No More Pink Cloud

Haven't sent any news recently because I've been too depressed. On Sunday the 11th all was wonderful. I walked by myself to the Natural Foods Grocery Store a few blocks from my house. Took the walker so I could rest the groceries on the seat instead of carrying them, but felt that I could have done the walking fine without it.

On Tuesday the 13th (exactly 2 weeks from the surgery) severe pain in my hip and down my right leg appeared. It seemed similar to the pain I had before surgery, the pain that surgery was supposed to do away with. It's probably from the sciatic nerve. I tried to walk the dogs with a friend; she took Creusa and I took Achates. The dogs had returned on Monday and were still quite exhausted from their running and playing at camp. But I had to cut the walk short and stopped every few yards to try to ease the pain.

Called the surgeon's nurse. She said take more drugs. I tried Motrin; no relief. I tried, at her suggestion, alternating Motin and double-dose Vicodin; no relief. I doubled the Vicodin by itself; no relief. The pain was even worse than before surgery. Before, the pain would go away, or at least go to a manageable level, if I lay down or sat sideways on the couch with my legs up. But now no position helps. Obviously I have not been sleeping well. On Monday the 19th I had to abort another attempt at a walk after a couple of blocks. Finally gave up on both drugs and took my last Vicodin Sunday night. I don't see any difference.

My fear, of course, is that the surgery failed. Called the nurse yesterday and asked to speak to the surgeon. He's out of town for the week, and she said he had no time to talk to me when he got back. [This is the same nurse who has refused to give me a follow-up appointment. I'm supposed to see the surgeon in 6 weeks from surgery. She said she had no openings until April (9-10 weeks) and that the books for April weren't open. I argued in vain on more than one occasion.] Finally after much arguing (her solution: more and/or different drugs) she gave me an appointment to see the Physician's Assistant who had done the rounds at the hospital and had signed my discharge paper. I've just returned from seeing her. I feel a little better in my mind. She said that the pain "could be" from the surgery itself, that it takes a long time for the nerves to settle down. Even more importantly, she said she'd ask the surgeon to call me next week and also to see what he could do about getting me an appointment in a timely fashion.

The nurse and the PA have very different ideas about what I should do. Nurse says do nothing and take drugs. PA says do whatever I want. She says if I want to try different drugs I should go to my regular doctor because she can monitor them better. The main drug the PA says they would recommend is Gabapentin (Neurtontin). I actually have almost 300 of them that my regular doctor prescribed last June when the pain was so bad. Unfortunately, they made me dizzy and nauseous and didn't seem to help the pain at all so I only took 3 of them. I really don't want to take them again. So I may try to tough it out until I hear from the surgeon. Or I may try to talk to my regular doctor, which is not all that easy.

The best thing about not taking the drugs is that I can drive as long as the pain doesn't interfere. Tomorrow I may at least try to start the car for the first time in over three weeks. I don't think I'm ready to take the dogs to the park yet since walking is so hard. They'll just have to get fat and lazy. If I still can't walk next week I may ask Jon to take the hounds back to camp for another stint.

In the meantime my television gave out last Thursday night and the battery on the handset of my cordless phone died today. What else will go wrong?

Ah, the next thing to go wrong is that I just took 10 minutes out to call my regular doctor. It's a challenge with a rotary phone. She's not in the clinic all week. Guess I'm destined to be drug-free. I've been very weepy the last couple of days. Don't know if that's a result of stopping the Vicodin or the result of the pain and worry or just my normal reaction to total frustration. The pain does seem to diminish, although not disappear, if I do nothing for many hours. There's no hope for any relief tonight but maybe if I take it very easy tomorrow the pain will be less awful by the afternoon.

Wow, I did go on, didn't I? Sorry. I'm using this as a sort of diary. Thanks to all of you who are continuing to email and call and help. (If anyone calls tonight, I probably won't answer. Too hard to get from couch to rotary phone in study. The new battery for the cordless phone has to charge for ten hours.)

Much love from Janet, Achates and Creusa


P.S. Forgot one piece of good news. Went to Richmond Kaiser last Thursday (courtesy of one of my many wonderful chauffeurs) and had the stitiches taken out. The itching the first two weeks was horrible. I'm allergic to almost anything on my skin. The Tegaderm and the Steri-strips just about did me in. PA checked the incision today and said it looks good. I can go back to water aerobics if I can tolerate the movement. Probably shall wait until I hear from the surgeon. I hope he'll call early in the week but am sure he'll be terribly backlogged.