Yesterday was a very rough day, pain wise. We opted to try going off IV pain meds. Any of you who have been with me from the beginning knows how bad that has gone in the past. A number of factors played in but I didn’t get the new round of pain meds my doctor prescribed until three hours after he prescribed me. By that point I was in a lot of pain. That meant that by midnight, the doc on call authorized a one time only dose of 1mg of iv dilaudid. That finally broke through all my pain and stopped the viscous cycle. Today, I am on ibuprofen, Tylenol, a muscle relaxer, gabapentin, and 4mg of oral dilaudid. I am finally comfortable. 

The hope was to talk to pain management today but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, so I’ll be discharged tomorrow with enough meds for at least the weekend before dealing with pain management on our own next week. The reason we’re talking to pain management is that PM has many more options to keep me comfortable than my surgeon does.

All of this has been a great reminder of how dangerous a stomach/flu bug can be to me with my ileostomy. I know people who have gotten sick with what most consider the stomach flu and wind up in the hospital for a week because they can’t stay adequately dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to low BP, which can lead to respiratory distress, so it really matters. This spring before we moved, my parents both got the stomach flu. We did a good job isolating me from my parents and I did not get it. All of this is an easy reminder of how dangerous stomach bugs are to me.