Monday, April 23, 2007

What a weekend.

You may not find this as exciting as I do, but I am typing with two hands!

This is exciting, because for pretty much the entire weekend, I had no use of left arm. And what moving it did, felt like someone was ripping it out of my shoulder socket.

You see, that shoulder pain I was feeling on Friday got even worse, and I realized that it was important that when I described the arthrogram itself as sucking beyond most sucking--well, now I knew what some more sucking felt like.

Sucky.

As Friday went on the pain got worse and worse, and finally we convinced the doctor's office that I was not just being whiney, but really hurting, and they gave me vicodin. Cool: that helped some, and it definitely mellowed me out, but what they did not tell me and should have (and indeed the directions from the pharmacy even contradicted this) was TAKE WITH FOOD. I had taken the first dose right at dinner time, but I kept taking it every four hours as prescribed, so by the early morning my stomach was getting empty. And then, when I tried to eat, I could not eat more than one bite without being sick.

Four times of that later, and still in excruciating pain (this is early Saturday morning), we were trying to contact the on-call doctor again and again. Having started this rigamarole around 5:30 a.m., we finally reached a nurse around 10:30, and then around 1:30, I was back at the doctor's office, where I got stronger drugs. (The car ride, though, was no fun.) The new meds had anti-nausea stuff in them, too, thanks be.

Yesterday things kept improving and by evening I could be up and around. Even getting to the bathroom was no big deal! And solid food! And, can you believe it, I was able to knit again.

This morning feels like a whole new day. Thanks to super-meds, I got good sleep, and at one point I even managed to turn onto my right side (away from the sore arm).

Does this blog sound like I am charting the accomplishments of an infant?

No work for me today, which is dicey, given the time of the semester. But my goal is to able to drive by tomorrow.

6 comments:

tjarrett said...

Geez, what fun. I think that indulging in a lot of bourbon might actually have been safer!

Joe said...

Yay, narcotics! Nothing brightens your day like a good hit of vicodin or its brethren. Too bad about the nausea though. I never get that side effect from the "hard" pain killers. Honestly though, aside from your nausea, it's not hard to imagine why people get addicted to the stuff. It makes you feel pretty darn good. Save some for me.

Isis said...

yeah, 4 puke-sessions is as good a buzz-kill as they come. But Demerol? That stuff kicks some serious booty.

And Timothy, you are right. In retrospect I should just have stuck with the old-fashioned stuff.

Joe said...

Oh yeah, Demerol IS the bomb!

Listen to me. I sound like a junkie.

The Fool said...

Owie! Where'd that come from? Isis, if it's hurting that much is it from all the prodding etc?

I have a busted collar bone, its an area that hurts every time you move your head. No fun.

I am glad it's getting better.

Marty

The Fool said...

OOPS! Make HAVE HAD a Busted collar bone. It's all good now......