That's not a good thing. It's resulted in 24 hours a day pain. I've got the meds figured out that allow me to sleep and just barely allow me to work.
Loritabs work during the day. I think I can work while taking those, but I'm not certain of the quality of my work. It used to be just one in the morning and I was good for the day. Now I need another around the middle of the afternoon. Without the pain meds I can't work.
I can't take Loritabs over night. They have a diuretic effect on me. It's OK to drink water all day long and go to the bathroom once an hour, but that doesn't cut it over night. I've got neurontin now (I hadn't heard of them until just now) and they work well over night.
I have to wait until at least the end of September to do anything about the situation. My doc wants to make sure the pain isn't anything left over from shingles before he removes a muscle. The muscle controls lowering my head on the right side. If I lose it, my head will go down and left when I nod and I will be unable to move my chin down and to the right.
I hope I can make it until the end of September. The pain has me actually considering a Social Security disability. That may sound drastic, but I'm not any where near 100% productivity now. It's unfair to an employer to continue taking a paycheck for 50% productivity and I'm afraid that's about where I'm at right now.
I'm right on the borderline of even being able to work. My pain med dose right now just barely gets the pain levels to where I can work. The mental aspect of pain meds is also borderline. If I have to up my dosage, I'm afraid I will be too thick-headed to work effectively.
I've been through a lot, but always had the knowledge that things would get better if I hung in there and just endured whatever was happening to me. Now I'm supposed to be at the point of fully recovered from the treatments and this pops up.
This one is kicking my butt. Even with meds, there's enough ongoing pain that I've completely lost any appetite. I force myself to eat because I know I have to do that.
A lifetime of pain wasn't one of the side effects listed when I was getting counseling before the radiation and chemo started. Throw this in with the inability to taste food properly, no saliva, great difficulty swallowing, permanent sore throat, etc. and I don't know if I would have gone ahead with the treatments. It's to the point where my wife has wondered if she made the right decision when she told the docs not to pull the plug when I had my nearly fatal episode a little over a year ago.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Wash Your Hands
All through flu season, I was obsessive about washing my hands. I made it through and got overconfident. Now I've had some opportunistic invasions take advantage of my weakened immune system. Even the minor ones turned out bad. I need to remember that every day is flu season.
I got a basically harmless fungus behind my right ear. That area is numb, so I didn't feel anything. There's no lymph system there, so there's limited immune capabilities. Anti-fungal shampoos have helped, but the fungus hangs on. It's a little itchy and produces some flaking, but that's it. It's a common fungus and not really dangerous. The fact that I'm mentioning it means there's more coming.
Another opportunistic invader was shingles in the area where I had my surgery. Pain in that area could be from the surgery or even a result of recovery from the surgery (as nerves start working again). The pain I had got me to the doc quick. We caught the shingles early and had them gone within a week.
About a week after the shingles were diagnosed as finished, I had a pain in a muscle that's stretched really tight from the surgery. I thought maybe more scar tissue was forming and shortening the muscle. I called my doc. The pain was enough that I used his emergency number. He was alarmed enough that he got me in that afternoon. I drove 25 mile to Newton to see him where he was working that day.
I need to do a rundown of pain levels to continue this in ways that can be understood. On a scale of 1 - 10:
10 = Nerves stop registering pain because they've been registering the maximum possible for a long time and it doesn't help. They give up and quit. Been there.
9 = Produces nausea to the verge of vomiting, entire body may become flushed, sweat breaks out everywhere.
6 = You will beg for morphine.
Doc gave me two meds to determine whether it was scar tissue affecting the muscle or whether I had post-herpetic neuralgia. If it was scar tissue, he would have to cut the affected muscle. Post-herpetic neuralgia is the pain from shingles continues after the breakout is finished. Post-herpetic neuralgia can be permanent.
It was post-herpetic neuralgia. Plus I was so messed up I wanted nothing to do with the drugs that are supposed to help it. Then I discovered I was running a fever.
Another opportunistic infection gave me some variety of influenza in the middle of summer. Fever, achy muscles, extreme fatigue, digestive upset, congestion, cough, sleep 16 hours a day.
