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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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The partial amputation has finally healed enough so that I can go back to wearing a compression stocking on my left foot. That's good, because I've been forgetting to put them on until much too late in the day lately, resulting in both ankles swelling up and hurting. Very oww.

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Well, half of that hour is spent passing through your digestive system and passing from your intestine to your bloodstream. For faster absorption you probably need something delivered via inhaler or injection or transdermally . . .

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I'm having a back procedure done today (radio ablation of the spinal nerves, L2-S5, left side) to help alleviate my chronic, severe back pain. I'll be in the hospital at about 8:00 a.m. CST and for a few hours afterward, if things go well. I'm hoping for no adverse side effects from this procedure, because there is at least one (a nasty, prolonged burning sensation of the affected area) that I definitely do not want.

Please wish me health and luck through the procedure - I need all of both that I can get.

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Back procedure went off successfully. I'm dealing with some tightness and pain in the affected area, which I'm supposed to be treating with ice, but my cat is sleeping next to me and I don't want to disturb him, especially since he's caught an upper respiratory bug. (Both cats ill now - it never rains, but it pours.) I'm sitting still instead and letting the oxycodone take care of things.

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7 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Something like that. The surgeon wore a lead suit to protect himself. He did it to the nerves along the left side of my lower back.

Sounds like the lead suit is because of the fluoroscopy used to guide needle placement -- that's sort of a continuous real-time x-ray.  We wear lead any time we take even one x-ray with us in the room, so I can understand them suiting up for a whole series, even if they're very focused (I'm guessing they are, like a dental or mammography image, rather than a big area like a chest rad).

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Update: the burning sensation has gone, leaving only the tightness, which is fading. Problem areas remain just above my hip, with continued sensations of tightness there. The hospital called to check up on me - they said this was more or less a common reaction that I should be done with in no more than a week or two, if that long.

I've been sleeping with my head on a pair of stacked pillows to keep my spine straight. Seems to be helping, since I wake up from each oxycodone-induced nap with a little bit less tightness.

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The tightness in my back is almost gone, which is nice. Another nice thing is the fact that I can once again lift my left leg more than about 4 inches off the ground. Before, I couldn't lift it onto a chair or other raised surface to help with putting on shoes, getting into a car, or drying off after a shower. This was due to pain linked to one of my spinal nerves. Now that those nerves have been ablated, I no longer feel the pain and can once again lift my leg. It's like someone hit a light switch and turned off the pain - a wonderful sensation.

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I am recovering from yet another radio ablation procedure, this time on my right lumbar spine. This was way more painful. I was living on oxycodone Thursday, to no avail - my pain level shot up to between an 8 1/2 and a 9 and stayed there for five hours. I can handle short sprints at that level, but not marathon runs. This called for a call to my doctor ... who did not call me back until Friday morning, by which time my pain had receded to a 6 1/2. How'd I make it through the night? By violating doctor's orders. I put an ice pack on my back--well-wrapped in fabric--and kept it there for well over an hour. I did not experience any cold burns, thanks to the wrap.

I've had worse experiences, but this ranks up there on my list of "things I don't want to repeat." Not without significant doctor guidance first. You see, there was one difference between this operation and the last: the anesthesiologist did not give me Versed. It is very hard for me to shake off after surgery, to the point of giving me uncontrollable shivers and a headache.

In retrospect, I probably should have suffered through it instead of suffering through the pain afterward. As I write this, I'm still hurting, at about a 6 or a 7. It's at a peak at the moment. Earlier on, it has backed off (pun intended). Now, all I can do is wait for the relief to kick in.

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It's Monday, and still no headache, which is good because I have to go in for another surgery today. I'm having a catheter shoved up one of my right leg peripheral veins to cauterize it and stop venous reflux that's been causing painful swelling (edema) in my right foot and ankle. I'll be awake while they do the operation - not looking forward to that - so they've given me a couple of Xanax to take 30 minutes before the operation to calm me down. I've been warned that it's not going to be comfortable (gee, thanks), so I'm going to be laid out afterward. Much fun.

I get to repeat the process on my left leg a week from today.

