Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

7:04 p.m. CDT. I'm on my cane again, thanks to the hydrocodone wearing off. Waiting for Mrs. Prof to come home, hopefully with some food from Taco Cabana. Been waiting for rain all day but haven't seen it. Wondering if it missed us or if it's coming at us from the backwards direction—that doesn't happen often, and I hope it doesn't happen while Mrs. Prof is still on the road. Hearing thunder outside.

Feeling a bit lightheaded. Not sure why. Can't pinpoint the feeling, either. Might be anxiety, might be pain. Not really sure.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

9:26 p.m. CDT. Fell asleep shortly before eight after eating an order that Taco Cabana screwed up. Again. Had more coughing, especially when lying down. It seems that the nebulizer is making things worse, so Mrs. Prof and I agreed that I should stop it until I see the pulmonologist.

Woke up just after nine and dove for my hydrocodone again. The stuff barely works now. I shudder to think what my hospital trip is going to be like, with no hydrocodone from midnight before the procedure until around one in the afternoon.

Figured out what happened with the weather. We dodged a howitzer-sized bullet. The front did form just east of us, and it was pissed. At least three tornadoes, including a major, long-track (40+ miles) wedge tornado, hit the area just a couple of counties to our east. From the looks of the wedge, I'm guessing an EF-4. They're still operating a triage center out of the high school in the city of Canton.

Took the rest of my non-"stop list" pills and some diluted orange/lemon juice. Will probably crash out rather quickly. Mrs. Prof is wasted after her cat tree building work, so she's already in bed. See you folks in the morning, and thank you for letting me journal things here.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

10:46 p.m. CDT. I'm already in pain again. I wonder if it's got something to do with some of the meds I'm not taking at the moment. Regardless, the doctor's going to get a double earful about it on Monday, even if he isn't my pain management doctor.

The expected brick wall of depression and anxiety has never really materialized—at least, not yet. No hallucinations, no seizures. Hoping they never will.

Just heard a report of five deaths from the wedge tornado that hit the city of Canton, TX. Don't know if that's five total or five more deaths. Canton's relatively rural, compared to the rest of the Metroplex. Not a good thing either way. Switching away from the news.

Now drinking a mix of sparkling peach water and watermelon juice while watching a highlights program of the Houston Rockets' game five series closeout win over Oklahoma City. Thinking about having some popcorn to go with it.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Thanks for keeping us posted, Prof. Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble. :/

It does put things greatly in perspective. My own health troubles seem to dwindle into insignificance in comparison and I am grateful for being as healthy as I am.

[mlooney 3,417]

46 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Thanks for keeping us posted, Prof. Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble. :/

It does put things greatly in perspective. My own health troubles seem to dwindle into insignificance in comparison and I am grateful for being as healthy as I am.

I agree. While I have migraine, they don't last, in general, more than a day and a half, plus I have a series of drugs I can take that 90% of the time will reduce the pain to a level I can deal with.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Thanks again for the kind words, guys. I'm not trying to show off here. I'm trying to keep from going crazy from the lack of meds and the pain. This has been a big help, and I appreciate your putting up with me over it.

2:37 p.m. CDT. Been out cold most of the day, but somehow able to feel the pain. Maybe I'm floating in and out of consciousness. All I know is that it's not pleasant.

Experiencing a little bit of difficulty focusing, plus some trouble switching concentration. The folks in my Ubergroup team over at Scribophile found one of my blog posts and have been taking me to task over it since I woke up around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. They're trying to help me get my query in line, get my story solid, and all of this without having read what I wrote. It's wearing me out, and I'm not sure how much more I'll be able to take before I pass out again.

Still coughing, but not as violently as I was with the nebulizer. I can still feel the laryngospasms as they hit. Strange sensation. Something builds up in my larynx, then forces a cough. Not pleasant.

Forcing fluids per nurse's orders. Watermelon juice and calorie-free sparkling strawberry water go well together.

Will be taking a shower tonight so that all I have to worry about tomorrow is brushing my teeth. Got nurse's permission to use Biotene dry mouth spray tomorrow morning, as long as I don't swallow it. Good cheat around the horrible dryness of not being able to drink anything prior to a procedure.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

6:25 p.m. CDT.

Pain.

I've been dealing with an increased level of pain since going off of the "stop list" meds. Hell, the hydrocodone was sliding off before that, but it's really losing it now. The pain is coming in waves. On a 0-10 scale, I'm hitting a high of just over 9, which is "take me to the damned emergency room" pain.

Believe me, I'm considering it. The only problem is that the CT myelogram might get canceled tomorrow if I wind up in the ER tonight, and I'll have to go through this all over again. I've got to find the source of this pain and get it treated.

