So, I went to the pain clinic last week. My pain is getting worse. They prescribed some hydrocodon to go along with all of the other pain meds I’m on: Gapapentin, Oxcarbazipine, methadone, and Elavil. I also have some Percocet to use when the pain gets really bad, like it did about 5:00 AM today. I also get to take two blood pressure meds and my cholestoral med. I’m a walking pharmacy.
They decided to get an MRI for my lower spine to see if there was some degeneration that is causing my pain to get worse. Cindy thinks my tolerance to all of these meds has gone up which is why the pain is getting worse. I tend to agree with her since she was a neuro nurse for 30 years before she went to the dark side and got a job with Big Pharma.
I called MRI scheduling on Wednesday figgering it would take about two weeks to get an appointment. Compared to places like Canada or other countries with socialized medicine that would be a fantastic wait time. Much to my surprise, I got an appointment for 1:00 PM yesterday. Obummercare will fix this and our MRI wait times will increase for everybody except our ruling class who will not be covered by Obummercare. Dontcha just love how these assholes exempt themselves from the laws the rest of us commoners have to follow?
I showed up 15 minutes early to answer the pre-MRI questionnaire. I still didn’t get in until 2:00 PM. The bad thing was there was this old coot (prolly my age, but he looked older) who was with his daughter and her son and he wouldn’t STFU. He was loud as well. I kept hoping the techs would come out and take him back to get his procedure done.
Finally, they did. 15 minutes later, it was my turn.
They didn’t make me undress and get into a gown (which is a royal pain in the ass) they just let me pull my jeans down. They gave me some ear plugs and a panic button. Fortunately, I’m not claustrophobic like my buddy Catfish.
They rolled me into the machine, and I closed my eyes and relaxed. I came close to falling asleep even with the noise.
Yep! I can sleep with noise. I developed that skill in the Navy. When we went up the Bassac River in ‘Nam to carry up supplies for the LST on station there we would spend a couple of days up there. Our sister ship got mined when she was up there so to prevent that, they had PBRs circling the ships and throwing out concussion grenades every twenty minutes. My rack was just about at the water line so it got real noisy. I trained myself to ignore the noise and I was fine. That’s why I can sleep though thunder boomers with no problem.
What’s funny is sometimes no noise will make you alert or an unexpected noise can do the same thing. Once, we were parked on the beach at Danang, and all of a sudden I woke up. I had my dungarees and shower shoes on and headed for my GQ station before there was an explosion and the ship sounded General Quarters. I asked one of my shipmates how many mortar rounds had been fired. He said that there was only one. In other words, I woke up before the mortar round hit. After I got out of the service, I related this tale to a friend of mine who had been a ground-pounder in ‘Nam. He told me that I had heard the shell coming out of the tube. I told him he was full of crap, but he told me the same thing had happened to him. This ain’t no shit!
About now, I have to tell you that the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story is that the fairy tale starts out “Once upon a time…” and a sea story starts out with, “This ain’t no shit!”
But, I digress.
They finished the MRI and when putting my braces back on, I fell off the table. Wait until Cindy reads this. I appear to be OK, but when one is a crip, that’s relative.
In “redneck” it’s: “you ain’t gonna believe this shit”
Acquaintance of mine (retired Navy CPO) was on a spread of hypertension and cholesterol and prostate control meds very similar to mine. Kept goin back to the Navy docs who kept measurin his B/P as too much over the desired levels, so they kept raising the dosage on his metoprolol and lozartan and nisoldipine and simvastatin and all the rest.
After a while, his liver began to squawk, and it was lookin like a race between his heart and his liver which would kill him first. So while on a field inspection tour, he had the company doctor examine him just for S & Gs. That doc put a monitor on him to record his B/P and pulse and respiration and all that stuff for about 5 days, effectively eliminating the white smock shock factor.
B/P was right on target, somewhere around 115/75, so the doc started cuttin down on his meds. After about a month, he was basically off everything except a daily 81mg aspirin and 5mg proscar (prostate).
That was like 6 or 7 years ago, and although his cholesterol bumps up from time to time, his B/P apparently has stabilized at around 135/80, which ain’t too bad for a 60-yr-old smoker. He no longer takes the statin, and he eats a lotta fried foods, so . . . . . of course the cholesterol will spike from time to time.
Love your blog…and you too!