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Well, the doctor was right - it was not comfortable. I got stabbed with needles full of numbing medicine at least a dozen times, had a sheath shoved into a vein, then had a catheter shoved through the sheath up into said vein and heated with radio frequencies (yep, another radio ablation procedure) so that it collapsed the vein. I'm now wrapped up from my groin to my ankle with orders not to remove the wrap for 48 hours and not to lift anything more than 10 pounds. I'm just waiting right now for the time that I can take my next pain killer,  because this crap hurts.

Lather, rinse, repeat nest Monday.

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It's day after shrink day.  Had my dosage adjusted in an attempt to stop hearing randomly my name being called out, plus the random music I hear.  If the new dosage doesn't work, I get to start a new drug and joy of joys I have to have blood work done monthly after I start it.  Hoping I don't need any thing other than the dosage tweak.

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Three hours until these damned bandages come off, and it's three hours too long. The things don't want to stay in position on my leg: they've slid down every chance they've got, mainly due to a lipoma that I have on the back of my upper leg. I'm not supposed to be able to see any of the bruising from the anesthetic shots, but of course that's already been violated. And don't forget the pain - the vein that was treated still hurts. It'll probably hurt worse after the bandages come off.

Follow-up appointment is this coming Friday. We'll see what the doctor says.

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Eww. My bandages are off, and my leg looks a mess. Bruises all up and down my inner upper leg, and a huge bruise covered by Steri-Strips at the incision site. My leg felt like it weighed a ton after I finally un-bandaged it (I had to fight my cat, who insisted on being lovey-dovey during the process). It was bad enough that I had to walk it out for a while afterward. Still hurts.

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Surgery No. 2 (Endovenous Ablation, left leg) was done today. It looked at first like it was going to be easier than the right leg was, since they only had to do one lidocaine injection to insert the sheath and the catheter. However, the problems started once they started doing injections farther up the leg. They did about a half dozen injections prior to the radio wave ablation, each one more painful than the last. Things got even worse when they turned on the radio wave machine - I felt an intense pain from inside my leg. They either missed a spot with the lidocaine, or they didn't wait long enough for it to kick in. They gave me more lidocaine and restarted the ablation. A couple more burning spots popped up along the leg during the ablation, requiring even more lidocaine. In total, I think they hit me with about 10-12 injections when all was said and done.

About seven hours later, I am very sore. Walking hurts. Sitting hurts. I'm worn out.

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

Sounds lousy.  I hope it's worth it, and overall it saves you significant pain!

Thank you. In perspective, it should save me a lot of grief. The pain that the surgery is designed to relieve can be crippling at its worst. It felt like I had a large, jagged rock between my ankle and the flat of my foot.

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Last year, I had part of the second toe of my left foot amputated due to a bone infection gone out of control.

Today, I found out I have an infection of the middle toe of my left foot.

The foot doctor says we caught it just in time. He saw no bone problems on the X-rays. However, I am wearing a special walking boot on that foot and will have to take precautions when I shower so that I don't get it wet (I'll have to clean it separately outside of the shower).

My foot is a pain in the arse.

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The infection has failed to respond to antibiotics and topical iodine treatments. The subcutaneous fat layer of the tip of my toe is now exposed.

The doctor now says my toe looks just like toe #2 did last year. He is scheduling a radioisotope bone scan to determine if I have a bone infection (osteomyelitis), which is what I had in toe #2.

If I have osteomyelitis, we're going to skip the six weeks' worth of IV antibiotics that we tried last time (which also didn't work) and proceed directly with a partial amputation.

My depression gene is kicking me in the ass over this.

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5 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

The infection has failed to respond to antibiotics and topical iodine treatments. The subcutaneous fat layer of the tip of my toe is now exposed.

The doctor now says my toe looks just like toe #2 did last year. He is scheduling a radioisotope bone scan to determine if I have a bone infection (osteomyelitis), which is what I had in toe #2.

If I have osteomyelitis, we're going to skip the six weeks' worth of IV antibiotics that we tried last time (which also didn't work) and proceed directly with a partial amputation.

My depression gene is kicking me in the ass over this.

That sucks just in general.

 

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