Hell in a Bottle

Neurontin.

Gods, what a monster.

This is the new pain medicine I've been placed on.  This little capsule has done more to me than for me.  I'm learning that I'm not alone.

First, I'm almost a chemical zombie.  Without fail, this pill takes over about an hour after taking the dose.  It knocks me flat for at least a couple of hours, then leaves me with almost zero energy.  Getting up off of the sofa is hard as hell.  Most of the time I fall asleep again, then wake up after another couple of hours.  My sleep schedule

When I wake up, I'm starving.  Not even the gastric bypass has broken this.  My weight has gone back up to just 30 pounds less than it was when I had the operation.  That's in less than a month's time.  I reported weight gain to my pain medicine doctor, along with the fact that I'd looked it up and found it as a side effect on the Mayo Clinic's website.  The pain medicine doctor had to call a hospital pharmacy to verify what I told him.  He found that it was true.

Now, I have one dose of Neurontin left, for Monday morning.  I plan on calling my pain doctor and asking him to put me on a pain medicine I've taken before - Talwin NX - and take me off of the Neurontin monster.  I only hope he listens to me.

The Toothaches of Regress

A quick follow-up to the last update:

1. The golf ball is out of my right knee.  I still can't kneel on the floor, though both knees feel a little more "slippery."  Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
2. The tooth that broke last week is no longer there.  Officially, it was tooth #30, my bottom-right first molar.  The doctor says it broke in half from top to bottom, and I believe him - I asked for and received the leftovers.  Ugly stuff.  (Don't engage your anti-Jackson-medical picture filters.  I'm not uploading this.  Too gruesome for prime time.)  I have to go back next week to get 5 stitches removed.
3. Also, the new pain medicine is only at half dosage for one more day, and as a result I'm having to deal with the fact that the relief runs out at unpredictable times.  I'm sort of on a sine-wave pattern of going from relief to not much and back.  Same thing goes for my sleep patterns - I get tired for about 4 hours, then I'm restless for about 4 hours, off and on, all day and all night.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go off and get some liquid to take my medicines, including Augmentin now (the amoxicillin on its own was giving me the male equivalent of a yeast infection.).  Urgh.