Thursday, August 6, 2009

"Just in time" appointments

Today is my followup appointment with the neurologist. I'm super excited to get back in there and discuss all the problems I'm having. In the past month, I think my pain and disordered sleep have gotten worse. Despite all the prescriptions that they have me on, I'm still suffering. I'm hoping that when it comes to pain I get an actual script for Lyrica (or something stronger) and that they set me up with some sort of therapist to help me deal with pain. On nights like tonight, I know that it's the pain keeping me awake and if I only had something to dull it a little, I'd be so much better off. I think it would also help my mood. Yeah, I know mood swings can be apart of MS, but most of my snapping and jerk behavior is exacerbated by the pain.

When it comes to sleep, I'm ready to try something designed for sleep, rather than a drug with sleepiness as a side-effect. Each time I try one of these drugs (usually anti-anxiety/anti-depressants like lorazepam or trazadone) they work for the first few nights and then they stop working. I tried taking them as directed, every night for the first week then every other night thereafter, but at this point they aren't working at all. And the worst thing is that when they do work, it takes about 2 hours before they kick in. So, if I don't take it from 8-9, then I'm up a creek. I mean, I usually don't realize I have insomnia until midnight or later and if I take a pill then, I'll sleep all day. Which means the same problem the next night. But, and here's the kicker, if I have insomnia and stay up the whole night, I am no more likely to sleep the next night, even with a properly timed pill. So I need something stronger, even if they only give me a few pills to break the cycle. Hell, two really good nights of sleep each week would be a thousand times better than what I have now! We'll see what they say.

I also finally have a firm appointment with the gastroenterologist set for Monday at 1:15 pm. Despite two weeks of calling obsessively, I couldn't get anything sooner. I'm actually pretty upset about it because I called and left messages 4 times a day for 5 days before I got this appointment. It was ridiculous that his assistant wouldn't call me back and I'm not looking forward to dealing with someone who can't return an urgent phone message. I completely understand if you can't get me in right away, but at least call me back and say that. She also wouldn't listen to me when I asked to get my scripts from the hospital refilled, so now I'm a week without my meds. Add on all the crap from last week and I might be looking at more drastic medical intervention. I still have my fingers crossed for all the medicine and hopefully he'll add something for nausea which would be a lifesaver.

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