Take norco at 1240 am, really drowsy. Sleep (or drug induced haze) until 215 am. Take an oxy and sleep/haze until 345. Ankle is not responding to pain medication and I am in complete agony. Take norco at 4am. Due to take another norco at 5 but am nervous about getting too close to 4 grams of acetaminophen in 24 hours. Please see the importance of keeping a log of your drug intake as this is critical. Acetaminophen poisoning is not a fun way to die (or so I've read)! Decide to take an oxy at 5 am instead. Ankle is burning and whole foot feels like it is going to burst. At 530 am, I am very drowsy but do not have relief from pain. Plan to call doctors office in the morning to see if alternate pain management program is available. Not sure how much my previous use of Norco is impacting the effectiveness of pain killers.
I think I slept from 630 to 730am. Woke up in even more pain than before. I call the doctors office at 8:05 and leave a message for surgical nurse. She calls back 5 minutes later and says she will write another script for Oxycodone SR (extended release). She also says that we may want to consider going to ER to get pain under control. My mother, who is taking care of me but can not drive, is getting very worried. At 8:30, a sibling agrees to pick up script. At 9 am, I call sibling again and leave a voicemail that I just need to go to ER. This is horribly embarrassing but there were tears flowing. I'll mention it again, I'm 34, have had multiple surgeries in the past, have even walked around on a broken leg for a week before going to doctor, have had my finger tips (flesh and bone) crushed off in a steel door, and nothing compares to what I'm going through. At 10:30 am, I'm going to call an ambulance to take me to ER. My mother says she can drive and loads me in car.
ER:
I would like to note that I'm fortunate to live in a town that is known for its hospitals. I arrive at 11am and security guard wheels me into admitting area. I provide my date of birth and name. One minute later, I am moved into triage where nurse takes vitals. 2 minutes later, I am wheeled into an ER room. I can't even look at people at this point. 1 minute later, the ER doc comes in, does an exam and asks questions. I hate to admit it again, but the tears are rolling. Fortunately, I brought my medication log which greatly helped his ability to prescribe additional pain medication. He said he would put a call in to the orthopedic resident and order me a shot of dilaudid (hydromorphone). For those not familiar with meds, look it up, strong stuff (I believe it is second to fetanyl). 20 minutes later, a nurse came in and injected me in hip. Could only give me half the normal dose due to the amount of meds already in my system. Shot didn't do anything for pain. At this point, things are getting a bit fuzzy. Ortho resident then came in, cut open the top of my surgical cast to make sure it wasn't too tight and to inspect leg. ER doc came back in and ordered more pain shots. I don't remember this but I guess I was still writhing in pain so they kept pumping me up with shots. After a few hours, they called in the head of pharmacology who put together a super cocktail of pain killers. I was told it finally worked.
Ortho resident wanted to get an x-ray of ankle to make sure nothing had shifted. I remember being nervous but they were very gentle and used a machine that moved around me and provided immediate digital images. Everything looked fine.
ER doc then came in and said they need to admit me in order to keep pain under control. They put in IV and wheeled me up to room. I remember telling the nurse that they had a hard time getting my pain under control and she laughed at me saying that doesn't even being to explain it. She was amazed by the amount of meds they had to give me.
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