we are all on drugs
Last month, I went to see a pain management doc to help me figure out a tenable long-term plan for dealing with my chronic ankle & knee pain. My knee doc suggested I see this doc, and I thought it might not be a bad idea. I'm so tired of being in pain all the time. The pain doc had quite a few treatment suggestions, most of which I hadn't tried yet.
My new drug regimen consists of taking a muscle relaxant nightly, taking a nerve pain medication three times a day, using a topical medicated gel four times a day, and still using narcotics as needed. As you can probably expect, I'm feeling pretty drugged up. All of these medications (with the exception of the gel) cause drowsiness and dizziness. The muscle relaxants and the nerve medication have taken some time to get used to. The muscle relaxants pretty much turn me into a zombie. The nerve medication is really strange. It basically makes me feel like I have restless leg syndrome, but in my shoulders. It also tends to make me feel a little spacey. My doctor had me take one a day for a week, then two, and now I'm up to three, so my body has had time to adjust.
I'm glad I went to see the pain doc over the summer, so I have time to get used to the new medications. I'm worried, though, that I won't get over the spaciness/dizziness before school starts next month. I've been taking narcotic painkillers regularly since the accident, which has always made me feel like I'm at a disadvantage compared to the other people in my classes since I'm in a fog all the time. When I speak up during seminars, I tend to feel like everything I'm saying is complete drivel, and then I get self-conscious about it, and I lose my train of thought. I have trouble concentrating on articles I have to read and on class discussions. Teaching is hard, too, because I always have to be on top of everything. But it's not like I can just ask grad school to take it easy on me because I'm on drugs, so I just buck up and deal with it. I can't imagine the spaciness is going to be any better now that I'm on additional medications. The new drugs do seem to be helping, so I don't want to make any changes right now. It's kind of catch-22 because I have a lot of trouble concentrating on school when I'm in pain, but the pain meds also make it hard to concentrate. C'est la vie. At least when I'm on the meds, the pain isn't quite as bad.
Anyway, life otherwise has been pretty good. August has been very busy. AV and I moved into an awesome new apartment. We were living in a house that was too big for just the two of us, so we downsized to a place that suits us better. The new place doesn't have much storage space, so unpacking has been an interesting challenge, but we'll get it sorted out. The view & location make up for the lack of storage.
After moving, two of my good friends from back home came to visit. It was really fun showing them around the city. Then I had a relaxing week-long trip back home. See Facebook for photos...
Here's one from my apartment:
