Thursday, May 24, 2007

terribly early in the morning

The Ooky Day Ahead - A…head.

This afternoon or early evening, my dad is having surgery to dig more cancer out of his forehead, until they can’t find any more.  They’re not overly concerned, as it’s not the most dangerous form of cancer.  Although, right now I’ve taken a sleeping pill, because I need to get some good sleep before I toddle over to the hospital to hang out.  My dad is starting to insist that he wants to be awake during the surgery, and I think that’s nuts.  He’s already paying the anesthesiologist to be there all prepared, let him do his stuff.  The procedure isn’t the good part, it’s the drugs that are the good part.  No one needs to watch the surgeon work.  He’ll do fine.  Besides, it’s completely pain-free when you’re asleep, and that makes for some awesome surgery.  Hell, I don’t even remember counting down, I was so out of it.  Perhaps he can work on topping my “funny” record, even though Ray would never tell me what I said, he just kept saying I was funny.  So, Dad, get knocked out...and be funny.  And to be honest, all the gooey gory parts, I’d rather hear those talked about from the surgeon.  So, you’re going under, and you’re going to like it.  It’s like drifting off into the best sleep ever, only it’s way too short.

Now, I’m off to bed.  I took some meds to see if I could get some restful sleep.  I doubt it, but my next sleeping med is Xyrem.  DUNDUNDUNdun....  I’ve read some amazing stories about how people who had Fibromyalgia were really helped, and were able to get off all their meds.  That would be great.

Friday, May 11, 2007

the wee hours

A 12lb Cat Is Too Heavy

Crap.  I’d hoped that my “Diary of a Herniated Disc” category was pretty much over and done with, but a couple of weeks ago I hurt my back.  I’m not sure if it was because I lifted the 15lb dog or if it was just sitting at my desk too much.  I didn’t feel much pain after the initial pain of lifting the dog, but since the pain started not long afterwards, it could’ve been the culprit.  I have had zero back pain since I had my surgery.  It was so great!  The occasional hip pain, but it wasn’t a constant in my life.  I was ready to celebrate being cured for good.  Yay!  Then, I’ve had the bad back pain for a couple of weeks, at least, now.  After I sit for even short periods of time, when I get up, I can’t straighten up all the way for a few minutes.  Still, it was getting better.  I’ve still used up too many pain pills (NOT Rudy Giuliani’s fault, even though I never really liked him in the first place - feel free to read my comments on the ABC site linked), and that’s frustrating.  I don’t want to need higher doses of meds.  I am by no means an addict, but higher doses cost more money and I used up all of my pharmacy benefits for the year at the end of March.  Nice, huh?  Anyway, to get to the 12lb cat.  I just went to pick him up to move him out of the way of one of the dogs eating rawhide.  In general, the dogs are great with the cats, but I thought it was just as easy for me to put him on the freezer, about four feet above the dog.  I lifted him about a foot off the ground and got a terrible pain in my back.  I don’t WANT to blow out another disc.  I HATED surgery, or rather the whole process of it all.  The surgery itself was not fun, but tolerable.  I hated hobbling around for several weeks before I felt that I could walk like a normal human being.  It also hurt more than I expected.

Just today, I picked a prescription refill at my doctor’s office.  I have to drive all the way down there to pick up a stupid piece of paper, because they can’t call in an Oxycodone prescription.  I don’t know why they can’t figure out a way that allows them to fax it in and have the pharmacy call them back to confirm it, but why oh why should they make things easier for people in pain?  It’s a big inconvenience for me, and I know there are people who need the refills who are in A LOT more pain than I am.  We all have to do everything to protect the drug addicts.  Our Sudafed is locked up, and people on the ABC site who are commenting on the Giuliani/OxyContin story are asking for OxyContin to be banned, because someone in their family got addicted.  How is it my fault that their family member got addicted?  People who abuse substances can find lots of substances to abuse - why punish the people who need the meds just because others won’t use them properly?  How can you punish someone who is in pain from cancer, because some idiot wants to crush up an extended release pill to snort?  How is that fair?  Anyway, this is a long rant mostly to say, it’s kind of scary having back pain.  I didn’t have back pain when I needed the surgery, the pain was in my legs.  But, I still occasionally have pain in my legs, so it’s scary.  On my last visit to the back surgeon in March, he thought I was doing so well that he scheduled my next appointment for September.  I think I may have to go back early if this pain doesn’t go away.  Leigh-Ann and I were wondering if he could maybe tell just by examining me and watching me walk, if there was a problem bigger than the reoccurrence of the back pain I’ve had off and on for years.  I just can’t afford any more medical bills.  Gah!

