(no subject)

[violachic]

So our little housewarming went really well. I'm sorry to have missed the folks who couldn't come, but had a great time with those who could.



So I did a really, really stupid thing. I let the prescription on my painkiller lapse before I called to refill it. I've been without my hydrocodone since late Thursday night. In order to function in the very least, I did something that you're not supposed to do: I am using leftover pain meds from someone else, of a different kind. I should have my prescription filled by tomorrow, I'm hoping. I googled the stuff I'm "borrowing" to make sure it wasn't going to disagree with my other medication, and while its not nearly as good as my other stuff (which wasn't nearly as good as the oxycodone that they took me off of- that stuff has a really high risk of addiction, plus it made me really stupid), it seems to help a little. Its important to note- at least for myself- that I've actually been in more pain all week than I have in a long time. Bad start.


The other thing that is going on, that is getting really worrisome,is problems with my stomach. I actually don't know exactly when it started. I know I was fine on the 4th, which was Tuesday, to go to sleepykins and histrogeek's place to eat charred animal flesh. I think I was fine on Monday. So it must have started sometime Wednesday night, or Thursday. On and off, my stomach has been really nauseated, and my intestines have been increasingly unhappy. We're probably getting into the TMI area now, but- sorry. As I've said, its been on and off, but today (yesterday?) (Saturday) it was bad pretty much all day. I don't know if its pain related, or med related, or if I've slowly come down with a bug. But last night as we awaited for our guests to arrive, I was feeling uber lousy. I nursed a Coca-Cola, which I usually don't drink, to try to get it to settle. It settled enough to have a good time for several hours, and I laughed and played Apples to Apples and talked to folks and had fun. But I didn't eat. Until the very end, when I decided I should try to eat the Lean Cuisine dinner that I'd heated up well before the party but abandoned due to nausea. And that was a bad idea. It quite literally feels that everything that goes into me goes directly through me, stopping at my stomach first to make it feel really awful. Its important to note that this started before I ran out of my hydrocodone, so I am not blaming drug withdrawl or the temporary emergency backup painkillers.


So between the pain and the stomach issues, I'm an increasingly unhappy camper. I did sleep for a couple hours, but woke to find myself... well, lets just say I'm spending a lot of time in the bathroom. I'm extremely worried about getting dehydrated, which I'm usually worried about anyway, because I know I don't stay as hydrated as my doctors warn me to. But on top of that, liquids are not settling well in my stomach at all. Orange juice tasted really good right before I went to bed, but now makes me queasy. I almost contemplated a trip to the ER last night for about fifteen minutes. Only because what passes for my "primary care physician" is on West side, and at the ER they'd have the painkillers I would need, the way to make my stomach stop being nasty, and liquids to hyrdate me. Plus, I'd gotten a letter from Rush about a month ago telling me that "due to [my] income level and family size [I] am being granted a 100% discount on the hospital visit and stay, which is also good for all ER visits and hospital stays for the next twelve months". Cool, eh? Must be those twelve starving children I have at home. Or, it could be the "simple living" Stipend I get from CPT. Either way.


So raise your hand if you're willing to drive me to Rush tomorrow if I need to. I'm getting extremely worried about this stomach issue- and lets just say thank God that I haven't thrown up yet, because I believe that would be extremely painful- especially on being dehydrated. But the pain is also getting to the "unbearable" level, and between the two, I'm extremely unhappy.

Any advice? I spent ten minutes sitting on my bed crying before I made this post. I don't know what to do, and desperately feel the need to have someone come in and just take care of it all.


My life just seems to keep degenerating.

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear the party went well, but the stomach stuff doesn't sound good at all.

For dehydration, you could try sucking on ice cubes. Got any Gatorade? Also, you can buy anti-emetics over the counter; I don't remember what it's called, but it's standard stuff and works fairly well. (It helped when I had the bad flu and couldn't even keep water down.) Note that it has something minty in it, though, so it might crimp your makeout sessions.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Our ice cubes taste funny, they've done that "absorbed the flavor of what's next to them in the freezer". I just checked. No gatorade, but that does't mean I can't send a housemate scurrying to Walgreens when a decent hour arises.

OMG makeout sessions don't sound the least bit appealing right now. No offense to that person with whom I'm currently most likely to make out. Ahem.

What are you doing up so late?

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I napped through the late afternoon and some of the evening. If I lived close by, I'd take you to Walgreen's right now!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Instead of ice cubes, have you any frozen fruit? Not for eating, just sucking the ice off of (if that makes any sense).

