as you know, friday morning i had my first epidural injection of the series
of 3.  as i write this, i'm focusing strictly on how the epidural has
affected me these past few days since.  friday morning, after immediately
returning home post first injection, i followed instructions and took it
easy (for the first 24 hours).

still mildly rummy from the morning's valium cocktail, i lied down to rest
about 11a.m. friday morning.   my bed is pre-programmed for a recliner
position, so i hit the button for what i generally consider most comfortable
for my spine.  not a good idea, at all.   but i hadn't been informed that it
wouldn't be.  a comfortable 3-4 pain scale level instantly shot up past 7,
up from my anesthetized L5-S1 spine to mid-thoracic area.  yowies!  i
quickly fiddled with the control to find a new comfort zone.  oddly, that
turned out to be a totally flat position.  i managed to nap for an hour
before my upper spine decided it didn't like that position, silently
rebelled, and i noticed that the anesthesia was beginning to wear off.  so,
i rose and took 2 ultracet, before the entire trunk of this human tree began
to bend to the certainty of forthcoming pain, then waited (nearly 2 1/2
hours) for its peak effectiveness to settle things back down.  and then, a
two-hour nap followed.

upon awakening to a phone call, i rose and was astonnished to discover that
i could walk with a minimum of discomfort.  it was around 5 p.m. that i
decided to get the mail.  as i walked to the mailbox, something seemed
strange, but somehow familiar.  by the time my son came home from work, i
had taken another 6 hour dose of ultracet and it had begun to hold my lumbar
pain level down.  he commented that something was different about me.  then
he pinned it down---he had never in his 28 years seen his mother walk more
than a few steps without a sustained limp.  and i haven't limped since that
moment.  i can't tell you how that feels, maybe because it feels like it
should feel.<smile>  how did it work so fast?

i've faithfully taken g & c for my knees for the past 7 or so years, just
based on faith in the documentation i've read over the years about it.
still i limped and just hoped that g & c was helping in some invisible way.
apparently, it had, but i didn't have the opportunity to feel the benefit.
it must have been my spine, all these years, and not my knees (despite the
xrayed bone on bone in my left knee) nor my hips (though both knees and hips
had almost always hurt) that had caused the limp.  what a shock to discover
that.  so, my hips are less painful now, too.  no spasms in my legs or feet
at all, so far!!!   neck and flank muscle spasms still occur, but they
weren't treated.

friday night, i slept for two five-hour periods---yes, ten hours in a twelve
hour period.  i haven't slept more than 3 uninterupted by pain hours in a
row for several years.  saturday was a wonderful and long day.   for this
past year or so, ordinarily, i'd be wiped out of energy within a few hours,
but i wasn't.  our entire family was over my sister's for her birthday, then
later my son and youngest sister and i went out for dinner.  last night, i
slept for another 5 hours in a row, but didn't have the patience to wait
until a pain pill kicked in, so i arose and it's been a good day too.  i'm
still not limping---i keep wanting to repeat that over and over again, just
to hear it in my mind, because it was such an unexpected blessing!

there are still low levels of pain in my lower spine, a tad higher levels
when i sit or lie down, but walking feels soooo goooood, almost bouyantly
energizing.  funny, how that tends to make me  feel younger.  it's heavenly,
to be able to stand in one place and not have to shift my weight constantly
to avoid too much pain.  i find myself thinking about bicycle riding again;
doing it and not simply fantasizing, i mean.

i was called this morning by the pain managment clinic, to see how the
epidural has progressed for me, or to find out if it had.   have you ever
wanted to kiss a phone?  i wanted to.  i feel like i've been given such a
gift, a lovely miraculous gift.  i asked how long this might last.  it is
apparently an individual thing and no doctor can say for certain if it will
continue, continue to improve, nor if or when it might no longer work.  i'll
take the gift of being able to sleep 5 uninterupted hours and being able to
walk, limpfree--for however long i'm gifted with it.  i am soooo grateful
for this result and soooo amazed.

so now, my very serious question is---how do i get a bathtub full of that
stuff?<smile>

kate