Changes and tests

Hi everyone,
This is the first chance I've had this week that I've been able to stay awake long enough to even write up a post. Between both doctor appointments from Monday and Tuesday, they switched all my medications around and I've been so sick that all I'm doing is sleeping.

The first appointment on Monday was with the pain specialist.  Since the Percocet was not really working and wasn't lasting long enough, he changed me over to a long-acting pain medication.  I have to admit, this scared me a bit, since he prescribed methadone. When he first mentioned this, I freaked a bit, since all I've ever heard about is the stuff junkies use on the streets.  In actuality, this is not the same thing at all.  In some cases, doctors actually use this same drug to help people that are addicted to heroin, morphine or other drugs, since it stops the euphoric affects, but still stops the pain.  For patients like me, it stops the pain and lasts for a long time, stopping the need to take pain pills every 4 hours and now I'll be able to go every 12.  Plus, once I get used to it,  it  will stop the "fuzzy brain" feeling that I hate.  With still being in school, I have to be able to think, which the other pills were making it really difficult for me to do, but right now it makes me really, really tired, along with the other stuff they changed, I can hardly keep my eyes open.  He didn't change the Neurontin, so still taking that 3 times a day, plus he added Cymbalta, which I take every night before I go to bed.  Cymbalta is a anti-depressant, but it also helps to reduce muscle pain, which this doctor thinks is part of the problem.   He thinks I have chronic neuropathic pain, along with some muscle damage from all of the abdominal surgeries I've had.  The Neurontin stops the nerve pain, while the Cymbalta stops the muscle pain. He wants to try the combination of these 3 for a month or so and then go from there, depending on what is working and what isn't. Time will tell.  His priority is stopping the pain until the other doctors can figure out what is causing it all and fix it, then hopefully I can stop taking all of this stuff.

On Tuesday, I had my first appointment with my new family practice doctor.  She is actually a Internal Medicine doctor and my gastro specialist referred me to her.  Her specialty is figuring out complex cases and solving puzzles, kind of like Dr. House on the television show, LOL.  She seems nice, but has a tough demeanor, I think she's Russian or maybe Ukrainian, definitely makes decisions quickly, tells you what to do, and my daughter and I kept waiting for the whip to come out, so she could crack it, since I had not been following doctor's orders over the years.  She wasn't too happy that I haven't had a pap in over 4 years, I skipped my last mammogram, so its been 8 years on that, plus I have a cut on the back of my right thigh that I had been trying to clear up on my own, but is now infected.  With all my stomach problems, I didn't think these were important...to her that was wrong, so those will be getting taken care of soon.

First thing she did was draw blood, testing for vitamin deficiencies, and she wants to check my kidneys. She prescribed a really strong anti-biotic (Keflec 500MG, 4x a day)  that I have to take for 2 weeks and these are making me so sick, I feel like I have the flu and I'm running a fever. Since the abdominal pain issues are under control for right now, she wants to clear up the infections and the edema first, then she'll concentrate on whats causing the other problems.   The edema in my feet, ankles and lower legs was really bad, so I went Thursday morning for a venous ultrasound to check for clots. That came back negative, so her office called in a prescription for a diuretic (water pill) to start clearing up the retained water. Never thought it was possible to go to the bathroom this much,  but its amazing that with only taking one pill, most of the swelling went down, but now they feel like they a bruised and broken, I can hardly put any weight at all on my left foot...its hurts really bad. I go back to see her again on Tuesday and then she'll decide the next step, since she should have all the results back from the blood tests.  In terms of my stomach, she said, if necessary they can actually do a reversal of my gastric-bypass.  Her guess right now is that I have mal-absorption, causing the vitamin deficiencies, and low blood sugar, there is more going on with my kidneys than just a simple infection...so, one step at a time.

I'll update again when I know more, for now, I'm going back to bed :)