Art On Post Card By @llunasoul
Discomforts
I've been having some discomforts in my hips, leg, and arm for a while and sometimes it's so bad that I can't walk, sit or lay down properly no matter how I try. I also have these tingling sensations as well as numbness. These pains usually started to appear when I forgot to take my blood pressure meds due to being too busy and then realizing it when the pains started to appear. Remember that I went to the doctor for carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms before my blood pressure issue came to light? The docs here are glad to just prescribe something without checking the cause further unless you motivate them to do so. So that's exactly what happened and with the pains appearing after forgetting the meds sometimes, 1+1 was 2 for me and I started to think the blood pressure was causing pressure on a nerve.
Lots of pain
On the weekend, pains started to appear more and more and I could not find any comfortable position anymore. I felt wrecked and started to have headaches on the same side of my body making me scared again that I was about to have something bad. I didn't feel comfortable in bed falling asleep as all sorts of scary things went through my head. I decided to see the doctor the next day and tell her that just giving me this blood pressure medication is not enough I want to be examined to find out that there was (hopefully) nothing bad coming my way without any further treatment. Sometimes blood thinners are needed, and we all know sometimes one type of blood pressure medication isn't working well for one person, while the other person benefits from this same medication.
To the doctor
I made sure to come to the doctor prepared because I know her English is limited and with these types of visits I want to make sure everything is understood. I translated my document into Spanish and handed it to her. She told me to lie down and started to move around my legs as well as check if there was any pain when pressure was applied etc. I went through the roof a few times so she checked my back and then I felt where it was coming from, she applied pressure exactly from where the pain started. Until that moment, it felt more like it was coming from my hip area but then again, I'm not a doctor. She said it was probably sciatica coming from my lower back and that I need an MRI to check it but that only a traumatologist can give the referral so she made a document for me to take to the traumatologist.
Pain meds
I remember last year when I tried to get an appointment there for the driver's license health check they had months of waiting times so I asked her can you give me something for the pain now? I was anxious for the night without any pain meds but thankfully she wrote me a prescription. She said it was a medication with tramadol combined with another medication and that I could feel nauseous from it and sleepy. I asked her if I could drive, and she said no, better not. Months after my first was born, I had tramadol in a dose of just 25 mg and I remember being all spacey from it for a week. This time she prescribed me 75mg of tramadol combined with the other medication twice a day.
Slept like a baby
In the evening we went for a long walk as that usually helps and the humidity was low that day so I took advantage of it. We found a place to sit for a tapa with the best chairs, for days I had not been able to sit without pain, and that really helped for a bit. When home, I took the tablet and felt it started to work within 30 minutes so I went to bed and gave in to the sleepiness. I slept like a baby and woke up without pain!
I may have made the small mistake here of taking the morning tablet a bit early as I didn't take the first one before 11 PM that evening and in the morning I took my dose at 8.30. Maybe it was this or the combination of the heavy dose but I felt woozy all day.
Too heavy to deal with
I instantly remembered how I felt after the c-sections when I was given morphine. The 12 hours I didn't realize I was falling asleep because of the morphine hitting me as they gave shots every few hours. When I realized that made me fall asleep constantly, I asked them to skip it and give me half only and then stop it as I could handle the pain without it. I started walking instead, which made the nurses laugh because normally 1 day after a c-section most are still bound to bed while I was doing everything myself, lol. But this memory made me think back about how heavy these meds are as tramadol is related to morphine so the speak.
Lack of focus, representing my sight yesterday.
Walking!
I was getting super dizzy and could not fight to open my eyes anymore, I read the peak was around 2/3 hours after taking the meds so I assumed one or two hours later it would slowly become better to deal with but nothing of that happened. I stayed in this state until 8 PM, and when I finally came to my senses, I wanted to get out and not be inside, and most definitely not take another tablet instantly. We went to the beach to walk on the boulevard and I waited with the new dose until we got home as I wanted to switch the timing so I can be productive the first few hours in the morning in case I go to La-la-land again.
Pain slowly coming back
As I found the full tablet way too heavy, I decided to try it one day with half the dose as they have a good break line on the tablet, and if not enough for the pain to be manageable, I will take the full tablet again. It worked for the night, I slept very well but woke up with a bit of discomfort, nothing I could not handle though, just the pressure being there, at first. The pain was slowly building in the next hour after waking up. So I may have to move the timing to 9 AM/9 PM instead of 10 to not get to the point of feeling the pain again.
At least I got some stuff done before 10 AM before it was time for a new dose and now let's see how I can manage through the day. The doc said I was allowed to take paracetamol in the afternoon, which I did not need yesterday. I hope I can manage with half the tablets. And if not, I have to deal with being more sedated than I would prefer for the next week at least until my appointment with the traumatologist.
I found some really good exercises specifically for this type of pain, I'm hoping until the tablet works, they bring some relief.
I'm off to la-la-land now.. see you!
Do you like the header image I used? It's a postcard with art I bought from @llunasoul, she sells more of these if you're interested in her art, please reach out to her. I personally love all of the cards, but she also paints and is one heck of a ritual tattoo artist.
