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The mice ate my meds!

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Posted 8/14/2008 1:46 PM (GMT 0)
FitzyK! My gosh I too have an 18lbs orange and white cat. His feet are so big and he is still growing. He is soon to be a year old.
I have dropped pills in my bathroom and search and search until I find them as I do not want my 'little mister' to gobble them up. I am currently using a med minder to keep me on track, I take two good handfulls of pills a day. I have always just blamed my loss of short term memory in the past for over taking my pain pills, but now I wonder why my darn cat sleeps so much and is such a dork?
Good day to all!
Cloe
Posted 8/14/2008 3:50 PM (GMT 0)
Cloe - when mine was a "teen" he started gaining too much weight too fast. I only fed him dry food once to twice per day. I thought he might have something wrong with him. Then I went to refill the container I use to pour his food. I kept a 40 pound cat food bag in a closet and would refill the small one with the handle with it. Well, there was a big hole chewed in the side of the bag and he had eaten about half of it in a month!!! He had a self serve buffet going on. We put a stop to that real quick. But he is still huge and the vet said he is not really over weight, just a very big boy. He is solid. It must be the breed. In addition to his double paws he has a double claw in his thumb. The thing is really thick and can't be cut with kitty clippers. He hates anyone touching it so when it gets long enough to curl I have to bring him to the vet to have it snipped w/ dog clippers. I just learned there is a vet in my neighborhood and hopefully she can do home visits to clip it because he HATES the car. By the way, he is now 3.
Posted 8/14/2008 5:33 PM (GMT 0)
FitzyK,
My cat is a stray. My daughter found him in Kansas City and took him in as a kitten. She already has 2 cats so she brought him home to mom. He only gets 1 cup of meow mix a day. Some days he doesn't even eat it all. My cat is just a big tommy all muscle, no fat. His entire body is proportioned good. I am hoping to put him in the biggest cat contest some day. Like your cat, mine is just big. Here he comes now, he gets a bit sensitive when I share his body size with others.
Cloe
Posted 8/14/2008 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
Oh, we'd better not start telling animal stories! I used to think my orange and white tabby was big at 10 lbs! But he lived to 20 years and I had to put him down a couple of years ago and miss him terribly. Twenty years is a long time to have a relationship with a person or a pet! But I had to put sliding locks on all my closet doors because they were louver and he would stick his paw under them and open and get into all sorts of mischief inside the closets. But I don't think he ever ate my meds (then again that was before all my CP issues).

PaLady
Posted 8/14/2008 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
OK PaLady, no more pet stories. In my opinion people who suffer from chronic pain will continue to loose pain meds due to pets, rodents and silly human error. I get a bit peeved that we have to agree to a zero tolerance when we are truly wanting to live normal lives. I have never been a doctor, surgeon, nurse or teenager taking pain medications for fun. I disagree with the medical professions theory when it comes to quality of life vs quantity of life. I personally would rather have 50yrs of good life then 110yrs of poor life.
I am walking the fine line right now, but I would rather be treated appropriately and work full time again and enjoy life instead of left to rot in my once busy and clean house. Just my thoughts at this moment.
Hugs all,
Cloe
Posted 8/14/2008 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Cloe,
I hope you know my comment about pet stories was meant to be humorous (since I then proceeded to tell my own pet story! wink).

But I agree with you about the quality of life issue. I think a lot of that has to do not only with all the policies and oversight of docs (which is real), but their individual attitudes and wisdom. I'd like to say older, more experienced (in life as well as their profession) docs would be more understanding of the "quality" issue, but I'm not sure that's true. I do find that a lot of younger people coming into the professions don't even have a clue.

What bothers me is seemingly such a lack of what I call our right to self-determination, our right to make informed choices, within the context, of course, of a doctor's legal and ethical boundaries. I think there's more latitutde than docs want to acknowledge, but it does require more time and effort on their part to know and trust their patients (and weed out those who aren't trustworthy). Just my thoughts.

Oh, and I'd add that the stress of chronic pain and illness is likely to shorten our life spans anyway (I don't like to think about this but it's likely true for many of us). So even more so then should an emphasis be put on the quality of what we have, right?

PaLady
Posted 8/14/2008 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
Oh my goodness, Cloe and PaLady I absolutely agree on the quality vs. quantity issue! It is my observation that in the world of Chronic Pain one cannot openly behave as an informed patient (as a general rule) without fear of being branded a drug seeker. As has been said many times in this forum, this is the only branch of medicine where that seems to be the case.

As you said, Cloe, I would gladly offer up a few years off the end of my life to be able to start LIVING the ones I have now again. What's interesting about that thought, though, is that I really believe that, like PaLady said, the stress of my under-treated pain is costing me more in the terms of longevity than sufficient treatment would! I think PaLady and I have talked about this before, but I have always had low blood pressure - until CP entered my life. about 3 years into this new life of pain (it's been 7 now) I developed high blood pressure! All of my doctors are in agreement that the high blood pressure is directly related to the pain. We have evidence that on those few occasions when I've been able to get the pain under control, the blood pressure has gone back down. Go figure. Even with that, though, my PM would rather I take blood pressure medication than pain medication. Seriously.

Ry

btw... Frances - I wrote a note to you in another thread with an idea about keeping your meds away from the critters. But I'll put it here too just in case you don't see it there... Could you put them in the microwave? (don't cook them, though! smilewinkgrin)
Posted 8/14/2008 11:19 PM (GMT 0)
Ry, I vote microwave or freezer. What if our houses burn down and the PM doctors refuse to refill us? LOL
My blood pressure has been high ever since I have been in pain. When I detoxed from morphine I had no pulse or blood pressure, I was so bummed that I survived, I feel different today, my outlook is a bit brighter (sort of like a roller coaster) my thinking process.
I think when I go for my recheck next week I will present the theory about loss of life due to stress caused by untreated chronic pain.
I plan to take a witness with me again and for all my future visits.
Cloe
Posted 8/16/2008 8:01 AM (GMT 0)
I gotta throw my two cents in here on the subject of "quality of life". That is my entire goal not only dealing with CP, but dealing with crohns disease. The biologic drugs such as the Remicade infusions I take have the potential of causing certain cancers, same as the Imuran I take. They can & do compromise your immune system. But its like this in mind, heck, I could get run over by a bus tomorrow too. If these drugs will help my crohns you bet I'm in. I am after quality life because there is no guarantee for tomorrow for any of us.

 

I belong to the crohns forum and I see so many people over there be in really bad shape from their disease and there dr will recommend medications and the people refuse them because of the what if's is what I call them. People don't get it, if one person has one side effect from any drug and its reported, they have to list it as a potential side effect. Many of these peeps are steroid dependant and they have a chance of getting off the steroids with drugs like Remicade and Humira. Long term steroid use will destroy your body in so many ways.

 

I know it takes all kinds, we all know that. But, if I am offered something that may help me and I refuse, then I can't blame my dr if I am not getting better, whether its because of my crohns or CP.

 

I am 55 yrs old and everyone of my drs except my pulmonary & cardiologist are younger than me. Mine have done well by me because they are up to date in their field as far as whats out there and they are not afraid to offer it to their patients. I have found the older ones not to be so quick to help especially with CP. They tend to stay old school and not willing to write much in the way of pain meds.

 

Its either late or real early and I need to lay down,lol. Hope all have a LPD. Hugs, Susie

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