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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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16 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

I apologize for the obvious question:  Are there friends you can lean on for rides?  Can you put out a call and see who responds?

No apology necessary, but unfortunately, no. My only friend in the area has an autistic son who is non-communicative, and neither he nor his wife can give me a lift.

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Have you looked into your town/village Senior Services, or whatever they call it there?  Ours has a bus service, which can take a little bit of time but is still better than not having a ride at all.  My dad used to volunteer to drive people to medical appointments, too.  Use the trick of asking each person you call who they would recommend you call.  If they don't give you someone right away, ask them to think about it for a minute.  It usually works, just may take two or three more calls.

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3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Have you looked into your town/village Senior Services, or whatever they call it there?  Ours has a bus service, which can take a little bit of time but is still better than not having a ride at all.  My dad used to volunteer to drive people to medical appointments, too.  Use the trick of asking each person you call who they would recommend you call.  If they don't give you someone right away, ask them to think about it for a minute.  It usually works, just may take two or three more calls.

I don't think I qualify yet. I'm only 53. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

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5:01 p.m. CDT 20170718. I haven't been awake very much today. Got up at 4:30 a.m. to use the bathroom, stayed up until around eight, had breakfast, then had a major crash and burn. Got up for lunch, crashed again. Stayed crashed until Mrs. Prof left the house at 4:30 p.m. to do cat things. I've just been tired as all hell, probably from the hydrocodone and the infection the Augmentin is fighting.

Pain continues on the right side of my throat, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I don't know if another ENT visit is warranted now.

Still no bowel action, even after more stool softeners. I don't dare take a strong laxative, which is about all we have around here (Dulcolax). I'm considering having Mrs. Prof get some glycerin suppositories, because whatever I'm blocked up with is going to hurt like hell when it comes out. Toilet snake on standby.

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42 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I don't think I qualify yet. I'm only 53. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I'd suggest asking just to be sure.  Even if your age doesn't qualify you, your condition might.

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Dear Lord, what next? A Zofran emergency from a glass of Crystal Light lemon tea. Not a major emergency, but bad enough to prompt me to pop one.

I've called Mrs. Prof and asked her to bring home some Miralax and the glycerin suppositories. My clogged state has got to be related to the Zofran emergency.

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6:20 a.m. CDT 20170719. Got an early start on the morning at around 4 am. Thought about going back to sleep and was already as far as my head hitting the pillow and eyes closed when I heard Mrs. Prof getting up to get coffee. Figured I'd get up and see her off. The good news is no right side throat pain today, although the left foot is still hurting.

I discussed the left foot with Mrs. Prof last night. Of course, she brought up the "fix your back so you can drive" argument again. However, this time I had a counter. I've had two—or is it three?—doctors tell me there's no surgical fix for my back. From what I researched yesterday, there is a surgical fix for my foot. Basically, I need to get the foot pain fixed first so I can get it out of the way and then concentrate on the pain management for my back/hip/side. No riposte from her on that one.

It's still weird to learn that the doctors who brought you into this world should have broken your feet and put them in casts when they did so that you wouldn't have the problems you're having now. I wonder if any of them are still around so I can sue them for malpractice?

Evidence of Mrs. Prof's swiss-cheesed mind continues to grow. She wrote down a list of things to get to help me get my intestines moving—Miralax and glycerin suppositories. I even asked her to go to Walgreen's or CVS. She did none of the above. After she got home (and couldn't even find the list), she went back out for the requested items. To an Albertsons. Who wouldn't have the glycerin suppositories, a rather specialty item. Instead, she brought home a bisacodyl suppository (NO WAY IN HELL) and a DocuSol Plus Mini-Enema, which has stool-softener and a dose of benzocaine pain reliever in it. I gave her the first item to return, but kept the DocuSol, just in case the Miralax (which she did buy and which I did take last night) doesn't work. The only reason I didn't send it back as well is that the glycerin suppositories are 15-minute instigators, as is the DocuSol, and at least there's softener and pain medicine in the DocuSol. Either way, I'm not looking forward to the outcome. (add to the list)

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17 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I don't think I qualify yet. I'm only 53. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Many of them are really for seniors and the disabled, which you certainly should currently qualify for.  They can do hang tags and the like for limited times rather than forever.

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6:07 p.m. CDT 20170719. Several short words. Gas. Pain. Tired. Phlegm. (Okay, the last one's not spelled short, but it's one syllable.)

Took more Colace. Going to give the Miralax one more night tonight. If nothing happens, then tomorrow I take the DocuSol Plus thingy. Tired of this. It reminds me of what happened after I had my appendix removed. Three weeks with no bowel movements. Terrible.

