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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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11 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I've changed a variable. How do we account for it?

I have no idea, but don't panic. Just ensure that it is part of the record. Report it to the people involved. And try to go back to the planned schedule.

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10:50 a.m. CDT 20171103. My wires come out in about three hours. I've been remembering to take my hydrocodone today, and frankly, the pain has been worse with the hydrocodone. I know I had some serum level drug floating around in my system yesterday, so maybe the results aren't so different. I'm worrying for no good reason, maybe.

Mrs. Prof had to cancel her appointment with I.T. to drive me. My son came down sick and is at one of those CareNow Urgent Care Clinics with a fever and congestion. Probably caught the flu.

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4:53 p.m. CDT 20171103. I no longer have the wires in my back.

The medical person (not sure who he was - another doctor? Nurse practitioner?) and the Nevro rep agreed that I hadn't had enough relief overall from the device to justify surgery to implant the stimulator unit inside me permanently, even with yesterday's goof-up. He rather quickly yanked the wires out and showed them to me—about 8 inches of blue wire with several exposed electrodes on each. Left me dizzy for almost an hour afterward. Even now, my equilibrium is a bit lacking.

5:06 p.m. - I took my first Dilaudid a hour ago. Didn't help my equilibrium. Helped my pain, although not immediately. It's working now, but it's giving me some side effects I'm going to have to get used to. I'm a bit cross-eyed, although nowhere near as bad as with the demon Lyrica (Lord help me, no). Got a bit of a headache, but I think that could be related to having the spaghetti yanked out of my spine.

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10 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Got a bit of a headache

Just for what it's worth I have had Dilaudid for migraines, so I don't think headache is a normal side effect for it.

And yes, you will be loopier than a loopy thing on it. 

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On 11/1/2017 at 3:27 PM, mlooney said:

I think my current meds are working, but this last week has been odd, but I think it's due to a cold, not the meds not working any more.   It's not that I don't want to get out of bed, it's just that I feel like crap and I want to lay down.  At least for the last 2 days any way.

Sounds like how I was feeling Thursday.  If you're sick, then rest is usually the best medicine, along with whatever actual medicine you need to get that rest.

On 11/1/2017 at 3:49 PM, The Old Hack said:

Good idea. Get some rest and take care of yourself. And that STILL goes for you as well, @CritterKeeper. If you don't behave and give yourself a chance to recover, my wife has promised she will look you up and beat you with a stuffed shark. And you don't want that.

In fact, you never want to get into a stuffed animal fight with her. I know this to my sorrow. Not only does she hit hard, but she dual wields, too.

I have a rather extensive collection myself, focussing on unusual but real creatures.  Naked mole rats, okapi, mantas, a plush flea, that sort of thing.

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

Sounds like how I was feeling Thursday.  If you're sick, then rest is usually the best medicine, along with whatever actual medicine you need to get that rest.

I have a rather extensive collection myself, focussing on unusual but real creatures.  Naked mole rats, okapi, mantas, a plush flea, that sort of thing.

My wife has recently added some expanded-size plushie deadly plagues to her collection, including variants of typhus, ebola and the Spanish Flu. As you can imagine, I am quite careful around her when she is in a mood. :icon_eek:

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5:14 p.m. CST 20171105. Happy Daylight Standard Time day.

For the first time in two weeks, I was able to take a standard hot shower without worrying about electronics, spinal cord implants, or leftover bandages. No more sponge baths! Yay! :lol:

One thing I won't be doing again is experimenting with my Dilaudid dosage. Yesterday was a rather sore day, so I tried the 5x-a-day dosage. I'm still doing 4am/10am/4pm/10pm, but I took an extra pill with my 4am dose. That pretty much left me useless until noon. Yep—won't be doing that again. If I do 5x-a-day, I'll consider doing the extra with my 10pm dose.

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On 11/4/2017 at 4:34 PM, The Old Hack said:

My wife has recently added some expanded-size plushie deadly plagues to her collection, including variants of typhus, ebola and the Spanish Flu. As you can imagine, I am quite careful around her when she is in a mood. :icon_eek:

Ah, yes, I have a Leptospirosis and one that I forget the name of that causes gingivitis.

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4:30 a.m. CST 20171106. This Dilaudid is screwing with my sleep schedule, and the change to CST hasn't helped. Case in point: I'm drinking the last of my 2005 pu erh sample to try and calm down while I back up my music writing system in the background. I took my 4am dose of Dilaudid and haven't fallen asleep from it yet. Go figure.

I might do the 1/1/1/2 experiment tonight, just so I can sleep through the night.

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7:53 p.m. CST 20171107. This moved quickly. I now have a referral to a back surgeon and an appointment next Wednesday with him. I've got the usual 12 pages of paperwork to fill out, and I've got to bring my MRI and CT Myelogram discs with me to the appointment. I don't know where my paperwork for the discs is, but I think they have a readout of the CT Myelogram.