There was good news about going to the doctor.  It wasn’t far to Chinatown, so I went to Volcano Tea and picked up Boba Milk Tea and some Red Bean Shaved Ice.  I planned ahead and took an ice chest with ice-packs inside because the trip almost 15 miles back to the house, and I had a couple of other stops to make.  It was also 90+ degrees out.  Happily, the shaved ice made it home in good shape.

Okay, I have to finish ranting because we have haircuts at 12:45p, it’s 4:15am now.  Blech, too little sleep again, especially because we have to get up for the exterminator’s monthly visit.  We napped for a few hours after the Ottawa Senators/Buffalo Sabres game though, so perhaps that will help.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

terribly early in the morning

Happy 1st Surgery Anniversary to Me and My Surgeon

A year ago at this moment, I was sleeping.  The end.  Okay, I was sleeping, but fitfully.  My L4-5 microdiscectomy surgery was scheduled for 1p.  I think I had to be there by noon.  The night before, I was kind of freaked out, but once everything got rolling, I was fairly calm.  Since the surgery, I’ve had my pain ups & downs.  It took quite a long time for the nerves to heal.  My surgeon, Dr. Thalgott, said that when he got in there and saw them, they were angry and twisted.  Getting good shoes (my Earth Shoes) definitely helped the healing speed up, because for a while I was afraid that the surgery hadn’t fixed me.  My surgeon was sure, but I was still skeptical because I was always in lots of pain when I did any walking.  Now, I know for a fact that the surgery was a complete success.  I think Dr. Thalgott is a terrific doctor, even if he’s so popular that he has to cram too many patients into his office days.  The wait is always at least an hour, usually closer to two.  I go there knowing that I’m going to have to wait, so I’m always prepared with something to read.  I’m so happy that my chiropractor said, “Thalgott’s the back guy in town.” I couldn’t get an appointment to see him right away, so I saw the first surgeon that was available.  That doctor was okay, but I’m sure I made the right decision by waiting to see Dr. Thalgott.  I’m not exactly sure how to put it in writing, but he’s so confident and self-assured that you feel like if anyone can help you, he can.  He’s also really likeable, as are both of his physician’s assistants.  If I had to have surgery (and oh, I did - the pain insisted), I know that I put myself into the best possible hands that I could.

I have Fibromyalgia now and am in more all over pain than I was when I had the herniated disc.  But, it’s a different kind of pain, and I no longer have the horrible pain running down my left leg and across my left thigh.  That was the kind of pain that yells, “Hey, look at me!  Look what I can do!” The pain I have now is like an annoying gnat that keeps buzzing in your face.  I have times that it’s close to the level of pain that I had before, but it isn’t as concentrated.  Before it was like a paper cut, now it’s like someone beat me up.  Wow, isn’t this fun to read?  I’m trying to say that on the first anniversary of my surgery, I know my surgery was a fabulous success.  The problems I have now aren’t related.  Dr. Thalgott gave me back my ability to walk properly (I had developed a slight limp because of the weakness in my leg), and if I was a normal person, I would be completely healed.  So, if you’re in Las Vegas and you need back surgery, go see Dr. Thalgott...but bring your iPod and a book.  There’s also a Starbucks nearby, so if he’s really far behind, you can go there and have them call you on your cell phone when it’s time to come back.  They know he’s always behind.  There’s nothing the staff can do about it, so be nice to them.

Hopefully, if I had another MRI, they could all be labelled “normal disc” now.  Please, please, please, let them all stay healed.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

the wee hours

Medical Marijuana

Okay, I’ve done it.  I’ve sent away for my Medical Marijuana packet from the Nevada Department of Agriculture.  I’ve already discussed it with my doctor and he’s fine with me using it if I have my MM card.  I’ve explained that marijuana relieves certain pain that other medications don’t.  For instance, when my Carpal Tunnel gets really bad, I get a horrible aching in my upper arm.  Nothing has ever been able to get rid of it, other than marijuana.  Not Advil, not Hydrocodone, not Oxycodone, regardless of the dosage.  Marijuana is the only thing that has ever worked.  However, I want to do this completely legally.  My pain management doctor does drug testing, and I don’t want to be worrying about what’s in my system.  I’m tired of the expense (it’s the end of March and I’ve already exhausted my insurance prescription coverage) and the side effects of pharmaceuticals.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that they exist, and I would still need to have meds around (right now, you’d have to pry my Enablex from my cold dead hands), but pot doesn’t have ANY side effects, except for sleepiness.  None.  Not urinary retention, not constipation, not dry mouth (maybe bad breath), and with a vaporizer, it isn’t even hard on your lungs.  No one has ever died from using pot.  No one.  Water is more dangerous.  I agree that driving after smoking/ingesting pot is dangerous, as is driving after drinking.  I wouldn’t do either.  I’m perfectly happy to not break any laws or endanger any lives in my quest to be pain-free.

