[Tripping On…] Tripping On Post-Surgery Medications

Some valuable advice I was given was to request the post-surgery medications, and secure the medications myself, prior to having surgery. This way I could go home and have my medications ready – antibiotic Cephalexin, stool-softener Docusate, and painkiller Oxycodone – without having to be concerned over whether I’d have them or not. This was useful because my hospital’s outpatient pharmacy, months ago, proved themselves to be incapable of running my insurance. How have these medications gone?

I’m recovering quickly and efficiently.

I am getting used to sleeping on my stomach, but between sleeping with a pillow on my stomach and being patient with myself, I’m getting used to the feeling. I’ve slept in my own bed twice now since surgery. The first night, I was hurting until I took a painkiller and antibiotic, then went back to sleep and slept restfully. The second night, I didn’t get as much restful sleep, but I’m feeling OK overall. My body is waking up in the middle of the night because it knows it needs painkillers, and I take the Lupin-branded antibiotics at the same time because that’s the schedule.

When I do, things seem to go smoothly for me.

I haven’t taken my painkiller in a few hours, but that’s mostly intentional. As much as I can, I want to try not to rely on any painkiller. If I can get used to feeling minor or major pain, then I can overcome those sensations, and I can get better from there. I do feel minor drowsiness regardless of whether I’ve been taking the medication or not. It’s just because my body is not used to this level of pain. I will say, however, that I’m much more mobile than yesterday. My spine has taken less of that negative forefront energy that it had before. It only took me 10 or 15 minutes to stand after sitting on my toilet today. Yesterday, it was somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes. I was doing deceptively well at the hospital, but that’s just because they had me on an IV with a constant stream of mild painkillers, so I felt more capable than I really was.

I haven’t been taking many of the stool-softeners and I haven’t defecated in 3 days.

I nearly felt like I could earlier today, but there was nothing in me. I would take more now, but I worry that I’ll need to defecate during my doctor’s appointment in a few hours, so I’ll wait until later today. Besides, I already defecated in a major way: I called my insurance company and filed a complaint against the treatment I received from my spine doctor. I explained that post-surgery, I was numb for at least 8 hours, wasn’t treated well, was told I was a hypochondriac, it was only after having a catheter put in me to drain my bladder that the numbness subsided, and that the spine doctor admitted that he overreacted. Although it would have been better had I not experienced this at all, it was easy enough for me to file my complaint against ‘the spine doctor, anesthetist, and hospital’ all in one go.

I’m planning to schedule an appointment with a new spine doctor.

My insurance company gave me the name of another doctor, so I called them up, but their doctor’s office was not sure about whether they could help or not. They said they would call me back. If not, then tomorrow I will find out the name of another clinic and maybe receive some coordination assistance, since although I have two weeks before my post-surgery appointment, I’d rather not have to wait until the last minute, or worse, go back to my old spine doctor. Sure, he did a good job with my spinal surgery, and my spine feels like it’s healing well, but his bedside manners and the overall lack of respect I received in the most vulnerable moments of my life dropped off a significant amount of confidence I have in his ability to help me.

Besides, I think now it will just be post-surgery care and spinal maintenance.

This is nothing overly complex that would require his specific expertise. Sure, it might be nice since he was the one that actually did the surgery, but I can have his office fax over my medical records to whatever doctor I want, and since this surgery was considered minor, I’m sure that any other doctor could assess my case without having too much of a learning curve. It should be fine. So between having a new spine doctor and these medications, I am feeling much better. I feel like I can stand up, walk around, and everything feels like it could return to how it was like before my spinal issues started in mid-April.

I think it will still be 6 weeks before I can do much in terms of physical activity.

Until then, I’ve been sitting or lying down, and I’m happy with how quickly my body is recovering. I honestly feel like I could go to the grocery store today, for the first time in weeks, without any adverse effects. I’ll ask my new primary care physician when I see him later today, obviously, since although walking with a cane is different than, say, rowing or doing any major lifting, he might recommend I hold off on walking around a grocery store for a few more weeks still. If so, I’ll follow that advice, since like I’ve been noticing off-and-on over the past few weeks, there are times when I do feel ready to take on the world, but those are not always the best time to ‘take on the world,’ since that could just be my body’s way of feeling happy that it’s not under significant duress. We’ll see. If I can, though, I would like to walk around a supermarket today, if only to see what’s new, take some photographs, and maybe even engage in capitalistic practices.

To summarize, these medications have been helping me restore my health.

Endtable
Quotes: None.
Sources: My personal experiences.
Inspirations: Writing about my life as it happens.
Related: Sober Living essays and Tripping On [The American Healthcare System] chapters.
Photo: This round of medications.
Written On: 2020 September 03 [11:1111111am to 11:47am]
Last Edited: 2020 September 03 [First draft; final draft for the Internet.]
My big goal is writing. My most important goal is writing "The Story." All other goals should work toward that central goal. My proudest moment is the most recent time I overcame some fear, which should have been today. I'm a better zombie than I was yesterday. I'm not better than you and you're not better than me. Let's strive to be better every day.