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Life’s little ironies….
Hello all, thanks for keeping me cheered with e-mails, I always enjoy getting them.
I am here to tell you about how ironic life can be.
I eventually got my Duragesic Patch, this is made with the drug fentanyl, which is very much stronger than morphine. It’s a trans-dermal patch, so the medication is realeased from the patch, is absorbed by your skin, and then into your bloodstream. It’s a very effective way of treating severe and chronic pain, and has less side effects than taking all the morphine that I’ve been taking.
When I got the package there was an info pack which included instructions, side effects, etc. The scary bit was at the very top of the page in big bold black letters were the words ENSURE YOU TAKE ANTI-NAUSEA MEDICATION AT LEAST ONE HOUR BEFORE APPLYING THIS PATCH AS IT CAN CAUSE SEVERE NAUSEA. Ok, I did get a bit of a fore-boding feeling, but the nurse from the drug company phoned me and told me to start taking the anti-nausea straight away (this was at 11am), she said she’d give me a call back around 7 pm so we could apply the patch before I went to bed in the hopes I’d sleep through the worst of the nausea. My foreboding was now fear!
All went as planned for the first hour, at which time I started sweating severely (pain always makes me sweat and so does nausea) from pain and the patch (which is quite funky like a tattoo and very small) promptly fell off when I lifted my arm. Ok, not time to panic yet, I just stuck it back on with a different type of plaster covering it. So far, so good. I went to bed and woke up at 4am and took another anti-nausea (just in case).
This morning when I got up I practically bounced out of bed I felt so good, no nausea, no pain (except my feet which are still swollen and sore), and I had so much more movement. I felt fantastic. We decided to go out for brunch and made the arrangements with various people. Once again, so far, so good.
While I was showering the silly patch plopped medicine side down off my arm and right under the spray of the shower. Ok, maybe panic time should have started, but I finished my shower, dried off, and once again stuck the patch on with other plasters keeping it in place. I left a voice message for the nurse about this non-stick problem I was experiencing.
I got dressed and we were all ready to leave when I was absolutely slammed by the most horrendous wave of nausea. The lady had told me to lie still if I started feeling sick, so I did, and she was right, I felt better. A few minutes later I felt fine and got up so we could go, and bam, the nausea hit again. By this point I realized that my husband and son would have to go without me. I was so angry, but I ended up having a quiet morning just loafing about reading. In the end the nurse phoned and I told her that the patch kept falling off, so I had to start all over with a new patch. I was feeling so sick, I couldn’t even tell her about that.
The end result is that the patch works absolutely brilliantly for pain, I have not moved so freely for ages and ages. The ironic thing is that its taken away the pain almost entirely, but left me feeling too sick to do anything except lie down feeling sorry for myself!
Hope this side effect doesn’t last too long. Nobody will commit to an answer when I ask how long the sickness lasts, so I’ll give it a week and hope that all is well by then. It will be brilliant, cause I’ll actually be able to play with my little guy without screeching in agony at some point and scaring the poor child. He gets really upset because he would never ever hurt his mommy on purpose (he told me this and he is only six) and because I’m already sore he doesn’t want to make me more sore.
He is a precious jewel my child.
That’s my story for now. Be well everyone. I hope you all have a good week, with lots of laughter and something to find pure pleasure in each day, even if it’s just a flower growing somewhere and looks pretty.
I am here to tell you about how ironic life can be.
I eventually got my Duragesic Patch, this is made with the drug fentanyl, which is very much stronger than morphine. It’s a trans-dermal patch, so the medication is realeased from the patch, is absorbed by your skin, and then into your bloodstream. It’s a very effective way of treating severe and chronic pain, and has less side effects than taking all the morphine that I’ve been taking.
When I got the package there was an info pack which included instructions, side effects, etc. The scary bit was at the very top of the page in big bold black letters were the words ENSURE YOU TAKE ANTI-NAUSEA MEDICATION AT LEAST ONE HOUR BEFORE APPLYING THIS PATCH AS IT CAN CAUSE SEVERE NAUSEA. Ok, I did get a bit of a fore-boding feeling, but the nurse from the drug company phoned me and told me to start taking the anti-nausea straight away (this was at 11am), she said she’d give me a call back around 7 pm so we could apply the patch before I went to bed in the hopes I’d sleep through the worst of the nausea. My foreboding was now fear!
All went as planned for the first hour, at which time I started sweating severely (pain always makes me sweat and so does nausea) from pain and the patch (which is quite funky like a tattoo and very small) promptly fell off when I lifted my arm. Ok, not time to panic yet, I just stuck it back on with a different type of plaster covering it. So far, so good. I went to bed and woke up at 4am and took another anti-nausea (just in case).
This morning when I got up I practically bounced out of bed I felt so good, no nausea, no pain (except my feet which are still swollen and sore), and I had so much more movement. I felt fantastic. We decided to go out for brunch and made the arrangements with various people. Once again, so far, so good.
While I was showering the silly patch plopped medicine side down off my arm and right under the spray of the shower. Ok, maybe panic time should have started, but I finished my shower, dried off, and once again stuck the patch on with other plasters keeping it in place. I left a voice message for the nurse about this non-stick problem I was experiencing.
I got dressed and we were all ready to leave when I was absolutely slammed by the most horrendous wave of nausea. The lady had told me to lie still if I started feeling sick, so I did, and she was right, I felt better. A few minutes later I felt fine and got up so we could go, and bam, the nausea hit again. By this point I realized that my husband and son would have to go without me. I was so angry, but I ended up having a quiet morning just loafing about reading. In the end the nurse phoned and I told her that the patch kept falling off, so I had to start all over with a new patch. I was feeling so sick, I couldn’t even tell her about that.
The end result is that the patch works absolutely brilliantly for pain, I have not moved so freely for ages and ages. The ironic thing is that its taken away the pain almost entirely, but left me feeling too sick to do anything except lie down feeling sorry for myself!
Hope this side effect doesn’t last too long. Nobody will commit to an answer when I ask how long the sickness lasts, so I’ll give it a week and hope that all is well by then. It will be brilliant, cause I’ll actually be able to play with my little guy without screeching in agony at some point and scaring the poor child. He gets really upset because he would never ever hurt his mommy on purpose (he told me this and he is only six) and because I’m already sore he doesn’t want to make me more sore.
He is a precious jewel my child.
That’s my story for now. Be well everyone. I hope you all have a good week, with lots of laughter and something to find pure pleasure in each day, even if it’s just a flower growing somewhere and looks pretty.
I am sending a heaps of hugs to you. Hope one day a magic wand will wave at you. I know I won't get it but it appeared so many time in my dreams.
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