Then the post-herpetic neuralgia spread into the area behind my ear where I have the itchy fungus. Shingles pain is very sensitive to touch. If I scratched that area I had about 15 seconds before I got level 9 shingles pain. That 15 seconds gave me enough time to really get into the scratching before I realized I was in trouble.
I called my doc Monday morning. He requested that when he gave me the meds Friday. I described my symptoms and he had me in for a CAT scan so quick that I only had time to throw on some clothes and drive there. I had given him about 3 potential symptoms that indicate a possible return of the cancer.
Sunday night the pain kept waking me up about every hour. When I woke up I found myself scratching my head before I was conscious enough to realize that was a bad idea. The only thing I could do was grab the mattress and squeeze hard and wait for the level 9 pain to subside.
Both of the meds I got lately to control the pain overnight really leave me messed up the next day. Thick-headed, groggy, downed-out are phrases describing how they make me feel.
I have an old scrip with a few pills remaining for a sedative that lets me sleep, totally eliminates the shingles pain, and so far hasn't had any effects the next day.
I hope I can get a new scrip. It's a fairly heavy sedative - one they give surgery patients just before surgery - the one they used to keep me unconscious for 2 days last summer when I was in ICU. I'ts also the best shingles med I've found.
I got a basically harmless fungus behind my right ear. That area is numb, so I didn't feel anything. There's no lymph system there, so there's limited immune capabilities. Anti-fungal shampoos have helped, but the fungus hangs on. It's a little itchy and produces some flaking, but that's it. It's a common fungus and not really dangerous. The fact that I'm mentioning it means there's more coming.
Another opportunistic invader was shingles in the area where I had my surgery. Pain in that area could be from the surgery or even a result of recovery from the surgery (as nerves start working again). The pain I had got me to the doc quick. We caught the shingles early and had them gone within a week.
About a week after the shingles were diagnosed as finished, I had a pain in a muscle that's stretched really tight from the surgery. I thought maybe more scar tissue was forming and shortening the muscle. I called my doc. The pain was enough that I used his emergency number. He was alarmed enough that he got me in that afternoon. I drove 25 mile to Newton to see him where he was working that day.
I need to do a rundown of pain levels to continue this in ways that can be understood. On a scale of 1 - 10:
10 = Nerves stop registering pain because they've been registering the maximum possible for a long time and it doesn't help. They give up and quit. Been there.
9 = Produces nausea to the verge of vomiting, entire body may become flushed, sweat breaks out everywhere.
6 = You will beg for morphine.
Doc gave me two meds to determine whether it was scar tissue affecting the muscle or whether I had post-herpetic neuralgia. If it was scar tissue, he would have to cut the affected muscle. Post-herpetic neuralgia is the pain from shingles continues after the breakout is finished. Post-herpetic neuralgia can be permanent.
It was post-herpetic neuralgia. Plus I was so messed up I wanted nothing to do with the drugs that are supposed to help it. Then I discovered I was running a fever.
Another opportunistic infection gave me some variety of influenza in the middle of summer. Fever, achy muscles, extreme fatigue, digestive upset, congestion, cough, sleep 16 hours a day.
Then the post-herpetic neuralgia spread into the area behind my ear where I have the itchy fungus. Shingles pain is very sensitive to touch. If I scratched that area I had about 15 seconds before I got level 9 shingles pain. That 15 seconds gave me enough time to really get into the scratching before I realized I was in trouble.
I called my doc Monday morning. He requested that when he gave me the meds Friday. I described my symptoms and he had me in for a CAT scan so quick that I only had time to throw on some clothes and drive there. I had given him about 3 potential symptoms that indicate a possible return of the cancer.
Sunday night the pain kept waking me up about every hour. When I woke up I found myself scratching my head before I was conscious enough to realize that was a bad idea. The only thing I could do was grab the mattress and squeeze hard and wait for the level 9 pain to subside.
Both of the meds I got lately to control the pain overnight really leave me messed up the next day. Thick-headed, groggy, downed-out are phrases describing how they make me feel.
I have an old scrip with a few pills remaining for a sedative that lets me sleep, totally eliminates the shingles pain, and so far hasn't had any effects the next day.
I hope I can get a new scrip. It's a fairly heavy sedative - one they give surgery patients just before surgery - the one they used to keep me unconscious for 2 days last summer when I was in ICU. I'ts also the best shingles med I've found.
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