Tag Archives: medication

Daily suffering ends

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A couple years ago I had a herniated disk. The herniation pinched a nerve going into my left arm and that’s where I felt the pain… a pain that seemed ever present. I was on very strong meds. I supplemented these with legal but more recreational drugs. The prescription ones made the pain tolerable. The recreational ones helped me move the pain from my brain to my arm, to relieve the anguish of being in constant pain.

The timing went like this: In early February the pain started. In early March I got the preliminary diagnosis, and was prescribed medication. I visited my parents for March break and the day I arrived my dad had a stroke. I spent the next 12 days in agony, helping my family deal with dad hospitalized, while making physio appointments and getting IMS treatment for the constant physical agony I was in.

When I got home from that trip I got prescribed much harder drugs. I was in constant pain. One day in late April I was driving to school and I realized that I shouldn’t be driving, my meds were too strong. This hit me hard, I instantly made the connection that if I shouldn’t be driving, I shouldn’t be in charge of a school. I was able to make a doctor’s appointment the very next day, and I got a letter to take some time off. That day I also got a phone call to say that I better get home to my parents. My dad, who never left the hospital since his stroke, had taken a turn for the worse and probably wouldn’t make it through the night.

I said a final goodbye to him over the phone before getting on a late night flight. I’ll never know if he heard those words. I spent another 10 or so days back with my mom, cleaning up things my dad left behind that needed to get cleaned up. At this point I was also supplementing my prescription.

I hit a low point after I returned home. One unusually painful night I had to ask my daughter to drive me to the dispensary… a dad asking his daughter to drive him to get his fix. That’s not really what it was, but it felt like that to me. Loser dad who can barely get himself from bed to the couch, and didn’t have the wherewithal to even get dinner ready for a wife working full time, having to get his daughter to drive him to buy drugs. Not a proud moment for me.

Within a couple more weeks, the inflammation reduced, the nerve wasn’t compressed as much, and I was able to get back to only a mild prescription… And then back to work after 5 or 6 weeks off. The whole experience was awful physically and emotionally, but it had an end! I knew it had an end, but sometimes at my worst I questioned it. I wondered, if this is life from now on, could I go on?

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My sister had an MS diagnosis for over 25 years. Slowly and incrementally she lost feeling in her legs. They were numb to the touch, but she felt pain, searing sciatica pain. Shooting pain that ran down her legs. For the most part things would stay static, then she’d have a small episode, and she’d lose a bit more feeling, be a bit less mobile, but the pain persisted. About 4-5 years ago the episodes escalated, and her mobility declined much more quickly. And still the pain.

Recently it became clear that she’d be moving from a walker to a wheelchair. A week ago she had six falls (only 6 that I’m aware of in that week). She would cut her finger cutting vegetables, and not feel it, only becoming aware of the injury from seeing the blood. And despite this numbness and lack of feeling, there was still the never-ending sciatica pain.

On Monday her daily pain was ended. 56 years old. Half of that time in incrementally greater pain. I can honestly say that she was stronger than me.

I’ll miss her dearly, and yet I’m thankful she isn’t going to suffer any more.

Sharon Silvera Truss
May 15, 1969 – November 24, 2025

Sick day

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Well, it got me. Despite my flu shot and doing my best to eat well, take my vitamins, get enough sleep, and stay healthy, I caught a cold this weekend. It started with a tickle in my throat Thursday night. I could feel my body fighting it on Friday during my conference session, and while I thought I got the better of it on Saturday, it proved to get the better of me on Sunday. Even taking Tylenol cold night time medication, I had a horrible sleep, waking up almost every hour completely congested and/or needing to go to the bathroom. I finally surrendered fully to it and booked the day off at 3am.

I’m not usually someone that can sleep in without getting a head-ache, but I didn’t even get up for breakfast until after 11am. The good news is that I think I’m over the worst of it. I haven’t had to pump more cold medication into me for almost 8 hours now, and I can breathe easily, with minimal sniffling. I’ll be sure to take some meds tonight before bed, and I should be (almost) back to normal tomorrow.

Reflecting back, I think it has been over a year since I’ve been sick with a cold. It has been a good run of staying healthy, and as I recover today, let’s hope I start a new healthy streak.

Amazing results

I’ve been on a bit of a health journey since 2019. I consistently exercising, I eat very little sugary foods, and for the most part eat quite healthily. Yet from 2019 to 2024 my cholesterol has gone from not great to bad, and I’ve watched my blood pressure move from optimum to the top end of normal, which is a big jump in just a few years.

