Who says drugs are bad?
So yesterday I was lying in pain at the ER, praying that one of the many drugs they pushed through my IV would help. I was given enough to knock any normal human being out for hours, maybe even days. But my body, for whatever reason, just doesn't react the same way to drugs as others' do. For instance, I was first given Toradol and Zofran via IV injection. It made me a little woozy and a little loopy but didn't knock me out. And it only dulled the pain from the migraine from an 8 to a 6.
After giving it time to do its job and finding that it wasn't, the doctor then ordered morphine. In the dosage I received should have put me into at least a slumberous state. But all it did was make me feel a little light headed, after the crushing sensation it gave me as it was pumped through my body.
Man I hate that crushing thing too. I remember it from one of my ER visits during the whole gallbladder nightmare. It seems to take about 2 minutes after the nurse pushes it into the IV tube before it actually hits the blood stream in full effect and when it does it feels like an elephant just sat down on my chest. That bizarre sensation only lasts a few seconds but it's certainly unpleasant. Then I get a little looped and start talking A LOT.
The hubby kept asking me if I was getting sleepy yet... I think he was tired of talking.
The morphine, while making my body feel much lighter than usual after the initial crushing effect, didn't really do much of anything else. My pain registered at a 5.5... not much of a decrease from the 6 which resulted from the first round of medicines.
After a couple hours the doctor came back and asked how I felt. I still couldn't tolerate the lights on, the pain was lessened but not enough to be tolerable. She called for another dose of morphine. And after being crushed by that invisible elephant again I started to feel a little more drowsy but still just felt the need to gab. Talking in silly metaphors mostly... but even when I felt silent and closed my eyes I couldn't sleep. Mostly because the morphine was causing some kind of psychedelic light show in my optic nerve centers.
Open or closed I was seeing these crazy swirling and flashing of lights around my peripheral vision that nearly made me sick. It was insane. I thought "if I open my eyes it will stop" but it just got worse. So I would close my eyes again and watch the display trying not to get dizzy from it. Eventually it slowed down and stopped being present while my eyes were open. It was around this point that they took me out for a CT scan of my head.
After the test another hour or so passed and my head was still hurting but in fewer places. My face wasn't feeling like a tiger was trying to get out any more and my eyes were becoming less photo phobic. The flashing lights had stopped in my eyes. But I still hadn't rested.
The doctor came in once more to see me, told me that the CT showed signs of a case of acute sinusitis and ordered me one last cocktail in hopes that the pain would go away enough that she felt good to send me home.
The nurse came in and injected Benadryl and Reglan together into my IV line. (after just having done some quick online research into this- because after looking up Reglan and learning it was a drug used to relieve symptoms caused by slow stomach emptying in people who have diabetes - I thought it an odd combination until I found some message boards where people with chronic migraines have claimed this is a wonderful combination to relieve their pain and manage their symptoms).
Having that in my system made me ever more groggy but still not actually sleepy. I shut up, no more talking, mainly because I felt like my mouth and my brain were no longer working together. So I laid in the bed, eyes closed listening to the hubby play on his cell phone, the nurses and other workers hustle and bustle about outside my room, and my own heart beating which seemed insanely louder than normal.
But this last mixture of medicines seemed to do the trick. After what seemed like hours but was probably only 45 minutes to an hour I was given the all clear to go home. Discharged before 5 pm and looped all to hell. The nurses at the station outside my room asked me how I was feeling and all I could muster was a thumbs up.
My husband walked me out to the ER lobby, had me sit and wait for him to bring the car around. There was no way I was doing much walking. I was wasted. We did manage to make a trip to the drug store to fill my two prescriptions, one a pain medicine should my headache return and the other an antibiotic for the sinus infection I didn't even know I had. I know I also bought coffee and jalapeno cheddar cheese dip because they were in the house when some of the fog lifted later last night.
The sinus infection is probably one of the most surprising parts of this whole fiasco. I typically know when I have a sinus infection. But I didn't even have any signs or symptoms of having one at all. My nose always runs, allergies see to that, and it hadn't been running any more than usual. I didn't have any congestion or increased post nasal drip or anything out of the ordinary. Just that damn headache and a boomerang fever for a few days. The doctor said the fever was a clear indicator that I had some sort of infection, even a low grade fever like I'd been having off and on for a few days.
The migraine, well that was more than likely stress related. I used to get chronic migraines when I was younger. But honestly, I don't think I've had an actual full fledged migraine since I was in high school. So when this nagging headache went full throttle it was a real shocker to me. It wasn't the worst headache I've ever had... no I had that one when I was around 16 and ended up getting a spinal tap from that mess... but it was certainly the worst one I've had in a lot of years.
(typing that last paragraph just gave me an insane case of dejavu. Have I typed that before?!)
So here I am today, a day later. Recovering. I slept like a baby when I finally managed to feel sleepy enough to go to bed last night. And that wasn't even until nearly midnight. But I slept though the entire night, which is a small miracle with the way I've been sleeping lately.
