I'm still living!!!!

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've posted here. I've been very sick for the last 6 months or more and almost bedridden. I've had a severe swallowing problem caused by severe acid reflux, in which my esophagus had actually shrunk. I haven't been able to get most of my medications down and it has caused me to be very sick. The pain levels were daily 9 or 10's and even with the pain meds that I could get down (oxycodone) it would still be about an 8. I haven't been able to do much of anything, especially for my family, which is what hurt me the most. I love my daughter and husband very much and they are very supportive of me. I hated having to load even more work onto their shoulders, or even worse, the work just not getting done. My daughter is only in the 1st grade,so she doesn't understand why her Mama can't play with her or why I'm always lying down. The one thing that I did make sure of to do though was to always go over her home work every day. I didn't want her falling behind in school because of me. Some days this was done from my bedside. Most often from my recliner.............my faithful recliner, where I live!

I had had the swallowing problem for over a year and I should of had something done about it way back then, but money is tight around here and I just didn't think I could afford it. I thought I could just learn to live with it. But the swallowing just kept getting worse until finally I couldn't eat or drink and especially not take my medications. The only ones I could get down were the tiny ones. The others that I HAD to take, like my blood pressure and diabetes meds, I would have to break into small pieces and take little bits of them throughout the day. This wasn't the way they were intended to be taken and my health did suffer for it, but it was the best I could do. Then when I finally did decide that I couldn't live with this condition and I needed to seek medical attention I had to follow the chain of command to get anything done. First I had to see my primary doctor, just to have them refer me to a gastroenterologist. Then I had my initial consult with the doctor who schedule an endoscopy for me 1 1/2 months away. They didn't tell me at the time where it would be done at so I assumed it was going to be at the hospital right next door to them. Seemed logical to me!!! Well, it wasn't and it was actually going to be at a place too far to drive for us and still be able to be home for my daughter when she got out of school. So I basically had to start ALL over again. Go back to the primary doctor , get another referral, blah, blah, blah. It basically took over 3 months to have the endoscopy done once I finally decided to proceed with it. By that time, I had already lost 30 lbs from not eating (which I was happy about!!).

I had the endoscopy done this past Thursday and I'm already feeling better as far as swallowing. They did do some biopsies of my stomach, but don't expect to see anything there. I have started back on some of my meds, but I can't start them all at the same time. I had to take it gradually, otherwise I might overdose or something!! The main med that I was missing was my neurontin. I had been on a dosage of 800 mg 4x day before I had to stop taking it. Right now I am taking 400 mg 2x day as of yesterday. I will have to stair step this dosage up gradually until I reach a level that is actually helping me again. Even the 400mg 2x day is helping a little. Funny though, I didn't realize how much it helped me until I couldn't take it and had to do without it. I'm just thankful to God that I can take it again.

And it's coming at a crucial time..........fall and the onset of winter. These cold fronts have been killing me with pain, stiffness, etc...... I have fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, sjrogens, migraines, and a host of other medical problems. These are all affected by the weather for me. I don't know about you.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being gone for so long , but that I'm back and hopefully will be posting regularly again. I really love this blog and I hope you do too.

Teresa

Pain meds - necessary and toxic?

I received some disturbing news from my doctor's office today: my liver count is high. And since I don't drink alcoholic beverages at all, this little problem is undoubtedly being caused by taking pain meds that are formulated with acetaminophen.

I knew taking acetaminophen products could be harmful to the liver but I didn't think I took enough of them to have to worry about it. But, over the last few months, pain meds have become a lot more necessary.  Excedrin Migraine helps best for migraine headaches, Tramadol works pretty well for my afternoon body aches and the occasional Hydrocodone helps take the edge off my severe pain. All of these meds contain acetaminophen and I guess I've been taking enough of them to affect my liver, even though I never take two different kinds of pain meds on the same day and I rarely take more than one dose a day.

My doctor said I need to come back in a month to have my liver count checked again and, if it's still high, they will have to run more tests. She also said I don't have to completely stop taking my pain meds but I should take them only when necessary. Um, hello! I DO only take them when necessary. I'm very conservative about taking medications. But the past few months have been really rough and I have been taking a lot more than normal just to get by.

This news couldn't come at a worse time. December is the month that is the hardest for me to get through.  I always have a flare when the seasons change and December is when we usually get our first wintry weather (and this year is definitely no exception - we've had daytime highs in the 20's all week). Add to this all the stress and busyness of the holidays and I can barely get through, even with pain meds.

When I see the doctor next month, I will insist she looks in to some of the new pain meds they are coming out with for chronic pain patients. And in the meantime....????? I honestly don't know how to get through the shopping, cooking and socializing of the holidays without quite a bit of pain medication.