So the plan is to meet w/ the surgeon on Monday to go over the x-rays. If the swelling has gone down enough, we will have the P/T discussion. The other major problem we have is the ongoing neuropathy in my left arm/hand. I don't know how that issue will affect the discussion of P/T because he took me off of Gabapentin, but his PA called me this week to have me put back on the Gabapentin because the "incident" that caused the problems this week occurred as I was coming off of the Valium and the Gabapentin and I was getting refills for multiple reasons previously discussed.
This morning, I received an email from my pain doctor that the two sides have FINALLY been in touch with each other. However, I responded to my pain doctor, if they can prescribe Gabapentin because it's nerve-related, not pain-related. Remember, the surgeon is trying to step back from prescribing meds altogether, but apparently my pain doctor has restrictions on what they can and can't prescribe. So this is still unsettled until I get responses.
To your question about
refills, neither side does refills. One, the surgeon wants to 'get rid of me' . Two, the way these doctors make money is to force patients to come in every 30 days to get refills. So we have to waste our time to schedule and get charged an office visit, waste time and energy doing it, only to get a 30 day supply of our meds. It unnecessarily wipes out HSA/FSA accounts. And they do the whole vitals and everything and then they re-write another 30 day supply. The actual time of the visit with the prescribing doctor is less than 5 mins and before you leave you reschedule in 30 days again. It's a rip-off/scam. Oh! I forgot, they make you pee in a cup too once they start prescribing pain meds. I'm not sure if Gabapentin will fall into this category or not.
Right now, the issue is: what does the pain mgmt doctor allowed to prescribe because without the Gabapentin, I crash and have the pain. The Robaxin apparently will take some time to kick in. But can my pain mgmt doctor prescribe Robaxin too? They've already told me that they cannot prescribe Valium, which we suspected. So, I'm waiting to hear back from them..
Once they are filled, they can send them digitally or I can pick them up at a visit, if I run out and I am there.
I can't do what you suggest with the Robaxin. I can only get refills once I hit the refill date. The pharmacy will not let me do that.
How long does it take for the Robaxin to kick in? to build up in your system?
One problem we have in this area is the pharmacies are so busy that they run out of everything. And the issue we had a week ago was that the pain doctor apparently sent in the oxycodone digitally, but they were out of stock and they were out for so long, it coincided with my pain doctor's visit!!!!! I told them what happened and showed them on my iPhone with my app and so they wrote me a RX for the oxycodone and I went to 4 pharmacies and none of them had enough to fill it. I finally got back to the pharmacy closest to me and they filled 100 tabs of 120 tabs. We know they were not supposed to, but did because I was in so much pain (and she's known me for 30 yrs.) So I'm going to lose 20 tabs of the RX for it because no pharmacy has enough pills for RXs around here. This is not the first time this has happened to me either.
As far as work goes, I mostly work from home. But I can't lift my work/laptop bag because it's well over 10 lbs. my current limit. So I'm already working from home even though my out of office message is still on because they can't for me to come back. The government, HR, my boss, the CFO, some of my staff is begging me to come back, so I'm doing a little each day. Some work I do standing up using my VersaDesk I think I mentioned I bought before the surgery. I love this thing!!! And some I do sitting down. But I get tired after a few hours and my eyes get blurry. I don't know if this is normal.
Yesterday, I did some work, returned emails and worked on the budget and then around 1100, I crashed and felt like I had run 100 marathons straydog. Is that normal now? Is that when my body is telling me to STOP and rest? There are times I still feel like I'm on the decadron too. The government, my staff keep calling. My boss keeps sending me emails like I'm fully back and then turns around and sends emails like, your health is most important, take your time and rest and get healthy. And then either that day or the next day, he'll send me an urgent financial document that I need to respond to. The CFO laughs when I tell him. He knows what he's doing. He just wishes I was back.
I don't know what's normal anymore. I don't what I should be expecting 5-6 weeks after surgery. I feel like I'm tired all of the time. My eating has all but evaporated. I've dropped 4-5 pants sizes. I can now get back into my tan military skivvies with a 34 waist. I still have them. I was a 40-42 waist before the surgery. I dropped from 212 lbs. to 182 lbs. I am just not hungry anymore. I drink a lot of water/fluids though all of the time. Part of it is, I'm still afraid to choking. I **still** have that problem at 6 weeks. Is that normal? I almost choked on the Gabapentin last week....at night. So that still gets to me.
I am just trying to figure this all out and I don't know if my pain doctor is fully onboard with my requirements from the surgeon's office and we can't establish a battle rhythm and that bothers me.
Update: Before I forget, I see the surgeon for x-rays on Monday morning. P/T will come up as a topic based on what the x-rays show WRT the swelling levels. If there is anything else you can think of to discuss with him that would be helpful to know in advance. Thank you.
Post Edited (Texas4Life) : 7/14/2022 3:08:28 PM (GMT-7)