davidgillon | Entries tagged with better living through opiates

So no more leaks from the toilet cistern since I tightened up the compression seal, which is a relief.

And it increasingly looks like I did pull off the wrong Butec patch last Friday, leaving myself wearing one four days expired. I put on a new one last night and feel much better today. Not totally pain free, I think a few muscles are still knotted up, but much closer to my normal. Though it occurred to me yesterday that needing to spend days lying flat in bed in significant discomfort used to be a regular thing pre-Butec, maybe as often as once a month. Regular exposure to that level of pain is why I completely didn't notice when I came down with Acute Pancreatitis, despite its reputation as one of the most painful conditions known. Ironically yesterday must be just about the anniversary of me realising I was in trouble from that and having to dial 999. (It's definitely not a recurrrence, my gall bladder having been terminated with extreme prejudice).

Like my tag says, better living through opiates (I know it technically should be opiods, but close enough)

Fortunately familiarity does mean I know how to deal with days like that, so I curled up with a good book or two (Cherryh's Precursor and Bujold's Cetaganda), though unfortunately I was lacking a decent bottle of wine to go with them. I should have made up a batch of cocktails of some description now I think of it, though I'm short of mixers given the recent UK-wide shortage of CO2 for tonic water (seriously, this is an actual thing that hasn't fully sorted itself out yet, at least at the non-Fever Tree end of the tonic water market)

And hopefully I finally get my Covid booster this evening.

Current Mood: Improved
Current Location: Mobile again

Well, that's a relief, my first use of the NHS app to order a repeat prescription for my butec patches went through without a hitch and it was actually waiting for me when I called in at the chemists. The worry was the app my GPs were using pre-Covid would handle anything but controlled drugs, which my prescription is, and even though the NHS one seemed not to have an issue with them there's always the catastrophising "but what it..." until it's there in your hand.

And I'm much more comfortable now everyone is back in masks!

I notice that the Commons just okayed the new mask regs and of the 26 Tories and Unionists who voted against almost all of them fall so solidly within "the usual suspects" for anything regressive that you could have named them in advance.

Current Mood: Patched

Me (on phone): Hi, can I order a repeat prescription.

Chemists: No.

She did eventually explain they aren't taking repeats over the phone anymore, and I now have to email my GPs surgery to get it sent to them instead. Well, initially she just said "you need to email", it took a surprising amount of prodding to find out who I have to email.

Here's hoping the surgery is up to speed on this. I know some of the GP apps can do this, but the one my GP was signed up to wouldn't do it for a controlled drug, which was why I started ringing the chemists for repeats in the first place.

Current Mood: Disordered
Current Location: Unprescribed

I had an over-the-phone medication review yesterday.

This was with a pharmacist my GP's surgery has now added to their team, so not only was it over the phone, it was with someone I've never met, and who obviously didn't know what my diagnosis was (she did eventually ask, but only well into the discussion).

Given the only medication I'm on is a strong opioid*, these things always go the same way - the medic tries to convince me I don't actually need it any more. It turns out this is an even easier argument for them to make when you're not sitting in a wheelchair in front of them.

So I was half-expecting to have to dig deep into symptoms and consequences, and I did.

After finally establishing that yes, I did indeed still have exactly the same levels of pain it was prescribed for, we then had the traditional pushing for alternatives, "Have you ever been referred to the pain management team?"

Yes, repeatedly, and they don't think I'll ever not need strong painkillers.

Which pretty much shut her down. And she then said the one thing to convince me she did have at least partial access to my notes by pretty much quoting my GP verbatim from the last one of these: "well, you're on the lowest dosage and it is working, so I suppose we can leave you on it."

So that's done for another year or two.

And then my hips started hurting, a lot.

I'm not certain it was entirely due to the meds review, not only was my pelvis visibly more rotated than it's been in a while, but yesterday was also the last day in that patch's theoretical 7-day duration and there's a bit of individual variability in how long they really last, but having to think about these things is never helpful for actually controlling how much pain you actually feel.

(I'm mostly fine today, possibly a bit stiffer than usual, but pain levels are relatively normal).

* In patch form, so <s>almost impossible</s> extremely difficullt to abuse.

Current Location: Under review
Current Music: Everybody Hurts, REM

Despite my predictions of disaster, my long-distance controlled drug prescription renewal all went through without an issue and I had the filled prescription in my hand by 11AM the next morning. Which means I'm currently comfortable, rather than shivering my way through opioid withdrawal (last patch of the old prescription ran out overnight).

I strongly suspect both GP's surgeries were confused about the system (mine that it was possible at all, my mother's that it had changed in the past week), and that that's probably true of a lot of them across the country. Which isn't exactly reassuring.

