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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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Got a phone call from Baylor Scott and White Dallas while I was typing up the previous reply. They verified that I absolutely have to come in for an appointment for any change to my medication, be it dosage or prescription. Mrs. Prof had been on my arse to at least call, when I already knew the policy by reading the posted notices on every single door in the patient areas about it. I swear, she doesn't trust me sometimes, and it really chaps my cheeks.

Away from the cheek chapping, it boils down to a verification of what I posted earlier: I'm going to be in pain until Thursday if they change my dosage, or Friday (at the earliest) if they change my medication.

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I had an "Oh, screw it" moment a little while ago. Right now, my oxycodone schedule is 20mg every 8 hours. That's a 4:00 a.m., noon, and 8:00 p.m. schedule. Usually, it's easy to keep, but today I got things crosswise somehow. I woke up from an afternoon nap at about 5:30 p.m. and thought I'd missed a dose.

Note the p.m. on that time there.

Anyway, my addled brain went ahead and told the rest of my body parts to go ahead and take the dose. When the proper time for my dose rolled around (8:00 p.m.), I realized what I'd done. No way I was going to go almost eleven hours on a single dose that isn't working in the first place. Oh, screw it. I took my 8:00 p.m. dose.

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I've been run through the medical wringer again. Twice.

My appointment to get injections in my back has been canceled, thanks to the fact that the medical building where the procedure was going to take place (called "Baylor Uptown" in the system parlance) was bought out by another company. The company that owns it now still rents it to doctors for procedures, but not to ones who have my particular insurance. I've been on the phone for the past two days trying to get my procedure rescheduled before the end of the year. Unfortunately, everyone else who had procedures scheduled there is doing the same thing. Looks like I'm not going to have my procedure until 2018 now.

The other wringer dinger has to do with my pain medication. Again. I had an appointment today with a nurse practitioner named Jerry (who looked like he would fit into any of the Godfather films) about the oxycodone. He's recommended to my pain management doctor an increase in my dose which will move my net daily morphine equivalent from 90 mcg (?) to 112 mcg (could be milligrams, but I doubt it). The doctor will have to approve it before it goes out to the pharmacy. So, right now I'm waiting for a call from the pharmacy to confirm what the new dosage will be.

One bit of good news: Mrs. Prof called Blue Cross Fed PPO and verified that my prescription for the shingles vaccination will be covered. They start covering it at age 50. So, now that I'm sure it's not going to interfere with the injection procedure, I can go ahead and get it this year while it's still fully covered, probably this weekend. I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who's had the vaccination shot re: side effects, etc., and so on.

Medicine rules my stinkin' life. Even when it's good. (/end rant)

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I called the pharmacy and found out that the doctor didn't send over yesterday's batch of prescriptions until this morning. Mine is in there, thankfully. It's been upped to five 15mg oxycodone pills a day. Jerry the Nurse Practitioner suggested keeping the every eight hours schedule, but doing a 2/2/1 pill distribution or some permutation thereof. I might have to revert to the 1/1/1/2 distribution. We shall see.

Mrs. Prof is headed out to nab it right now.

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6:30 a.m. CST 20171214. I'm having issues with my pain medication, but I'm no longer having problems. That's a big difference. The pain doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night any more. That's when I'm on a single pill dose. When I'm on a two pill dose, I have a  period shortly after taking it where I *have* to sleep. Idiot that I am, I try to fight through it, but inevitably I have to give in and take a nap. Once that's done, I can function without much pain getting in my way. Case in point: I took a double dose about a half an hour ago and am fighting to get through this post. At least I'm getting pain relief from that dose.

EDIT: I had to have Mrs. Prof monitor me while I took my doses of all my other morning medications. I was just a bit too crosseyed to be 100% certain I was taking my pills right without someone watching me count them out and making sure they all went into my mouth.

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Yay for no problems!  That's a very big plus on this medication.  The needing to sleep is an obvious minus, but you can plan around that requirement, and pain waking you up at night isn't something you should be dealing with.  So yay!

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And, after all I've gone through today to be able to watch tv, I now have a migraine and don't want to watch TV.

I am really less than gruntled about a large number of things but I think the migraine is what pushed me over the top.  Off to take drugs and hope for the best.

