I could just scream! Once again I'm having problems getting pain medicine. This is just ridiculous. My general doctor doesn't want to prescribe it because he doesn't know me well enough, he wants the pain clinic to prescribe it. My orthopedist doesn't want to prescribe it because he lives 2 1/2 hours away and can't monitor it. I called in last week to get a refill and the pain clinic doctor that prescribed me some medicine only granted me one refill. Good Lord, I just had a nerve resection and now I can't bend or straighten my leg without excruciating pain and I've used my one refill and they won't give me any more?! What's up with that? I asked if I could get a shot in that sciatic nerve to help alleviate that pain, but no one can get a hold of my doc at the pain clinic to ask him to get me an appointment.
The problem is the nurses! I had a hydro-cysto dialation two Mondays before Thanksgiving. The doctor gave me some Vicodin pills. I've had a gastric bypass and my system doesn't hold onto pill forms very well, they are not absorbed correctly by my body and so they are not as effective as they could be. The week after surgery was spent going to Seattle and having other appointments, so I was unable to rest after that surgery and that kept aggravating my poor bladder. The Wednesday after that surgery I went to the pain clinic and discussed my pain medicine for the surgery. She said that she would write in the notes for the nurses to refill my pain medicine once and that then I would have to start tapering it off. We discussed that I would probably need pain medicine for up to four weeks after surgery, depending on how the surgery went. I took the prescription to the pharmacy and did NOT fill it because my surgery was still a week away.
I was out of some other medication and my mom went to pick it up for me. She picked up my pain medicine, earlier than I had hoped to get it...I did need it though. I was still having pain from the bladder surgery and so I took some of the pain medication-----I was thinking that if I called my urologist for more pain medicine, and my mom had just picked up pain medicine for me, then the pharmacy would get worried that I was getting too much pain medicine from different doctors all over town. I seem to always be having trouble with pain medicine since my original family doctor quit back in August.
So, the following week, I had my nerve resection. They put in the pain pump which didn't work and then it broke so I had to pull it out. I had been using my pain medicine for over a week and when I called the pain clinic for a refill the nurse really reprimanded me! She layed this huge guilt trip on me about how I shouldn't have used the pain medicine before the surgery and that she was really worried that I was abusing medicine. I tried to explain what I was thinking, how I was trying to prevent someone being worried about it by not calling every specialist I see for pain medicine, and only requesting it from the pain clinic. I also told her that I was not out of medicine, but that I would be by the weekend. She refilled the pain medicine ONLY BECAUSE IT SAID TO IN MY CHART and then she said that they would probably not refill it again, because I took it earlier than I was supposed to. It doesn't seem to matter how much pain I'm in and the fact that I can't bend or straighten my knee completely without excruciating pain! The nurse said she would try to get a hold of my provider and ask if I could get in for a shot in my sciatic nerve to help alleviate some of my pain. She called me back on Friday, and said that my doc did not come in on Friday, so she couldn't ask him about the shot and could not ask him about pain medicine. This was 4:00 last Friday night. 4:30 my crown fell off of my last molar on the left side. Within a half an hour my jaw was throbbing. I tried to call my endodontist (I already had an appointment on the 15th to fix this tooth, the timetable just got moved up!) and he didn't answer. So I was up all Friday night, in pain, despite the little pain medicine I still had.
Saturday my tooth still hurt and I was in a lot of pain in my leg, and my left kidney. My left kidney pain is becoming more frequent and constant. I have a history of kidney stones and I have lost my right kidney so if mt left kidney gets blocked I'm in big trouble! I didn't sleep Saturday night either.
By Sunday I was in so much pain, and I was exhausted from the pain and not sleeping. I had been out of pain medicine for over a day, and I was starting to get pins and needles feelings all over my body and I had the chills. My jaw was really hurting now. I did fall asleep for an hour out of sheer exhaustion. I was in the middle of scrap booking when I fell asleep and I was a little confused when I woke up, I thought it was Monday, but it had really only been a couple hours. I was up all Sunday night too.
Monday, and first call to the endodontist, then the pain clinic. I got an appointment for the endodontist today, and for the pain clinic on Wednesday. I still haven't heard if I can get a shot in my sciatic nerve or not. Maybe I will an have an answer by the end of the week. I dd get a nurse to finally say, if another specialist thought that I needed pain medicine, then to get it from them and call the pain clinic with the dosage that they gave me.
I went to the endodontist and got another root canal. My jaw is still throbbing. He asked me to call him if the anti inflammatory weren't working. They aren't helping, but I'm afraid to call him. I just don't want to hear that I can't have any help when I'm in pain.
The urologist decided to have me go through another series of pelvic floor exercises to help with the leakage problem rather than jumping into another bladder lift. Hey, I'll try anything. I am taking a medicine called Urelle to help calm my bladder from the interstitial cystitis and it turns my pee blue! So I know I'm leaking because my underwear is blue! I had an x-ray today for my left kidney and the x-ray was inconclusive. There is a suspicious spot in my left kidney, next to my spine, but they can't tell if it is a stone or not. So, I will wait until my urologist is back from vacation and can check the x-ray himself. If I get any other symptoms of kidney stones I should call them back. So I wait, and wait, and wait for my problems to either go away or get worse! How fun is that?
Then, last Friday, my other tooth that needs a root canal broke off! Exposing a crack in the tooth in front of it! My left jaw is just throbbing, it hurts so much! I have just suffered through a miserable weekend with tooth pain, jaw pain, kidney pain foot pain and sciatic pain with NO PAIN MEDICINE!
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