My only alternative is to call the spine doctor's office and see if they've got an after-hours contact. I think I'm going to do that while I'm still in a wave of lucidity.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

7:05 p.m. CDT. I called the spine doctor's after-hours number. The doctor that returned my call screened me for "red flags" to see if I needed to go to the ER. She found none, so she started trying to prescribe other medications. Unfortunately, they were medications that my body doesn't get along with very well. She finally decided to just increase my hydrocodone from once every 8 hours (3x a day) to once every 6 hours (4x a day). My last dose was about 6 hours ago, so I took a dose immediately. My next dose will be right at midnight, after which I can't have anything by mouth.

Again, I'm going to talk to the doctor tomorrow (and during the followup Wednesday) about the poor pain relief I'm getting. This was scary.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Test post from Mrs. Prof.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Test acknowledged.

Welcome to our Moperville-Adjacent community.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

She yawned and scratched her face. I'd say that's a good sign.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

10:09 p.m. CDT. The hydrocodone is more effective at the more frequent dose, although it's more sedating. I haven't hit anything higher than an 8 on the pain scale yet. Unfortunately, that's about where I am right now. I'm going to have to change my schedule to a more orthodox wake-up/shower/leave schedule tomorrow morning. I've got an alarm set for 11:55 p.m. CDT so that I can take my last hydrocodone dose of the night before midnight.

This will probably be my last entry before the CT myelogram tomorrow. Again, thank you all for letting me chronicle what's been going on. Mrs. Prof will take over the posting until at least noon CDT Tuesday, which is the earliest I'll be allowed to resume sitting upright for any length of time longer than a restroom break. I'll let you know how things went as soon as I can. Much obliged.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

6 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

She yawned and scratched her face. I'd say that's a good sign.

Sounds rather like my wife's cat deigning to acknowledge my existence. With the possible exception of twitching an ear instead of scratching at her face.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

This is Mrs. Prof here... Mr. Prof made it through his diagnostic test today. He is home and being demanding. Guess that is a good sign!

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Never trust a patient who isn't demanding, complaining, or a general nuisance.

Those people who will stoically stay in bed, in my experience, are one of the following.

1.  Not really as sick or hurt as they claim.
2.  Attempting to hide how sick or hurt they are.
3.  Giving up.

Not much needs to be said about the fakers.  And as for the second group of patients?  The people taking care of them need to know what is bothering or hurting them.

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

8 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

This is Mrs. Prof here... Mr. Prof made it through his diagnostic test today. He is home and being demanding. Guess that is a good sign!

I'll take it. Thanks for the update. We are all very grateful to you for your efforts on his behalf!

 

4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Never trust a patient who isn't demanding, complaining, or a general nuisance.

The times I have been ill I must have been at the very least a general nuisance to my wife. At least she gave me a disgusted look when I started to make Groucho Marx quotes like, whilst the nurse was attempting to take my pulse, "Either my watch has stopped or the patient is dead."

[mlooney 3,417]

Thursday is shrink day.  I have a laundry list of issue to give him. 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

I'm back. So is my back. My back is back, I mean. My back and I are back. /* Oh, let it go, let it go ... */

Mrs. Prof is thankful for your kind words and likes. Not quite so thankful for me being a tad grouchy, but I'm the one who had a needle stuck in his spine. I call dibs.

Anyway, the CT myelogram is done. It almost didn't get done. Hit a pair of road blocks along the way.

First road block was the IV—took 'em three tries to get it started, although they started the second attempt anyway. I now have a nice purple map of Kentucky inside my right elbow as a result.

Second road block was my laryngospasm coughing. I've discovered that it really gets worse when I'm flat on my back. Guess what they did to me? Yep, flat out, right before the doctor interviewed me for the procedure. Set off all kinds of red alerts. For a while, I didn't know if they were going to do the procedure or call it off. They eventually got me off my back, onto my stomach, and onto some oxygen. They then timed me between coughs. Once I was down to five minutes between coughs, the doctor decided it'd be safe.

Fortunately, those were the only road blocks. They shaved my back, gave me some fentanyl and another drug whose name I don't remember, and proceeded to stick the needle between the bones of my spinal column. They didn't fully anesthetize me, since I had to roll around for the second (CT) part of the procedure. Still, I wasn't freaked out—the sedative cocktail was enough to let me be interested in what was going on during the procedure and not worried at all about it.

They wheeled me into the recovery room after they were done. First time I've been conscious when that's happened. Very interesting sensation, knowing where you're going and not being afraid of or anxious about it.

The pain from Sunday continued, even through the sedation. There was no real pain relief, since they couldn't give me enough fentanyl to do that without knocking me out. A post-op nurse got permission from a doctor to give me a hydrocodone pill in the recovery room.

