Hopkins Speaks
The antibiotics don’t seem to be working. The morphine and oxy do a reasonably good job masking the pain. I’m going to go hog wild and try to sleep in the bed tonight (rather than sleeping in the healing chair as I have done the last couple of nights). In answer to the great debate, I did not call the docs at Emory. I did, however, call the folks at Hopkins and I got through to them.
After describing my symptoms and situation to her, Heather, Dr. Cameron’s physician’s assistant, told me she thought what I was experiencing is adhesions of scar tissue. That is scar tissue from the incision is adhering to my abdomen muscles. Presuming she is right, I need to work on stretching out the scar tissue (taking deep breaths, stretching out my abdomen, etc.). Eventually, the scar tissue will stretch out enough that the pain will go away. The sharp, twinging pain apparently is caused by muscle spasms.
Heather told me I could get completely off the pain meds I am on now and try to take muscle relaxants. However, taking the muscle relaxants merely represent another means of combating the pain. At the moment, I’m leaning toward staying on the pain meds, as we know they work of a sort. Oh, the tactile pain I described yesterday (and I’m experiencing again today), according to Heather, is a result of the nerve endings in my abdomen regenerating.
I will share this information with the Emory docs and we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I will continue to take morphine twice a day and oxycodone as often as needed. I worked almost an entire day today, so I’ll keep on keepin’ on until I’m told otherwise.
Merle