Pain meds

Since the pain from the herniated disc is worse when I am in a sitting position (eating, working, driving) I asked the doctor for some pain medication.  The ibuprofen I've been taking just wasn't cutting it.  Tues after work I picked up the prescription for Tramadol, and took 1 after dinner.  The dosing said to take 1 or 2 within an 8 hour period, and didn't mention anything about taking it with food.

Since my arm was already hurting at 8am yesterday, I took 2 pills with my morning cup of coffee, then went to work where I had 1 more cup of coffee and a glass of water.  Then at 1pm I began feeling hot and flushed.  It felt as if the temperature had suddenly gone up to 150 degrees in my office.  I was literally sweating in my clothes.  I also started to feel nauseous.  I went outdoors and stood in the cool 40 degree air for a few minutes, then returned to my desk.

"Hey, its after 1pm.  I must be hungry and that's why I'm nauseous" I thought to myself.  So I grabbed my lunch from the refrigerator and ate an apple.  I was still so f'ing hot and didn't want to continue sweating in my clothes, so I went outside for a few minutes again to cool off.  As I came back in the nausea got more intense, so instead of going back to my desk I went to the bathroom.  And vomited.

I thought that was the end of it and rinsed my mouth out and patted my face with a cool wet paper towel.  I had clients coming into the office in 15 minutes and I needed to get myself together.  But before I could get from the bathroom to my desk the nausea returned in waves.

I had to call my clients and cancel the showings planned for the afternoon.  Fortunately they were very understanding and we rescheduled for Fri.  As soon as I got home I ran to the bathroom and vomited again.  I laid in bed for a few hours and each time I attempted to get up, I felt a wave of nausea again, so I stayed in bed from 2:30pm and until this morning.  Spouse brought me some oatmeal and ginger ale around 8pm because I was so hungry.  I'd only had coffee and an apple all day.

The potential side effects listed are nausea and vomiting, but since I didn't experience them on Tues night when I took 1 pill after dinner, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't have taken 2 pills on an empty stomach.  Since today is my regular day off and I've been in comfortable positions all day I haven't needed to take any pain medication today.  But just to be sure, I will take 1 after dinner tonight to make sure that is the correct way for me to take them.

Getting on my last (vagus) nerve

Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning I woke up to roll over and felt very dizzy.  I thought it was very odd but didn't really want to continue thinking about it so I went back to sleep.  An hour or so later I had to get up to pee and was extremely dizzy, to the point that I had to brace myself on the way to the bathroom just to keep from falling over.  I sat down to pee and thought to myself "Oh no, PLEASE let this NOT be another flare up of my vagus nerve..."  But by the time I stumbled back to bed I could feel the tingling sensation beginning in my hands and forearms.

I gently woke Spouse up to tell him I was having a flare up.  He asked if I needed him to do anything and I said no, I just wanted him to know what was happening.  I managed to fall back asleep for a while despite the horrible dizziness and waves of nausea.  The only "treatment" for this condition is to lie as still as possible.

I woke up again when Spouse got up to get ready for work.  Fortunately it was my scheduled day off, since I had worked Sun.  Spouse asked if I was okay and I said no.  I asked him to bring me the plastic trashcan from across the room "just in case".  When he brought it over I made the mistake of turning my head slightly in his direction and saying 'thank you', and that was all it took.  I grabbed the trashcan and started vomiting.

Spouse asked me a couple times if I wanted him to stay home with me.  I told him no since there's nothing really that anyone can do to make it better.  It just takes time - usually somewhere between 12 and 24 hours - for the symptoms to subside.  So he left for work and I dozed on and off.

Around 11:30 I woke up and realized I had to pee again.  What a dreadful thought!  Just turning my head made me vomit earlier.  How was I going to get myself to the bathroom to pee without puking?  I wasn't.  So I slowly sat up and lowered my legs to the floor as the whole room spun like an out-of-control merry-go-round.  I grabbed the puke bucket and stumbled toward the bathroom, bumping into the walls and trying to stay upright.  I fell to my hands and knees in front of the toilet and puked right into the bowl.  Since I'd already brought up what little food was in my stomach the 1st time I puked, there was nothing left in my stomach but bile.  Each time I dry-heaved, I could feel a little bit of pee come out, so I got up onto the toilet and began to pee while I dry-heaved some more into the trashcan.

I had tears coming down my face, snot running out of my nose, sweat glistening from my body, and the taste of bile in my mouth.  Pretty!!!

