...the bowels of hell and then-some...

maybe I am getting better...I'm starting to find this funny...

Into my third day of withdrawal symptoms from the sudden stopping of my oxycodone. Here is one report on a website citing the symptoms and the results...

Patient Betts describes her Oxycodone withdrawal as:
“…An indescribable torture that takes you to the bowels of hell and then-some. My body screamed for relief. The vomiting and diarrhea were inconsequential to how the body flails uncontrollably.”

She explains that just when she thought the withdrawal symptoms were subsiding, another wave came to wring her out and start all over again. Withdrawal from her addiction felt “like hell on earth had begun.” Her doctors, to her later dismay, only prescribed more painkillers for the symptoms and supposed ‘illness’!

My experience began with a deep pain in the pit of my stomach as I awoke on the day after taking the last of the RX. I felt listless and uncomfortable but did not really put it together with the drug withdrawal. Now into the third day of chills, headache, upset stomach, loss of appetite , all I am wondering is when will it end.

I am totally narc shy so even though I have a lesser pain pill with the norco, I am going to try to stick to the tylenol to get through the pain during physical therapy and avoid going anywhere near narcotics as long as I can.

2 weeks out

Many firsts have occurred in the last 5-7 days...

• walking inside without crutches or cane
• walking outside on the arm of another, working on gait mechanics
• shopping with a friend (Nordstrom's fashion and makeup extravaganza Saturday)
  
• stairs: one footed up and down
• stairs: forgetting to one foot it down (and feeling the pull/pain)
• staples come out, steri-strips go on (steri-strips are showerable)
  
• oxy for pain is done, tylenol picks up the slack

It's this last one that I am currently struggling with, really struggling. I ran out of the 10 day Oxy RX on Sunday morning. They were prescribed 2 per day for 10 days. I initially felt that I had a hard time getting used to taking it -- it clouded my concentration and memory -- in conjunction with the anesthesia that was leaving my body from the surgery. After a few days I seemed to get used to it and felt great getting up every morning, built up my endurance to be active all day, focused my brain on reading and crosswords. That felt great and felt very stable.

Figuring out the transition from narcotic to otc pain killer was not well specified. I was told to try to use tylenol (acetaminophen) for fill-in pain med. So in place of the evening oxy, I took 2 tylenol XS (650mg each). Sleep with the oxy, as I described to the nurse, was like a stone. The first night w/o oxy did not seem so different, perhaps not so sound. I woke up feeling a pain in my stomach and not very well. I took some breakfast to try to settle my stomach. I somehow got myself in the shower and dressed because I had two in-home appointments, nursing and PT, during the day. I felt on the verge of nausea and went back to bed with chills and weird sleep in and out. I emerged for my appointments but did not feel well. Rescheduled a phone appointment in which I wanted to be fresh.

Not through the transition yet. Hard to fall asleep with only the tylenol. Slept in several segments, got up once for an additional 650mg or tylenol. Woke still feeling sickish with headache.

Tylenol max. to protect the liver is 4000 mg/day. So now my pain med schedule is a math game. each XS (extended strength) tab is 650mg, each ES (extra strength) is 500mg, each norco contains 375mg acyt. The norco I will take an hour before I have physical therapy so that I can do the max range of motion.

Glucosamine & Chondroitin

I'm finding that I am really missing my Glocosamine & Chondroitin patch. Taking this combination as a supplement, either by caplet or by patch, has always been a bit suspect for me. I thought it helped me with basic aches and pains but then I wasn't sure because the effects were subtle and the pain was still there most of the time. For the past year or so I have been using the patch by Mendright shown in the link.

This is one of the supplements that is "off limits" for the 10 days before surgery and so I have had no patch for about 6 days now. I find that my knuckle joints of my hands are achy and in general I have been feeling different, more crotchety.

I have discovered that The Body Knows! My body has been telling me things as I lead up to this surgery that my mind perhaps is slow to grasp. I have recently become allergic to my underwear! The elastic on it itches and chafes my skin and leaves an imprint after I've taken it off. I've had this happen before, I can't remember the exact circumstances but I take it now as a sign of the agitation and anxiousness I feel approaching the surgery.

Pain management is a b#!&%!

Picked up a bottle of Tylenol Arthritis Pain caplets (650mg acetaminophen). Docs say I can take up to 4000mg of acetaminophen a day safely and for a limited period of time. I am weighing taking 2 of these at bedtime vs. taking one Tylenol PM (500mg acetaminophen + 25mg diphenhydramine HCI). The effect of the TAP caps was not entirely what I had hoped. At first they did dull the knee pain but then another layer of pain emerged as though revealed by the lack of the first.

I had switched from the Aleve (220mg naproxen) on doctors orders. The things they had me stop at 10 days before surgery in addition to the Aleve; Fish Oil, Flaxseed Oil and the Glucosamine patch. Vitamins, minerals and RX drugs are okay up until the day before.

I don't know if there is a break-in period for a new pain killer...I had more or less successfully been managing the pain with generic extra strength acetaminophen (500mg) three times per day.

Moving around pain control is always different from the quiet time of going to sleep. I had experimented with using Tylenol PM on alternate nights because the pain makes me continually move my legs around to find a comfortable position and I was getting little sleep (not to mention keeping my husband unsettled all night).

An ongoing experiment for now. Next week I'll have the heavy drugs and I'll probably be sleeping all the time.

anticipation grows...

...and turns to anxiety and nervousness. I'm still able to have enthusiasm for the outcome but the reality of the cutting and the discomfort and the scariness are coming to the fore. I guess that's unavoidable and I do know what I'm getting into so there is no hiding from that. My other surgery experiences have set me up nicely for this one -- none have been bad but I am familiar with the turmoil and the uncertainty of the march up to the merciful oblivion.

I am understanding that my oblivion will be controlled differently this time. My mental numbness will occur with something (not sure exactly what) that will make me sleepy. The body numbness will occur through an epidural and then a femoral block. I need to look them up. In this way, the area undergoing surgery will be singled out for numbing and the rest of the body should be free from the heavy drugs. Respiratory anesthesia has caused me intense nausea in the past so I'm hoping to avoid that this time. The shoulder surgeries I had used a nerve block that made the entire shoulder and arm seem to be removed from the body and lasted a full 24 hours.

I am somewhat disturbed that I will stay overnight in the hospital. The doctors say the average stay is three days and I am hoping that I will get out before that. I will be in an orthopedic ward at Northwestern where Eric will have guest privileges overnight! I'm not sure how they make that out to sound like a good thing but they do.