Hep C Discussion Forum

LamontCranston · Senior Member

Who knew? (and Christmas check in)

LamontCranston · Senior Member

Tig wrote:
......Was on pain management for about 14 years and then cut off after the whole opioid crisis came to be. I too was on Methadone and let me tell you, it's one of the most difficult drugs to wean off of. I can't even get the docs down here to give me 5mg Hydrocodone. They've tested, XRayed and MRI'd me to death. I think by now I must glow in the dark and their solution, ibuprofen, physical therapy and a safe space to talk about it, lol! Never mind the increasing spinal cord and nerve damage. Oh well.
Good to hear from ya, Brother! Enjoy the ride....

Yeah, I like to blame the "Opioid Crisis" on Jeff Sessions who has/had a huge stake in the Prison for Profit Industry. Like "Hey, who can we pick on that has little political clout to fight back? Yeah, those people in pain are a great scapegoat, let's get them."

I find it infuriating, to be honest. Even my HMO, who originally prescribed methadone for me, has got an attitude about opioid drugs. I have to conform to a strict 28 days of pills, and a yearly drug screen, even though I was OK without any supervision for 15 years. My doctor claims it's the govt. and that they are requiring more and more intervention.

The people most negatively impacted by the govt interference are people in pain, not drug addicts or other people misbehaving around medications. ridiculous!

Tig · Admin

Hey Lamont,

The BP elevation happens to me, a lot. I've been on Atenolol 100mg/d for years and seems to provide fair protection, but like you, I'm plagued with periodic spikes. I take my pressure all the time and for the most part it's good. The doc says we should increase it, but these drugs have a way of affecting us in ways that aren't particularly advantageous. They make me tired and light headed. I don't need help being light headed, I can do that all by myself!

I'm glad to hear the LFT's are good and life has been treating you well. I wish I could find a doc that was willing to dispense opioids. I've been living with spinal issues for so long there's nothing more they can do. Was on pain management for about 14 years and then cut off after the whole opioid crisis came to be. I too was on Methadone and let me tell you, it's one of the most difficult drugs to wean off of. I can't even get the docs down here to give me 5mg Hydrocodone. They've tested, XRayed and MRI'd me to death. I think by now I must glow in the dark and their solution, ibuprofen, physical therapy and a safe space to talk about it, lol! Never mind the increasing spinal cord and nerve damage. Oh well.

Good to hear from ya, Brother! Enjoy the ride....

LamontCranston · Senior Member

Post holiday update....

I had an appt with my GP yesterday, a "follow-up" to the hospital fun. I have to think I was having an anxiety attack yesterday AM as my BP was soaring in the 190/80 range when I took it after getting up. My heart rate was also galloping like mad, pounding at 120 or so. Of course that made me even more anxious, thinking about how they would react when I got to the doctor. (They always take vitals when you check in at Kaiser)

On the drive over to the appt, I tried to calm myself down, and traffic was unnaturally mellow so I had that on my side....

Still when I sat down to get my BP tested, it showed 168/70, then again at 166/70 a few minutes later. I even mentioned that I was feeling anxious. The nurse, who is always nice, said, "Yes, it is kind of high.." Ya think?

They deposited me in an exam room, where I consumed a 3 year old Sunset magazine article on "Fishing Cabins", and then paced around the little room like a dog at the pound.

My doctor was her usual impassive, "uh huh" self. I reported to her that I thought I might be having an anxiety attack, and she was only vaguely concerned. She poked at my liver, pancreas and gall bladder, looked in my my mouth, "Say ahhh" and the usual doctor stuff. She then took my BP and it was 116/55....
OK, that was weird. So no changes to my BP meds, which are 20mg of lisinopril daily. A year ago, I was taking Lisonopril 40mg and HCTZ 10mg, and my BP was a little higher. OK, I'll take it. We didn't discuss the Bactrim thing, the one that nearly killed me, and I guess that is just as well, as I might have had something to say about it.

She sent me off to the lab to get a few of those little tubes filled up, and said, "See you in 6 months."