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11:16 a.m. CDT 20170720. I overslept both my 4am and my 10am hydrocodone doses. That renders me pretty damned useless. All my pains are coming back to greet me, in the same way that a debt collector would greet a person from which they have a debt to collect. A camper happy not am I.

 

BUTT, to paraphrase Grace, the Miralax finally worked its magic! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! My guts are still chortling in their joy, and I predict they will be for a good part of today. Not everything came out at once, of course. The sooner the better, but the less pain, the better, please.

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9:09 p.m. CDT 20170720. I have been laid out all freaking day long. My initial success turned into a painful ordeal. You'll have to read the spoiler for info, if you really want it.

The stool softener did

too good of a job. Yes, I had another movement, but good lord, did it have to be the liquefied contents of my intestines all at once? At least, I hope it was all at once, because I don't want to go through that again. I was physically exhausted afterward—enough so that I slept almost the entire farking day. I'm still drawn out and shaky as I write this. Make matters worse, I took a dose of Miralax before the first movement, so God only knows what's going to happen tomorrow. I'm somewhat afraid.

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5:18 a.m. CDT 20170721. Nothing dramatic overnight, which is a vast relief (pun intended) over Thursday. Good thing, too. I'm up because Mrs. Prof has a friend coming over who needs to borrow our washer & dryer. At 8:30 a.m. CDT. And I'm in no presentable shape for them to come over yet. A shower is definitely warranted, and I need Mrs. Prof's help to cover my ortho shoe with two layers of plastic so I can keep it dry in the shower. Same drill as always, just on a different schedule.

I have an appointment with my podiatrist today at 1:30 p.m., at which time I'm going to ask him about fixes for the metatarsalgia of my left foot—my birth defect. The padding only did so much—it was little more than a band-aid, and I'm still getting pains despite it. I know Mrs. Prof's not going to like the answer, which will probably be more surgery. Honestly, I'm not going to like it much either, but if done properly, surgical pain goes away. This crap doesn't, if the padding doesn't work, and it hasn't.

Surgery. I'm getting way too proficient at typing that word.

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4:29 p.m. CDT 20170721. I am home from the podiatrist, and per his orders, I am wearing my regular shoe on my left foot.

HURTS

It's pressing on my 2nd and 3rd metatarsals. They are not enjoying it. My big toe is stable, thankfully, although it is still healing. My sesamoid ... well, I'm just going to be stuck with that for the rest of my life, basically.

He has prescribed Lyrica 150 mg twice a day in the event that it is a nerve issue. (I did not realize that Lyrica was a controlled substance.) I can't take a dose until this evening, since I didn't get home until after 3pm.

I'm supposed to come back in two weeks. If it hasn't improved, I get to have another MRI.

Incidentally, I'm going to be a busy boy in two weeks. August 2nd will be my consultation with the pain management doctor. August 3rd is my appointment with my cardiologist. August 4th is my appointment with the podiatrist.

SHOE COMING OFF NOW

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12:36 a.m. CDT 20170722. I took my first dose of Lyrica around 7 pm last night. I am freaking stoned, I swear. It's one of the side effects of the medication. I'd had it before, but it didn't do this to me. Must be reacting to the hydrocodone and the Abilify. I almost fell over walking down the hallway to out bathroom, I was so dizzy. I think I'm going to shut down for the night.

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6:16 a.m. CDT 20170722. The buzz is mostly gone, but the dizziness is still here. I almost repeated the accident that started everything by nearly tripping over my computer cables on my way to the kitchen. There's no way to move them, unfortunately, so I just have to remind myself that I need to be careful while I'm walking that direction—especially now that I'm wearing the SHOE OF PAIN on my left foot. (At least the shoe is easier to put on than the ortho shoe.)

I'm going to go ahead and take my pills now. I have no idea as to what the Lyrica is going to do to me on the second dose. I almost feel like a junkie waiting for a fix. This is a strange drug.

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Is there any disease that causes red spots all over? No swelling, so it's not an allergy. No itching, so not chicken pox or similar. No nausea. Just spots. My youngest brother got it last week, and the lack of other symptoms had the doctor baffled. Now I got 'em too. Any ideas? 

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7:28 p.m. CDT 20170722. The second dose is just as weird as the first, with a not-so-good waking-up sensation. It felt like I had some sort of withdrawal symptom when I first got up today. Once I got all of my medications into me, I felt better.

Then the Lyrica kicked in.

It gives you a euphoric feeling you don't get from alcohol, or at least I never did. I used to get a warm, happy feeling from alcohol when I could drink (can't anymore). This sensation isn't warm or happy—it's more like you're floating around the room in a little cloud of cheery, meek euphoria, but subject to outside interference from others. Your equilibrium is shot to hell for most of the day, and you may get hit with double vision (that could just be me, due to all of the other medications I'm on).

