A couple weeks ago I was traveling, helping Emily’s sister Kelsey move to Florida where she is interning at an equine rehabilitation center.  The plan was to spend a day playing near the Gulf coast before moving her into the new place (inland), and so we spent Friday together hiking, looking at wildlife, etc.  Friday evening we had dinner together in Cedar Key and then went walking along the public beach, where we discovered a playground with a swing-set.

I’m sure that, as kids at least, every person who is able has tried jumping from a swing.  We called it Swing Jumping as kids, and had contests to see how far each person could leap.  Sadly, though, time has moved faster than I realized and my body is no longer in the same shape it was 10-20 years ago, for when I tried jumping from this particular swing I landed poorly.  If I recall correctly, my landing was entirely on my left leg, which was held too stiff.  I was also wearing boots that held my ankles firm, so that all of the energy of the impact was pushed up into my left tibial plateau.  The result was not pretty.

I spent most of that night in a nearby hospital, which then transferred me to a larger hospital in Gainesville called UF Shands. I had some negative experiences throughout, which I will write about in the future, but for now I’d like to focus on my leg. As you can see in the X-ray image above, part of my knee is broken, cracked and pushed away from the joint.  If you can’t identify the break in this image, try to realize that the two bones should be more flush with each other and look closely at the right-hand side (as viewed) of the joint.

The surgeons performed on my knee a few days later, installing a long support plate.  These X-ray images show the hardware fairly well.

For now I’m resting and healing, having been mostly doped-up on pain killers for the past couple weeks.  Yesterday I finally changed my pain medication to something more tolerable and my brain is working slightly better.  But one thought that has remained throughout this entire affair is my desire for a robot body (e.g. *) to replace this fragile thing that nature has provided.  This is a small step in that direction, but perhaps someday…

Please see the disclaimer below.

Below is a diagram I just composed of the potential interactions between medications I’m currently taking. [1]  The dark red line represents a potentially life-threatening interaction, the orange indicates potentially additive / effect-enhancing interactions (CNS depressing, except the C-A interaction), and the yellow indicates a negative effect on absorption (due to digestive effects).  I intentionally left out various over-the-counter medications and vitamins that don’t have any significant interactions; included are just the prescription medications that I use routinely to manage my nerve pain condition.

I’ve been taking these medications at the same dosage for this past year, because they’ve successfully managed my pain and generally enabled me to be functional.  It took a good deal of experimentation and tuning to find this cocktail mix, and once I had it worked out I decided not to make any changes for a while–I wanted to have a stable medical foundation and focus instead on behaviors to cope with my situation.  However, over the past few months I’ve increasingly had a more difficult time concentrating and I’ve been more tired than usual.  It has been very disruptive to my work and life, and more than a little frustrating.

To combat this shift, I recently lowered the dosage of P because I know it to be the largest contributor to CNS depression.  This has resulted in more nerve pain, which is expected.  But fortunately the pain is not as great as I remember it being when I tried this dosage previously (>1 year ago), perhaps indicating some progress in healing etc.   Sadly, the decreased dosage hasn’t done anything to improve my concentration and reduce my fatigue.  In fact, the additional pain is sometimes a contributing factor to my fatigue and a distraction.

So, I’m now directing my focus at D and the potential effect of drug interactions. [2]  It could very well be the source of my recent troubles, which may actually be a sign of something worse developing (i.e. the potentially dangerous drug interaction) in my system.  Withdrawing from D will not be easy.  It wouldn’t be easy even if it were the only drug in my system, but it will be even more difficult given that it has an influence over everything else I take.  i.e. I may find myself needing adjustments to the other drug dosages to compensate.  But I believe it is the most responsible course of action at this time, and I intend to stop taking D (per my doctor’s instructions) in the very near future.

I don’t know exactly what to expect or how this attempt will go.  Certainly I have my fears, but as well I have great hope that my situation will improve.  I don’t have any superstition or religious beliefs but I would appreciate your positive thoughts during this time.  And of course I would ask for your understanding of any behavior that is more strange than usual.   Please let me know if you have any questions–I’m very open about my medical condition and medications, but I have intentionally been vague in this post to avoid leading anybody to medical harm that may be in a similar situation.

[1] – according to http://www.drugs.com/interactions-check.php
[2] – Please note that I am not a medical doctor, I have no medical training, and you should consult with your physician about anything you may be considering as a result of reading this post, which is only intended to relate my interpretations and opinions regarding my own situation.