The lab results came in this AM, all normal, even my GFR (Kidney function) was normal. Big "whew"... of course the first thing that came to mind was "Cheeseburger!" My fat-free diet has been tolerable and I've peeled off 15 lbs over the past 6 weeks, but I have to admit, I miss things like Butter, Meat, and of course those "cheeburgies".

Just a thought on pain meds...I've been taking 20mg of methadone 3 x's a day for nearly 20 years. Other than my occasional constipation, which may or may not be related, the only side effect is that I can function like most people. Before treatment with methadone, my days ended before 11AM, due to spinal headaches that were pretty much unbearable. I had relief starting with the very first dose, and for the past 20 years I have only the occasional bad day, and never 2 bad days in a row. As long as I don't forget to take my meds, my pain rarely exceeds a 3 out of 10, and much of the time, it's 0 out of 10. I am lucky that I haven't needed any titration UP since maybe a year after starting it. Since then, I've never needed an increase to control my MS related pain. I will say this, if I get a toothache or other pain, that methadone does absolutely nothing, so some kind of other kind medication is required. Fortunately that hasn't been too often.:)

Anyway.

It's nice to be back to normal. For people such as ourselves, we like it when our liver labs are normal. Time to take a motorcycle ride, the rain has stopped and the sun is coming out.

-- Edited by LamontCranston on Wednesday 22nd of January 2020 12:53:26 PM

-- Edited by LamontCranston on Wednesday 22nd of January 2020 01:06:16 PM

Tig · Admin

Lamont,

You never seem to do anything halfway! I’m so glad you‘re on the mend. I hope you were able to enjoy the holiday. I had a good pain management doc, right before my insurance changed after the ACA was enacted. My doc also changed me over to Methadone due to the Tylenol in the meds I was on. It worked well, but was terribly hard to stop when I lost my doctor. I weaned myself off of it over several months of dose reductions. Living with pain in a society that blames opioids for everything, is difficult. When the damage is irreparable, they are often the only source of pain relief.

5-1-18 · Guru

i agree about pain management; some ppl are able to use it and are not abusing it.

i'm glad you have such a good doctor.

LamontCranston · Senior Member

The day they hospitalized me, they MRI'd, sonogrammed and Cat-scanned my pancreas, gallbladder and liver, and did blood work. They thought that I may have "chucked" a gallstone, but there wasn't any dilation of my ducts, so maybe it was pancreatitis, but after a thorough review, that may or may not have been the case.

For all they know, it could have been all 3! Hepatitis, pancreatitis, and a gallstone, all at once... I am sure it's possible. Dr. "P" is generally a skeptic and likes to point out the obvious, like "what changed?" The bactrim was the main thing that changed, and it can be a direct cause of Drug-Induced Hep, and pancreatitis, gallstone...maybe not. The fever now reminds me of the Hep A I had way back in the 80s after a trip to Mexico. No jaundice, but the fever, dizziness and nausea were similar.

So, I'll go with door #3, Drug-Induced Hepatitis.

:)

They did send me home with a No-Fat If Possible Diet, plenty of water, gatorade type electrolyte drinks etc, as though I had pancreatitis, but that diet works for Hepatitis, too. Tylenol is added to Vicodin, mainly to discourage people from abusing it, but they don't Say That, so people trash their livers with it while abusing Vicodin/Norco. I think Percodan is also adulterated with tylenol.

I have been taking methadone for spinal headaches caused by MS, for about 20 years now. No sedation, no sides to speak of, in fact, I was able to return to working full time thanks to the relief I got from it. No increase in dosage for 15 years, either, so I have no complaints about that. Chronic pain is a real life-wrecker for many people. Sure, it's always better to be drug-free, but on the other hand, no one wants their days to end before they get started because their pain overwhelms everything else.

-- Edited by LamontCranston on Wednesday 25th of December 2019 02:51:04 PM

5-1-18 · Guru

RE: Who knew? (and Christmas check in)3

LamontCranston · Senior Member

RE: Who knew? (and Christmas check in)

LamontCranston · Senior Member

Thanks for the great "hello"... yes, my gastro is a national treasure, and a dam good detective, too. Just a few years ago, while I was seeking help for my transient-chronic constipation, he suggested that a L1-L2 herniation might be a good place to look. An MRI revealed an anterior herniation of epic proportions, a few weeks of PT helped me to get mostly sorted out. Who woulda thunk, eh?

