Today is the first day I am able to get my pain down to below a 5 of 10 and keep it there for a couple hours. I have been trying to lower my Oxycodone dosage over the past week because I really don’t want to be on more than I have to, and I definitely do not enjoy detoxing from things like that.
Quick history: I have had over 12 kidney stones, 4 knee surgeries, wisdom tooth removal (gone wrong – ‘nuther story ‘nuther time), 2 dry sockets, multiple periodontal surgeries (because of the wisdom tooth removal gone wrong), a laproscopy to remove a cyst from my pancreas, lasik, donated ovum, and some other lovey dovey things I didn’t sign up for but which just happened to my body. Morphine and heavy duty pain killers have been, at times, a staple to get me to function. They are great when they are addressing serious pain, but when the pain is gone and you suddenly are not on the drugs anymore (the drawback of opiates for kidney stone pain since often the pain goes as quickly as it arrives), sometimes you wish for the pain back to not feel like climbing the walls or tearing your hair out or severely beating yourself about the head and face. True story.
So, my Oxycodone (oral meds are so NOT my cup o’tea, especially injected into your mouth through a feeding syringe) dosage is supposed to be 5-10mL every 3-4 hours as needed. I was only on morphine my first night in the hospital while I was in the ICU, so the Oxycodone started Day 2. They brought in 5mL. Then they have to give me another 5mL. There was no way I was going to make it 3-4 hours so things had to change. Soon it was 7.5mL every 2 hours but if I did not get it ON THE DOT I was spiking up to a 9 of 10 pain rating really quickly. Today I am at about 3.5mL every 2 or 5mL every 4 hours with only the occasional 2.5 for breakthrough pain. The highest dose I’ve taken in the past 2 days is 7.5mL. It’s awesome. I only spike up to about an 8 now, and my drop after a dose is to about a 3. I am also drinking prune juice like a fish would if a fish drank prune juice.
I can thank my mother for this. Not the prune juice. The high tolerance and metabolism. My mom is 5’1″. Actually, she’s never been 5’1″. She was 5′ and 3/4″ at her tallest, and now she claims to be holding onto 5′, but I’m going to have to disagree. Anyhow, my mom, about 100 lbs, has such high metabolism and tolerance to medications that the doctors say to put her under they have to give her as much as they would a horse. Not a little Shetland pony either.
My first surgery was on my left knee when I was 18 years old. The anesthesiologist said “I’m going to give you a little shot. Now, what sports do you like?” I’d heard from other people who had been put under general that answers to that question go something like, “football, basketball, soc–” and you’re out. Or, if they have you count backwards from 100, you get to maybe 97 and you’re out. My answer was “Oh! Ballet! blah blah blah blah…” Until he said, “I’m going to give you another shot. Now. How long have you been dancing?” And I said “10 years You’re playing the Nutcracker! How appropriate you would play that during my knee surgery blah blah blah blah…” Until he said “I’m going to give you another shot.” And I said “Okay!” And he said “Now let me know when you feel you’ve had a glass of champagne” and I said “I’ve never had champagne…Oh I feel it!” And he said, “What?” And I don’t think I got through repeating my answer.
He came to see me in the ICU after I was more alert and coherent post-op (I was only in ICU because they didn’t have any other beds- that was a whole different lovely experience) and asked how I was feeling. He then added that “For someone your age, height and weight who doesn’t DRINK DAILY, it took over twice as much to knock you out.” For some reason, when I tell doctors this, as they are being conservative in dispensing meds for things like oh, I don’t know….KIDNEY STONES, they immediately see through my sham and realise I am actually a full-fledged drug addict who had kidney stones surgically implanted into my kidneys just for the morphine. Lots of people just don’t like to hear “I have a high tolerance” and I completely understand their reaction. I just don’t like that it usually ends up with me in a lot of pain for a longer amount of time until they believe me and give me a little more.
So. That was a long story just to say that I have the metabolism of a hummingbird on crack (my favorite way to refer to it) and unfortunately pain management has been a very big challenge during this recovery, but I think today I turned a corner. Hooray!
Copyright 2007 Shelby Cass. All rights reserved
PS in case you want to see pix through day 8:
http://web.mac.com/cidstrom/iWeb/Sleep%20Apnea%20Surgery/Day%201.html
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