my health (again! but noy bad)

Hi

Glad to here you are doing somewhat better. Hang in there. Some days I think Doctor's are some of the smartest dumbest people on earth. The road can be long but it will be all better in the end.

I hear you loud and clear on the hospital front. 26 days ago my former assitant principals son, smaller car, was rear ended at a stoplight, 65 mph stuck accelerator SUV. Only injury, and I mean only injury was head trauma. Two good things. An ambulance was sitting at a stoplight and saw it happen and hospital was literally only 1 minute away. That is what saved him. He has never been in a coma, but is still not cognizant, but that, fingers crossed, may be changing. Today the hospital moved him from CCU to the Cardiac Care Unit because the insurance "will only pay for so long." To say the least, the parents said "So What!", but he was moved anyways. After another parent tantrum, quite justified and too long to document the other ones here, he was left in the same wider bed that has air baffles to help prevent bed sores, etc. Tuesday he is being moved across town to a mid-care unit designed for long-term situations that are below hospital but above home or nursing home needs. I told Bert today that I am never to be sent to this hospital, but the other one if needed. And there food is not good on top of it.

Steven Alaska

You continue to be in my thoughst and prayers for improvement. Barbara in SC

judyanna wrote:

Oh Judy -- you have my prayers AND sympathy! Until you have had the experience of an inflamed sciatic nerve, a person has NO IDEA what pain is! I KNOW a bit of what you have been going through -- I have sciatica -- and when mine last "acted up" it was three or four years ago and has been with me ever since. I couldn't sit or stand or lay down and the only time the pain was borderline tolerable was in the recliner. I was just about out the door, hobbling along with DH's help on my way to the Emergency Room late on a Sunday night when WHAM -- the excruciatingly severe pain instantly flared and settled down to just miserable pain. I managed to live with that until first thing Monday morning when I was at the Dr. I tried every standard type of anti inflammatory and pain med but nothing did more than just take the edge off. After two weeks of miserable, unrelenting pain, the Dr. decided to try me on relatively new med used for epilepsy called Neurontin. He put me on 300 mg 3x a day and by that evening my pain was relieved enough that I could actually lay down in bed and go to sleep! By the next afternoon I was virtually pain free! But woe was me if I forget to take my meds!!! After the better part of a year I was blasé' enough about the meds that I would forget to take my mid day dose. I realized that I wasn't getting an increase in pain and when next I saw the Dr. he said that if I felt OK with the lower dosage to take it. I now take just 150 mg morning and evening and sometimes forget the morning dose. I can go for several days with just the one dose before bed but then I start to feel the sciatic nerve begin to twang and I make sure I am back on my twice daily dose. I tell you this so that you know it might be several weeks before your body lets you know which med and what the proper dosage is. Don't let yourself get too worried -- you'll find the right meds for you. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Make a list and sack up all the medical incompetents. Send them to the Swamp. The gators prefer the ones that taste like chicken but they're not really particular. How outrageous with all you have to deal with that you must suffer an idiot hospital. @#$! Polly

On Jun 6, 12:34=A0am, "Polly Esther" wrote:

Thanks to all for the info and advice. Polly, thank God last night the Voice of Reason came in my room with the same look on his face that I had! It was the oncologist my oncologist recommended from that hospital. He knew what they were doing! So I am now at home - had no meds since 2PM this afternoon, which is better than what I was doing while in there. I have to wait until tomorrow for a slow release version of the pill I was prescribed, but I have an immediate release version, and lidacaine patches for the worse places. It almost feels better already - until I walk. The good part is I can have visiting burse, maybe home health aide, and whatever else I might need. I have to make a list - I guess they'll be here tomorrow. I had to have another ambulance ride home because there's no way I can do stairs. May have to go to chemo the same way Tuesday. Hopefully all the bloodwork they took will cover the day before chemo labs. The sciatica has been here so long maybe it will just go away soon! I can dream - the right side did. But please don't tell me it can "flare up" again! It is definitely the worse pain I've ever felt in my life! I will be very careful from now on - hell it'll be another ten years before I try cleaning like that again! Not worth it! I am going to have trouble getting summer / winter clothes done - but I will enlist help for that! My friends have offered. I told my husband what to bring to wear home from the hospital - the ugliest shirt I have, and the wrong denim skirt and no shoes! He tried, poor guy,he's been running around for me like a lunatic! Thanks again

Judy from Mass

Hi Judy,

I'm so glad things are looking up for you. It's really bad when being in the hospital seems worse than before you went in. Yikes! Sounds like you've got things under control now.

Blessings to you and your husband (he sounds like a good guy).

Michelle in NV

How did your Dr. decide to try Neurontin?

ym

My Dr. had been talking with the drug rep just a few days before my appt. The rep mentioned that Neurontin was suitable for many medical problems that are a result of nerve inflammation or damage, etc. -- just like sciatica. When I showed up complaining that nothing had worked so far, he gave me several weeks worth of samples and a prescription to use if the stuff worked. I called him two days later to let him know that the stuff was heaven sent, as far as I was concerned -- LOL! He -- and others in his office -- have since prescribed it for people with sciatica. Apparently it has worked on everyone, some better than others, of course. For me it *totally* alleviates my pain if I take the proper dosage. If I forget a dose, I start to get an ache in my hip that radiates down the outside of my leg. If I have been putting too much strain on my back, the pain will go all the way to my toes but I almost *never* let it get that bad. Even if it does flare up, one 600 mg pill will totally eliminate the pain within just a few hours! A miracle drug IMNSHO :-)). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I too take neurontin for sciatica. It targets nerve pain. Takes awhile to start working though.

Lenore

ym

HMMM -- mine starts just about immediately! It must be one of those things that are totally dependent on the person. I have a high tolerance for most drugs so have to take either a higher dosage or wait longer for it to take effect. Not with Neurontin. I guess I am just lucky with this med :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at