Chronic Pain

A 51 year old female living and dealing with lumbar back pain and fibromyalgia. Sharing things I do for relief, reduce stress and control weight gain.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Feels good to breath again!

To follow up on this crazy condition I've been dealing with.....On Monday I had a better day.  50% better than any day since it started.  Some were so much worse than others.   So the wondering began.  Do I feel better because I stopped taking the Amitriptyline?  Or maybe because the Omeprezole started working finally?  Not a good idea to deal with two new medications a week a part.  Yesterday was hardly a judge.  Noting to eat or drink all day.  

I had called Monday morning first thing because Saturday and Sunday was so bad to see if they could move up my EGD.  I was really hoping for Monday but I don't control their schedule.  The best they could offer was Tuesday in the afternoon @3.  Hence, the thirst and empty stomach all day.  I won't put myself through that again.  The hunger wasn't so bad but I drink water all day long so that was torture. As far as they symptoms I'd been experiencing they were none to feel.  Again, questions....because second night of no Amitriptyline or because I haven't had any food all day?  It seemed that eating all ways made it worse.

2 o'clock finally arrived and D and I decided to head out early hoping maybe they'd be ready for me then.  I packed a bottle of water and granola bar to inhale as soon as they let me out of there.  I don't know what it is with starting an IV with me but it as many times as I've had one you'd think one would go right but no such luck.  I still had bruising from the one from last Thursday in the ER.  Not to say this young lady wasn't super nice but as soon as she stuck my hand something didn't feel right.  She said, " I'm just going to go ahead and let you know your going to have some bruising."  Oh, ok....as if I didn't already know something was wrong.  

When I had my back surgery I had problems and when they finally agreed to take out on the second day and uncovered all the bandage they had over it they saw I wasn't just complaining.  When I had my deviated septum surgery minutes after they put it in I told them it wasn't right.  It burned the entire time and of course I had complications and had to stay overnight when most go home a few hours later so it stayed in over night.  Multiple times I mentioned to them and they would tell me, "honey if we take it out it won't be fun putting it back in either"   I didn't mind, but they never seemed to want to do it.  Oh well, I should be used to it.  That one was the worst, for months my hand was bruised, swollen and burned at random times.  The dentist I was working for told me what you call it when that happens but I can't remember the name.  Basically the big long word means they missed the vein and that"s why every time they gave me something though the IV it puffed up my hand and burned like heck.    Ok, I'm gonna get off this and on to results.  

As soon as I opened my eyes after procedure I felt a fat lip.  What's up with that?  The nurse brought me a ice pack.  It was on inside.  She said sometime when you bite down on mouth piece you can bite your lip and not realize it.  I was thinking great, it will be an ulcer tomorrow that will hang around a week.  They got the doc pretty quick because the anesthesia never really effects me after.  I open my eyes and that's it I'm awake.  D has to have this done every other year and he goes in and out for probably 30 minutes before he says anything sensible.  
So doc had some pictures to show us.  The esophageal dilatation was fine.  The end of stomach was fine.  The middle or body not so good.  There was moderate hemorrhagic erosive Gastritis. The hemorrhage was old blood, not new.  Normal procedure, they took several biopsies.  He said it was mostly likely all the years I took NSAIDS before my back surgery.  I always knew that they would cause problems somewhere down the road but I had no choice,I  had to take them.  He said the Omeprazole would start to heal some and help the inflammation that was present.   Here was my recommendations:

1) Anti-reflus regimen 2) Avoid NSAIDS indefinitely. 3) await biopsy results 4) see him in 3 months to follow up and let him know how I'm doing.

He didn't really seem to think any of this was causing my chest pain.  Neither did he think the Amitriptyline was causing it, but you never know.  He said I should experiment with it.  Even though it was not given to me for that but he said it can actually help with spasms in esophagus especially if you have inflammation.  I'm going to lay off since I'm feeling better.  I may try on week end again to see if it comes back.  I'd really like to find out it didn't cause symptoms because I finally have something to help me sleep that works.  It's just crazy how it started day after I started taking and then 2 days after I stopped it's completely gone.  Who knows?  I'm just happy to be breathing normal again.  Besides the fat lip and swollen and tender hand I'm good. 

Now that this ordeal is hopefully over I'd like to meet with Mr. R again and give some reprogramming a try.  It's been 3 weeks so maybe they'll be some change?  Can't hurt that's for sure.  It would be nice to have some help to do some cooking for Thanksgiving.  

Thanks for all your emails and texts of concern.  I appreciate them.  You'll never hear me say this again but I'm looking forward to getting out to the store.  I was supposed to go the night of emergency room ordeal.  Haven't been out of house since then.  I've been putting off to feel better then it was time for test.  Waiting for it to warm up a little outside.  

Have a great hump day!
Theresa

The things you take for granted someone else is praying for.

No comments: