I haven't taken narcotic pain meds since about the end of September. It is now October 20th and I still feel sick. Perhaps I am not having withdrawals from the narcotics. Should withdrawals take longer than the amount of time you took them?
I did this little experiment, I started taking allergy meds (loratadine) to see if that would help me feel better. I have only had maybe 2 or 3 days where I felt mostly normal in the last 2.5 weeks, the remainder of days I have felt like I had the flu with small time periods of feeling just ok. I starting taking my allergy meds a few days ago and since starting them I feel so much better.
I'm now starting to question the rash I had on my body a few days after leaving the hospital. I had a cast on and I first noticed the rash (not an itchy rash) at the top of my cast. Initially I thought perhaps my cast was irritating my leg. It then spread up my leg and eventually showed up on my arms and both legs. I attributed this to the pain pills I was taking. I took some allergy meds and switched to a different pain pill. Hmm...
I need to state that I have OTC loratadine (Claritin) because I have had a drippy nose since being pregnant with my kids. I have no allergy to anything, my nose is just drippy. A few years back a friend stated he takes a daily allergy meds for his drippy nose. He too has no known allergy, but his doctor suggested trying an allergy pill and that took care of his drippy nose. I decided to try this approach too and it worked for me. I've been hit or miss with taking my pills. It seems to be drippier when I'm at work - and since I have been home for 4+ weeks now it hasn't been irritating enough to remember to take a pill for it. That is until I started reading about flu like symptoms after implants, plates, rods, screws, etc being installed on people.
I couldn't find an article that stated allergy meds helped, but all stated it is from an allergic reaction to one of the metals in the device installed. Being the scientist I am I did my own experiment. I took an allergy pill one evening and the next day felt so much better. I continued taking them and have continued to feel pretty dang good. Yesterday was the only day I started to have some of the symptoms return, so I took my pill earlier in the day (instead of the evening) and by bed time I felt better again.
The next step in my plan is to stop taking the allergy pills and see if the symptoms return. I really don't want to do this as feeling not sick is so much better, but I want to know if by body is reacting to the metal hardware or not so I need to do it. I'll wait a couple more days. I want to go a whole week on the allergy meds before stopping. I'll post an update on how this goes for me next week.
There are tests that can be done for metal allergy called the
MELISA test. I may decide to have this done, or I may just continue with daily allergy medication if that seems to take care of it until I can have my hardware removed.
To read more about testing for metal allergies click
here.
Scientific article discussing one particular metal allergy case. He was treated with antibiotics, and it was months before a metal allergy was suspected.
It never occurred to me before, but I don't wear earrings because they irritate my ears something fierce, they get red, sore, and can get scabs if I leave them in for very long. Perhaps this is a metal allergy. I don't have a reaction to necklaces, rings, or bracelets, just earrings.
