Medicines

I saw the doctor yesterday for a follow up appointment after my surgery. It went really well... she put me on three more meds plus refilled my pain medicine (she said it is okay and very normal to be in pain). I have a new (larger) dose of my diuretic, hoping it will help the swelling go down.

I don't think I ever told you about the itchiness/welts on my stomach? At first, I thought I was just healing. But it looked more like an allergic reaction as more time went on. I showed it to the doctor yesterday, and she confirmed that it was certainly a reaction to the dermabond (the special glue they used to close my incisions). I'm allergic to adhesives, so it didn't surprise us, really. But I don't remember ever reacting like that before. She gave me a steroid cream to heal the blotches/welts and stop the itching.

In addition to the new diuretic and the cream, I was put on an antibiotic as a precaution- just because I have so much fluid laying around in there... to prevent it from becoming infected. It's fine. I usually take 9 pills on a regular basis. What's another 3!?!

Last night, I failed to read the bottle when I took the new dosage of my diuretic. I knew I had to take twice what I usually take. So I took two pills instead of one. However, I didn't realize the dosage in that bottle was different from what I was used to taking. So instead of taking 2mgs as I should have, I took 4mgs. It finally set in and I realized what I had done because I was getting up A LOT to go to the bathroom. I felt like such an idiot when I realized what I did.

I called my mom about my mistake. She told me it's not safe to do that to my body and then she suggested that I email my doctors. I did. Then she told me to drink tons of Gatorade so I could replace the electrolytes I was losing from peeing so much. I drank as much as I could handle. Guess what!?! Both of my doctors (they are WONDERFUL doctors from Children's Memorial Hospital) emailed me RIGHT back last night! I am to skip my morning dose of my diuretic today and then they agreed to the Gatorade thing too. So I'm still trying to drink more Gatorade...

I was annoyed at myself for being such an air head. I'm so glad I didn't have any negative reactions to it. It could've been very dangerous, I'm sure.


Oh. And just so we're all on the same page and you're understanding me... a diuretic is a pill that makes you "pee." It's also known as a water pill. I just wanted to clarify, because some people got the wrong impression when I referred to my diuretic and going to the bathroom a lot. I have a condition called edema- and the diuretic helps remove sodium from my body so that it minimizes the fluid retention.