Randy didn't have any therapies today. He did go on a walk with him mom and worked on his eye exercises. Even though the doctor at Harborview didn't think the eye exercises would do any good, if they don't hurt Randy then we figure, on the chance that the one doctor is wrong in their opinion, it wouldn't hurt to continue doing the exercises.
Randy also worked on his sunflowers. He had planted them shortly before the accident. They are now tall enough that you have to get on a ladder to reach the tops of them. They got so heavy that they toppled over, so he and his mom propped them up with bamboo poles and pieces of wood.
We also went to the second of three seminars for chronic pain. Tonights topic was the very controversial topic of narcotics. This chronic pain clinic does use narcotics to help some people live with their pain. The doctor said that over 50% of their patients use narcotics, but they also work with people that don't want to use them.
We aren't ready to go down this road by any means. We just started taking the new medication and have every intention of giving it plenty of time to work. My hopes and prayers are that the Amitriptyline works for Randy's pain. Our intentions in going to the seminar is to be informed in case other things don't work. We want to know what other options are out there.
In this pain clinic, they only use narcotics that are long-lasting and that can be taken by mouth and that don't provide a euphoric feeling, so they use Methadone and long-lasting morphine. Both of these drugs are rather scary to me. I know there are a lot of people who use them to make their lives livable through the pain, but that isn't the stories that you hear of them. The stories commonly heard are the ones of addiction. The doctor tonight did bring up that issue. He said that dependance happen to everyone, but addiction is rare. His definition of addiction is behavior issues (i.e. willing to sell your worldly belongings to get more). He said the medications are given in a controlled environment and given only to make the road of getting better less bumpy and working towards putting pain in the background instead of having it in the foreground.
It sounds nice, but not a road I want to go down anytime soon.
I think that is it for updates tonight.
1 comment:
Hi Darcee,
I really appreciate you sharing your experience with me. I have come across some people that say they couldn’t function normally without those medications because of the amount of pain they are in and, of course, there are those whose lives have been destroyed by it. The problem is that you don’t know how it will affect you until after you have already tried it. It is something that has been on my mind a lot the last few days. Thankfully it isn’t a decision I have to make right now, but if I did, I don’t think it is a risk that I am willing to take.
I haven’t experienced having to live with chronic pain, but I know that it really does affect the quality of life for the person living with it. But I think there are so many medications out there right now, there has to be one that will work for Randy without having to deal with the addiction factor.
I cannot agree with that doctor’s definition of “addiction”. I have known people who might wouldn’t have been willing to sell anything and everything to get the substance, but yet couldn’t stop using the substance they were addicted even though they knew it had negative affects on their life.
I want to believe that the medication Randy is taking right now is going to be sufficient in moving his pain from the foreground to the background (putting it on a livable level). I think it will just be a matter of finding the right dosage. My sister has been using this medication for many years and she said she has been told the therapeutic dosage is above 150 mgs and Randy is only taking 50 mgs right now. My plan right now is to gradually increase the dosage until we find the one that works.
Again, thank you so much for sharing the information.
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