Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

No, that's not an exercise prescribed for Hick's recovery from back surgery. It seems to be the state of his progress. Hick was out running around like old times the day after his follow-up appointment with his surgeon, spending a full day galivanting on Friday, almost a full day at his SUS2 (Storage Unit Store 2) on Saturday, and then a half-day selling again on Sunday. He was doing so well, then had chills and a fever Saturday afternoon. Got over that.

Hick behaved himself on Monday, pretty much. Left the house around 9:00, went by to see about SilverRedO, then stopped by the pharmacy, and had lunch at the Senior Center. Seemed like his progress was back on track. But at 4:00 a.m., he was up complaining of leg pains. Sitting in the recliner, afghan pulled over his head, saying his pain was 8/10.

Well. Hick makes up his own pain scale. When he called the doctor hurting so much three days after his surgery, he said his pain was 15/10. That's not the scale! So was his pain half as much now? He said it wasn't as bad as in the beginning. And that it was from the knee down, not all the way from the hip. So I suppose that's a good sign.

"Did you take your pain medicine?"

"Yes. At 8:00, when I went to bed."

"Why didn't you take more? I heard you up around midnight."

"Because I ran out of that pain medicine yesterday. I took the new prescription the doctor gave me at my appointment on Thursday. It's a new kind that I take every 8 hours."

"What is it?"

"I don't know the name, without going in the bathroom to read the bottle. I just took one. But it doesn't seem to work as well as the old kind."

"You need to call the office and tell him! So you can get something that helps."

"I'll give this kind a chance. I just took one."

"So you can't take it again until noon. If you keep hurting like this, you should call in the afternoon."

Anyhoo... Hick went back to bed. He said he felt kind of okay after he got up at 8:00 and took a shower. Then he put on his jeans and actual tie shoes which he tied himself, and his back brace, and went to town to hang out at the Senior Center from 10:00 to noon.

While he was gone, I took a look at his new pain medicine. It's the same as his last pain medicine! The EXACT same thing. Hydrocodone with acetaminophen, with a number like 5-325 TB. The only differnce between the last bottle and the new bottle is in the directions. The old bottle says every 4 hours as needed, and the new bottle says every 8 hours as needed! Probably because when he was at the surgeon's office, Hick told him he had only been needing his pain medicine every 6-8 hours.

Anyhoo... I broke this news to Hick when he got home. He went to read the bottles for himself, and agreed that there was no difference except the dosage time.

Maybe it was psychological, or maybe Hick irritated the nerves because he climbed into and out of T-Hoe and SilverRedO. That's basically the only difference in his activity. We'll see how Tuesday night goes.