My late Father In Law, a super stud 29 year Marine officer told me when he was 81 that “gettin’ old isn’t for sissies”. He died at 87. I’m 56 now and I’m really getting to believe him.
My husband’s aunt says that when you hit 50, it hits back!
Yup, and it hits HARD!
I fell asleep at the infiltration course at Camp Lejeune waiting for my turn to crawl under the barbed wire and live machine gun fire. They had to wake me up.
I’ve had so damn many full spine, neck and head MRIs over the past four years I can’t begin to count them. The noise doesn’t bother me half as much as that damn cage they use to keep my head from moving. But now that I’m on palliative care, I don’t have them as often.
I was just put on gabapentin to go along with the vicodin and all the other crap I swallow every day.
What is gabapentin? I hope it is better than it sounds. 🙁
What is gabapentin? I hope it is better than it sounds.
Acts as an anti-anxiety, anti-seizure and calming effects. Prescribed from a psychiatric POV. Has a lot of off label uses; it’s primary is the anti-seizure.
Gabapentin is the generic for neurontin.
DeDenny, as someone who after multiple long back surgeries I have had all the medications for pain known to man and thought I’d suffer forever until recently (ok a few years ago) a pain management doc got me on Fentanyl Patch. It has changed my life. They come in many strengths and do not mess with your head like pills do. I strongly suggest you discuss it with your doctor as this simple patch allowed me to get rid of all other pain medications.
I’m working my way up to the Fentanyl patch. The pain clinic wants to try all the cheaper stuff first. Methadone is cheaper than the patch. My first year on methadone took care of most of my pain, but it’s now creeping back up to my pre-methadone days. That’s why my next appointment is with the actual doctor instead of the nurse practitioner.
Denny,
I ignored my high blood pressure for years even when I was in a very high pressure sales job. No problem, didn’t have any pain or other symptoms.
Then one day, when I was about 50, suddenly my heart went nuts after a particularly bad event. Off to the hospital for numerous tests including a Thallium stress test and then the chain of meds begun. Beta-Blocker and a Valium related Ativan. Things seem to calm down and I was transferred from Marketing/sales to engineering to lessen the stress related work at the office.
A few years later I was in a traffic jam because some asshole truck driver decided he needed to back his 18 wheel rig into a space the size of my bathroom. Boom, the heart goes nuts again and off to the hospital. Cardiologist decided; let’s go for an angiogram. Fortunately the hospital and the doctors were first class. The procedure wasn’t fun considering they have to slice your femoral artery and thread a scope up your aeorta to your heart. All while you’re awake and alert. The doctor told me later that was so if you began to suffer a heart attack the pain would make you scream and they’d know you had real problems. Thanks doc.
After careful study they decided I was having episodes of arrhythmia due to my BP spiking. That not really good. Now it’s 1- beta blocker, 2- ACE inhibitors, Lipitor, Clonazeapam, low-dose aspirin. I also suffer from IBS so there’s a couple of more pills to add to the mix.
Shit, I’ll be 71 next month and I’m a friggin walking pharmacy.
Oh yea, I tripped on the stairs a while back, so add Advil gel caplets a couple times of the day for my aching knee.
Hope the MRI will help the docs to find what causes the escalating pain. It’s probably what your nurse says: too long on the same pain killers. I can’t believe they left a cripple put his braces on by himself after an MRI. It’s a bit hard to snap back to reality instantly when coming out from under that machine. You probably got dizzy. What a bummer! Lucky you didn’t break anything. Stupid USA staff. This would never happen in Canada with socialized medicine. (You want a bet?) Take care!
Nope. I wasn’t a bit dizzy. The reason fell was I leaned too far backwards and fell bass-ackwards off the table.
I fall asleep in the MRI Tube too. I can’t take Gabapentin or lyrica or any of those serotonin up takers. They make me dizzy like crazy. I sure hope you get some help soon and that the fall didn’t cause you any more troubles! I agree with Claudia, coming out of the tube is really disorientating.
lisakay – I take 3600 mg a day of gabapentin with no side effects.
Gabapentin is a great drug. Originally invented for epileptic seizures (and probably still used for that) it was also found, but accident, to help with pain issues. We use it ALL the time in veterinary medicine. When an old dogs arthritis drugs don’t seem to cut it anymore, you can put them on gabapentin in conjunction with arthritis meds and they seem like they feel great once again. In my line of work, I don’t see any side effects from it, I don’t know if Denny would agree with that or not. It’s cheap, safe and works well. Not too many meds you can say that about these days.