The 1/1/1/2 experiment worked, to some extent. I think I'll try it again, just to see what happens when Mrs. Prof doesn't turn the TV off this time.

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10:57 a.m. CST 20171118. The 1/1/1/2 experiment worked to an extent, again. I fell asleep sitting up on the sofa. Woke up before Mrs. Prof did, so I sort of screwed the test parameters. I spent a lot of time trying to stay awake while taking my medicines.

Once Mrs. Prof woke up, I went to bed in the bedroom and crashed for a couple of hours. That's helped me stay awake post-crash, as has a cup of some 2011 cake vintage white tea. (I finally got a gram scale and a temperature gauge so I could do it right.) (I promised not to geek out over tea here anymore.) I still catch myself nodding off every now and then, so I know I'm going to have to go back to bed again at some point.

Damn, this Dilaudid is harsh stuff.

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The pain in my right hip is still rather steady. When the Dilaudid takes hold, it takes hold and puts me down to knock out the pain. I spent most of the day back in the bedroom, in bed, asleep. I just don't feel well. I'm getting nothing done. The medicine will let me think I can get started on something, then it slaps the crap out of me. Just like writing this entry. I thought I'd get a good entry going, but toward the end I lost my energy (or had it stolen).

I've got to pass out. We'll try this later.

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9 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

The pain in my right hip is still rather steady. When the Dilaudid takes hold, it takes hold and puts me down to knock out the pain. I spent most of the day back in the bedroom, in bed, asleep. I just don't feel well. I'm getting nothing done. The medicine will let me think I can get started on something, then it slaps the crap out of me. Just like writing this entry. I thought I'd get a good entry going, but toward the end I lost my energy (or had it stolen).

I've got to pass out. We'll try this later.

Hang in there, Prof. Sooner or later you will beat this thing. We're rooting for you.

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7:45 p.m. CST 20171113. I have been through a weekend of pharmaceutical hell. I've been trying to tweak my dosage schedule with zero success, unless you count turning one's self into a Dilaudid zombie a success. My pain relief hasn't been steady unless I've been knocked out. The most helpful setting, pain-wise, was an 8mg/4mg/8mg dosage on an 8 hour schedule. Not only did that turn me into a zombie, it brought the wrath of Mrs. Prof for how my body reacted. I'd sit with a drink at my mouth for five minutes or more. I fell asleep eating oatmeal and spilled it all over myself. So, we've wiped the slate clean and have reverted to a 4mg/4mg/4mg/8mg dosing schedule every six hours (4am/10am/4pm/10pm).

God, my body does not like this drug. There are no alternatives that I know of, unfortunately. Not at this stage.

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9:12 a.m. CST 20171116. Well, unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to deal with the drug for at least a bit longer. I saw a back surgeon yesterday—again—to find out if there was anything that could be done to fix my back and get rid of the pain at the source. Just like the previous two surgeons, he said no. Urrgh.

It would appear, in essence, that Mrs. Prof is guiding my treatment from here on. She wants to hit goal X and try procedures Y and Z. I just want to stop hurting without becoming zombified. The two goals aren't always in line with each other.

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3 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

It would appear, in essence, that Mrs. Prof is guiding my treatment from here on. She wants to hit goal X and try procedures Y and Z. I just want to stop hurting without becoming zombified. The two goals aren't always in line with each other.

*sigh* I hope things will work out. I know this must feel disappointing but modern medicine is a very wide field. There might still be a good solution somewhere out there.

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6 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

*sigh* I hope things will work out. I know this must feel disappointing but modern medicine is a very wide field. There might still be a good solution somewhere out there.

I know. It just looks narrower with each doctor visit I make.

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12:32 p.m. CST 20171122. I turned 54 since my last update. Don't think it helped.

The past couple of days have been difficult. I've been laid out and sleeping for most of the time. Not much to do during the time, but I could have come up with something if I'd been awake. Pain, headaches, and a sore throat have made that next to impossible. Add to that a cluster of little blisters on my right knee that came from who knows where and you can see why I've had trouble with the past couple of days. Geez, one thing at a time, please!

At least I'm up today. I'm not very functional beyond checking e-mail and updating add-ons (NoScript is out for Firefox Quantum! Yay!), but I'm going to try and push it. Let's find out what happens.

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59 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

12:32 p.m. CST 20171122. I turned 54 since my last update. Don't think it helped.

Nonetheless, it is a good thing that we've had you around for another year, for which I am duly grateful. If it makes you feel better, I turn 52 in a few months.

(My wife turned 46 earlier this year. For various personal reasons this depressed her. It cheered her somewhat when I told her that she would be the envy of half the States for going from 45 to 46 before the rest of them did.)

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