Well, let me start instead with my usual mornings. They suck. Big time. Regardless of whether or not I had a good night's sleep...or a bad headache day the night before...mornings are painful. I wake up with a 10. It takes a while each day for me to overcome and function with a headache that I can get to a 3 or 4 baseline of operation. And on days where I am awakened before I'm ready...say, by a phonecall or something...I'm pretty much at a 6 or worse for the rest of the day. But not today...
After an amazingly restful sleep...
This morning, I was awakened by the doorbell. It was the Jehova's Witnesses. When the doorbell rang, I quickly got up off of the couch (Which would have normally caused a pain and dizziness that would have put me right back down...) And this pain would have put whoever was on the other side of that door immediately on my bad side. I answered the door. The ladies were quite apologetic for waking me up, and said they would only take a moment since I wasn't expecting them. She proceeded to hand me this pamphlet, and she shared a Bible verse with me. Now, I'm not Christian, but I thought the theme of her visit, the elimination of pain and suffering, and the related verse humorously appropriate.
Though I feel that a certain amount of pain is a necessary element of life, she then asked me if I thought I could foresee a world without pain...I answered simply, "I sure hope so."
It was just amazing to wake up without feeling like I was just hit in the head with a cinder block. When I woke up, the only issue was a bit of swelling. (I am prone to waking up puffy anyway, so with the added issue of yesterday's prodding, this was to be expected) The swelling had caused a bit of tension on the small amount of slack in the lead wires when it was taped at the hospital. So, when my St. Jude rep called to check in on me, I asked her about this. We gently lifted the tape on my chest where the additional lead wire was coiled up and pulled out another inch of slack and re-taped it and all was good. The longer I was awake, the more the swelling receded. And there was no fever or any other signs of infection with the swelling, so I wasn't concerned about it. This was discussed when my doctor also called to check in on me and my progress.
The rest of the day has been really good. I'm getting about a 80-90% reduction in my headache pain overall. Large portions of my day have actually been headache-free! I often, with a dark sense of humor, turn to Aaron and tell him, "I have a headache." to which he responds, "Amy, you always have a headache." We both got a bit emotional today when I said, "Aaron...I don't have a headache."
I didn't need to take a painkiller for surgical discomfort until about 6:30pm. And even then, it was just starting to get tender and I didn't want it to get worse before I had a handle on it. I'm getting used to the different stimulation channels which they programmed, which ones I like, ones I don't care for as much. I've noticed that if my headache starts to break through, I just have to change the channel and I'm good.
So far, the reduced pain has helped reduce my standard nausea, but I am still getting the HC related tearing in my right eye. (I don't think anyone told my eye that I don't have a headache atm and it doesn't have to be so sad.)
I'm pretty mobile today. Aside from the limited mobility from the cumbersome wires, tape, etc. and not wanting to dislodge the leads, I feel wonderful. Earlier today, I even would have loved to go for a short walk. A friend stopped by who had volunteered to make us dinner this evening, and brought us a lovely meal. I'm now sated, out of pain, and this evening like last night, I am feeling like I could lie down and easily find sleep. I think my body is like, "Oh, we don't have a headache...whew...let's relax!" I'm so not looking forward to the end of this trial and the wait on the road to permanence.
So end of day 2, So far so good. :)
Oh yeah..took a sponge bath earlier so I feel a bit more refreshed. I think not being able to get wet is something I underestimated the impact of during the trial.
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