Quick "quantifier" post. If I'd have tolerated the morphine and perc. I probably would have been just fine. But I didn't, which left me Advil as an option. Now I have 800 mg Ibuprofen that are great for pain, but na baby na, they inhibit the warfarin, so two Advil is the max, and only every six hours. Well that would only dull it out for an hour or so and then I'd get the pain and the nausea that comes from being in that much pain. So my 170 pound butt lost 14 pounds in six days. Some of that was due to the 28 hours fast, but most was due to the fact that I was nauseous.
So to quantify, use the drugs if you can tolerate them, they do work on the pain. But if you don't react to them well like I did, MJ is a really, really good alternative, and it let me eat with abandon. And since it's legal out there, I think he could keep in his bag of tricks for people like me. I mean I don't even take sudafed because of the side effects. Drugs have always screwed me up. The warning labels on my drugs should not say "may cause" the should say "will cause"
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So once I smoked a little and was just feeling really good and up and about, I noticed one thing that is huge because is usually is what triggers my downhill slide for the rest of the day. Since I can't catcher's squat, I bend at the waist to get things like pots and pans from the lower cupboards. Well that would ALWAYS, without exception, cause the following: vision would "close in" (seeing stars and get tunnely), I would swoon upon getting back straight, and it would invariably start to get me dizzy, and once that trigger was tripped, my day usually couldn't be regained. Well I don't feel that at all right now. I bend over and just straighten back up. No vision pulsing, no heartbeat throbbing in my eyesight, so I think I had back up in the head for sure. I also have more energy. I have always said I didn't suffer from fatigue, but I have more energy, so maybe I did. Legs feel the same and eyesight is still wacky. I'm still in pain right now since I don't smoke during the day. I like the massive relief it gives me in the evening. Hopefully I won't need it at all and can just go back to doing it on occasion and actually having fun with it rather than using it like medicine.
I'm so glad I did this. I am very optimistic that things will change for me as I recover.
Sharon - Thanks so much for the SOMA tip. That stuff really helped me out last night. I was so gun shy to take anything other than the blood thinners since the pain stuff knocked me so hard, but I took one last night and it worked really well. It took all that twitching and tightness out of my shoulder on the stent side and actually allowed me to raise my right arm. I was having problems geting it past straight out, and it helped immensely. I thought that was gone, but it came back on the plane.
For those of you with bladder and bowel that are serious like mine. This procedure requires two stents of not eating, and one of not drinking even water for about 12 hours. This screwed me up, but it's what it took. I compounded it by not drinking much on the plane since I didn't want to sit there in a wet diaper, so if you have a bowel routine and have bladder problems, they will get screwed up, so eat lots of fruits and grains and drink lots of water when you can.
Also morphine causes constipation and I belive percocet does too. I am very, very constipated, but there was not much I could do, but could have done with out the morphine and perc making me not eat. Since medical MJ is legal out there I think Dake should get a vaporizer and have an alternative for those so inclined who are having a rough go with the narcs.
How cool is it to have your surgeon call you on your cell phone when you're on the way home to see how you'r'e doing? I love that guy. It was so good to get home last night. I missed my family bad and that was great medicine seeing them. I'm going to post on my blog later and try and get some pictures on there. When you see some of the pictures of my host's kids putting on dance recitals and stuff for me and my mom, it is just so awesome. No pain could live up the to ducky costume that the 3 year old little girl had on to tap for me. That was some good medicine right there.
I feel clear headed, but I'm not HD like Randi yet, but I also started at a 4.5 EDSS, so it may take some more time.
And here's the kicker. The place I've been working at called me twice to see if I'd be in on Monday! Ha! I told them I need another week. But then my real job that laid me off also called and they got some new work that is utilizing machinery that I'm pretty well versed in, and they want me back full time! This is about the 4th or 5th thing like that that's happened. It's starting to freak me out!
OK, I officially hate my screen angle and that and am going to go get some coffee. I'll post some more as I feel up to it. My wife, God love her, has a few friends coming over tonight for a bonfire and they tell me I don't have to do anything but sit there, so I can't wait for that. A little soon maybe, but people contact is always good chicken soup.