I spent almost three hours in the recovery room. The time there was to make sure I didn't get an epidural headache, supposedly one of the worst you can get. I didn't get one. I did have a nasty bout of muscle spasms set in, for which Mrs. Prof punched the nurse call button. The nurse determined I was getting a bit hypothermic. She must have piled a half dozen warm blankets on top of me. Even brought one in for Mrs. Prof.

I had one small scary moment as they were discharging me. They wanted to make sure I could go to the bathroom, so they wheeled me over and let me go in. Mission accomplished, I stood in front of the sink and washed my hands. That's when the scary moment hit—a brief grey-out. It left me quickly enough so that I didn't fall over. I immediately left the bathroom and got back into the wheelchair before another grey-out hit.

Riding home was interesting. I had to sit lying on my side with the passenger seat all the way back to keep my head and back as flat as possible. You get a really interesting view of traffic out of a Honda Ridgeline going full speed on a major Interstate highway from that position.

We made it home in one piece, and I went straight to the sofa and got horizontal again. I was allowed brief periods of getting up for things like drinking, eating, and going to the bathroom, but otherwise I had to stay horizontal for 24 hours after the epidural needle went in. That period ended today at 12:34 p.m. CDT.

I'm taking it easy now, as instructed, not moving around much other than sitting at my laptop and getting caught up on a metric buttload of internet things. I need to call the pulmonologist's office soon. Ironically, they called the house to set up an appointment yesterday while I was in the waiting room at the hospital.

I'll be back at the spine team's office tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. CDT to find out if this whole odyssey was worth it. In the meantime, and I really mean this, thank you again for letting me track my progress, express my fears, vent my spleen, and just generally chronicle one of the more traumatic segments of my life.

I hope it wasn't boring.

 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Does anyone know if an epidural headache can start behind the eyes? I've had a couple of coughing bouts lately, and now I feel like I've got brain freeze and a sore back.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I'll be back at the spine team's office tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. CDT to find out if this whole odyssey was worth it. In the meantime, and I really mean this, thank you again for letting me track my progress, express my fears, vent my spleen, and just generally chronicle one of the more traumatic segments of my life.

I hope it wasn't boring.

Prof, once again, you are more than welcome. And no, you did not bore me. I am just hoping this will lead to some sort of movement in the right direction, i. e. towards less pain, better sleep and generally improved quality of life.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

31 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Prof, once again, you are more than welcome. And no, you did not bore me. I am just hoping this will lead to some sort of movement in the right direction, i. e. towards less pain, better sleep and generally improved quality of life.

Quality of life. That would be nice. Very nice indeed. Thank you.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

5 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Does anyone know if an epidural headache can start behind the eyes? I've had a couple of coughing bouts lately, and now I feel like I've got brain freeze and a sore back.

Turns out an epidural (a.k.a. spinal) headache can start there. I had to call the doctor's after-hours line again. They told me to drink lots of caffeine (I've had three large cups of coffee, which is the max that my stomach can handle and which are giving me PVCs like crazy) and to lie down with my head elevated on several pillows. I'm not supposed to be sitting up at the computer, but I left this topic open so I figured I'd better give it some closure. Anyway, the caffeine helped, and Mrs. Prof got a lesson on when not to leave her cell phone at home when she goes up to do volunteer work at the Garland Pet Adoption Center. I was essentially stranded—if I'd had to go to the ER, I would have had to call 911, since I can't drive in my current state.

All of this will be reviewed (including my hydrocodone dosage) at my follow-up with the spine doctor Wednesday afternoon. If I need a blood patch, caffeine IV (yes, they actually do exist!), or other fix for my headache, they can walk me across the breezeway to the hospital and check me in to the ER from there.

[mlooney 3,417]

I wonder if the drink lots of caffeine is for the same reason I posted up thread about pain drugs working better with it.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

9 minutes ago, mlooney said:

I wonder if the drink lots of caffeine is for the same reason I posted up thread about pain drugs working better with it.

It is, but maybe for a slightly different reason. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. There's probably something about that property that helps regulate the pressure of cerebrospinal fluid. CSF pressure changes can be caused when something goes slightly wrong with an epidural procedure (leaks, from what I've read), and that is supposed to be the root of spinal headaches like I'm fighting off.

I'm still not 100% sure I've got a spinal headache, but it's been responding to what the doctor told me to do. Besides, my "brain freeze" symptom kinda makes sense, since the sinuses are very close to an area of cerebrospinal fluid (which is what "freezes," or in actuality just gets supercold, (if I've got my science right) and causes the headache).

Don't ask me what I'm doing up against doctor's orders at 3:51 a.m CDT. The caffeine probably screwed with my ability to sleep, and the pain in my hip/leg/foot definitely screwed with my ability to sleep.

[mlooney 3,417]

10 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor

Ah, that is why....