Posted 7/7/2015 2:59 AM (GMT 0)
Hi all,
I haven't been around much because I have not been doing well lately. Was started on a new med (antidepressant) about a month ago that has made me EXTREMELY hypotensive (like take 4 steps and pass out/lose consciousness/fall to the ground hypotensive). So I've pretty much been stuck at home, in bed, for the last two or three weeks, which sucks! I am in the process of tapering down and off the med, but it is slow going. And so far I'm not feeling much better.
Supposed to see my PM later this week. Had a consult with another PM a few hours away from here a couple weeks ago, in regards to ketamine infusions for chronic pain. If you all remember I had ketamine infusions done for depression earlier this spring, and my docs at the university there sent me to this new PM to see if he could help me. As I noticed that my pain was greatly reduced during the infusions, but it did not last, as the the protocol for pain is different than the one they use for depression. After meeting with the new doc, we did decide to try the infusions for pain, as well as another medication, which I had vaguely heard of years before, but knew very little about, and have never been on. So now I have to go back to my regular PM to tell him the results of my visit with this other guy (he's been onboard since the beginning), and for help tapering off my morphine.
I'm definitely very nervous about coming off the morphine, because of the potential for increased pain/because my pain is bad enough, still, with what I'm on now. But I guess that they have found that the ketamine infusions work better when patients are off of their opioids. So it is definitely worth weaning off them if I can.
So we'll see what happens. I'm going to do the best I can to get off my morphine, but if I can't because of pain, then we'll just continue as is (although hopefully I'll at least be able to reduce the dose some). The infusions won't be done until at least mid-August, anyways. So I do have some time to play around with tapering down slowly. I do however, have to be off of the morphine completely in order to start the other med the doc suggested, as the two meds interact. But if needed, we can always use the ketamine infusions to help me get off the opioids, the same way that we used them to help me get off the antidepressants that I was on prior to the infusions I had done this spring.
So it looks like the next month is probably going to be rough for me -- between the ongoing hypotension, and tapering off the opioids. But hopefully it will all be worth it! I really liked the new PM that I saw. He seemed super knowledgeable and very experienced. And most importantly, used to and willing to think outside the box. He really thinks that he can help me. And these are completely new approaches that I have never taken before. So I've got a pretty positive attitude that things are going to work out, and he is going to at least be able to get me feeling better than I am now/have before. Worst that happens is that I am back where I started. But as I said, I have a good feeling about all this. But I have to get there first...
Skeye