 

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Today's been rough. The last two or three hours of each pain medicine dose have been hell. The medicine has worn off, giving me level 7-to-7½ pain near my sciatic region. It's clear that the  every 8 hours dosing schedule of 30mg/30mg/15mg isn't working. For the next two days, I'm going to try 15mg/22½mg/22½mg/15mg on the old 4am/10am/4pm/10pm schedule. I don't cut the pills in half very well, but Mrs. Prof does. She may get stuck with the pill cutting job if this works.

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7 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

This is not working well. I wound up pulling an 8 before my 10am dose. I went to bed right after and woke up just after noon. Someone tell me what I'm doing wrong.

*sigh* Beats me. I'm still rooting for you, though.

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15 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

*sigh* Beats me. I'm still rooting for you, though.

Thank you. Must have worked. I'm settling in better today. Woke up at 4am with just over a 6 on the pain scale, then went back to sleep and woke up with around a 6 at 10am. Tried walking - much easier than yesterday.

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Third day back on the old 4am/10am/4pm/10pm med schedule. Mrs. Prof volunteered herself as Chief Pillcutter after cutting a week's worth without smashing a single one of the little buggers. (I always leave particulate matter behind.)

As said earlier, Sunday was better than Saturday. Much more so. I was able to go and see The Last Jedi, although I came close to crashing after we got back home. A bit of football resuscitated me.

Today, I've been able to write music for almost two hours and deal with insurance immediately afterward. I also talked to my son to get some help on my slow internet speeds (he studied that in college). Turns out the problem's on Frontier FiOS's end, but I'm still installing the neat new router they sent me (immediately followed by a call to Frontier to schedule a service call).

I think I've said this before, but there is one upside to the pain and all of the medications: it's making me lose the weight I regained after my gastric bypass surgery. I started off at 356 lb. (161.5 kg) (25.42 stone) down to 275 lb (124.7 kg) (19.6 stone) before a pain doctor put me on gabapentin. That's an evil drug, people. It screws with your brain, makes you loopy, and makes you want to eat all the time. I went back up to 326 lb (Google is your friend) in just a couple of months and eventually wound up back at 356 lb.

Well, since going on the Topamax for my back/leg/foot pain, I've officially come back down to 318 lb. Last night, I weighed myself at home and came up with 314 lb—that's a loss of 42 lb! This is a drug that my primary care physician has me on, so it's not under the control of the pain doctor. I hope he keeps me on it at least until I break 300 lb. I'd like to go even lower, but it's difficult when you can't exercise. My diet is doing that for me.

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18 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

 before a pain doctor put me on gabapentin. That's an evil drug, people.

It's a drug that can have side effects, like any drug, but for some individuals, it can be a wonderful drug.  People shouldn't be afraid to try it, they just need to watch out for the side effects and talk to their doctor about other options if any develop.

I definitely know what you're talking about....when I tried birth control pills in college, in hopes of a more regular cycle, I gained a bunch of weight.  Between that and my thyroid going out, undergrade was not kind to my physique.

Quote

Well, since going on the Topamax for my back/leg/foot pain, I've officially come back down to 318 lb. Last night, I weighed myself at home and came up with 314 lb—that's a loss of 42 lb! This is a drug that my primary care physician has me on, so it's not under the control of the pain doctor. I hope he keeps me on it at least until I break 300 lb. I'd like to go even lower, but it's difficult when you can't exercise. My diet is doing that for me.

My current doc had me try Topamax at one point, in hopes of getting that very side effect.  Didn't work for me, glad it is for you!

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15 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

My current doc had me try Topamax at one point, in hopes of getting that very side effect.  Didn't work for me, glad it is for you!

Thanks! The sensation is odd - it's like my gastric bypass pouch is actually working for me now. If I eat too much, though, I get the infamous "Zofran emergencies." Just one bite too many can make me want to throw up.

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The left side of my skull hurts. Between what is left of my flu this year and several bad teeth, yeah, the left side hurts. Thankfully it seems to respond well to my standard pain drugs so I haven't had to hit my reserve of "knock me out now, please" medications.

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8 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I just got a shingles vaccination. For free, thanks to insurance. First time I've ever had a vaccination shot under my arm (in the skin of the triceps area). Better than having the shingles, I guess.

I hear you. I wouldn't want to break out in roofing tiles.

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4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

My mother once had shingles.

She had a rash that spread on her waist.

My ever so helpful father told her that when the rash went all the way around  it would cut her in two.

I hope she had him fed to the crocodiles.

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