[violachic.livejournal.com]

no, but i just remembered that someone left popsicles here, the frozen all-fruit kind, so i am trying that.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

A little research: your annoying new symptoms, did they worsen when you stopped taking the oxycodone? Nausea is a possible side effect of the drug, and "gastrointestinal distress" can occur when you stop suddenly (i.e., withdrawal).

From the Merck site:

Withdrawal symptoms can appear as early as 4 to 6 hours after the opioid use stops and generally peak within 36 to 72 hours. However, each opioid is eliminated from the body at a different rate, which alters the rate at which withdrawal occurs. The withdrawal symptoms are worse in people who have used large doses for longer times.

The first sign of withdrawal is generally rapid breathing, usually accompanied by yawning, perspiration, crying, and a runny nose. Other signs include hyperactivity, a sense of heightened alertness, rapid breathing, agitation, an increased heart rate, fever, dilated pupils, gooseflesh, tremors, muscle twitching, hot and cold flashes, aching muscles, loss of appetite, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

They were really bad today, but they were just as bad on Thursday. I somehow managed to get a reprieve on Friday. So hard to tell. But thanks for the research.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Heh. The more I read this the more I see how apt the descriptions are. Its just that I have so many of those symptoms anyway, from side effects from other meds, etc.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Is it too sad to say that I looked it up because it sounded too much like heroin withdrawal as presented in Trainspotting?

Google is great. "oxycodone withdrawal symptoms"

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's actually kinda funny...

actually the stuff I'm supposed to be on right now is hydrocodone- but now i've googled that too, and it looks like there are similar symptoms.

Argh.

Stupid, stupid me.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Learning by doing!

Oy.

(They're all the same family of Rx.)

[violachic.livejournal.com]

i guess the question remains...


if I can't get my prescription filled today and it all gets worse, where is the line where I draw it all and just go to the ER? There is also the issue of a great, great deal of pain. This is a question coming from someone for whom self-care is a great mystery, and has been raised to suck it up and stick it out when ill. I really seriously don't know.

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

P boy likes to teach people a lesson. Is there anyone I/we can teach a lesson? Trust me, he's good at what he does! Excels in emotional stuff but also excels in, uh, correcting dudes who be all getting up in your shit!

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but no. This was all due to my own stupidity.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

By the way, thank you. If you hadn't pointed out the whole "withdrawl" thing, I never would have come up with it, and would have continued to try to suffer it out. I'm actually kind of angry with the doctors, for all the ones who have prescribed me this stuff none of them EVER mentioned withdrawl issues or anything like that to me. Also, just thanks for the moral support in general. I'm glad you slept all afternoon on Saturday so you were up at 4 a.m. :-) Selfish, but true. I was flipping out, and it would have been way worse without you there, even just via LJ.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

You're very, very welcome. At least someone benefitted from it!

[violachic.livejournal.com]

You know, funny that "crying" is on that list. I've been doing that almost daily for the last couple months anyway.

call for help!!

[dl76.livejournal.com]

ok.....Lori has keys to my car. If she can be enough of an engineer to get it out of it's *itty-bitty* space, consider this official permission to use it to get you where you need to go. CALL HER! She probably has ways to get you meds or get you to Rush or whatever you need. I know...she can be overwhelming when she gets into "Nurse Lori" mode, but if you need the help, she will definitely help.

Re: call for help!!

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about texting her anyway in a few hours, when it gets past the "OMG ITS SO EARLY ITS RUDE" hours. Thanks for responding.

Re: call for help!!

[dl76.livejournal.com]

love you!

off-topic

[dl76.livejournal.com]

and next year, WHEN (not if) you're feeling better, you are coming to AIMS with me. Because you know you want to, and every orchestra needs violists.

Re: off-topic

[violachic.livejournal.com]

What if I'm still in Palestine? :-)

Re: off-topic

[dl76.livejournal.com]

you can take time off for good behavior.

Re: off-topic

[whereisjoy.livejournal.com]

if you're still in Palestine, then you're coming somewhere exciting with ME!

Re: off-topic

[violachic.livejournal.com]

*hugs* even tho I've yet to meet you in person, I consider you a good, trusted friend. Plus, you put up with my mom for a whole month (a brilliant but crazy challenging woman), so you're already on your way to honorary sisterhood.....

Re: off-topic

[whereisjoy.livejournal.com]

hehehe. Well, I don't know about sisterhood. I've already got my slightly crazy mom. Then there is Violette, my new Palestinian mom, whom I'm not sure is completly sane. If I were to add you mom to the mix, I think all hell might break lose. ;-)

But seriously, I feel the same way about you. I really hope that you're body stops being just a pain (har, har) and we can go live in At-Tuwani together!

