...yeah, methinks he won't be walking in THAT cast very much.

Apoc...dude...you need some bubble wrap or something?

 

Yeah, there is no walking whatsoever lol. The pain even with the meds is almost unbearable. Watching tv is possible for about 30 minutes and sleeping is possible only when I become to worn out I just pass out entirely for an hour or so. God has a reason for everything though so I'm still in good spirits

 

Very true...be thankful for what you have and thankful for what you don't have.

 

Dude, "sit!, stay!".

Normally, I'd try to cheer you up with:

"Look on the bright side, it can't get any worse"..

I hope things KEEP getting better.... !

 

It won't be too difficult. My wife blew out her left knee more than 6 years ago at work. The injury was bad and to make a long story short, her right knee got damaged from compensating so long for her left knee and needed surgery too.

Now, more than 6 years have elapsed and she's had a total of 5 surgeries on the left knee and 2 surgeries on the right. The last 4 surgeries (2 on each knee) have been done within the last 18 months.

She had partial knee replacements on each knee, discovered she was allergic to the nickle in the implants, and had to have the partial knees removed, revising both knees to total knee replacements.

She's been on either Tramadol, Percocet, OxyCodone, or Oxycontin for 6 years, with the last 2 years straight, 24/7, on the Perc and OxyContin with a couple months of Oxycontin thrown into the mix.

She recently weaned herself down and off of all of her pain meds, since she's been healing quite nicely from her last surgery.

Indeed, be careful, but use them when needed, Apoc. The body heals faster when pain is controlled.

My wife never had any pain associated with stopping her pain meds.

Honestly that's a terrible warning. Advising people to be mindful of the possible downside is responsible, but any doc will tell you the body heals faster when pain is controlled. Pain meds help a person.

While my father was alive, I watched him recover from three open heart bypass surgeries, hernia operations, lung surgery and countless other surgical procedures. My dad was a pretty tough guy and he used to think stopping pain meds ASAP and gutting through the pain was the best way to heal, but he learned (the hard way) pain meds actually help the body heal faster.

My wife is doing well. After titrating down over 8 weeks, she's been off of all prescription pain meds for 2 weeks now.

Stewart

 

I was in an auto accident when I was about 24...partially ejected from a Geo Tracker doing about 60, then the damn thing rolled over and crushed me as it rolled over me. Broke 6 vertebrae, 3 ribs, both shoulder blades, left femur, had a skull fracture and a collapsed lung. Was in a medically induced coma for a week, then 10 more days in critical care ICU.

In the hospital I was on morphine then backed down to "Tylenol with Coedine" when released. I didn't like how Coedine made me feel so I want to over-the-counter Advil.

The thing that did the trick for me was what my physical therapist told me while I was still in the hospital...that pain meds should only be used to make the pain bearable, not eliminate it. She said having no pain could lead to you overdoing it and causing further injury. The body needs pain to tell you when you are approaching the limit of what you should be doing.

IMO no-one should aim to be "pain free" via drugs after an injury...rather you should aim to be able to function with the pain. Helps you know how fast you are healing and when you pushed it too far. Taking too many dulls the pain so much you could injure yourself further and/or start taking more than you need and/or build up a tolerance and/or get addicted.

My personal advice, get off the prescription stuff as fast as possible, and strive to be just on this side of in too much pain to function.

Kind of like they say is happening with antibiotics now...we have used them so much the bugs are now better than before. Had we dialed it down some and let our bodies do more work (and be more uncomfortable while sick), maybe the bugs wouldn't have been able to adapt as fast as they have.

 

Agreed!

I work as pharmacy technician. I have most certainly seen the darker side of pain medication. I have also seen people who do, actually, require pain medication in order to get some semblance of a normal life. Apoc and I are both mindful of what needs to happen right now, and right now, due to the severity of his injury (which is actually a fractured heel bone, not a broken ankle), he needs to be on pain medication. It's a bad enough injury that most of the podiatry department at the hospital popped in for a visit. One doctor even said, "So this is the famous Jonathan!" He's having surgery on the 28th. We will deal with possible dependency issues later on down the road, should they occur.

And Stewart, glad that your wife is doing so well!

 

When it rains it pours, but the only way to go from here is up! Keep up the good spirits and you'll be fine.

I too had a string of bad luck that started in March (right before I purchased the Ex). We had a fire in the apartment we were renting, it started right above our sons room so we mostly had water and smoke damage. We lost a lot of stuff, but most of the furniture survived with just minor damage. Then 2 months later I fell 10 feet straight to the ground off a ladder at work and busted up my back and neck. And 2 months after that the Ex gotten broken into and just about all of my tools were stolen. It was a tough few months but thank god we pulled through it, we just had our second child, nothing like new life to brighten up rough times!

Feel better Apoc, hopefully you'll be back on your feet in a jiffy in a nice new house!

 

Mayhem is everywhere

 

Miss those mayhem commercials