NYLiz
member
Thank you everyone for the well wishes and I'm sorry I haven't updated in a few days, it was too hard to update with the Blackberry. Instead, Christine NY has been wonderful e-mailing me directly and checking in on me and providing encouragement all along, which I am so grateful for. Now that I can sit at a computer for a short period, I wanted to update all of you about the past couple of days.
I was released on Saturday, but not before the drama of what pain meds I was going to be sent home with. When I was in the hospital, the pain was being controlled with a combo of Dilauded and Oxycodone and whenever they tried to stop one or the other, the pain became unbearable. I was very insistent that the Oxycodone alone was not going to be enough and that it wasn't just the pain from surgery, but lower back pain that was an issue as well (lower back pain was the worst trying to get to sleep at night). I explained I was on Meloxicam since last Oct, not just for the hip, but for my lower back (arthritis and 4 bulging discs), and I can't go back on that for 6 weeks. The house doctor left, came back, and said they will also give me Oxycontin to take every 12 hours, in addition to the Oxycodone (1 -2 tabs every 4 hours) and Tylenol every 6 hours. One other thing, my iron level was still low, but my surgeon made the decision not to give me blood, he feels my levels will come back up, so I'll be taking Iron and Folic Acid for a while.
Ride home in the car was not fun. Didn't realize the seat belt was hitting the incision, so I made my dad pull over so we could re-adjust the seat belt and how I was sitting. The first night was not too bad, but yesterday, while it started off ok, it went downhill in the afternoon. Pain got out of control, which I can only blame myself for since I did not stay on top of taking the pain meds. I have so many different pills to take, so I created a spreadsheet with the times I need to take each medicine, went over it with my sister and told her that during the day, I don't care if I'm napping, if I'm due for the Oxycodone or Tylenol, wake me up and make me take it. Hopefully, by staying on schedule, the pain will remain under control and there will be a lot less tears.
Home health nurse and PT are scheduled to come today, so I'll post later after their visits and let you know how that went.
Leg is starting to ache, so it's time to get off this chair, move around some and then go elevate and ice, ice, ice....
Liz
I was released on Saturday, but not before the drama of what pain meds I was going to be sent home with. When I was in the hospital, the pain was being controlled with a combo of Dilauded and Oxycodone and whenever they tried to stop one or the other, the pain became unbearable. I was very insistent that the Oxycodone alone was not going to be enough and that it wasn't just the pain from surgery, but lower back pain that was an issue as well (lower back pain was the worst trying to get to sleep at night). I explained I was on Meloxicam since last Oct, not just for the hip, but for my lower back (arthritis and 4 bulging discs), and I can't go back on that for 6 weeks. The house doctor left, came back, and said they will also give me Oxycontin to take every 12 hours, in addition to the Oxycodone (1 -2 tabs every 4 hours) and Tylenol every 6 hours. One other thing, my iron level was still low, but my surgeon made the decision not to give me blood, he feels my levels will come back up, so I'll be taking Iron and Folic Acid for a while.
Ride home in the car was not fun. Didn't realize the seat belt was hitting the incision, so I made my dad pull over so we could re-adjust the seat belt and how I was sitting. The first night was not too bad, but yesterday, while it started off ok, it went downhill in the afternoon. Pain got out of control, which I can only blame myself for since I did not stay on top of taking the pain meds. I have so many different pills to take, so I created a spreadsheet with the times I need to take each medicine, went over it with my sister and told her that during the day, I don't care if I'm napping, if I'm due for the Oxycodone or Tylenol, wake me up and make me take it. Hopefully, by staying on schedule, the pain will remain under control and there will be a lot less tears.
Home health nurse and PT are scheduled to come today, so I'll post later after their visits and let you know how that went.
Leg is starting to ache, so it's time to get off this chair, move around some and then go elevate and ice, ice, ice....
Liz