Geeze, I have had four epidurals done in my lumbar region and I knew those hurt quite a bit, so I wasn't getting this epidural in my neck with blind hope or expectation that it would work and my pain would get better. But I don't think I was remotely prepared for how badly I am hurting right now. It was so weird though, I wasn't put fully under when they were doing the procedure, I remember thinking how weird it was that I was aware of them talking and I could feel him doing things. For a while, it hurt a lot whenever he'd do something. They did increase the amount of pain medication they put into the IV and I thankfully became less aware of the pain. I realized I was out of it when I rolled back onto the gurney to go to the recovery area and there was a weird tinge to things. I was both aware and not aware.

The increased amount of pain meds they put into the IV gave me nearly two and a half hours of decreased pain...just enough I was actually feeling hopeful that maybe something had finally worked. Although I should have known not to get too excited, especially when I can't even have any of the steroids that are normally injected when they do an epidural. The pain has just been increasing steadily these past two hours...it goes across my upper back, up into my neck and head, and down my arms. There's also a constant pain in between my shoulder blades like someone is driving a finger deep into that point. This pain is actually worse than any I've had after injections.

It for sure doesn't help that the abrasion on my knee from falling on Sunday looks to be infected and causing it's own set of issues. I make sure to keep it clean and I periodically use Bactine and Neosporin trying to prevent infection. The NPC I spoke with on Monday about it (he works with my pain doc) had said to leave it open to the air to help it heal because it looked like a clean abrasion. He just recommended making sure I keep antibiotic ointment on it to keep out infections.

At the surgery center today, where I got the epidural done, at least three nurses commented on how painful it looked. I inquired of one whether they thought it might be infected because although it isn't leaking puss it is extremely red around it, hot to the touch, feels increasingly painful, and there's deep pain happening that almost feels like it's in the bones. The nurse I asked said it did look like it had the beginnings of infection and he put some gauze with medicine on it and wrapped it in an ace bandage (it's an awesome bandage too cus it is secured by Velcro, not those annoying clips). I haven't made an appointment to see the new primary care doctor, I'm not even sure I should yet. Maybe just changing the dressing on my knee and refreshing the antibiotic ointment will be enough. I don't really know what else the primary care doc would do for me. Mom also said the redness and deep pain could be cus I hit the cement hard with it.

It's definitely been a rough couple of days. I really hope I'm able to get some sleep tonight and that I will wake up feeling better. I'm just so bummed this failed too and just made things a lot worse in regards to pain. I hope your days have been a bit better...it helps a lot knowing I can vent about things and be supported. Thank you all.