Swarm – Daily Prompt

Yesterday I wrote about how much pain I was in. I’m happy to say that after adjusting my interstims, I have two of them, I have found a little bit of relief. I’m still in pain, but I’m down from a red-hot poker being twisted in my gut to a swarm of bees stinging the inside of my bladder.

I need to explain the interstims. They are sacral nerve stimulators that provide electrical impulses to the sacral nerve, sending a message to the brain telling it that the bladder is not flopping around in my body, even though it actually is. So the interstims are just fooling the brain so it sends out the right signals. With 2 interstims comes 8 leads (wires), 4 for each one. There are an infinite number of ways to adjust the two interstims because I can adjust how much electrical impulses they produce as well as which lead is producing that impulse. So while the left side is on lead 4 at 1.0%, the right one is on lead 2 at 1.8%. I can change this randomly, as often as I want, with a remote control, and put the electrical impulses percentage up to a 10, but at 2% is very uncomfortable, for me.

I had moved the impulses around to 7 of the leads before yesterday and finally decided to try the 8th lead, which provided me with the relief I am currently feeling. I am still having some break-through pain, which is very uncomfortable, but as long as it remains inconsistent break-through and doesn’t come on full force, I will be okay.

Break through pain is, in my own opinion, pain that can come through no matter the circumstances. Luckily, my pain is only breaking through with certain situations, movement, or when my bladder fills with urine. Avoiding these situations is key. Keeping my bladder as empty as possible without getting dehydrated, eating only foods on the IC diet, and avoiding stress, will help me pull out of this flare. Prayers are always welcomed too. Thank you to those of you that are sending prayers up for me.

~Peace