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He finally fell asleep and stayed asleep, breathing normally. I staggered into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed and slept for 5 hours, just got up a few minutes ago. He's awake and alert, still tired of course. No pain. Very thirsty, so I gave him some water and he's taking it in small sips. So we are both all right and crisis averted for the time being.
That being said, I am taking very seriously every single bit of the advice and ideas you have all shared. As I had initially mentioned, he has similar bouts of the aggravated pain a couple of times a week but usually he just sleeps a lot. This event has been unusually severe.
A little bit more background: we have not lived actually "together" for the past 5 years. I was caregiving for my elderly Mother at her home which was a 2-hour drive from ours, so my husband and I only saw each other on the scattered weekends when my sisters could come look after Mother and give me a break. She passed a year ago, and it took me several months to get "my stuff" moved to our place, so I didn't actually get fully moved back in here until just before Thanksgiving. Over Thanksgiving he spent 10 days in Florida visiting his elder son and family, and while there an ATV he was riding fell over on him, breaking 3 ribs on his Left side -- that's the side opposite the rib area where he has the nerve damage from the surgery. So he came home in a lot of additional pain and this has taken a while to heal. It's mostly gone now, but coughing and vomiting causes it to flare up -- his whole body gets jarred -- and the meds he takes for the nerve pain do not help with other types of pain.
During those 5 years we were not actually living together, I wasn't able to observe how he has been eating and whether or not he was even taking a daily vitamin pill. I think it's very likely that he is nutritionally deficient in several areas -- on this subject, particular thanks to the poster who mentioned and gave links regarding effects after bariatric weight loss surgery, dumping syndrome, etc. (sorry I don't have your name at my fingertips). I think something like that could very well be in play here. He's due at the VA on Friday morning for a blood draw, and I'm going to try to get his doctor to order some tests that would reveal at least some of the potential deficiencies in addition to the usual that gets checked. In the meanwhile, I'll get him on a daily multi-vitamin along with some extra Vit C, B-12 complex and Omega-3 fish oil -- none of those will hurt, and all of them may help a great deal.
Opinion only, but at my VA clinic I can call the nurse and discuss with her. Perhaps she can run it by your doctor and maybe doc can authorize the additional blood screenings with the Friday blood draw
on this subject, particular thanks to the poster who mentioned and gave links regarding effects after bariatric weight loss surgery, dumping syndrome, etc. (sorry I don't have your name at my fingertips). I think something like that could very well be in play here. He's due at the VA on Friday morning for a blood draw, and I'm going to try to get his doctor to order some tests that would reveal at least some of the potential deficiencies in addition to the usual that gets checked. In the meanwhile, I'll get him on a daily multi-vitamin along with some extra Vit C, B-12 complex and Omega-3 fish oil -- none of those will hurt, and all of them may help a great deal.
Your welcome & I hope it helps.
The timing of reading your post was just right because I was up half the night trying to get some good basic info together for my dad so that he could communicate my concerns to my mom's doctor at her next appointment.
Your post caught my eye because of the title "Moaning" & I can relate to the drain that constant noise can have on a person because I had to stop working 10 years ago to caregive for my now 13 year old Autistic son. He is making some sort of noise at all times while awake: He pounds on tables repeatedly or slaps his chest & abdomen (like adolescent male primates do) & he's a very big kid (5'11" & 200lbs) so it's not just noisy kid sounds; it's like having a full grown man crashing around the house. He howls, moans, groans, grunts, shreiks & sometimes randomly screams for no (apparent) reason. The worst is when he does that when I'm driving!
He's "Echolalic" & can parrot any sound you can imagine & his favorites are police sirens & alarm clocks. Sunup to sundown ... It never stops. I can't use earplugs either because of safety.
It was just kind of weird to click on your thread because I had all that stuff about post-surgical gastric malabsorbtion up on the other tab right then!
Please don't forget to tell the doctor about your husbands occasional violent outbursts. I suspect they're related to him being in pain but there could be something else going on. Maybe an anti anxiety med would help him in addition to better pain meds. You might want to look into getting some anti anxiety meds for yourself too so you're not so stressed all the time.
Your post caught my eye because of the title "Moaning" & I can relate to the drain that constant noise can have on a person because I had to stop working 10 years ago to caregive for my now 13 year old Autistic son. He is making some sort of noise at all times while awake: He pounds on tables repeatedly or slaps his chest & abdomen (like adolescent male primates do) & he's a very big kid (5'11" & 200lbs) so it's not just noisy kid sounds; it's like having a full grown man crashing around the house. He howls, moans, groans, grunts, shreiks & sometimes randomly screams for no (apparent) reason. The worst is when he does that when I'm driving!
He's "Echolalic" & can parrot any sound you can imagine & his favorites are police sirens & alarm clocks. Sunup to sundown ... It never stops. I can't use earplugs either because of safety.
My goodness! Bless you, I can't imagine how you manage to keep it together in dealing with it -- you have my 100% admiration and respect!
With regard to my husband's moaning, the thing is that I don't feel he HAS TO do it -- somehow he seems to find it soothing. This time, after a while he substituted moaning my name, which made me think he was "calling me" because he wanted me to do something for him, get him something, etc. So I was up-and-down, up-and-down for no actual reason, because he was just moaning, not because he needed me at the moment.
He does take an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety med. In the past, I've been on the one he is taking, and it's very good. Of course, he was also vomiting fairly often and although he said he had kept the meds down, it's possible he actually vomited them up only partly-digested and thus wasn't getting the benefit of them.
Also, methadone is an opiate, and opiates can cause constipation. This could be part of his issues as well.
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