I am feeling much better in the last two days thanks to new drugs prescribed and acquired over the weekend.
I had been feeling super-crappy and hardly sleeping all week because of the stupid pain meds and flared up tongue sores and swollen tongue that had beset me recently after starting the Erwinia. The Oxycodon I was taking made me really irritable and edgy, and also very hyper. On Friday I ased Kelly Reese, a nurse practitioner, to prescribe something else for the pain. Remember: I can't take normal analgesics, as acetominophen and ibuprofen will hide a fever. Kelly prescribed Dialudid, a narcotic pain med with Hyrdromorphone as the active incredient. Meanwhile, the large shipment of gelclair was waiting for me at the clinic, and I started using it immediately.
The Dialudid prescription was a bit difficult to fill. I get the impression it's not prescribed all that often in Binghamton. Not that this should surprise anyone that I would need something a little bit out fo the ordinary, Friday night it wasn't available at CVS, and I just missed the Target Pharmacy closing at 9:00. Saturday morning I went back to target, and they didn't carry it, AND WOULDN"T BE ABLE TO GET IT UNTIL TUESDAY. I --calmly as possible -- explained just how badly I needed the drug. The nice pharmacist behind the counter offered to call Wegmans Pharmacy. Sure enough, wegmans had 90 2 MG pills of Dialudid!
I made A beeline for Wegmans and they filled my prescription. Within 1/2 hour of taking the first dose I felt like a normal person again. The pain was totally gone and I had a normal attitude and no fuzziness or dowsiness, and certainly I wasn't hyper. Meanwhile I continued to use the Gelclair after every meal, and its effects are helping to heal my poor tongue. It's no longer swollen, the sores are less inflamed and I'm needing the pain meds a lot less often. At first I was taking 1 pill every four hours, but today i'm down to one pill at waking, and didn'tm take another until about 6 PM. Yay for effective drugs!
Appointment for tomorrow at Roswell Park to get more Erwinia, and I'll probably need some platelets. We plan to show up early so we have half a chance of getting home tuesday night at a reasonable hour.
1 comment:
This is my first visit to your blog. I heard about it from Dustin, the guy who does Dustinland. (I don't know him personally, but became a fan after a Birdy he'd done about the blackout was tossed around the Internet.) I just wanted to comment on how remarkable it is to be able to read about this type of treatment by the person receiving the treatment. I'm sure there are countless other people going through the same course of treatment who would benefit from reading about what works and what doesn't in terms of treating discomfort and dealing with the various types of chemo. I will keep reading your blog, and I send you best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Post a Comment