Thank you for clarifying. I suppose I can always blame my confusion on brain fog!

I appreciate your sharing this. Very interesting indeed.

deb,
*ROFLOL* that is a good one...............so let me see.......I take it that all the little quirks & tricks you teach one don't especially work???? *LOL* just teasing you............

Going on let's see 8 yrs here soon myself.........and the word game......YIKES!! I have to tell people the words meaning & then they give me the right word that I want to use *LOL* hubby is really good at that one.........

And for short term memory........well mine got really bad after back surgery (L5 to S1 fused, this after a fusion of L2-L4 in '05) last June 1st. I lost most of that day, due to surgery, along with June 2nd, 3rd & most of the 4th..........completely. I remember absolutely nothing of those days....NOTHING!! I ended up in a 'catatonic like state' I believe it might be called. I remember a little of that Monday evening & I was in such pain I begged them to let me die &/or to kill me cause I couldn't live that way. The pain was burning feet & due to the type of surgery cramps & muscle spasms in buttocks & down both legs. I couldn't stop crying & the pain was so bad I kept throwing up. I truly did want to die. The hospital doc that had my care thought I was a closet alcoholic on top of it. Sometime that night after 10pm, cause that is when my hubby went home, I went into this 'state' & I remember nothing until late afternoon Thursday. I was told that they thought they gave me too much pain medication so they stripped me of all meds & more than that even with some drug (can't remember the name of it). I went into this 'state' & where, when Jack came in, I didn't know who he was nor Seth, my son, nor even who I was. They all thought I would end up in a psych hospital for maybe the rest of my life. I was cussing everyone out, I wouldn't leave my nightgown down or stay covered up. It was like I didn't know what I was doing or saying........well I guess I didn't. They stripped so much essential 'stuff' out of me they had to give me insulin shots(I am not diabetic), thyroid medication(my thyroid is fine), blood pressure meds(I don't have high BP), potassium, & magnesium even thru my IV & oral vitamins once I could swallow again. Wed morning I tried to get out of bed & managed to do so & fell. They did a head CT & I was cleared. They were suppose to be watching me closely as I was in observation when I fell, then in ICU afterwards. They finally called a Neurologist in & he said to put me back on my pain meds (morphine). Idiot, the doc who had me, thought I was on too high a dose of morphine, it's what he told me on Friday. He still didn't have me up to my reg dose when I left. Did my feet hurt? yep. Did my back? nope. I didn't eat for all those days until Sat. Jack said when he looked into my eyes on Tuesday, I was not there.......I was just gone. After I started to come around (after they got me back on some morphine) it took me until Sat to tell them who the president was & I think the only reason I knew for sure was I had seen him on TV that morning. It took me until late Friday to get the day right. Until Sat to tell them the name of the hospital I was in & what city I was in. I wasn't able to eat or hardly drink I guess even after I started to come out of it, everything tasted nasty, like metal(I lost 12lbs). I could barely hold a conversation with anyone until late Sat. The nurses said they had never seen anyone come out that type of 'state' as fast as I did. Well anyway, my whole point of this is that since then my short term memory is just GONE for the most part. I forget ust about everything short term. I will forget to check email for over a week sometimes even. If I don't write notes it can get bad. I got us over drawn cause I forgot to do the bank statements even. And when I was signing out of the hospital I forgot how to write my whole last name. Took me a week after to get it right. That whole week is scarey for me to think about. It is like looking back into a black hole....those 4 days are a black hole for me!!! That is what it must be like for a coma patient to wake up & not remember anything ........to look back & see but a black hole. I can understand why they would wake up scared out of their wits. You don't think any time has elapsed but it has.

Well........... anyway.....hang on to what you got for short term memory cause kids it can be worse........way worse.............mine scares me anymore. I am hoping I don't forget to ask my doc in the morning before I have an SGB some very pertinent questions. I have been going over it & over it in my head so I don't forget. I could easily make a nightmare out of this short term memory thing..........

Sorry for all the rambling...........
Debby

omg debby.. so so sorry to hear about your experience.. I hope you can forget about it and get over it.. I know easier said that done.... The short term memory loss does seem so trivial compared to that.. Its just scarey sometimes.. The littlest things that seem to upset us all.. I hope you never ever have to go through that again.. It would be horrible the first time.. My heart goes out to you and your family..

Dear Debby -

I am so sorry to hear what you have been going through. May your amazing recovery continue.

The stuff they gave you might have been Nalaxone HCL (which used to be marketed as Narcan before it went generic) or a close cousin. Orally, it can be a wonder drug when taken in very small amounts with opioids: it strengthens the pain killing effect of just a small amount of the narcotic, thereby preventing/minimizing GI complications. But given iv, it cancels alll "mu-opioids" in your system instantly, and if you've built up a tollerance over time (as have most of us) it's supposed to be brutal. Sounds like it was and then some. Idiot doctor!!!



much love,
Mike

Debby,

Thanks for sharing your story with us. How scary for you. We think we can trust our doctors to take proper care of us, its so sad that its just not the case. I'm so sorry. It gives all of us something to consider should we ever need to be hospitalized.

I just finished reading "A Body Broken" by Lynne Greenberg last week. She had a lot of issues with pain meds and addiction because of her chronic pain. A great read!! And something that you would relate to 100%.

Thanks again for the heads up XOXOX Sandy

Thanks everyone...........it means alot. And yes it was brutal for my family to go thru. As for me, the brutal part is knowing how bad it was for my family to go thru it & in looking back that I actually lost all those days & remember nothing. My surgeon said it was probably a good thing. Also when I came out it the pain I had from my back was gone too. So the surgery was a success in that respect. I mean it was in all my records the meds there of what I take, how much & how often. And he still kept saying after I came too that it was too high a dose even for RSD. He was NOT my PC doc. Mine doesn't have privileges in the valley (Sacramento, just up in the foothills hospital & the surgery had to be done down there.

Well I kept forgetting how to write my last name today at the Surgi clinic where I had the SGB done. I kept leaving the 'i' out of my last name & I had to sign alot of papers & the more I signed the worse it got. Now that is the first time that has happened since last June. The thing is I knew where that 'i' went & I just kept forgetting to put the darn thing my signature. And I haven't told anyone even my husband. When I am a really old woman I wonder how bad it will be then *LOL*

atleast its just the little things to worry about right now.. later on are the bigger concerns.. But a friend told me, months ago to live one day at a time.. thats they only way to survive this. and she was very right on.. and thats all we can hope to do..

I have this problem too. I will be driving down the road and forget where I'm going forget that I did drop my daughter off at the babysitters. Then I will be talking to someone and stop in mid sentence and forget what we were just talking about. I was on lyrica I took myself off I didn't like the way it made me feel. I'm just trying to cope with the pain w/o meds not really having luck with it. But am trying and really have to try now since I just got a job.

yea me too. Im a cashier at walmart. And i forget alot of things. Im trying to retrain my brain. Its helping but not much. But its a process i go through.just so i can feel good about myself. I need to work to do that right now. I love working. havent accepted being disabled yet.