[erik]

I'll be in Aurora today. If you need me to take you somewhere, call me; it'll be at least an hour before I can get to you, but of course I gladly will.

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

I just made p-town listen to a bunch of elvis costello before I let him pass out on my couch! I didn't even attempt to shove it in his date's butt! Terrible, terrible...she was rather attractive!

[bammba-m.livejournal.com]

independent of pain meds, the nausea sounds like food poisoning. (which is often misdiagnosed)

i'm really sorry you're not feeling well. you're way too bouncy a person to be feeling so sick all the time.

[iniswitryn.livejournal.com]

I hope by the time you read this you've been doctored up right proper by the ER and have gotten over the stomach/intestinal woes. That's dreadful even when you've got nothing else going on, and when you're in pain to begin with ... *shudder*

In the future, for emergency hydration purposes, there's a preparation called Pedialyte that is made for little kids with upset innards (because they dehydrate so fast.) It's essentially a water-added version of the rehydration tablets they use in emergency Doctors-Without-Borders type medical aid for dysentery and such. It's sold in a quart bottle. It tastes like extremely stale water, but when my tummy has been very upset (long history there) it's been the only thing I can keep down, and it's been a big help. It's got the correct balance of electrolytes (unlike Gatorade) and it doesn't have the acid level of gatorade, so it's kinder to a very tender tummy. And it helps minimize the muscle aches that often follow dehydration, because of the electrolyte balance.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it have an anti-diharihal (I can't spell... ) in it as well? Or is it just for hydration?

[iniswitryn.livejournal.com]

the kind I've always used has just been rehydration fluid - water with trace amounts of salts, magnesium, potassium and (a very little bit of) sugar. I don't know if there's an Rx version that includes an anti-diarrheal or not.

I'm sorry you're feeling so bad, but even so Eeyore is making me giggle. ;-)

[bethypooh95.livejournal.com]

something i do know about being on meds constantly,... they can cause stomach issuses... especially pain meds. carbon causes stomach issuses, so eating anything charred, spicey, blackended,... etc, same thing. coke, is the worse thing, it has caffeine. if you are going to drink something carbonated, clear soda, and stir out most of the bubbles, that way you dont get as much of the gassy sensation. it seems to me that somewhere down the line your dr. should have told you that. anywho... i hope you feel better soon. hugs

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Coca-cola syrup settles the stomach. when good old G&G Pharmacy (remember that place by 7 Dwarves?) was still in business they sold bottles of just the syrup over the counter for nausea. Like a really cheap version of Emitrol. I didn't know -why- this worked until someone else somwhere in this thread pointed out that it gives a rush of glucose to the brain. I still don't know why that works, but... whatever :-) So I prefer 7-up or Ginger Ale but if there is regular coca-cola sitting around the house and there's nothing else available for stomachs, you can drink that and it can help. The caffiene doesn't help with the dehydration issue, sure, but it ca be a good start.

[bethypooh95.livejournal.com]

thanks for the info,... maybe its just for people with reflux,... but my doc has told me to stir clear of the caffeine when my stomach is upset. that pepsi is better cause it has more sugar than caffeine.... who knows.

[piddyx.livejournal.com]

I live in Westmont, IL. If you ever are ever really hard up for a ride, try to call me on my cell phone. I will post it "friends only" on my blog.

I immagine you probibly have friends closer to you, but I am not adverse to giving you a hand when needed.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's really generous of you :-)

[magp.livejournal.com]

Glad the festivities went well.

I know you're most likely sick of hearing this, but hang in there, Amy!

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

I came in after running a load of boxes over to our new place early in the afternoon, and next thing I knew it was 1 am -- glad your party went well, wish I'd been able to make it over there.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

There will, undoubtedly, be others :-)

How's the new place?

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

How's the new place?

Still about a month from "okay, time to throw the furniture and the cats on a truck" day; we've been nibbling away at the small enough to cram into the car items, but various scheduling issues (read, my sleep habits having an unfortunate tendency to randomize when stressed) keep interfering with our grand plans of getting one load of stuff lugged over each night. I did manage to address the self-closing-hinges issue on the not-front door while I was waiting around last Monday for the exterminator to pay a preemptive call, though. (And seem to have completely trashed my triceps doing it, but the results are worth it.) It's nice having the leisure to pack slowly, for once, instead of the last couple of panic-stricken ordeals we've had to go through...