The next day, I called the nurse. She recommended I continue to take the Tylenol with Codeine, but add 3 colace a day, plus 2 senna at night. I ran right out and bought the medicine. But when I got home and looked at it, I was stymied. It was still early in the day. 3 colace?! What if I took it and got diarrhea, which was a distinct possibility? If I got it early, would I take an immodium? And then take the Tylenol with Codeine at night to got to sleep? That way would lead to constipation again.
Someone wrote to me about their experience with another painkiller: "after days of trial and error, we finally ended up ..." in her case it was several colace, senna, milk of magnesia, plus some prunes. But for me, the key words were "after days of trial and error". "Trial and Error" sounded like: Put yourself thru a lot of painful experiments. I really could not bring myself to do that to my body.
I waited until I saw Doctor Who a few days later. He blanched when I told him what the nurse had said. I'm glad I held off because he told me that dose would be too much. He said I would have to "Play around" to find the right dosage of colace. OK folks, playing around is the same as saying 'days of trial and error'. He also said to stop taking the immodium and only take the Tylenol with Codeine when I got diarrhea. Sounded ok, until I left the office and realized I usually got diarrhea early in the day. If I took Tylenol with Codeine at that time, it would knock me out.
He also had mentioned that the nurse I had spoken to was not his specific assistant who knew me but a generic nurse on call, spewing out the textbook answer (he didn't say this part) without really knowing ME.
At this point I was pretty mad. They say they will manage pain, but it seemed like they were leaving it up to me to CAUSE pain to myself in the pursuit of finding the right dose.
There will be a Part 3 to this saga.
2 comments:
I like your doc, he's right...you have to play around with it. I should have clarified my "days of trial and error" comment. What we did wrong was not taking enough right away. We waited too long to act which we won't do for the 2nd surgery next week. We found that the Colace works slowly. Our mix was 2 Colace in the morning, apple and prune mid day, 2 Colace at night, then Milk of Magnesia and the Smooth Move tea at night. As things improved we first stopped the magnesia...then the colace AM, then colace PM...and finally the tea. I think the key is taking all three types of laxitives, an osmotic, stimulant and softener. Good luck!!!
Jan
Trial and Error - does not have to mean lots of painful days. Start with the smallest dose of Colace! It is just a stool softener (available as a generic) and will not create diarrhea. If that does not work, try ONE Senakot with stool softener. Don't start with maximum dose plus Metamucil! But your doc is right, there is no way to know exactly what you need. Start small and you'll find out.
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