I'm a little over a month out of surgery now. This week has probably been the roughest since I got out of the hospital. I can't seem to figure out how to manage the bowel issues that come with being on narcotics. I've tried laxatives/softeners (of various sorts and in various combinations). I've tried adding in more fiber on top of those. The only thing that works at all realistically is an enema, though a suppository has worked on a couple of occasions, but usually left me manually helping it along (ack). My primary gave me a script for Miralax today. We'll see how that goes.
I've also had a lot more pain this week. I guess just another point in the healing process. I had moved out to the more usual 6mg dilaudid every 4 hours instead of every 3 hours and was just miserable. I was seen at the pain clinic in SF this week, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through before they'll change anything, so I am waiting to get seen by one of their psychologists...so last night I switched back to every 3 hours and feel somewhat human today, other than the sleepus interuptus of taking medication every 3 hours. The other pain addition of this week is the onset of bursitis. Mainly in my hips, from not having used them for so long (about 10 years) and suddenly being using them in a somewhat normal manner.
It is interesting that my inability to walk was due to the cranial settling, not the MS. I swear, it is so bizarre, but I can walk like there was nothing ever wrong...other than on the endurance front of course. I would say that post surgery I am probably rid of about half of my symptoms. Not that it isn't leaving me with plenty of health crap to deal with, but it brings it back into a managable range, instead of a staring at the giant abyss of health falling apart. It is being terribly difficult to adjust to the non-movable neck though. It moves JUST enough to make me wonder if I'm doing something bad to it...which is a couple of degrees.
I HAVE to deal with the glasses this week though. Since I can't move my head I need to learn to use my peripheral vision and I have tiny little glasses that leave all of that in the fuzzy fuzzy land. Oh oh...and I am no 5'2" tall!!! That is almost 2 inches taller than I was before surgery! I guess my cranium had settled A LONG ways!
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Invasive Traction
Kriss & Eliot's blog following along on the twists and turns of my experiences in medland.
Monkey Hanger
Invasive Traction
3 comments:
I was nearly 2inches taller after my surgery too! yeah!
Sorry to hear about the bowel trouble though. There is light at the end of the tunnel (oh dear, bad analogy!), this will get better. I couldn't go for 6 weeks after my surgery on my lower spine. I was taking so much laxative, fiber, prune juice, senna, etc. Eventually, especially after stopping the morphine, this got better. Senna is a good thing to try and you may want to ask your regular doctor about maybe prescribing Mirylax/Glycolax it really helped for me. Also, try different things like drinking coffee, apple cider, etc.
Best of luck!
Wow, honey, ten years of not walking!
I wonder how many people with fibromyalgia are actually chiari sufferers?
There are some studies going on. The suspicion is that there are high percentages of people with CFS, MS and Fibromyalgia that might actually have Chiari Malformations. It will be interesting to see the results.
Yeah, I really have been in the chair a long time. It is weird to walk around it in the house. I'm still having to use it when I go out at all cuz I have no endurance after not walking for so long, I'm looking forward to physical therapy and getting solidly on my feet.
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