Doing much better

Hello friends,

I think the saying "No news is good news" holds a lot of truth. Things have gotten much better lately for me without the medication. With the drugs out of my system, I am able to once again think clearly, which is a joy. I'm still not a 100% there when it comes to stamina (no 12 hour work days for me anytime soon), but I'm more or less back.

What does the future hold? Well, I'll probably be going back to work in a few weeks on a part time basis. At the same time, I'll be continuing the regime of physical therapy as well as the various doctor's appointments.

A few people have asked to see a picture of me, the one here is from a great trip we just had to the Canadian Rockies. In the picture you can see me and Shira and behind us is the amazing Lake Louise up in Banff National Park.

Take care,
Guy

Still in rehab

Hi All,

Thanks for all the great comments. I have to tell you that I'm still surprised (and maybe I shouldn't be) at how difficut this withdrawal is. I'm not exactly whimpering in a corner as Igor imagined me to be :-), but I have many days where I can barely get away from the sofa. Thinking back, the options I had were to suffer a great deal more with smaller doses of medication, or go through this current yucky stage. Given those two options, I would still opt for the way things were actually handled, things aren't fun, but I would have suffered much more otherwise.

My hope is that I'm going to be getting my stamina back after I'm finished with the medication. I have a suspicion that that would take some time too. Still, today is a good day, and I'll make the most of it!

I'll keep you posted,
Guy

Post Op is fine but what about those drugs?

Hi All,

I eventually had the palate operation the week before last. My mouth did hurt a little and I was able to eat only soft foods, but things gradually improved and I'm hoping to be able to forget about this in a week or so.

Other than that, I've been trying to reduce my medication. It turns out that with the pain that I had, the amount of medication I was prescribed was significant. So much so, that the process I need to undergo is very much like a drug withdrawal that an addict would go through. I'm having trouble with sleep, moods, I'm hot and cold, appetite is gone, etc. We are taking it easy by gradually decreasing the dosage. We're not going to go 'cold turkey' (i.e. we won't cut off all the medication at once); the doctors don't think that I would like sitting in a corner whimpering :-)

So far I reduced 50% of my medication, but I did it a little too quickly, hence a pretty bad reaction that I experienced in the last week and a half. We're hoping that a slower process will cause milder symptoms.


Take care everyone,
Guy

Here we go again

Hello,

OK, let's give it another try. On Monday morning, I'm hoping to go into the OR and have my palate fixed. btw, they were supposed to remove a tooth from my lower jaw, but we ended up deciding to keep it there until we got to a stage where we would start working on the implants.

Otherwise, I'm a little groggy and forgetful, we think it's the medication (hoping). We'll be trying to address this over the next few weeks. As for the shoulders, I'm continuing to make progress with physical therapy.

Have a good weekend!
Guy

Well, it didn't happen

Hi Folks,

During the days leading to and the day of the procedure, I was not feeling well. My pain was increasing substantially and my overall feeling was not good. Consulting with the surgeon, we both decided that it was probably not a good idea to go through with the surgery since it entailed general anasthesia.

I'm on some stronger meds now and working hard with the physical therapist to get my shoulders to where they need to be (hopefully that will reduce the pain). The good news is that this recent week I've been feeling a lot better. So, if you feel the urge to pick up the phone or drive over for a visit, please go ahead, I love you all :-)

Cheers,
-Guy

Another one coming up

Hi there,

Well, I wasn't sure I wanted to have this operation, but it seems the prudent thing to do. I have this little hole in my palate (between the mouth and nose) that bugs me for one but is also posing a risk for infections since food and liquid are going where they don't belong. In order to have it completely closed, I need to get it surgically fixed, so that's what I'm going to do this coming Monday. While I'm under, I'll also have a tooth that's been identified from the beginning pulled.

Not too big of an operation, but still, I can expect some significant amount of discomfort later in the week. What can you do? :-)

Also, depending on how I feel, I will be getting braces next week. They already put some plastic thingies called spacers between my back teeth to open up room for the anchor. Those things are very annoying. With the spacers, operation and braces I will be back to a soft food diet for a couple of weeks. Yuck!

Wish me luck,
-Guy

What's up?

Hi All,

Well, nothing spectacular has happened lately. I'm getting ready to have some more work done on my mouth. We'll be pulling a tooth out (it's broken and there isn't enough bone there to support it) and I'll also be getting braces and some temporary teeth. Yay!

Otherwise things are pretty good. I'm making good progress on physical therapy which allows me to do more and more of what I used to be doing in the past. There's still a long ways to go, but things are encouraging.

Be Well,
-Guy