The increased dose of amitriptyline at night seems to be helping. I’m sleeping better (couldn’t be much worse though) and the pain has been generally a little more bearable. The last few weeks have been somewhat mad though as we’ve been having a rather stressful time getting final issues sorted for our move. Packing and shifting boxes around has not exactly helped my back, and it’s therefore no surprise that I’ve had a lot more pain. However, the level of increase has been reaching intolerable levels at times. I’ve also had a few weeks of strange pains in my left arm. It felt like I had a dead arm at my bicep, but at other times it would be in my shoulder or elbow, but rarely in more than one place at a time. I mentioned this to Dr Penny when I last spoke to her and she suggested monitoring it and calling for a face to face appointment if it continues or gets worse. I also told her about the increasing wobbliness in my legs. I’ve needed my stick a lot more recently, and have had my legs give way more frequently as well. Again Dr Penny said that if this continues, or if any of my other symptoms change, I should call triage for an appointment so she can check things out and notify Mr Casey if appropriate. My “don’t want to make a fuss” approach doesn’t seem to be the one she wants me to take!
My toes are still not fully recovered. I continued having weekly dressing change appointments until a couple of weeks ago, but I now do them myself. My right toes have scabbed over quite well, and I can leave them uncovered a lot of the time. My left toe is still quite wet though so needs dressing whenever I’ve got shoes on. I’ve been advised to try to leave it open in the evenings to let the air get to it to help dry it out.
The most recent problem, well rather the most recent worsening problem, is my left hip. I’ve had occasions in the last year or so that my hip has hurt when I’ve stood a particular way. Things like ironing and washing up were doing it (but no I didn’t use that as an excuse not to do them), but in the last couple of weeks it has been noticeably more frequent and also more severe. The house move has undoubtedly contributed to this, but I think I need to consider getting it checked. I suppose there’s a chance my right hip would be the same but perhaps I can’t feel that like I can’t feel various other issues down that side.