Since my last posting I have continued to rest, ice and elevate as many times a day I am able. Over the weekend I was gentle with myself making sure to take many breaks during the day. On Friday my “elasticated tubular bandages” arrived. These are a game changer! I wore them all day during the day over the weekend , what improvement in my swelling by the end of each day! Today I went to work (cleaned a house with a cleaning partner).
I worked for two hours on light duty, the swelling in my knees as well as my ankles isn’t as significant as it has been over the past 2 1/2 months. That makes me happy. Last week when I was seen at the pain clinic, I brought up the weaning off of one of the high powered pain meds specifically Oxcotin. He told me how he would go about it which included continuing to take one of the Oxcotin‘s and then the second one that I take was to be replaced with an oxycodone at a lower level and wean off that way a week at a time, 5 mg at a time. On Saturday when my prescription, which is sent electronically came up, my husband went to pick it up and there was only one prescription and that was the OxyContin. Today,
I called the Pain Clinic and spoke with the assistant to my Pain, let’s call him a guy since he’s not a doctor he’s a PA. The assistant told me that all of my prescriptions were filled and there was nothing up coming. I told her that I had a conversation with the PA and he had explain to me how to taper off. She said yes that’s in the notes. She then put me on hold and when she came back she asked if I had filled the prescription. I said of course I did because I was out of medication. She said I now have to wait another month in order to do the weaning process. She also slaked about my flexion. The problem is is that Oxcotin is it time Released medication so you can not to cut it in half. Oxycodone which is OxyContin but not in time release formula, you can’t cut in half which is why he was going to prescribe me both to wean off of one tablet at a time. I am taking the OxyContin every 12 hours. Along with my hydrocodone. I am a chronic pain patient due to severe lower back pain. My frustration is, here I am wanting to do what’s best and the PA didn’t follow through on his end. Had it been the other way around I would be up a creek without a paddle. Six weeks ago I was in that position because I had taken several more of my hydrocodone due to a higher level of pain and was told too bad, deal with that,
you don’t get a refill until it’s time. That was of course told to me by the PAs assistant. No offer of an appointment or anything. I called back immediately and made an appointment and showed up in the next day. Thankfully, we got things straight away as far as how I was doing with my pain meds at that time and what to do. Now I’m dealing with this. The other ridiculous,
asinine thing that happened was he (the PA) has me on gabapentin because I have been experiencing nerve pain and since day 4 postop. He titrated me up 100 mg of gabapentin,
three times a day, then landed me at a 300 mg a day once a day. When I told him at my appointment last week that I needed a refill of gabapentin he said no you should have plenty of refills left and I told him I did not and he asked how often I was taking it and I told him once a day and he said you should be taking it three times a day well of course he had only prescribed 30 pills over a month. That means one pill a day. I pointed out to him that the prescription says to take one pill,
Once a day. I told him I always go by what is on the prescription bottle, Per my pain contract. He told me we had discussed that and I was supposed to take one pill three times a day. I said it did not state that on the prescription and he proceeded to tell me there wasn’t enough room on the prescription bottle to state that. Regardless, the prescription bottle said take one pill once a day and there are only 30 pills in the prescription bottle so there would’ve been no way for me to take three of them it would’ve only lasted 10 days . I do wish there was a different way to go about my pain management, but unfortunately I am stuck where I’m at. I do the best that I can and feel like I am being short changed and treated like I’m an idiot. Even in the worst throws of pain I am still able to comprehend directions given to me whether it be a doctor, a PA, or some other professional or anyone for that matter. Sorry for the long post there are very few people in my world that understand what I’m going through, I am thankful you each understand.