[Jeffros]

Cobra is mandatory for companies with 20 or more employees. My company probably has 19.5 employees.

Good news tho, they’ve decided to keep our current plan (with 26% premium increase) because myself and a couple other people wouldn’t be able to get insurance at any cost.

It’s funny how you don’t think about health coverage and how messed up we are over here, until you experience it for yourself.

Nothing new. I can remember 15+ years ago how my mom couldn’t get health insurance because of her pre-existing conditions.

[Jeffros]

??
?

zip2play said:
?

Trust me jeffros,
Your neck pain IS spasm. Spasm can continue for hours, days or weeks quite unlike a “cramp” in you calf. It is self perpetuating and must be broken somehow. Neck muscles are not meant to hold the head in a single spot for hours, they WILL spasm, just like arm muscles holding a gallon of milk overhead for hours.
Too bad you cannot move your monitor but in addition to Flexeril (for several weeks to be effective) I can recommend SOMA (carisoprodyl) but nothing will beat getting up ever 10 minutes and moving your head through the full range of motion. The eventual headach is merely an exttension of the spasm up the cranial muscles. Only problem with SOMA and FLEXERIL is that both may impair your judgement, “Hey boss, suck on THIS!”:D…but SOMA is a very pleasant drug
Can you?aim your chair towards the right and left?periodically so that in order to see the center of your three monitors, you must look alternately slightly?left and right instead of dead on.

---

I had a nerve block shot on Friday, so far so good.? I am either having “good” days, or my neck pain is vanishing.? I hope it lasts as long as possible.?
Your advice is great, I am going to try to put my neck through full motion.? My pain management doctor gave me a collar to wear, it's called a “reminder collar”.? It's smaller than a collar you would get if you had whiplash, and it's supposed to help with posture.? I find myself almost touching my back with the back of my head when working or playing games.

I can't really move my chair to either side, due to my desk.? My legs go underneath the center part of my desk.? My desk is a mess, but this is my work space in my basement:?
?

I will see what my doctor says about soma, and flexeril.? I need to get things in order fast, I may be losing my health insurance Oct 1st (also my b-day of course).? And my company doesn't offer “cobra” and I am basically uninsurable.? So life is getting better and better over here.

[Jeffros]

zip2play said:

Keith,

?

That is the very best CAT AND MOUSE picture I have ever seen. If I can edit it smaller I'm going to use it as my avatar on another buttetin board.

?

jefffros,

I hope that cancer is well and truly behind you. I have no doubt that the cancer, the massive weight loss ?and the chemotherapeutic agents used are very much part and parcel of the initiation of your gout. Your story was heartbreaking.

?All that was required for my gout initiation?was a decade of hydrochlorothiazide.

But alas, unlike may illnesses that disappear once the cause is removed, once gout is initiated it is forever becasue the crystals of urate will always make it impossible to superaturate your serum again.

So, no matter the cause, once a goutie ALWAYS a goutie.

?

That neck pain is part of your job description, been there, done that. Here are two easy tips:

1. Every month move your monitor from right, to center to left…don't put it off.

2. NEVER cradle a phone between your shoulder and head while you type.

?

And two harder ones:

3. try about a month of daily?FLEXERIL (cyclobenzapril…feels like schitte but it eventually breaks the spasms.)

4. try some sort of regular?neck traction

---

Thanks zip2play.? Noone knows for sure where my neck pain comes from, but it's possible from my?work.? I've been working for the same company for 12 years in Nov.? And don't remember when it started.? Both my neck pain and gout started years before my cancer did.

?

I can't move my monitor like you described.? I have three monitors, a?30″ in the center, and two 24″ 's on the left and right.

?

I almost never put the phone to my ear, I use speakerphone on my Panasonic handsets, people don't even realize they're on speaker phone.

?

I have been trying to improve my posture sitting in font of the computer, but my eyes aren't what they used to and sometimes I have to?get my face about 12″ from the screens.? I look like a 90 year old squinting and such.

?

I've actually tried Flerxeril a few times, but not for my neck.? It was when I ran out of oxycodone after breaking my leg, I was going to try anything to relieve the pain.? It did help from what I remember.? The other couple times I tried it was when my feet and neck were really bothering me, and I didn't notice a thing.? My old roomate left it here.? I don't have cramps or spasms in my neck.? Just a constant dull pain that gets worse as the day goes on, and spreads up to what seems like my brain giving me a headache.

?

My original statement about Tramadol didn't really make sense.? What I mean to say about Tramadol is, I felt no different, pain-wise while on it, and I tried it numerious times.? Ibuprofen 600mg doesn't do squat for me either.

[Jeffros]

My UA level was a “7” he said.? He said anything about 6 was high, so I guess it sounds about right.? I am sure it's even lower now.

?

I've never taken the allopurinol in the?last couple years?because of the tons of other drugs I was on and the fact I didn't have gout but once in two years while dealing with cancer.

?

The attack is over and I am on day 2 of allopurinol (300mg) and still on Indomethacin 50mg for another couple days.

?

I am back to no crutches and the leg and knee is feeling as strong as it has since the day I broke it in early June.

?

I guess it's a gout only forum here, so I will keep my other issues to myself.

[Jeffros]

I just typed out a reply, and decided to “subscribe” by clicking on the link below this WYSIWYG editor, and it took me to another page, therefore I am typing this all over again.? Can this editor be disabled?

?

Thanks for the welcome.

?

I see my primary care tomorrow to draw blood, I will know my UA level Monday.? I am also going to have an MRI done on my knee, as I may require more surgery since my leg won't fully extend due to many injuries, gout, etc.

?

The indomethacin did it's job and I am pain free at rest and sitting.? The knee still requires me to use one crutch.

?

I will be starting an allipurinol regimen after the gout attack has resided.

?

Thanks again, I plan on using this site allot in the future.

[Author]

Posts