Opiates 2 : Gorillas With Baseball Bats 1
The past couple of weeks have been fairly unpleasant (I'm British, I do understatement). A combination of diffferent factors, particularly the ESA assessment I talked about before, threw me into a fairly major flare-up in my pain levels and I basically spent the first week alternately curled up in a hot bath or curled up on the bathroom floor with spasms in my core muscles seemingly trying to rip my back apart. That really wasn't fun and my sleep was so disrupted I actually lost track of what day it was. Last week was slightly better, no muscle spasms, it just felt like I've been dragged down a back alley for a good seeing-to by a couple of gorillas with baseball bats. I eventually got myself over to my GP late in the week and asked her if she was okay with me boosting my dose of Butrans (aka Buprenorphine) to 10 µg/h from 5. I could have done that without going to see her by stacking two 5 µg patches, but then I'd have needed a repeat prescription anyway. She okayed that without hesitation, no matter it's a controlled drug (she's been treating me for as long as I've had this and knows me well), but absolutely wouldn't prescribe anything beyond ibuprofen for breakthrough pain. If the pain is blowing through opiates on the CD list I'm not personally convinced that ibuprofen is going to make a measurable difference, but what do I know, I'm only the patient.
I woke up this morning thinking I felt pretty good for the first time in over a fortnight, then I looked outside and realised that it wasn't morning any more. When I checked a clock it turned out I'd slept about 11 hours and given I hadn't gotten to sleep until late it was mid-afternoon -- looks like the increased dosage has really kicked in. This is actually why I gave up on the 10 µg/h patches last year. Not because I don't need them, there were times the pain blew through them so clearly I need at least 10 if not 20, but because I was so constantly sleepy. Now the pleasantly half-awake feeling is nice first thing in the morning, but 24/7 it gets a bit wearing. I've got to say that it's a distinct improvement on the past couple of weeks, but I'm not planning to stay on the increased dosage for any length of time. I may stretch it through my holiday in about six weeks, but no further if I can help it. I like being awake enough to think, thank you!
PS: Memo to the muppet who parked in the disabled bay next to mine at the doctor's, the hatched area between bays is so that I can get my door fully open, not so you can snuggle your car up close to mine! I wouldn't care so much if you needed the space to get out, but there was 30 feet of unobstructed pavement on your driver's side....
I woke up this morning thinking I felt pretty good for the first time in over a fortnight, then I looked outside and realised that it wasn't morning any more. When I checked a clock it turned out I'd slept about 11 hours and given I hadn't gotten to sleep until late it was mid-afternoon -- looks like the increased dosage has really kicked in. This is actually why I gave up on the 10 µg/h patches last year. Not because I don't need them, there were times the pain blew through them so clearly I need at least 10 if not 20, but because I was so constantly sleepy. Now the pleasantly half-awake feeling is nice first thing in the morning, but 24/7 it gets a bit wearing. I've got to say that it's a distinct improvement on the past couple of weeks, but I'm not planning to stay on the increased dosage for any length of time. I may stretch it through my holiday in about six weeks, but no further if I can help it. I like being awake enough to think, thank you!
PS: Memo to the muppet who parked in the disabled bay next to mine at the doctor's, the hatched area between bays is so that I can get my door fully open, not so you can snuggle your car up close to mine! I wouldn't care so much if you needed the space to get out, but there was 30 feet of unobstructed pavement on your driver's side....