Ray
rayvet,
You callin Denny an old dog?
Shame on you!
Ain’t nothing sounds like a mortar coming out of the tube. It’s a sound all-by-itself.
I was given Gabapentin for Diabetic nerve pain. It was no help. My Doc says that it works for some people but not for others. I had to let the nerves burn out.
Toejam: I am surprised that you were awake for your Angio. They give me a pre-Op shot and I always wake up in recovery. I am blessed with a high tolerance for pain and a low tolerance for drugs. A pre-Op. shot that is used to calm the average patient down, knocks me completely out. Not a bad thing when I think about it.
Had my share of duty time at the Cleveland Clinic for major surgery & knee replacements. Turned 72 this ,month , still have Arthritis but only medication is one low dose aspirin daily …really lucky which super pisses off wife who carries more drugs & pills around then the local pharmacy stocks.
I am not a pill person & prefer to tolerate most minor aches & pains rather then to be dependent on drugs.
Over the last 5 years have had many cat scans & Yep….did fall asleep a time or two.
Percocet and Baclofen. Take em at bed time or I get zero sleep. My surgery was supposed to relieve my neck pain, so far it has been a dismal failure. They had me on Robaxin, and several other muscle relaxers, but they all cause me serious side effects. When I talked to the Doc, he switched me to Baclofen and said that it was because it worked directly on the muscles, and the others worked on the brain. I replied, Thats the problem! He didn’t get it.
Prior to the operation, I had a disc that would bulge against my spinal cord when ever it got stressed. Mucho pain. now, When I get any stress, it feels like some one is pressing a finger against my wind pipe, from the back side. I also notice a catch when I swallow. I’m averaging three sleepless nights a week, thats why my blogging is so low recently.
The hope is that my spine will fuse. So far, it feels like a failure, and I am regretting having the operation. I think now I should have just said to heck with it, I’ll live with the pain.
I’m not big into taking pills of any kind. The bottle of Motrin I have was purchased in 2000, or early 2001. Got a bottel of Tylenol thats almost as old. When I need pain meds, I switche back and forth to avoid over dosing. Can’t take the Motrin or aspirin right now.
Hope they find a solution for you Denny, we need you to keep blogging a few more decades.
Well!
It’s good to see that my old comrades here are finally arriving where I was when I first made an appearance here!
Before I go on, STAY AWAY from Gaba! In common-usage-terms, it offers your mind more choices than a smorgasboard. If you like pain-free confusion, it might be the precise-drug you would want.
I am VERY HAPPY to report that I am on no drugs whatsover these days. My body aches, I have no inclination to start any projects, I finish the few that I start, and am working on an app that seeks to find out exactly when, where and how much each of our illustrious leaders indulges in legalized drugs; -including alcohol.
My salvation is but meditation.
Yeah, there are some SUPERB app’s for that.
And they work!
In a word or two, they work for stability, insight, and calm.
I leave on July 8th for our “Three Concentric Circles” tour of the United States of America. It centers on Joliet, Illinois. My Step-Son and I. We have allocated 62 days to the endeavor.
Our watchword for the trip is “The Optimists’ Creed.” Google it!
When done, I will be free of alcohol, nicotine and (a player-to-be-named later.)
You will notice that I am no longer blaming nor praising any individual for any reasons whatsoever. In short, I will be as you once were. In September, I will return to being a Professor at University in the College of Arts & Science.
Cavil as you will, there will once more be a tiny island of peace, justice, and tranquility in the classroom.
Thanks to ALL of you. YOU ought to get in the classroom! Your ideas would stimulate excellent discourse for graded-examination(s)!
Dan S.
Dan – I’ve been dealing with pain issues since long before I started this blog. As I’ve gotten older, the pain has increased and, as such, my drugs have increased as well. Fortunately, I have had no debilitating side effects from any of them except for the methadone which I think affected my diving, which, after my last trip, I have given up. I have a friend who tried gabapentin and it made him dizzy. I take 3600 mg per day (sometimes more) and it has had no effect other than helping with my pain. I’m glad to hear that you are clean and doing well. This comment is much more lucid than the ones you posted when you were a regular. Good luck with staying clean and have a good time on your trip. My road trip this year will be a short one.