body parts and meds
I really wanted to post on a regular basis. I really suck at this sort of thing. I had thought that maybe I could post at least every other day. Then I thought, I should be realistic and aim for once a week. But life keeps happening to me, and not always in a good way.
Turns out I am suffering from fibroid tumors in my uterus, as well as an abnormally thick uterine lining. I had started
bleeding very heavily (again - went through this just a few months ago, and it lasted way too long - I don't think my doctors were taking me seriously). I had a repeat internal sonogram done. Anyone ever had one of those? those are very ...interesting, in an embarrassing sort of way. I had been trying to tell my gyn doc that I had a very uncomfortable, full feeling in that general area, and when I start my period it upgraded to pretty severe pain. Not normal for me, I used to have mild cramps with my periods. When someone finally looked at my sonogram and got back to me (after numerous e-mails to the doc about the results) they tried to give me an appointment for over a month away for a surgical consult. Well by this time, I had gone through 33 superplus tampons in 24 hours, so I asked for something a little sooner. They saw me that afternoon. Suddenly, everything is moving fast, after pretty much nothing being done before. From July of 2008 to November of 2008 I kept bleeding, sometimes light, most of the time heavy. I saw my doctor then, but was just given some medication that I later found out causes your uterus to shed it's lining, bringing on the bleeding. It also made me hella-mean. After a particularly bloody weekend, it finally stopped, so I stopped taking the medicine. At that time I had gone in for a uterine biopsy and a sonogram, which just showed a cyst on my ovary. So I find it interesting that now there is no cyst, but numerous "large" fibroid tumors in my uterus. Did they all grow in only 3 months? Amazing. It seems also, that the abnormally thick uterine lining could be hiding things, like precancerous polyps, or other icky things. So suddenly the plan is for a quick D&C, to determine what is under the lining, and to see if I should have a partial hysterectomy or if I should have a full hysterectomy. Somehow I can't stop thinking that if the doctors had really listened to what I said before, we would already be past this point. I get the feeling that they really didn't believe that I was bleeding for so long.
When I look back on it I wonder also. If my chronic pain doctor hadn't tried to increase my Lyrica, (I was basically a zombie over the summer) maybe I would have gone into the doctor sooner about the bleeding. Which brings me to the next bitch subject:
The medicine for Chronic Pain. I had a work injury, some operations, a staph infections and complications that left me worse off, in more pain than before. So for 8 years I have been living with moderate to severe pain on a daily basis. I was started on Tramadol at first. A horrible drug. It works on the serotonin levels in your brain. For me, if I was even one hour late with a dose, I would start experiencing some pretty horrific withdrawal symptoms - involving skin, motion sensation, irritibility, and muscle spasms. This was a drug that was supposed to be non habit forming, with "low side effects". I was finally able to get off it, and prescribed Vicodin. Well everyone knows about Vicodin. The problem with that drug, along with many others, is after a time, it loses it's effectiveness and good luck getting prescribed the dose you might need for pain relief. The doctor decided to add Lyrica to the mix, because I have numbness, tingling, burning, and some pain that is not relieved by the vicodin. I took it, with some increases in the dose for over a year. In that time I gained 60 pounds. When I noted to the doctor that I was concerned, I seemed to be gaining weight, but not eating differently his answer was, Don't snack. He pisses me off. I finally told him I really didn't want to be on Lyrica anymore, so in January he put me on another drug. Since I've been off the Lyrica I've dropped 11 pounds in two months, my speech improved in February, but I really wasn't getting any pain relief and was experiencing burning toes. So in March he put me on Topomax. My speech has deteriated (trouble thinking of words and mixing syllables of different words). I have also realized that since Christmas I have been sick with at least 5 colds, or viral infections. I can't seem to get rid of these cold sore like things at the corners of my mouth and I get a lot of canker sores in my mouth. Pepsi tastes like Pepper Soda. I don't feel like doing anything. I actually feel dis-affected, though I don't want to tell any of the docs that, because then they want to jump on the anti-depressant regimen, which starts a whole other slew of side effects. I started thinking about my general health, besides the pain crap. Since I started on the Lyrica, I have caught more colds and flus than in the last 15 years of my life. In fact, this week I have come down with yet another cold, and have had to break out the inhaler. My throat hurts and my voice is gone. I know a lot of people are getting sick, but I have never before been so sick, so often. And the infections that I get seem to last longer. I looked up all three of the medications that have been prescribed to me for the nerve pain. Weight gain, speech impairment and viral infections for the Lyrica. Burning, numbness, tingling of extremities, with swelling for all three of the medications. Hairloss, speech impairment, with the topomax. Increased viral infections with all three medications. So as of tonight, no more topomax. I am going to tell my doctor that I do not want any of these drugs that are prescribed for neuropathy. The pain relief, and relief of the numbness and tingling was negligible, and the side effects for me are too intense, too life-affecting. I would rather deal with some good old-fashioned narcotics, like codeine, or vicodin and advil. The other shit wasn't really helping much anyway.
Now I just have to be assertive enough to my doctor, who is not the most personable guy, as evidenced by his don't snack remark.
At any rate I'm looking forward to less side effects, maybe have to live with a little more pain, and less internal body organs. Cross fingers that there aren't any suprises waiting for me and the surgeon on April 7th.