welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, June 20, 2013

sleep,the leg, the game as i saw it

SLEEP

many of you who read this blog regularly know that
i have trouble sleeping
ive always been an early bird
in fact we have an alarm clock but we never use it
since everyone knows that ill be up

i need 7 hours of sleep to feel rested every day
when i was diagnosed and started on the
aricept (donepezil) it knocked 1-2 hours of my sleep
off at night
ive tried different medications to help but they dont work
well except for benadryl which adds back about an
hour of sleep each night
but benadryl interferes with the way the donepezil works so
im not really suppose to take it
but i do when i get on a several nights run of not sleeping
so i just take it anyway

luckily for me im retired so that if i dont get enough sleep
eg wednesday night i only slept 4 hours so
that afternoon i slept for 3 hours
so i usually can compensate
last night i slept for 6 hours
i think what helped is a medication im taking for the nerve
pain for my sciatica was adjusted so i take it at night
instead of twice a day
so last night i did it that way and i think that helped me
sleep

also since i ruptured that dang disc or is it disk
i like disk better but know its really suppose to be disc
the prednisone i was on and the night time pain has knocked
off another 1-2 hours of sleep at night
so some days i feel slightly zombeed
but again luckily i can take my compensatory nap

so between 1-3pm each day if you call me you wont
reach me
i dont schedule appointments or visitors during nap time
i understand why those preschool kids all take naps now
without them i would not make it

THE LEG

yesterday i went to the physical medicine doctor for a opinion on
my ruptured disc/disk since i worsened some as the steroids
wore off
he did a thorough physical evaluation of my back and leg
he found all the points i hurt multiple times
so much that after the visit the pain was worse than before
i think because he found those painful movements he put
me through

i have some mild nerve damage so i have some weakness to
the nerves that are affected by the compression of the protruding
disc/disk
i have noticed some subtle difficulties at times
but he was able to demonstrate exactly where the weakness was

the plan is to
consider physical therapy which i will probably do since they
will do some back educational stuff plus do some exercise
treatment also

continue the drugs-anti inflammatory and nerve pain pills and use
as needed hydrocodone which i dont use unless i get uncomfortable

let pain be my guide in my activities
thats working well now as i know what my limitations are since
it hurts like hell if i push too hard

consider another round of oral steroids
i like that since it sure helps except when they wear off

consider if the pain persists an epidermal steroid injections where the
nerve is being compressed by the ruptured disc/disk

if the nerve damage worsens surgery will be needed
this is the option i hope to avoid

all of this has made me appreciate the ability to be mobile and to
do all the things i do every day
i realize how active i was when i think about all that i cant do everyday

THE GAME AS I SAW IT

ok so i slept through the spurs and heat basketball game the other
night
but i had it dvred
i tried the next day to ovoid hearing about the game but that was near
impossible to do
so i listened to the talk shows and read about it online
then i watched the game myself yesterday and made my own interpretation
of the game
they didnt match what i heard and read
those blatant mistakes made by the coaches and players they talked about
didnt seem to be to be as blatant to me
i understood when i watched the game why player substitutions were done
we all understand the refs arent going to make certain calls in the last
few minutes-yes they were fouls

so like in life sometimes you need to read and watch things yourself
and make your own decision on how things really are or were
like listening only to fox news or only to msnbc news you will get
a distorted view of what things are really like

people really arent thinking for themselves nowadays
so ill be watching/dvring  the game tonight

the organicgreen doctor

2 comments:

  1. Sorry you still having trouble--were those boulders really worth it?? Have faith in your fellow docs--they can really fix backs now--I did all the things you are doing for a year--wish I had done it much sooner. Good luck and enjoy your blog!!

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    Replies
    1. sarah
      yes i look around my landscape and they do look nice but i wish i had used help lifting them. live and learn.
      thanks for reading the blog
      ogd

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