Autoimmune Illnesses - Does Illness, Doctors, Tests, Treatments and Medications EVER END???!!! I am just totally wiped out.... A Week from Hades for sure!

Does it ever end? I DID get a new rug cleaner, and even got an extra $10 coupon off of it, so I have it at home, out of the box, and trying to get the "opt" piece to line up and then there are 2 screws to put in once it is all lined up. I was just too tired, too aggravated, feeling just sick, after an all day of running again yesterday. So, I DID GO TO THE DOCTOR yesterday!!!!!! I called and they told my doctor what was going on and he wanted to see me at 11:30 yesterday morning. I had already felt like something was not right about this growing "lump" on the top of my left thigh. It began getting larger almost each day. And it is about the size of a silver dollar or maybe larger. Sure enough, I have cellulitis. NOT GOOD! If I had not went in when I did, I may have found myself as an inpatient on IV antibiotics over the weekend. He said that he was giving me two different antibiotics, both very strong and in fact one of them they actually use for certain types of Tuberculosis. (interesting since I still need to get that Chest X-ray) and have NOT found time to get it yet! So, after I saw him, I had already been to Wally World and got the rug cleaner, and then I went by Mom's. Well, of course she had not picked up her meds yet, so I had to go get mine, one of them my pharmacy did not have and was not going to have it until Monday.... and it was one of the antibiotics, so I did not want to go without it if possible. So, I went across the street to pick up Mom's scripts, and I happen to have a copy of the prescriptions. They did have enough of the other antibiotic, so I asked them to fill it and I would pick it up in an hour or so... so I visited with Mom, explained her meds, and left to go pick up mine. Then I came home and was just exhausted. It was already something like 4:00 PM and again I had been "running" since about 6 that morning. So, I changed clothes took the medication and got on the sofa with the pups. But, I was just restless and honestly really concerned about this cellulitis mess. That lump has already been there about 4 weeks, maybe longer. So, it really worries me since it can turn bad very quickly, especially when we are immune compromised. I want to use my new carpet cleaner, but my stomach is just YUCK! I think it is the antibiotics. I have a billion things to catch up on.... here at home, online, and then I have 3 days of PT for Mom next week, plus I need to schedule the MRI for her, and then they called about the ESI (Epidural Steroid Injections) already and want me to call them back Monday to schedule those. So, I am not sure if the doctor wants the MRI first, or if he wants to go ahead with the injections.... but that means a possibility of either having a test or going to a medical "something" everyday next week! Plus I have not even had the time, nor the energy to go and have that damned chest X=ray yet. So, I am exhausted to the bone today, and feel like hell. Keep Mom in your thoughts and prayers... she seemed to be better yesterday, but we all know with especially "back pain" one moment you can be fine, and the next in almost unbeatable pain... so one day of feeling good certainly does not constitute it is over yet. I am going to try and stay online this morning and catch up on a few things. But, I will see how I feel. Right now I hurt all over and as I said, I have to take those antibiotics on an "empty" stomach of all things.... as if they are not bad enough to take with food.... I wish everyone a good weekend.... and I will be "around" off and on, just depending on how I feel. and by the way, THE MAYOR SIGNED THE SEPTEMBER 2015 PAIN AWARENESS PROCLAMATION!! I GOT IT in the mail yesterday... BUT they must have not let the ink dry enough before sticking it in the envelope, and a couple of the letters on a couple of words have been pulled away.... so. I am not sure even trying to "go over" those can fix it... I may have to have the woman that did it, redo it and send me another one. I hate to but I've tried to kind of go over them and it just looks horrible. I may try to scan it in, match the typeset and "fix" it in Photoshop if I can... I shall see.....

Where do you Go? Hip, lower back pain - CT Scan shows "something" yet it seems like now enough to cause this type of pain...

I've been going over and over this stupid CT Scan from a month ago. I wished I could get more information, but when I look up what is being told on it, I am getting a "google" search of all types of issues. Some of them may pertain to me, and others I am not sure of.

I am sure of a couple of things. I almost am to the point I cannot sit at my computer. If I sit here more than 10 minutes, my hips, butt and lower back just throb, burn, ache, and it feels like very deep bone pain.

Nothing has really changed since the injections (Transforminal Epidural Steroid Injections) which were two weeks ago, as of tomorrow. I thought I had felt a bit of relief that first couple of days afterwards. But, then I began to notice my hips once again feel like they are on fire if I sit for very long at a time. I can get up, walk around for awhile, then the pain comes back, resonating kind of from my tailbone, down into my hips, around the outer part of my thighs, and often into my calves and down into my heels. I notice if I try and get out in the yard to pull weeds from the flowerbeds, pick up things and put them in our trash cans outside, try and break down small limbs from the trees and also trash them... after a bit, again that deep down kind of like a burn starts again. So, if I sit for too long, especially here at the computer, or if I go and walk or stand is the worst for a long time, my hips and very lower back just hurt like hell.

I am still in the thinking that I have two problems... the hips and then my lower lumbar spine about where it joins at my tailbone. That is actually where the CT picked up some issues, I have vertebra I think, that has "slipped forward"... plus I have the Retrolisthesis


which is also meaning it has slipped the opposite of what many of them do... plus I have known about my "crooked spine". Now the levoscoliosis I guess is enough that it shows on the scan. All of which even though don't appear on the CT as being horrendous, as before they have done Scans, X-rays, MRI's that show not so bad. Then they decide to open the joint up and take a look, and sure enough the "arthritic" degeneration and damage was where it was not seen on those scans.

http://www.spinal-foundation.org/conditions/vertebral-slippage... 

It has been exactly two weeks ago today, since I had the "Transforminal Epidural Steroid Injections" in my very last Lumbar spinal vertebra L-5 and then I believe S-1 shows issues also.

I thought right after the injection that it felt better. Yet, after a couple of days, I began having the same types of issues, pain when I sit for very long at the computer, pain if I stand too long in one place, or even if I walk for a long distance, especially like shopping... where you stop, then walk a few steps, and over again....

My thoughts are that I have two issues, as I've said all along. I feel both hips are a part of this, simply because this is what has happened a couple of times over the past 6 or so years. It seems about once every two years my hips act up, probably more like bursitis. Which, my orthopedic surgeon seems to think that "bursitis" of the hip would not cause all of the pain I am having! WELL, I have news for him. I've had it before and it hurts like hell. So, where he gets off thinking that my hips are not the issue and my back is, I am not sure...

Anyway, I am headed to Dallas in just a bit to follow up on those injections. While I am at my pain specialist, I will ask him what his opinion is on having this discogram/discograph... that the ortho doc seems to think I should have....

When I return, I will update everyone on the situation!