After a very brief attempt to clean my face I returned to bed with the puke trashcan.  Feeling as though I might need it again soon, I didn't want to put it on the floor where I'd have to lean over really far to get it, so I set the can on the bed next to my leg.  Fortunately I was able to get a bit of relief by dozing off to sleep again.

A little while later I awoke feeling chilly.  Just after puking I'm hot and sweaty but later I would get chilly, so I pulled the sheet up to my neck.  Having forgotten about the puke bucket against my leg, when I pulled the sheet up the puke bucket toppled off the bed and spilled on the floor!

I gave up.  With my eyes still closed I reached for my phone on the nightstand and pressed the voice-activated dialing button on the side of it.  "Call Spouse - work" I said.  When he answered I briefly explained that I'd made a mess, was sorry, but wondered if he could come home and clean it up and help me get to the bathroom again.  He agreed and came home.

What a trooper!  Without a complaint he cleaned up the spilled puke in the bedroom and wiped up the pee sprinkles in the bathroom.  I can't imagine trying to recover from this horror only to then have to clean up my own vomit.  Plus I puked 2 more times after he got home so having him close by to bring me a damp towel was wonderful.

I spent the entire day in bed.  Around 7pm I felt like I might be able to get up so I did, only to relocate to the sofa in the TV room.  I sipped a little bit of water and was finally able to keep it down, then graduated to a couple bites of vanilla pudding.  I started feeling sick again so I laid down on the sofa and closed my eyes until the waves of nausea passed.  I went to bed at 9pm.

One of the things thought to be a trigger for this condition in some people is dehydration, so I am committed to drinking more water.  I know I should do it, but I often drink coffee in the morning and nothing else throughout the day.  No more!  My goal is 6-8 glasses of water per day in the hopes of avoiding this in the future.  

On a scale of 1-5, this was a 4.

Dental drama: the recovery

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! My tooth extraction went relatively well, although the recovery was not what I expected. Perhaps I should start from the beginning.

As I suspected, I had to fill out 5 pages of forms (several requiring duplicate info from each other) before being called to the back. My 1st stop was in the xray room for a quick xray of my mouth. Within seconds the xray appeared on a computer screen mounted on the wall. No more developing of xray films. Pretty cool!

Then I was taken back to the room where the procedure would take place. An assistant swabbed my gum with a topical anesthetic so I wouldn't feel the needle when the novacaine was administered. I swear they gave me 6 shots of novacaine, but I didn't mind. I really didn't want to feel anything, if you know what I mean.

Within 10 seconds of receiving the novacaine I suddenly became very hot and dizzy. I started fanning myself with a piece of paper, which clued the assistant that something odd was happening. She looked at me, noted the sweat beads on my forehead, and asked "Are you alright, hon?" I told her yes, but that I was hot. I could feel myself sweating like crazy.

The assistant tilted the chair back so my head and legs were at the same height, while another assistant placed an oxygen mask over my nose. She instructed me to take deep breaths in, and then to exhale through my mouth, which I did. The dizziness subsided and the 2nd assistant began patting my forehead, face, and neck with cool, damp paper towels.

Again I was asked if I was okay and I responded that I was. They assured me there was no reason to worry, and that it wasn't uncommon for people to have a similar reaction to novacaine. The oral surgeon came in and asked if I was ready for him to begin. I said yes.

One of the assistants kept my mouth pulled wide open while the doctor worked at removing the tooth and sewing up the gum. I swear you could have driven an 18-wheeler in my mouth, it was stretched open so wide. It probably took less than 5 minutes, although the tooth did give him a little trouble. The procedure was shorter than I'd imagined, and I felt no pain or discomfort before or during.

The oral surgeon instructed me to bite down on a wad of gauze until I got home, and the assistant gave me an instruction sheet of post-op instructions. I drove directly to the pharmacy (in my sweat-dampened clothes) to have the antibiotic and vicodine prescriptions filled. I almost didn't get the vicodine filled, as I assumed 3 ibuprofen would probably be as good. But since the prescription was so inexpensive with my insurance, I decided to get it filled.

When I got home I read the post-op instructions and removed the gauze. I could tell my gum was still bleeding so I put more gauze in and bit down hard like the instructions said. I had to repeat this 3 more times over approximately 2 hours before the bleeding stopped. I took the antibiotic and watched some TV. I didn't take any pain reliever since I had no pain. Yet.