My GP always follows the risk vs reward protocol, which is generally a good thing. After having done a few courses of Ciprofloxin without any ill-effects, it wasn't a big leap to prescribe Bactrim, a similar sulfa based anti-biotic. My mistake wasn't making myself heard when I began to experience some bothersome side-effects. The sudden high fever could have been some random virus, right? But was probably the onset of drug-induced hepatitis. To be honest, I have never heard of such a thing. But there it is.

So glad to see my "Liver Labs" quickly improving soon after I stopped taking that stuff. My next labs are on January 7 2020, and I'm hoping to see things getting even better. The really ironic, but great news out of all of this is that my pitiful kidney function (GFR) numbers have completely returned to normal. Bizarre. My GFR was bouncing around in the low 50s for a year, and a 3 day course of IV feeding totally re-hydrated my kidneys and boing, they're right where they ought to be for a 67 year old. I'm not complaining!

Our bodies are just a big chemistry lab, I suppose....

So far, my moto-rides have been abbreviated due to some residual icky-ness, but I am feeling a little better everyday, and sticking to my revised diet like a religion. No way I want to slow down the recovery.

And Happy Holidays to all, however you celebrate!

Observer · Guru

Oh my goodness Lamont. What a terrible ordeal for you. I have heard of drug induced hepatitis....a young woman was in the papers up here a year or so ago because she had it from over doing Tylenol...

Im so glad your clever Dr took the time and care to figure it out and you know to never have bactrim ever again.yikes

Happy holydaze

Cheddy · Moderator

Amazing. What a treacherous experience. Sound terrifying.

It warms my heart to hear that your doctors stayed on it until you were satisfied and treated effectively, as did you. A darn good thing.

Now, what I want to know is how that motorcycle ride went. Sun after rain on the California Coast, when the air is fresh, is a beautiful thing.

I hope you are doing all the happy liver things: healthy diet, etc.

I hope your holidays are sunny and bright. You deserve it.

Cheddy

LamontCranston · Senior Member

Happy everything to all here. I hope the season finds you well, or on your way to being so. Sorry to have been absent so long, but there is never a shortage of people with HCV.

I'm at year 2 of Cured By Epclusa, but found out the hard way that there are even more hepatitises than the standard "Alphabet Heps".

I found out the old-fashioned way, by getting one!

In October I may or may not have developed a prostate infection, the diagnostics were the the usual cold, lubed, digital type and a review of symptoms. OK, so my doc does the indicted thing and puts me on a 2 week course of Cipro. It gets better. But comes back in a couple of weeks.

Ok, "We aren't fooling around anymore." so she put me on a 6 week course of Bactrim(Septra) to annihilate it. I found the treatment to be unpleasant at best, until Kablam, I developed a fever of 101.5-103.2 Fahrenheit for 4 days. On the 5th day the fever broke, and I was ordered to do a fasting/blood work to see what was going on.

Next stop was the Emergency Room, and I was admitted. After 3 days of imaging/tests and being fed Only Fluids through an IV, I was tentatively DX's with pancreatitis after "possibly" passing a gallstone. But who knows, right? Imaging showed no stones in gallbladder.

A week back home and made an appt to see my regular Gastro-Genius Doctor. I love this guy, he spent 1.5 hours with me, full review of all the diagnostic work, using the whiteboard in his office to track the course of this bizarre sequence of events.

Conclusion? pancreatitis? maybe, but probably something else, like "Drug Induced Hepatitis". Liver labs improved so there is every expectation they will keep improving, since NO more Bactrim for me, not ever. I was at the pharmacy yesterday to pick up my regular meds, and the pharmacy clerk checked my "profile" for me. Sho enuf! "No Bactrim for this dude!" Clearly someone has been noticing and made a point of adding that to my medical record.

Today, the sun came out in San Francisco, after a few days of rain, so I'll be seeing how my liver likes a motorcycle ride up the coast.

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