject, he decided to still do my neck and upper back, but he was also going to inject points at my lower thoracic and lumbar areas.

As Dr. Cantieri did the first shots, I immediately noticed that they hurt a lot more than the first time. I spoke up right away and Dr. Cantieri explained that that is often normal, and he hears that the second time is worst from patients all the time.  He also explained that he was using a more powerful proliferant this time which could be making it more painful. It included dextrose, lidocaine, phenol, and sodium morrhuate.   Lets just say I had a harder time keeping a conversation and the words, "This is not so bad" never came out of my mouth this time around. My proud moment came when Dr. Cantieri commented that my back muscles were more toned than last time and I told him I was really working on it at PT. I guess those darn Superwoman's are paying off :)

After 60 injections (or 120 if you count the skin numbing ones) I was told I could start sitting up. I tried and tried but I was not budging. Dr. Cantieri went and got me Tylenol while Brad helped me off the table and got me dressed. At this point, I knew it was gonna be a long night.

Before we left, Dr. Cantieri reminded me that eating a lot of protein, fruits, and veggies helps the healing process, and made sure I was still using the Testosterone cream each day to also help with healing. He reminded me to not use anti-inflammatory's for four days afterwards (including ice and ginger root). I then quickly made my round three appointment for March 21st, and off we went.

I knew this time to immediately get into the backseat and tried my best to suck up a lot of my whining on the ride home.  I spent a lot of the night laying on the floor because a hard surface felt the best to me. I finally made it into our chair last night where I had built myself a fort of pillows and layed on my heating pad. I slept on and off the rest of the night. This morning, I am still moving very, VERY slowly and will definitely not be doing much today. I am just hoping for a nap at some point since I am exhausted.

So I survived round 2...I'm halfway there!   I am cautiously optimistic that it will give me good results since I am fully aware that with a connective tissue disorder, there are no guarantees. But I am still hoping and praying, and praying and hoping, that it all will have been worth it!

Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. ~Frederick B. Wilcox