After watching TV for a while I felt like the novacaine had worn off all the sudden. It was weird how all the sudden I started feeling pain in my mouth, so I took a vicodine and expected to 'get high'. About an hour later I was disappointed that I had not yet felt any pain relief, and I wondered how prescription drug abusers could possibly abuse vicodine. I considered taking another, but decided to follow the instructions on the bottle that indicated 1 pill within 4 hours. Finally the pain began to subside. I ate a small cup of pomegranate apple sauce for dinner.

Before bed I took my 2nd antibiotic and vicodine, and placed a glass of water and another vicodine on my nightstand in case I needed it during the night. At 5:00 am I woke up in pain so I took the vicodine and went back to sleep.

Wed morning I got up at 8:00 and took my 3rd antibiotic, then went downstairs to eat something, figuring drugs on an empty stomach probably wasn't a good idea. I had 2 more cups of pomegranate apple sauce but suddenly became very hot and nauseous. I really felt like I was going to hurl, so I quickly lied down on the sofa in the family room and closed my eyes. I was hot and clammy so I opened my robe to allow the ceiling fan to cool me. I felt wave and wave of nausea. Each time I tried to sit up I felt like I was going to blow chunks.

After an hour and a 1/2 of that, I couldn't hold back the inevitable any longer. I jumped up and ran to the closest bathroom, covering my mouth tightly with my hand. The 1st heave came up but I kept it in my mouth until I got to the toilet, then opened my mouth as the 2nd heave came. I puked a few more times, then cautiously rinsed my mouth out. (My post-op instructions called for "no rinsing or spitting within 24 hours to prevent the clot from being dislodged" and cause bleeding again.)

For a few minutes after puking I felt okay. I fed the dog and let her out in the front lawn to pee. I tried to figure out if I'd lost the antibiotic with the apple sauce or not, and decided I should try and eat something else to prevent my stomach from being empty.

I slowly ate 1/2 a dinner role and tried to drink some water, since the antibiotic label encouraged drinking "plenty of water". But the extreme nausea and dizziness returned, so I returned to the sofa in the TV room for relief. Again I lied there sweating through waves and waves of nausea for another hour, until I could no longer postpone the inevitable.

Since I'd not planned to call in sick, I didn't have my phone handy. It was upstairs in my office. I decided I'd make a 'run for it' up the stairs so I could toss my cookies again and get my phone. It was a much longer distance this time, and I was not completely successful.

The 1st heave came after I'd gotten up the stairs but was still running down the hallway. Again I pressed my hand tightly over my mouth to hold it in until I could get to the toilet. I was just entering the bathroom when the 2nd heave came, and there was no more room in my mouth. I sprayed vomit onto my hand, arm, robe, floor, and wall, then leaned my head into the sink and let 'er rip a few more times.

Again, after hurling I felt better for a few minutes so I rinsed my mouth, quickly wiped up the floor and wall, put on a different robe, and grabbed my phone before returning to the sofa in the TV room downstairs. I called a colleague who's number I had memorized and asked her to notify my boss I'd be out sick today.

This time the nausea and dizziness didn't return. But instead of sweating, I kept alternating between being hot and chilly. I'd open my robe to cool off, then cover myself back up because I was chilly. After a few hours my body temperature seemed to stabilize and I just watched TV the rest of the day and night.

Spouse came home early, and after I recounted to him my morning's activities, he offered to go to the store to get me whatever I wanted/needed. I asked for some chocolate pudding, as I thought it would be easy to eat. He also brought me some chocolate covered wafers that were easy to chew. Although I wasn't having pain in my mouth, I'd been instructed not to chew anything on the side where the sutures were, and my jaw was still sore from being pried open by the assistant.

Bravo was running a Project Runway marathon, showing the complete season I'd missed, with Santino, Daniel, and Chloe so I enjoyed watching that for many hours back-to-back.

Before going to bed I took my 4th antibiotic with a big glass of water. Fortunately this morning I woke up feeling pretty close to 'normal', with the exception of some swelling, which the post-op instructions indicated was normal. I had a cup of apple sauce and took my 5th antibiotic, then got to work. Fortunately yesterday was a rather slow day so I didn't get too behind in my work.

The sutures will disintegrate in 5-7 days and the swelling should go down before then. I'm looking forward to being able to chew on both sides of my mouth again one day soon. I've lost 5 lbs so far.

Crush du Jour: Steve Jones

Workin' my last nerve

Boy oh boy, Jordan was workin' my last nerve yesterday!

