Yesterday and today have been just beautiful. Classic late spring/early summer days. I have not had a chance to get out much, as I am quite sore from the spinal tap. It has left me with an ache in my lower back that I am treating gingerly. One of my favorite nurses tells me that I should spend the time lying down, and mostly I am taking her advice, but I can not draft lying down, so I keep sitting up to do a little bit of design on a couple of small projects that have taken my interest. I did sleep something like 16 hours yesterday, so I figure that is in keeping with the spirit of her instructions.
One of the things that came out of the meeting with Dr. Meehan last week was that he increased the rate that I am tapering my prednisone and cell-cept. At this rate, I will be off both drugs by the 12th. That is a huge reduction in the number of pills that I have to take every day. I started off with 10 cell-cept pills a day - 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening. Now I am down to 3 total. Such is the excitement in my life.
My headache and nausea seem to be gone. Yesterday, I had to be careful with the headache, any quick movement of my head would create the feeling that a full-blown headache was imminent, but it never quite got to that. I was sent home with some dilaudid, which is a serious pain killer - much stronger than morphine. I took one of those tablets yesterday, and then felt that I could switch to oxycodone, which is much more mild.
It still stuns me that these drugs have street value. They are horrible drugs. Who takes these for fun? I just can not imagine. Perhaps people that are in serious pain, but without insurance? I have no idea.
Today, I am planning on mostly resting, lying down. Becky, who had a spinal tap last month said that it took a few days before the ache to go away. The pain is not serious, but the location makes it feel more critical than a bone-marrow biopsy. I have had lower back pain before, and my cure for it has always to be good about my stretching, but I don't think that is the right strategy in this case.
Tomorrow, I have a meeting with Dr. Benton. It would be Dr. Connelly, but she is on vacation this week. It is just the usual blood draws, and I am also going to get some IGG, which is an antibody booster. I have had it a number of times, and I tend to have no problem with it. Afterwards, I am getting together with one of my favorite nurses from Midcoast to have lunch at the local indian place. The last time she saw me, I was looking pretty wan, and frankly, my odds were not good at that time. So I think that she will be pleased to see that I am looking hale and hearty.
One of the few good things to have come out of this past year are the number of really wonderful people that I have met. Mostly nurses, as they spent the most time with me, but there are a number of doctors as well that I am quite fond of. I figure that over the past year I have interacted with well over 200 nurses and 80 doctors. I had a hard time keeping track of everyone for a while. Especially at Dartmouth Hitchcock, where you almost never see just an individual doctor, but an entire team of 3 to 6 doctors that rotate out every 2 weeks. It got confusing, what with that many people, my prosopagnosia, and the fact that I was drugged out of my gourd.
Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this gorgeous day.
Leif
One of the things that came out of the meeting with Dr. Meehan last week was that he increased the rate that I am tapering my prednisone and cell-cept. At this rate, I will be off both drugs by the 12th. That is a huge reduction in the number of pills that I have to take every day. I started off with 10 cell-cept pills a day - 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening. Now I am down to 3 total. Such is the excitement in my life.
My headache and nausea seem to be gone. Yesterday, I had to be careful with the headache, any quick movement of my head would create the feeling that a full-blown headache was imminent, but it never quite got to that. I was sent home with some dilaudid, which is a serious pain killer - much stronger than morphine. I took one of those tablets yesterday, and then felt that I could switch to oxycodone, which is much more mild.
It still stuns me that these drugs have street value. They are horrible drugs. Who takes these for fun? I just can not imagine. Perhaps people that are in serious pain, but without insurance? I have no idea.
Today, I am planning on mostly resting, lying down. Becky, who had a spinal tap last month said that it took a few days before the ache to go away. The pain is not serious, but the location makes it feel more critical than a bone-marrow biopsy. I have had lower back pain before, and my cure for it has always to be good about my stretching, but I don't think that is the right strategy in this case.
Tomorrow, I have a meeting with Dr. Benton. It would be Dr. Connelly, but she is on vacation this week. It is just the usual blood draws, and I am also going to get some IGG, which is an antibody booster. I have had it a number of times, and I tend to have no problem with it. Afterwards, I am getting together with one of my favorite nurses from Midcoast to have lunch at the local indian place. The last time she saw me, I was looking pretty wan, and frankly, my odds were not good at that time. So I think that she will be pleased to see that I am looking hale and hearty.
One of the few good things to have come out of this past year are the number of really wonderful people that I have met. Mostly nurses, as they spent the most time with me, but there are a number of doctors as well that I am quite fond of. I figure that over the past year I have interacted with well over 200 nurses and 80 doctors. I had a hard time keeping track of everyone for a while. Especially at Dartmouth Hitchcock, where you almost never see just an individual doctor, but an entire team of 3 to 6 doctors that rotate out every 2 weeks. It got confusing, what with that many people, my prosopagnosia, and the fact that I was drugged out of my gourd.
Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this gorgeous day.
Leif
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