Current Mood: Opiated
Current Location: Still where the heart is

I'm still in Durham.

My Mother's GP Surgery: No, you can't have an appointment to get a repeat prescription for a controlled drug, because the whole system just changed and your own surgery can do it electronically.

Me: They were pretty adamant they can't do that for controlled drugs when I talked to them a couple of months ago.

Mother's GP: It all changed just 2 weeks ago. Byee!

Me to My Own GP's Surgery: They said it all just changed and you can do it.

My Own GP's Surgery: I'm pretty sure they're wrong, I'll bet they're confused about the gabapentin thing*. Best we can do is give it a try and see if it works.

So I'm stuck in limbo, needing the repeat by Friday, and may end up sitting in Urgent Care/A&E just to get a repeat prescription (as opioid withdrawal is narrowly worse than sitting in A&E). And I just had to email my GP saying 'whoops, didn't think about your normal 48 hour turnaround, can you put a rush on that, pretty please.'

I said it would be a pain in the arse....

* I'll bet My GP's Surgery is right. Gabapentin and pregabalin were just made controlled drugs, effective this week, but because the pharmacists whinged, they don't have the same restrictions as normal controlled drugs, like my buprenorphine..

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Neither here nor there

In shower, peel off opioid patch - 'I must remember to put the new one on when I get out'. (I can't remember if I should have changed it today or yesterday).

5 hours later, sitting in the garden - "Ow! Ow! Shit!! Fuck! Ow!"

I'm not surprised the painkilling effect ran out, opioids have a half-life in the body, I am surprised it happened so quickly. I had maybe five minutes notice my back was getting uncomfortable, and then suddenly I couldn't bear to be upright.

The solution was obvious of course, put the damned patch on, but it takes several hours to build up to functional levels, so I'm sitting here with my back brace on, which at least keeping things tolerable.

Other than that it was a very pleasant day in the sun with a book and a glass of wine, intermitently broken by consulting with my neighbour across the fence on his hard drive failure - he actually knows more about them than I do as he was network manager for a chain store untll a couple of months ago, And now I'm sitting here on the couch with the door open watching the para-athletics.

Current Mood: Owie
Current Location: Braced

AAaaaargggghhh!

It's been a hell of an afternoon. I popped out at 2PM for what should have been a 20 minute errand to book a couple of train tickets. I only took my crutches because the station is a nightmare in a chair. I realised while I was in the queue that the bank holiday is this weekend, not next, which meant I also needed to go to my GPs, pick up my repeat prescription and go to the chemists (the alternative being spending Monday in opiate withdrawal, which is really not my favourite thing).

So I got to the station counter and told them what tickets I needed, and she punches it in.
Me: "And I need the wheelchair seat, I'll be travelling in my chair".
Her: Tap, tap, "It's not giving me the option to book the wheelchair seat. I think they've changed it so you can only book it through passenger assistance".
Me, dubious: "I booked here just a couple of weeks ago without a problem".

So she gets on the phone, and she talks, and she taps, and different receipts keep coming through her printer and she keeps screwing them up because some of them are for two people etc. It gradually becomes clear that whoever is on the other end can book the wheelchair space, but doesn't know how to use the booking system, so she is coaching them key by key.

Half an hour later (and my comfortable standing time limit is about 10 minutes), the system finally spits out the tickets.

I look at them "I don't think these are the wheelchair seat" (They might be, they're at the end of a carriage, but the wheelchair seat is normally coach C, not Coach F)

She gives me an "Oh, god, no." look and says "You'll need to ring passenger assistance."

Then I had to shoot over to Rochester to my GPs, who hadn't done the repeat yet (as it's 48 hour turnaround and I only put it in yesterday), but fortunately the receptionist went and got the doctor to sign it straight away. Then whip home to pick the chair up as there was no way I was going to make it to the chemist's on crutches, and drive back over to Rochester to go the chemists.

My 20 minute errand has taken 3 and a quarter hours, I still have to ring passenger assistance, and I just took my boots off to find one sock is stuck to my foot with dried blood.

I need a beer!

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: In the foothills of Mount Oh, crap, what next!

Woke up feeling a bit off, and not quite certain why.

Pottered around getting gradually worse, "Damn, this is starting to feel flu-like - Oh, hell!"

Goes to count number of butrans patches left in the box - yep, completely forgot to change it on Tuesday, and now I'm in full-blown opiate withdrawal.

New patch is on now, but it'll take several hours to take effect, in the meantime, I'll be over there in the corner, shivering.

*Headdesk*

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: In the corner, feeling stupid