When I got up to shower, she was sleeping on her bed on the floor in our bedroom, as usual. When I finished showering and opened the curtain to grab a towel she was pacing around the bathroom, panting, and doing that little half-bark to get my attention. I perceived she needed to pee so I told her ‘okay, just a minute’ while I quickly dried off.

I opened the bedroom door to get my bathrobe from the guestroom closet so I could quickly take her out. I figured the robe would be quicker than getting dressed. As soon as I opened the door she bolted down the stairs. I told her again to ‘wait a minute, I’ll be right there’ while I quickly put on my robe and came down the stairs. I found her squatting and peeing on the doormat at the front door! I swatted her on the head and hollered ‘NO!’ while unlocking the door and letting her out to finish peeing in the yard.

How could she be asleep one minute, and then be absolutely incapable of holding her pee the next minute? I know the steroid injection she got last week makes her thirsty and she drinks more water, but I also think she just got impatient.

After she finished peeing in the yard she came back inside and I took the mat and hung it over the porch railing. Fortunately the mat is rubber-backed, so none of the pee got on the wood floor. Then she was pacing around again, like she wanted to poop, so I put her on the leash and took her outside. In my bathrobe. Apparently she didn't need to poop, she wanted to go for a walk. But I was in a thin, summertime bathrobe and nothing else, so I told her to 'go poop in the yard'. She wouldn’t do it. She just stood on the driveway while I got madder and madder at her. I walked her over into the grass and told her very sternly several times to poop. She just looked away from me and sat down in the grass. For an inkling, I could almost understand how someone could mistreat an animal that was as frustrating as she was at that moment. I entertained the idea of simply going inside and leaving her to roam the streets at will. Surely it wouldn't take long until she became roadkill.

Since she didn't need to poop and I was finished with my summertime bathrobe fashion show for the neighbors, I made her come back inside and back upstairs with me, so I could keep an eye on her while I brushed my teeth, put on deodorant, and got dressed.

Then I fed her and took her for a walk and she acted as if nothing unusual had happened a few minutes ago. She sniffed at everything and wagged her tail as we walked around the block. She finally decided to poop, in our neighbor Brenda’s front yard. The antibiotics have given her very soft, loose poops that are difficult to pick up completely. When I was trying to get as much of it as possible up out of Brenda's grass, I found the plastic poop-scoop bag had a tear in it and I accidentally got some poop on my hand! Yuck!!!

So I immediately brought her home, curtailing her desire to stop and smell everything, so I could wash my hand. I also washed the plastic part of the leash, since my poopy hand had gotten poop on the leash. It was so frustrating, but unfortunately it was not over.

As I washed up, Jordan slurped up a camel's-worth of water before we headed upstairs to my office. As is our routine, she follows me up the stairs and I give her a milk bone and verbal praise for her obedience. She ate it and then laid down to nap. All was well.

An hour or so later she roused herself from her nap and walked out of my office and down the hallway to the entrance of our bedroom. This wasn't alarming to me, since she sometimes migrates from the bare wood floor to an area rug. Since there's no area rug in my office, the one in the hallway seemed the closest, so I kept on working. Sometime later I needed to go to the bathroom so I walked down the hallway and found that Jordan had thrown up on floor next to the area rug. Again I entertained temporary fantasies of retaliation, such as pushing her out the 2nd story window, but instead I cleaned up the vomit and cursed her in my head. But there's more.

Around 3:00 I went downstairs for a drink and to get the mail. Since Jordan followed me downstairs I decided to suggest she go outside and pee, which she did. As a reward for peeing outdoors instead of indoors, I gave her lots of verbal praise and another milk bone. She ate it and slurped up another camel's-worth of water. I put the last few items in the dishwasher, added detergent, and turned it on. As I was walking from the kitchen passed the side door I saw Jordan had thrown up the water and milk bone on the side doormat! This time I considered dropping her off on the doorstep of the local animal shelter (and I wasn't thinking about the 'no-kill' one either), but instead I carefully picked up the rubber-backed mat and hung it over the porch railing, like the other one earlier in the day.

Then I looked at Jordan and said something that intentionally sounded like dialog from a Lifetime movie: "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you ruining my life? All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. Is this how you return that love?" But not feeling quite satisfied with that, I put on my 'street' voice and said "You're skatin' on thin ice, Sister. One more false step from you and its curtains. Curtains I tell ya!!!"

I think the 'street' voice was most effective, as she didn't give me anymore trouble the rest of the day.

Drag Queen name of the day: Jewel Reebox