Showing posts with label side effects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label side effects. Show all posts

Monday, February 22, 2010

Log #11 (Discomfort)

****Layout changes coming that will improve the look of the blog and make it easier and more entertaining to read so please bare with me****


My doctor appointment with my Primary Care Doctor is tomorrow instead of today so nothing to report there.
I guess the thing I'll write about today is blunt and maybe even gross to some, but it's part of the ordeal and should be addressed. To be sure, it's very embarrassing.

One of the many side effects of pain medication is constipation. Many doctors will suggest that you take laxatives to help, but it doesn't help much. Eating a lot of fiber can make things a little better, but it doesn't alleviate the problem. There are supplements like Activa yogurt that help as well, but the fact remains that the constipation is a real problem associated with most pain medications.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Daily Log #9 (Public Perception)

After having a very rough night, probably one of the worst since the first week after surgery, I got up to do some research on the Internet to see if I could discover why I was feeling so bad. At one point last night my back was shooting an electrical force down my legs and at one point both legs lifted--involuntarily--about three inches off the bed and shuck violently for about three or four seconds. It was horrible! Scared the crap out of me that's for sure! I'm supposed to have control over my body and that really sucked.

While laying on the couch trying to sleep--I always go there so my wife can stay in bed and get a good nights sleep--I made the connection of my recent problems with my increased dosage of requip. There are a few things going on that led to the dosage increase. First of all, I take 20mg of Oxycontin 3x/day, but because I want to sleep better I thought I would try taking two Oxycontin tablets before bed instead of one and then I'd only take one tablet during the day. Sounded logical to me. The Oxycontin causes me to have some very slight muscle twitching that doesn't happen too often so I didn't think anything of taking the two tablets at night. I've been taking them that way for about two weeks and for some reason I never associated my twitching with the Oxycontin. Well, this last Tuesday night the pain and twitching in my legs was pretty bad and I thought it was because of my Restless Leg Syndrome so I took two 2mg tablets of requip instead of my normal one tablet. A little while later I started feeling okay and tried to go back to sleep.

 
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