Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Uses For The Iphone When Taking Narcotics

There is a great Iphone application.  It is the flashlight. This is how to use it.  I open up the email module of the iphone so it will stay lit and not go into sleep mode and there you have it -  wa la - light. 
 
In the past week I have been in severe pain as the cumulative effects of radiation show themselves. This has led to the necessity of taking narcotic pain relievers in the middle of the night.  I have always tried to tough out the pain.   Due to bad experiences with taking Vikodin earlier in my medical odyessy, I was so extremely cautious about using my Vikodin or Dilaudid prescription that I undermedicated myself.  I took pride in the fact that for the past couple of months I was only using Motrin. 
I got such severe pain that my leg started to swell in ways that Motrin was simply not going to cut down, not even close.   "Excruciating" was the word I used to describe the pain. So I needed my cell phone to open those child proof bottles in the middle of the night.
I also discovered that in pain management there are short-acting and time-released narcotics.  After meeting with the Pain Management people a few times I was able to get the dose right so I could take less pain medication and get more pain relief using higher doses of long-acting Oxycontin and using Dilaudid for breakthrough pain.  These drugs are like a god-send. They have made me functional again. The only unwanted side-effect thus far is constipation.