Sunday, October 23, 2005
Through the wringer, again.....
Right before I went on my little vacation last weekend, I got to see my primary care doc about the extraordinarily high pain levels I've been having. I've been her patient for three years, and she has seen me deteriorate over that time with the fibro and Sjogren's into someone who can hardly function. I've been making do with an emergency pain med only, so when I told her I thought it was time to switch to daily pain relief, she did not disagree.
The biggest hurdle I face is extreme sensitivity to meds. I can't tolerate any anti-depressants, most muscle relaxants or most strong pain relievers. We discussed me trying a patch, but I'm allergic to adhesives, so that would be a problem.
The only pain reliever I'd tried that didn't cause copious vomiting was Dilaudid. That was my emergency pain med. So my doc decided a low dose OxyContin would probably be safe for me because it's similar but long-acting.
We agreed I should wait to start it until I was back from my vacation, just in case it didn't agree with me. I took the first dose on Tuesday. It made me queasy, but I figured that would be temporary.
I was to take just an evening dose for five days and then switch to every 12 hours after that. So I did this. With every new dose, the nausea got worse, and I began experiencing a worsening of my tinnitus plus dizziness.
I began the 12 hour dosing today. The nausea was worse than ever, to the point I couldn't even enjoy the reduction in pain. Oddly enough, I also got the hiccups, twice.
I hoped that it would pass or I could tune it out by doing normal things. But then I had to go throw up during church. And I began violently vomiting after I got home.
All I could do after that was cry. It's very disappointing to not be able to tolerate any of the treatments for pain. I hate the idea of maybe just having to continue to live with excruciating pain with no relief.
I'm going to call the doc tomorrow to find out what she thinks I should do. I wish I could tolerate anti-nausea meds so maybe I could keep taking the pain med. I have very few options unfortunately.
I know it's not the end of the world, but I'm feeling defeated right now. I had such high hopes for finally being able to hurt less. I just want to improve my quality of life if I can.
Sigh.
The biggest hurdle I face is extreme sensitivity to meds. I can't tolerate any anti-depressants, most muscle relaxants or most strong pain relievers. We discussed me trying a patch, but I'm allergic to adhesives, so that would be a problem.
The only pain reliever I'd tried that didn't cause copious vomiting was Dilaudid. That was my emergency pain med. So my doc decided a low dose OxyContin would probably be safe for me because it's similar but long-acting.
We agreed I should wait to start it until I was back from my vacation, just in case it didn't agree with me. I took the first dose on Tuesday. It made me queasy, but I figured that would be temporary.
I was to take just an evening dose for five days and then switch to every 12 hours after that. So I did this. With every new dose, the nausea got worse, and I began experiencing a worsening of my tinnitus plus dizziness.
I began the 12 hour dosing today. The nausea was worse than ever, to the point I couldn't even enjoy the reduction in pain. Oddly enough, I also got the hiccups, twice.
I hoped that it would pass or I could tune it out by doing normal things. But then I had to go throw up during church. And I began violently vomiting after I got home.
All I could do after that was cry. It's very disappointing to not be able to tolerate any of the treatments for pain. I hate the idea of maybe just having to continue to live with excruciating pain with no relief.
I'm going to call the doc tomorrow to find out what she thinks I should do. I wish I could tolerate anti-nausea meds so maybe I could keep taking the pain med. I have very few options unfortunately.
I know it's not the end of the world, but I'm feeling defeated right now. I had such high hopes for finally being able to hurt less. I just want to improve my quality of life if I can.
Sigh.
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