Thanks to the tip from Nancy regarding a new study showing that cannabis is less harmful than substances that are sold at your local 7-Eleven.  “Alcohol Worse Than Ecstasy, According To Proposed ‘Matrix Of Harm’ For Drugs” Science Daily — A new study published in the Lancet proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm that they do, rather than the sharp A, B, and C divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act.  The new ranking places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table. These socially accepted drugs were judged more harmful than cannabis, and substantially more dangerous than the Class A drugs LSD, 4-methylthioamphetamine and ecstasy.

(bolding mine)

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

terribly early in the morning

Idiot of the Day - Woman from my Doctor’s Office

This morning we got a message on the machine.  The woman was calling from my back surgeon’s office because the surgeon referred me to a urologist because the bladder issues don’t seem to be related to my herniated disc.  Or, at least they weren’t particularly helped by the surgery for it.  So, when I was there two weeks ago, he told me to go to the most renowned urologist in the city.  It’s a doctor I’ve seen before, but not in more than five years, and his office has moved since then.  Anyway, the woman from the doctor’s office was leaving a message for me to call her back with this doctor’s phone number.  Uh hello, they don’t have a phone book where they are?  Because that’s what I’m going to have to do to find his phone number.  It’s not like I have it tattooed on my inner forearm.  Not to mention, my doctor called him “Shelly”, and his full name is “Sheldon”, so I would imagine that they know each other.  If they know each other, wouldn’t it just be possible that his phone number was somewhere in their office???  I can’t even decide if it’s worth calling back.  Surely she’s smart enough to look the number up if I don’t call, right?  Right??? 

It was a special medical day of idiots.  Valley Hospital called me AGAIN about my bill.  I set up payment arrangements in AUGUST.  Since then, I’ve had a variety of phone calls and threatening letters regarding this bill.  When I set up the payment arrangements, my bill was at $960.01.  I immediately paid $160.01, and then they were supposed to debit my bank account $100 a month until the bill was paid.  The threatening letter I received came on the same day as a semi-threatening letter.  One letter said I owed $700, the other said I owed $600.  Any person with a half a brain in their head would figure out that a payment was made between those two letters, even though they came on the same day.  Today, I was told that I owed $500, and could I pay it today? I finally got tired of being nice.  I told them that I was sick of the calls and the letters, and that I set up payment arrangements in August for them to debit my bank account for $100/month.  If the payment wasn’t made today, it had NOTHING to do with ME.  They kept saying that they don’t normally make those arrangements.  I told them to check the damned account.  If payment arrangements hadn’t been made, how was the account being paid off that wacky sum of $100 at a time?  Geez.  ‘effin ridiculous.  So, Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, if you search for what people say about you, I want you to know this - your billing department SUCKS!  They are completely incompetent and if I get one more call or one more threatening letter, I’m going to refuse to pay any more of the bill.  In fact, I’m going to ask that you pay ME for the inconvenience of having to call you and tell your employees how to do their jobs.  The last woman I spoke to said that she’d take care of it, no problem, and that it wouldn’t happen again.  I asked if she was sure.  She said that she was.  Clearly, SHE WAS NOT.  I could tell that the woman today wanted to call me a liar, but considering that the bill was being paid off $100/month, just like I’d said, she had a little trouble doing so.  I’m sure my credit report is going to be a mess at the end of this whole sordid herniated disc situation, but it appears that I can’t do a thing about it, since no one ever believes me, even when I pay the damned bills.

I have a non-idiot-of-the-day comment about my back surgeon’s office.  I was getting a weird bill from them, which I wanted to take care of at my next appointment (which was two weeks ago), so I didn’t call them about it.  When I was paying for that visit, I asked them about the amount due.  The girl said that there wasn’t anything due, because if it was due, she’d have another piece of paper with my checkout stuff.  She asked what it was that I’d gotten in the mail, then she went back to check with the financial person.  She came back and said that it had been written off, because after my co-pays are gone, each time I have to pay them cash, the amount gets lowered.  So, she said to forget about that letter, I didn’t owe anything from my past visits.  And you know what, I haven’t gotten any threatening letters, nor have I gotten a single phone call.  In general, I love them.  Their office has been one of the most cooperative doctors’ offices I’ve been to in Las Vegas.  I’m happy with my surgery.  I was happy with my surgeon’s bill.  I’m happy with their office staff.  If I had any money right now, I’d send a gift to their office for being fabulous.  I might also send a specific person there a phone book though.