Sunday, January 26, 2020

Part 1: Symptoms (Oct - Dec 2018)

Symptom 1: Back Pain
Around November of 2018 I began to notice mild discomfort in the middle of my back.  It was a nuisance but manageable, so I did not seek a doctors opinion for over a month.

On 12/23/18, I lifted a have object in my home.  Within 24 hours, by back discomfort transformed into a throbbing pain.  Unfortunately I had a 4 day road trip planned from 12/25 to 12/29 to celebrate the holidays with friends and family in upstate New York (about a 4 hour drive from where we live in New Jersey).

During the holidays I couldn't find any way to reduce the pain.  Consuming moderate amounts of alcohol didn't seem to help either.

Upon returning home on 12/29, I immediately reached out to my internist who fortunately had availability to see me on 12/31.  By the date of my appointment, I had also noticed pain in my chest (directly in front of the back pain), and off to the left side of my chest pain in my rib cage.

Symptom 2: Itchiness & Rashes
I cannot recall when I first noticed this, but I imagine it started late summer 2018.  I had itchiness and rashes developing on my elbows and shins.  Use of several different cortizone type creams did not seem to help this condition.

On 12/31, I visited my internist and discussed all of the above noted conditions.  He prescribed an anti-inflammatory pill Naproxen for the chest and back pain, diagnosing the pain in all 3 locations as most likely simple muscle strains.  He also gave me a prescription for 5 pills of Percocet in the case of extreme pain flair-ups.

For the rashes he prescribed a topical cream (I forget now what it was).

After days of use, none of the above prescribed medications gave any noticeable relief of any of the symptoms.

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