1st Sign of Pain Relief

In my mind I am jumping for joy!   I have had the 1st sign of pain relief.  I spend more time than I "should" lying on my right side in bed - reading and/or watching TV.  This has been a source of much pain.  My hip would go numb and tingle, the outer calf on my right leg would ache terrible, and my toes and upper foot would tingle and go numb.  Since I am still in REST mod, I spend time on my side yesterday with the device turned on, and it helped! And it was awesome!  I had to make adjustments twice - but being able to rest without pain is nice, very nice.

This is the 1st step towards freedom from pain!

Well maybe the 2nd.  Yesterday morning I did walk 1 house and back.  It exhausted me.  But I did it - plus I stood for a few minutes while waiting for my husband.  And I was able to do this!  This is all a good sign.

Now if the surgical stuff would quit hurting, I could start really testing!

It is later in the day from the beginning of this post.  I guess I am more comfortable, since I spent some time in my craft room today and made a few cards.

 I am going through a complete mindset change.  For as long as I have had this unrelenting back pain, I have had less pain in the mornings, and did not require pain medication until later morning, early afternoon.  Because I am stubborn, I would let pain go as long as possible before taking pain medication.  Often to the point of nausea.  I mentally set my limit at 3 pain pills.  My dosage has changed, which made me unhappy.  I also may take up to 4 Extra Strength Tylenol (Rapid Release) up to 4 Advil/Motrin.  This morning I had convinced myself that pain medication was no longer necessary.  Yes, that was stupid!  Around noon that became very clear to me.  Apparently, I had also begun to watch the clock so didn't let the pain meds wear off all the way, before I took another.  I am not certain when this started happening. but I realized that since I was starting to feel better I didn't need to do this.  Now that I have the Neurostimulator I can wait until I feel the need for pain medication before I take it.  I will, as has been my behavior in the past, probably wait too long.