Monday, February 27, 2012

Please Be Patient (Updated)

I wanted to take a moment to explain why I have not blogged much at all since my surgery. I had full intentions of documenting the entire process as well as some of what I'm going through on a personal level by now. But I have not been able to do it. While in the hospital I was too doped up on pain meds to be able to hold my thoughts long enough to get them blogged. And since I've been home I've had another issue.

I suffer from sever chronic clinical depression and anxiety (my childhood wreaked havoc on my mental state). I've been on medication for it for over two years now and it works wonders! It makes me feel human, and I'm able to control my responses to things without having anxiety attacks. Unfortunately, the medication I take is an extended release capsule, and my surgeon does not want me taking capsules until my stomach is healed. I even have to crush all my regular pills...no matter how small they are. The capsules I take say very specifically on the bottle NOT to crush or open them. But there is an immediate release pill form of the medication that I can take twice a day as opposed to the once a day extended release. The problem is...they couldn't give me a prescription for it when I left the hospital. That didn't make much sense because I thought they had been giving me the pills while I was in the hospital. But remember I was high on pain meds...and they make swiss cheese of my memory.

So, they told me upon discharge from the hospital to talk to my primary care doctor to get my prescription changed. No bid deal, right? Except they told me this on a FRIDAY AFTERNOON!!! So guess what I've been without all weekend. No anti-depressant. And it has been screwing with my head and my emotions...everything makes me want to cry. No kidding...I cried when I finally pooped and there was no sign of blood in it this weekend! I cried over POOP, people!!

So, I call this morning knowing that it's been at least 3 days since I had my meds. I was informed this morning that the pharmacy at the military hospitals that I use DO NOT CARY the form of the medication I need!!! I will have to see the doctor and get a prescription to be filled out at a civilian pharmacy. No big deal, right!? Except if they don't cary it then how could they have given it to me when I was in the hospital?! So it's very possible that I have not had this med for a WEEK now. And this is a med that you are NOT supposed to stop cold turkey! If you have to stop it, the doctor is supposed to ween you off of it. So no frickin' wonder I've been a basket case!!!

So, I called the appointment line after talking to the pharmacy to get an appointment with my doctor. NO APPOINTMENTS UNTIL NEXT MONDAY!!!!! Are you kidding me!?!? So I was advised to try to walk in and see If I could speak to the doctor today to get the prescription changed. If they won't do that I'm kinda screwed!!

Now to add to the pain in the ass this is, I'm on doctor's orders not to drive for two weeks! So, hubby will have to take me, right? Okay, no big deal, except his shifts just got changed to nights, and he's trying to sleep right now. So I have to get him up and have him take me to the clinic to get this worked out and hope that it doesn't take all damn day because he needs his sleep.

I'm going to finish my protein shake and then wake him up. I hate this. I hate feeling the way I do. And I hate that no one told me BEFORE my surgery that I would need to do this so I could have it taken care of ahead of time. I should not have to be going through this while I'm trying to recover from surgery and adjust to this diet/life that I have ahead of me.

This is why I have not blogged yet. My mind is a total mess. I'm not even sure if all of this makes sense at this point. I will update you and let you know how things go this morning. Wish me luck!

**UPDATE**

Crisis averted! It's not the perfect solution, but it's definitely one I can live with! I wasn't able to see the doctor today, but I did get to have a nice chat with the pharmacist. She told me, as Charlene mentioned in her comment, that switching to a twice a day immediate release would take a few weeks for my body to adjust to. She already wasn't too happy that I've been off the meds for a few days. So, her best advice was NOT to switch to the other form of the med, because I'd have to wait for an appointment with the doctor next week, then spend a few weeks after that adjusting to the new med. And since this is only temporary, and I should be able to take the capsule in a month or so, she looked through all the info she had on this particular medication. And while her information said the same thing as my bottle...not to break or crush...it had further instructions that the capsule COULD be opened gently and the beads inside could be added to a small amount of applesauce (or yogurt in my case since I'm not up to apple sauce just yet), and I could "eat" it that way! She said I could do this until I'm able to take it regularly again and thus avoid changing meds and messing myself up even further. She did tell me it will take a few days, maybe even a week for me to start feeling 100% normal again, but I felt ten times better just having a solution!

Lesson for any of you out there in the pre-op stage...check far in advance with both your surgeon and your primary doctor to see what changes might be necessary with your current meds. I know my surgeon didn't put me in this position intentionally. He did tell me the week of the surgery that I would need a different version of the medication, but indicated it would be taken care of before I left the hospital. To be fair to him, all of my other meds were taken care of and I was either given a different form of it or instructed to crush it. I don't think he realized the pharmacy wouldn't have the pill form of the medication or that it takes weeks to adjust to even if I've been on the XR version of it for two years. After all, he specializes in bariatric surgery, not general medicine. So, lesson learned...the hard way for me, but hopefully it will keep someone else from having to go through it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry that you are going through this! I too am on a XR release med and the doctor has already told me that I have to switch it to taking the different one 2 times a day...my surgery isn't until April and they told me already so I can change it now and let my body adjust to the change. They should have told you, that is unacceptable. You should not feel this way! That drug when stopped like that puts your ody in shock like what the heck is going on and makes you feel awful. I wish I could fix it for you...please keep us posted and I will pray that this gets figured out today! Hang in there!
Charlene :)

Miss Breanna said...

I am so glad to hear that you were able to get it taken care of sweetie!
I hope your feeling much better.
Miss Breanna (( HUGS ))

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