At one point, you'll be hit with an urge to sleep, but you won't be able to at first. It'll be a couple of hours before you'll be truly able to crash out, and even after you wake up you'll still experience some of the symptoms (especially the equilibrium).

It's been around 12 hours since my second dose, and I'm not feeling any withdrawal. I've still got two more hours before I usually take my medications, so the Lyrica is going to have to wait until about 9:30 p.m. before I take it again. At least my equilibrium is a bit better right now.

N.B.: my equilibrium has also been screwed up by the SHOE OF PAIN on my left foot. I swear, it feels like my right leg grew to compensate for the extra height of the boot and, later, the orthopedic shoe I had to wear. Just a complicating factor that may have been part of what I've been blaming on the Lyrica.

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6:47 a.m. CDT 20170723. No withdrawal feelings this morning. However, the pain on my right side from my back down my side is more pronounced. Might be because I overslept my hydrocodone by about 90 minutes. I don't know anymore. It's impossible to keep up with all of my medical side effects.

I put my hearing aids in the moment Mrs. Prof woke up and came into the living room (i.e., just before I started typing this). I'm finding that I need them more and more to understand what she says. She has a high palate, which makes her speech a bit unusual to begin with. The hearing aids give me an argument when she starts mumbling—if I've got them in and I can't understand her, she's not talking right. ;)

I just realized that I took off the SHOE OF PAIN but kept my right shoe on. Weird. Might be because I took all of my pills before I started typing this.

... aaaaand the Lyrica is starting to kick in. Double vision and coughing are my secondary side effects from it. I've already documented the primary side effects. Strange, though, that a medicine like this would cause coughing. It's a documented side effect, though, but not common (0.1% to 1%). I can feel it making my right sinus drip down my throat, making me cough.

The double vision is hitting pretty hard right now. Typing is difficult. I'll have to cut this short. More later.

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Sounds to me like you're getting too high a dose of Lyrica, at least initially after taking it. Maybe talk to your pharmacist or the appropriate doctor about the viability of cutting them in half and taking three or four halves a day. Or getting a lower-dose pill. Or the former until this bottle runs out and then the latter.

(Note: I am not a doctor or pharmacist. With a situation as complex as yours I recommend - for any side effect not obviously life-threatening - talking with an actual medical professional before making changes.)

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4 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Sounds to me like you're getting too high a dose of Lyrica, at least initially after taking it. Maybe talk to your pharmacist or the appropriate doctor about the viability of cutting them in half and taking three or four halves a day. Or getting a lower-dose pill. Or the former until this bottle runs out and then the latter.

(Note: I am not a doctor or pharmacist. With a situation as complex as yours I recommend - for any side effect not obviously life-threatening - talking with an actual medical professional before making changes.)

I've looked it up, and I think I'm getting one pill above the lowest dose. It's actually a capsule, which means I can't cut it in half, BTW. It's not helping yet anyway, so I've just got to get used to it until it builds up a serum level so that it starts helping with the pain.

Here's a link to the dosage chart, although you'll have to scroll up to find it:

https://www.lyrica.com/frequently-asked-questions#what-are-approved-doses-lyrica

I don't fit into any of the categories listed in the Indication column, so my podiatrist may have used a list that I don't have access to.

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5:49 p.m. CDT 20170724. The struggle to get through the Lyrica has turned into an outright war. I almost feel like it's giving me double vision. My typing speed has dropped dramatically, unless I close my left eye, and I can't type one-eyed for very long. I can think when I'm on the computer, but talk to me and it's like I've gone senile.

And all of this is supposed to be over in a week of so. Thank God I don't have to go anywhere important this week. It's next week that I'm worried about, because my consultation with the pain management doctor is next Wednesday afternoon.

On top of the vision issues, I'm having fatigue issues. Working at the computer wears me out like crazy. In fact, I'm going to take a nap break in a few minutes.

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

On top of the vision issues, I'm having fatigue issues. Working at the computer wears me out like crazy. In fact, I'm going to take a nap break in a few minutes.

I am sorry to hear. As always, I hope you will manage to cope with all this until things improve.

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6 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I am sorry to hear. As always, I hope you will manage to cope with all this until things improve.

Thank you. Doing my best. At odd hours again. No real double vision right now. I was able to fire off a major administrative missive to the Ubergroup team that I Captain on Scribophile. It even made sense and didn't ramble like the typings of a  madman. ;)

Mrs. Prof is the one who's probably worrying about it, but not telling me. She wants me driving again, and there's no way I'm doing that in my current state.

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