I did wake up with a tinge of a headache this morning, but I suppose that's kind of like a morphine hangover or something. I took one of my prescription pain meds and that seems to have helped. I will be taking today and tomorrow to complete my migraine recovery and then back to work I'll go on Thursday.
Reluctantly.
After giving it time to do its job and finding that it wasn't, the doctor then ordered morphine. In the dosage I received should have put me into at least a slumberous state. But all it did was make me feel a little light headed, after the crushing sensation it gave me as it was pumped through my body.
Man I hate that crushing thing too. I remember it from one of my ER visits during the whole gallbladder nightmare. It seems to take about 2 minutes after the nurse pushes it into the IV tube before it actually hits the blood stream in full effect and when it does it feels like an elephant just sat down on my chest. That bizarre sensation only lasts a few seconds but it's certainly unpleasant. Then I get a little looped and start talking A LOT.
The hubby kept asking me if I was getting sleepy yet... I think he was tired of talking.
The morphine, while making my body feel much lighter than usual after the initial crushing effect, didn't really do much of anything else. My pain registered at a 5.5... not much of a decrease from the 6 which resulted from the first round of medicines.
After a couple hours the doctor came back and asked how I felt. I still couldn't tolerate the lights on, the pain was lessened but not enough to be tolerable. She called for another dose of morphine. And after being crushed by that invisible elephant again I started to feel a little more drowsy but still just felt the need to gab. Talking in silly metaphors mostly... but even when I felt silent and closed my eyes I couldn't sleep. Mostly because the morphine was causing some kind of psychedelic light show in my optic nerve centers.
Open or closed I was seeing these crazy swirling and flashing of lights around my peripheral vision that nearly made me sick. It was insane. I thought "if I open my eyes it will stop" but it just got worse. So I would close my eyes again and watch the display trying not to get dizzy from it. Eventually it slowed down and stopped being present while my eyes were open. It was around this point that they took me out for a CT scan of my head.
After the test another hour or so passed and my head was still hurting but in fewer places. My face wasn't feeling like a tiger was trying to get out any more and my eyes were becoming less photo phobic. The flashing lights had stopped in my eyes. But I still hadn't rested.
The doctor came in once more to see me, told me that the CT showed signs of a case of acute sinusitis and ordered me one last cocktail in hopes that the pain would go away enough that she felt good to send me home.
The nurse came in and injected Benadryl and Reglan together into my IV line. (after just having done some quick online research into this- because after looking up Reglan and learning it was a drug used to relieve symptoms caused by slow stomach emptying in people who have diabetes - I thought it an odd combination until I found some message boards where people with chronic migraines have claimed this is a wonderful combination to relieve their pain and manage their symptoms).
Having that in my system made me ever more groggy but still not actually sleepy. I shut up, no more talking, mainly because I felt like my mouth and my brain were no longer working together. So I laid in the bed, eyes closed listening to the hubby play on his cell phone, the nurses and other workers hustle and bustle about outside my room, and my own heart beating which seemed insanely louder than normal.
But this last mixture of medicines seemed to do the trick. After what seemed like hours but was probably only 45 minutes to an hour I was given the all clear to go home. Discharged before 5 pm and looped all to hell. The nurses at the station outside my room asked me how I was feeling and all I could muster was a thumbs up.
My husband walked me out to the ER lobby, had me sit and wait for him to bring the car around. There was no way I was doing much walking. I was wasted. We did manage to make a trip to the drug store to fill my two prescriptions, one a pain medicine should my headache return and the other an antibiotic for the sinus infection I didn't even know I had. I know I also bought coffee and jalapeno cheddar cheese dip because they were in the house when some of the fog lifted later last night.
The sinus infection is probably one of the most surprising parts of this whole fiasco. I typically know when I have a sinus infection. But I didn't even have any signs or symptoms of having one at all. My nose always runs, allergies see to that, and it hadn't been running any more than usual. I didn't have any congestion or increased post nasal drip or anything out of the ordinary. Just that damn headache and a boomerang fever for a few days. The doctor said the fever was a clear indicator that I had some sort of infection, even a low grade fever like I'd been having off and on for a few days.
The migraine, well that was more than likely stress related. I used to get chronic migraines when I was younger. But honestly, I don't think I've had an actual full fledged migraine since I was in high school. So when this nagging headache went full throttle it was a real shocker to me. It wasn't the worst headache I've ever had... no I had that one when I was around 16 and ended up getting a spinal tap from that mess... but it was certainly the worst one I've had in a lot of years.
(typing that last paragraph just gave me an insane case of dejavu. Have I typed that before?!)
So here I am today, a day later. Recovering. I slept like a baby when I finally managed to feel sleepy enough to go to bed last night. And that wasn't even until nearly midnight. But I slept though the entire night, which is a small miracle with the way I've been sleeping lately.
I did wake up with a tinge of a headache this morning, but I suppose that's kind of like a morphine hangover or something. I took one of my prescription pain meds and that seems to have helped. I will be taking today and tomorrow to complete my migraine recovery and then back to work I'll go on Thursday.
Reluctantly.
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