Archive for September 2009
Halucinations
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My stay in hospital (cont.)
When my doctor turned up on day 1 of my morphine detox program, he injected about 5ml of Ketamine anesthetic into my stomach. Within a minute, I started to become disoriented – as in being drunk.
Within five minutes, I was halucinating. My field of vision became two dimensional. The hospital ward and my body appeared to be in a horizontal plane and I didn’t know if I was looking at an image in my mind or whether it was real. I had to feel for my body parts to locate them in my mind’s image.
They inserted a small canula into my stomach connected to a 50 ml syringe of the ketamine controlled by a pump. For the entire stay, this ketamine infusion continued. Every few days for two weeks, they increased the strength and as the anaesthetic built up in the system, the pain was all but eliminated. The side effect was the dulling of the brain, loss of memory and shortness of breath – a relatively pain free state whilst maintaining a limited awareness.
It is used for operating on children and is apparently used as a vetinary anaesthetic. If I was in extreme pain on my death bed, I would be looking for this process at a really high dose to ease my passing.
Breaking the morphine habit
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The week at the Benalla Hospital turned into three – I got home to see the Grand Final. As predicted, they have removed the morphine from my system but, as sure as hell, it has done nothing to ease the pain.
You see, when the blood PSA count returned to 1.0, my Urologist declared the cancer to be in remission. The latest nuclear scan showed no new activity in the bone metastases. Therefore, my doctor declared that, in remission, there can be more pain, Well I say bullshit to that!
They have sent me home with a narcotic patch which tricks the brain into making other medications confuse the morphine receptors. Another tablet to take when I wake up in pain to prevent panic as I try to deal with the pain over the next hour along with Panadol as the basic pain medicaton. I am definately less functional that when I walked into the hospital.
Greg’s annual holiday
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Tomorrow, I am to be booked into the Benalla Hospital for about a week but you won’t notice a difference because I haven’t been up to posting much lately.
I have been on morphine since my prostate cancer was diagnosed back in April 2008. As time goes by, the body becomes immune and the dosage has to be increased. The current dose is 100 mg both morning and evenings with liquid shots as required to manage the pain breakthrough.
The objective is to infuse some other pain killer through a tube into the stomach whilst my body adjusts to going without the ‘Hillbilly Heroin”. I have been told that it is not a comfortable time and that the side effects are a build-up of fluids and an increase in appetite. I am genuinely not looking forward to the process. They say this process resets the pain receptors so that less medication is rquired to manage the pain.
From the outside, it probably looks just like one more medical procedure but from the patients standpoint, it is just another reminder of the disease that is wasting you away.
Monarchist and Republican antagonists together
It is interesting to see our Sophie out and about (up Bankstown/Hornsby way, NSW) with the Liberal Leader, Malcolm Turnbull when they have a long term conflict dating before either of them entered politics.
Malcolm was the spokesman for the Republican Movement whilst Sophie made a name for herself in the Young Liberals by defending the Monarchists at the Republican debate back in1999.
Should /when a leadership spill occurs, will the Republican/Monarchist issue see Sophie left out of the pointy end of government or will Sophie and her ginger group try to roll Mr Turnbull?
A question of priorities
I am disturbed by this story in the Herald Sun.
Birth induced so Brian Lake can play final
By Mark Stevens
September 01, 2009 09:25am
DOCTORS will tomorrow induce the birth of Western Bulldog Brian Lake’s girl, ensuring the star full-back will be available for the AFL finals …
Lake’s fiancee, Shannon O’Malley, was due to give birth on September 16, but after consultation with doctors the pair agreed to bring the birth at Freemason’s Hospital forward …
“Obviously the idea was to do it mid-week because with footy finals I didn’t want to be worried about it around Saturday or Sunday.”
In 2000, Brisbane Lions star Daniel Bradshaw missed an MCG elimination final to be at the birth of his first child. The Lions lost.
Three years ago, Sydney Swan Darren Jolly vowed to miss the Grand Final to be at his pregnant wife’s side but was spared the decision when his daughter arrived 48 hours before the bounce.
Others have played on. Kangaroos forward Saverio Rocca left his wife in labour to play in a 2005 elimination final.
