Stress and Discharge

Last night when I went to bed, left side of my neck was hurting and I had pain going down into the shoulder. I took some ibuprofen, and it took a bit of work but finally found a position in which I was comfortable enough to fall asleep. At about 3:00 in the morning, the pain woke me up. It was hard to even stand up. I can move the arm and turn my head without any pain, but standing, walking, and breathing all can be very painful. I got up and took four more ibuprofen, and went back upstairs. I decided getting in and out of bed would be too hard, so I got into the recliner. The pain was really bad by this time. Every breath hurt. I laid there and wondered how I was ever going to be able to drive to Big City to pick up Daughter. I tried to figure out who I could ask to provide transportation. It took quite a while before I fell back to sleep.

I couldn’t sleep in this morning as I had a hair appointment at 8:00. Once I got up and moving, it wasn’t quite so bad, though still rather painful. My beautician could tell I was in pain. I’m now taking extra strength Tylenol in addition to the maximum dose of ibuprofen. It still hurts, but it’s more tolerable. If it’s not better by tomorrow, I will make an appointment to see my doctor. I suspect stress might have something to do with it. Maybe my body is telling me that Daughter is a pain in the neck.

I got the call this morning that Daughter was discharged, so I left about noon to go pick her up. No meetings or anything—I just picked up Daughter and discharge instructions from the nurse. Lithium has gone up from 300 mg twice a day to 300 mg in the morning and 600 mg at bedtime. That was the only change, for which I’m grateful. Psychiatrist told Daughter she didn’t want to see her in the hospital ever again—only in the office. She told her that she needs to tell somebody when the voices start, and not wait until it is this bad.

The social worker who called me about the discharge told me Daughter seemed much better this year than she’d been last year. I told him I thought she’d grown a lot in the last year. After I picked her up we went to town for prescriptions, and then we went to her therapist’s office, where we had a previously scheduled appointment. Therapist thought Daughter seemed good, though she was concerned about how tired we both were. I was given strict orders to call the doctor if my pain isn’t better by tomorrow.

Daughter will return to the workshop tomorrow. They didn’t give her milk of magnesia last night, so she has now gone 5 days without a bowel movement. I gave her the maximum dose of dulcolax tonight, so hopefully that will resolve the situation. The nurse at the hospital suggested apple juice. I told her I thought after 5 days it would take a bit more than apple juice to fix the problem. Fruit juices never worked when this was a regular issue. She was taking miralax daily for years, and she could still clog the toilet occasionally. I suspect once she gets cleaned out, she will feel much better.

I’m not sure any of this makes sense. I’m tired, and so I’m going to grab the ibuprofen and Tylenol bottles and head to bed. Daughter has claimed the recliner in my room, so I guess I’ll have to find a comfortable position in bed.