When my cholesterol got worse between my 2022 and early 2024 test results, my doctor, not knowing the extent of my healthy routines, suggested I watch my diet for a few months and test again. I booked another appointment with her. I explained that I could definitely increase my fibre intake, but that cholesterol was a genetic issue on both sides of my family.

I shared that my mom’s dad died too early due to cholesterol issues. My mom has been on statins for 17 years, and my dad’s brother is 20 years older than me and was put on statins 20 years ago. Basically requested to be put on statins. Her immediate response was why I value her as a doctor. She said that she would rather that I consulted a cardiovascular specialist first, and set up an appointment.

That was great until, still waiting for my appointment 2 months later, I learned that I was declined an appointment. It seems that being on the cusp of unhealthy, (based on norms of people far less healthy than I am), I am not critical enough to get a specialist appointment. As a bit of a rant, do I really need to have a heart episode or stroke before I fix my cholesterol issue? I think that’s the sign of a broken medical system. So, with this news, my doctor said she would put me on statins and we could retest my bloodwork after 6 months.

It has been just over 7 months on medication and I just got my bloodwork results. The results are shockingly good. I assumed they would be better than they were on my last test because during the past few months I’ve seen my blood pressure drop into the low range of normal, almost back to optimal. But to see such a large drop in my cholesterol in only 7 months definitely shows the medication is working.

I can control a lot of my heatlh with exercise and healthy eating, but the reality is that cholesterol is mostly genetic, and when it comes to cholesterol, I’ve got bad genes on both sides of the family. I chose to take statins under doctor supervision, and I did my own research too.

In all honesty, I was not expecting such positive results. A previous blood tests showed that I have high lipoprotein (a) which is a bad combination to have with high cholesterol because this protein likes to hold onto the bad LDL cholesterol. And new research shows that statins are less likely to show success in people with high lipoprotein (a). But my test results speak for themselves.

So now I’m probably going to be on statins for the rest of my life. And frankly I’m quite happy about that. It’s working for my mom, and my uncle, and it’s fixing something that I don’t have the power to fix with my lifestyle. I won’t pretend that I’ve noticed any physical or health changes in the last few months. In reality I feel the same as I did before I started medication. But internally my body is dealing with a lot less stress. My heart doesn’t need to pump as hard, and I’m probably having a lot less plaque build up in my veins.

It’s wonderful to see such positive results. And on that note, it’s time to get on the treadmill… I’m not staying healthy by medication alone, I’m also sticking to a healthy routine. I like to joke that I plan to die healthy. And while I hope that won’t happen for many years to come, I plan on being active, mobile, and fit when my time comes. To paraphrase Dr. Peter Attia, I want a good healthspan, not just lifespan. For me that means taking statins as well as exercising and maintaining a healthy diet.

Pain & piece of mind

My back/shoulder pain is still continuing after almost 6 weeks, and I have just started new meds that make me feel loopy. Trying to describe the pain, I thought of a play on words for the phrase ‘peace of mind’ and switching it to ‘piece of mind’.

There is no peace of mind when pain has a piece of your mind. Pain sits with you like an unwanted, unliked friend who is constantly nagging you. Sometimes the pain is in the background and while it’s only vaguely present, you can’t find peace. When it’s worse than that it sits in competition with anything else that’s happening.

I have some clarity now, but writing yesterday’s post would normally take me 20-30 minutes and it took me over an hour to write. I wasn’t doing anything else, I wasn’t distracted with other tasks, but I was feeling a lot of shoulder pain. Constant unrelenting pain. And a 30 minute task took me more than double the expected time. There is no peace of mind when pain has a piece of your mind.

I know this will pass, but it truly gives me a new respect for anyone who deals with daily pain. It’s not fun, it’s not productive, and it’s not easy to act in any normal way when pain has a piece of your mind.

Pain again

It’s close to 2:00am and I’m up with pain in my back and shoulder. My alarm is set for 4:15am for my flight, and the last thing I want to be right now is awake. For the past week I’ve been struggling with a pain in my back, the last 3 days the pain moved more into my shoulder. I’ve been taking it really easy and thought it would slowly disappear.

Instead, my shoulder aches so much that I can’t sleep. I’ve had a painkiller and a muscle relaxant, and still the ache persists. I’m now on the couch sipping some scotch and trying to find a position where the ache subsides a bit. As someone who struggles with back pain, I normally avoid self-medicating, for fear of getting accustomed to the pain relief… but this powerful and constant ache has me willing to try anything so that I can sleep.

I’m still not able of sleep, but I know that looking at this screen won’t help. So it’s time for a meditation, and hopefully a little nap before my alarm goes off. If not, I hope that I can pass out on the plane.

May you always find relief from your aches and pains… cheers!