Sidelined

I wound up going to my PCP to start figuring out what's going on with my arm. She charged me $30 and decided it was "stiff back muscles." She put me on 500mg of naproxen twice a day, and 10mg of flexeril at night. She said the numbess in my hand might be a bit of carpal tunnel, so I should wear a wrist brace (which cost another $70) while I slept. And she said I shouldn't do any typing or steno for two weeks. If it didn't feel better after all that, she said I should go to physical therapy.

My mom works for an epileptologist, and he thought it was probably a problem with the discs in my neck, which a lot of stenotypists have actually had problems with, according to depoman. That seemed more likely, but I wanted to try the cheap solution first, so I did what my PCP said for two weeks. My arm still hurt the whole time, and shockingly, at the end of the two weeks..nothing. No change. It still hurt just as much as it did at the beginning.

I was able to get an appointment with a neurologist for the first day after my two weeks was over. He basically said it could be anything - neck problems, carpal tunnel, thyroid, nerve problems. I told him what my PCP prescribed and he kind of laughed and didn't seem surprised it didn't work. He ordered some bloodwork and prescribed 300mg of gabapentin twice a day. That visit cost $70. I'm also going to have an EMG test at the end of the month, and I'll have to do a follow-up appointment after that. So much money! But it has to be done. I can't go on like this. And I know my writing is going to improve by leaps and bounds when my left arm and hand operate just as well as the right.

I can't really tell if the gabapentin is helping or not. Sometimes the pain is pretty intense; other times it's just a nuisance. I called the office yesterday because I was going to say it's not really working and ask what his next idea is (maybe just more gabapentin?), but the office was still closed from the holiday. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try again on Monday or not.