Oh muh God, today is amazing!! Dr. C gave me the prescription plan that I have been looking for! I am SO unbelievably relieved and happy.
I made an appointment with Dr. C today so that I could discuss a few things with him. My cough and wheezing, kidney pain, my pain meds, and my mother-in-law needing follow up care. I explained to Dr. C that the Oxycodone is just way to unstable for me. Up and down, up and down, running out early, and so on and so on. I don’t have any quality of life to speak of; no job, can hardly see my friends, hurts too much to enjoy going to shows, not able to work out or exercise. I basically just hibernate in my room watching movies or hang out in the back while smoking and reading books. I was so disappointed that Dr. S still felt he didn’t have enough information to feel comfortable putting me on a prescription plan. It meant that the life I was dreaming of would have to hold on just a little while longer. Then it occured to me that Dr. C had more than enough information on me! He agreed that he did and we talked it out. It was decided that an extended release medication, for day to day pain, along with short acting medication for breakthrough pain was the way to go. I gave him the list of extended release medications that I found out my insurance covered. He dismissed the Tramadol ER immediately saying that my tolerance was too high for that to be effective. He also didn’t like Oxymorphone, which he said was Dilaudid. I was totally fine with that because Tramadol is weak and Oxymorphone didn’t work for me when I tried it. So he decided on Oxycontin, which is extended release Oxy. 20mg Oxycontin twice a day and up to four 15mg Oxycodone a day for breakthrough pain. Though I need to try and keep the Oxycodone at 2 per day, he said that I can take up to 4 if the pain is really really bad. Aman and hallelujah! I didn’t think it was possible but I finally feel like I have enough pain medication. Adequate pain medication. Like I’m totally covered. This means so many things I can have and SO many things I can let go of! No more Kratom, no more Vicodin, no more driving to Lakeway for Tramadol, no more meeting “M”, no more running out early, no more withdrawal, and no more pissing away money!! No more fighting with Mom or Jon! I am ecstatic! Even the little things, like knowing that I will not wake up in pain because I will have taken an extended release pill at night, has me totally over the moon. The relief is palpable.
Anway, there were other things that happened at that visit. We discussed the results of the CT scan that I had on my lung on Wednesday. Get this: what is in my lung is not scar tissue or an unknown nodule. It is a freaking lymph node! That’s it! I have been semi stressed about this and urged to keep an eye on it for the last 2 years and all because my lymph node is in a slightly different location than normal people. Dr. C said there is absolutely nothing to worry about and I don’t need to “keep an eye” on it anymore. God, I love that man. He said that he didn’t see any pneumonia or bronchitis on the CT scan either, so I just have a regular cough. He prescribed me some cough syrup and it is doing the trick quite nicely. My kidney was absolutely killing me this morning so he ordered a urine test to check the function and look for infection. The results came back and even though Dr. C didn’t write any notes on it, I’m pretty sure that everything was normal. I wonder why my kidney randomly does that? Just one of the many things that I will never know, probably. I also had all the lab work done that Dr. C requested last week, so that’s out of the way. Results came back on the CBC but can’t interpret the findings. Gonna have to ask Dr. C to spell that one out for me although I’m sure that if anything were wrong he would have put a note on there telling me. I talked to him about seeing Sharyn for her “after fall” care and, good man that he is, he said he wouldn’t mind a bit. He needs her hospital records and then he can take care of her and give her the pain meds that she needs. That stupid nursing facility is barely giving her anything at all for her pain (and all the while is making her feel like a huge drug freak!). Screw that noise; she needs Dr. C. I talked to Sharyn for about half an hour and she is very excited at the prospect of meeting such a good doctor. She is going to get her records and make an appointment and I will take her to it. I’m so glad he doesn’t mind treating her- she really had no other good alternative.
My endocrinologist appointment is on Monday. I hope my test results just come back normal so that I can move on. But, if I’m remembering correctly, the last time I was there my test results were far from normal and required follow up visits and further testing. I’m still on the Latuda, which they claimed was the reason for the abnormal results. I think? Maybe that was the rheumatologist. Ah, it’s too much to keep straight. After I have my visits and tests done then I will put the information in here and that will keep me from forgetting. Thanks again to my brother for creating this blog for me. I went to the nutritionist this morning. It really felt like a giant waste of time. I realized that I mostly wanted to see a nutritionist back when I couldn’t lose weight. Now I’m having the opposite problem and the doctor wasn’t all that helpful. She bitched at me for not eating enough and told me to eat no fewer than 3 hours before bed so that I could properly digest my dinner. She also wants me to drink a protein shake at like 5pm every day. Not sure that I am going to go along with either suggestion. I like my routine. I was hoping that she could tell me how to best avoid wheat and soy, both of which I might be allergic to. But instead she totally glossed over it, didn’t answer me, and suggested I do a “3 day challenge” to see if I was really allergic to it or not. Luckily, Dr. C filled me in on the best way to do it when I saw him later. The nutritionist made an appointment for me to go back on November 30th but I think I’m going to cancel it. Like I said, it mostly just felt like a giant waste of time.
That’s what has been kickin’ around lately. It’s a brand new day and a whole new game. Hit it!