Monday, July 23, 2012

Mommy's Miracle Drug

Well, I have found the perfect medicine to cure all of my ills; say hello to my bottle of Percocet! It's made up of acetaminophen with oxycodone, so it's basically super Tylenol. That being said, I would like to make it clear that I would never abuse a prescription narcotic by taking it routinely for minor issues. However, it fixes everything that is ever really wrong with me. Migraine? Check. Postpartum pain? Check. Gallbladder attacks? Check. Stuffy nose? Eh, I'm okay just taking Sudafed.

I've suffered from migraines since I was in my early teens, and they always follow the same pattern. My first sign that one is about to strike is an out-of-body feeling. I'll look at my hands and suddenly feel like they don't belong to me, and that my body isn't really attached anymore. I start slurring words and/or having trouble thinking of specific words that I'm trying to say. Then, I start seeing flashing lights in highlighter colors (hot pink, lime green, and neon yellow) that start in the lower right corner of my vision and slowly take over until I can't see anything else anymore, and my balance is impaired. That cues the horrible pain that lives behind my left supra-orbital process (eye/eyebrow bone). In the past couple of years, the last three fingers on my left hand have started going numb and tingly, and sometimes the left side of my face and lips does too. Honestly, that scared me to death the first time it happened. I was pregnant with Evie and thought I was having a stroke. I cried to Todd that I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to hold my baby. It turns out, though, that numbness is actually pretty common in "aura migraines" like mine. While I was pregnant with Evie, I had a few really debilitating migraines during the first trimester, and then I didn't have another one until I was pregnant with Ella. Once I hit the second trimester, the migraines stopped, and I was confident that I would follow the pattern I set with Evie and be able to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy headache-free. I even thought to myself that maybe I wouldn't have another migraine for a couple more years until we have another baby. Then, in the middle of my third trimester, I got another one. I felt a little betrayed by my body. It was sort of funny, because while I was lying in bed, my OB/GYN's nurse called to reschedule that week's appointment. I told her that was fine, and then told her about my headache. Since I was pregnant, there wasn't much I could take for pain relief, and I asked for her advice. She got concerned, and asked about my symptoms. When I described them, she told me she would talk to my doctor and call me back. A little while later, she called to tell me that my doctor had prescribed acetaminophen with codeine--Percocet's little brother. When Todd got home, I sent him to fill my prescription, and once I took my pills, I started feeling better. I was very careful to use only what I needed so that if I had anymore headaches, I would still have medicine available, and at my appointment, I thanked my doctor for helping me find a form of pain relief that was safe for my baby.

When my girls were born, I was prescribed Percocet to help relieve any postpartum pain. With Evie, I healed quickly, but was still quite sore when I went home, and was sad that I was only sent home with 10 pills. With Ella, I healed even more quickly, and didn't need as many pain pills as I did with Evie; I mostly only hurt while I was nursing, because Ella's suckling helped tighten my uterus back to its original size, and I wanted pills to help with the cramping. This time around, I was sent home with 30 pills, and I'm still hoarding them, too. I noticed that the composition was very similar to my migraine medicine, so I asked the nurse about them. She told me that codeine is just a milder form of oxycodone, so all of my pain pills are very similar, and almost interchangeable. I keep them separate, but I figure that once my codeine pills are gone, I can use some of my leftover Percocet to relieve any migraines I may have, and will probably have even better and more immediate relief from the pain. And since they prescribed it to a nursing mother, I'm sure that even the stronger Percocet is still safer for me to take during any future pregnancies than aspirin is.

Last year, when I had all my gallbladder issues and ended up in the emergency room, the doctor did a whole bunch of tests on me, but all he did to actually help me with the pain was to give me a Percocet and send me home with a prescription (which I never filled). It sure worked, though! Of course, I've also figured out how to minimize my attacks, so they don't happen very often anymore. I don't really like spicy food anyway, so it's easy to avoid it. I learned that most pizza was fine for me to eat, but specific brands (Papa John's and Little Ceasars) would set me off. However, I don't really like either of those brands anyway, so it was no big deal. If I do wake up in the middle of the night with a gallbladder attack coming on, I take some Tylenol, go to the bathroom, and, if absolutely necessary, throw up whatever was making my belly hurt. Most attacks are little, and they go away within an hour, but I'm a little concerned because I started having them soon after Evie was born, and now that Ella is a few weeks old, I feel like I'm due for some more severe attacks soon. If my gallbladder flares up again this time around, though, and nothing else works to kill the excruciating pain, I'm willing to take one of my precious pills because I know it'll work, and it's what the doctor would give me anyway. Hooray for the modern medicinal miracle that is Percocet!

No comments:

Post a Comment