Tag Archives: medications

What’s Eating Aunt Debbie?

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Well, let me tell you. PAIN.

Last week, I called in my prescription medications. I was waiting for my NP to approve one script that had no more refills and then I was going to call Walmart and have them ship my meds as I normally do.

Stupid me didn’t realize I was nearly out of my pain medication! That was late Friday. I started to panic because we were expecting snow on Saturday. I couldn’t go out and pick up my meds in person because I didn’t know how much snow we would actually get. I called Walmart yesterday to have them ship; they will go out today.

I had 2 pain pills left, one to be taken every 12 hours. So, I’ve had to ration. I took one Saturday night and my pain level wasn’t too bad. I saved my last one for tonight. I only took Tylenol Arthritis last night and my pain level is UP. With any luck, FedEx will come tomorrow! Usually, they’re pretty quick.

Then, I began to panic again because my daughter mentioned MLK Day and wondered if FedEx would even run today! I googled it and apparently, FedEx and UPS both will run, while the USPS observes the holiday.

The sun is out, trying to melt the snow and the road looks pretty good, but I’d probably get stuck in the yard if I tried to get the car out. (We don’t have a traditional driveway.) It’s 44 degrees at the moment but it seems much colder when there’s snow on the ground.

Wish me luck. I can’t function well with no pain meds to dull the pain.

P.S. Don’t think that I am an addict because I am not. There’s a difference between addiction and dependency. I am dependent on pain meds to be able to function. There is no euphoria involved. I have to make that clarification because “a friend” had accused me of being a drug addict some time ago. That person is no longer in my circle.

The Withdrawal, Oops.

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I’ve had some sleep problems this past couple of months. It became evident to me just 2 days ago (because apparently, I’m a bit slow) that my sleeplessness was a result of medication withdrawal. I had been taking a medication for nerve pain twice a day and decided that I would go off of it because I really didn’t think it was helping much. I didn’t just stop cold turkey. I knew to reduce slowly. I Started taking it once a day instead of twice and did that for about 2 months. Had some restlessness at night. Had a bit of itchiness. It never occurred to me that it was the medication, or rather the lack of…

Then Tuesday night before bed, I was lazy and didn’t take one at all. I figured what the heck. It’s just one night and I want to stop taking it anyway.

That night I was awake all night. I itched all night long. I felt like I had bugs. I never fell asleep at all! I was up at 5am. At this point, I had been awake since Monday morning. I tried to take a nap. Nothing happened. I was tired and I needed to sleep but something was preventing me from sleeping.

Late Wednesday night, before bed, I remembered I hadn’t taken that medication Tuesday night. I looked up the symptoms of withdrawal. Bingo. Duh me.

Sleep disturbances and frantic itching. (Among other very serious symptoms, so I was lucky.)

I made sure to take the medication when I went to bed Wednesday night. I slept well, with no itching. I took it again in the morning. Back to twice a day now, and I think I’ll stay ON the medication because my pain level has improved a bit already. I guess it WAS helping after all.

Slept like a baby last night….without the bedwetting, of course!

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Wings, Crunch!

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Yesterday, Dad and I headed out to the nearest Walgreen’s, which isn’t very near I might add. He needed a refill on his antibiotic ointment and he had a new script for an oral antibiotic – both for the cellulitis on his lower left leg. I had been telling him for weeks, if not months, to go to the doctor and have that rash looked at. It started as what looked like a bug bite and then developed into a round rash, the size of a silver dollar. It just kept growing and growing, until it was covering nearly his entire lower leg. He just wouldn’t go to the doctor. He kept telling me, “I have an appointment in October.” Um. Ok. So what? When I took him for his Lifeline screening last week they told him he needs to have that looked at because it might be infected….so then he decided it was a good idea to go to the doctor! Geez. Anyway, I digress.

At Walgreen’s, we dropped off the new script and the old, to have them filled. We then went on to have lunch. We decided on Buffalo Wild Wings because it was half-price Tuesday! We each ordered a small wing basket (10 wings each) with a side of fries. We couldn’t eat them all; I only ate 3 of mine and the fries. I think Dad ate 4 and some fries. We always end up taking some home, which is great because then I don’t have to worry about making anything for dinner. I think anyone would agree that that’s always a good deal! We asked the server for a couple of boxes to take our food home in and then we were on our way, back to Walgreen’s to pick up Dad’s meds.

On the way out to the parking lot, Dad dropped one of the boxes. Ugh! It just happened to be mine. The box popped open and a few of my wings hit the asphalt! OMG. Dad scooped them up and put them back in the box, getting wing sauce all over his hands. Good grief. Good thing I grabbed a few wet wipes off the table! But OMG, my wings! He felt bad and said I could have his but I didn’t want him to feel bad or for him to not have any wings for later. I told him not to worry about it because I could rinse them off. After all, I have hot sauce at home that I can coat them with after I rinse them off. Ugh. My wings!! (Maybe with extra crunch!)

At Walgreen’s the lady informed us that Dad’s insurance won’t cover the cream until the following day. He was already out of the cream. The oral antibiotic couldn’t be filled until the day after next. So, this was a wasted trip and we have to go back on Friday to pick them up. Bureaucratic bull squirt is all it is.

On the way home, we stopped to get gas. The screen on the gas pump said, “Thank you for shopping with us…..” on the first screen and then the next screen said, “…today.” We had to chuckle about it because of course, it’s today! Why even say, “today?” It would never say, “Thank you for shopping with us last Thursday” or “Thank you for shopping with us tomorrow.” Of course, it’s today!

I find humor in the dumbest things!

Oh, and I rinsed my wings off pretty good, coated them in my own hot sauce, heated them and you would have never known they had been dropped on the asphalt! Ha!