Two and a half years have passed since my spinal fusion surgery. About five weeks after my surgery I detoxed from the opiate painkillers I had been taking for the year before my surgery. I had taken a moderate dosage of a synthetic opium called Opana.
Opana helped me manage the constant pain and make it through the day. After I was completely off the Opana, my pain management doctor told me that any other person with my injury would have been on a higher dose and on disability leave from work. I asked him if he ever heard of the study that accidentally discovered that redheaded women have a higher tolerance to pain and he hadn’t.
Anyway, I barely remember anything about the year I was medicated. My eldest son has nicknamed my affliction Brain Termites. I have mentioned my concern about my memory loss to a few different doctors and I have been assured that everything would eventually return to normal.
Well, it’s been over two years and I still don’t feel like I have the mental acuity that I used to. Perhaps it’s because I’m now over 40. But I think that’s a lame excuse. I really think the Brain Termites are lingering and I can’t help but wonder what kind of damage they have done.
If illegal drugs like pot and cocaine cause brain damage, why wouldn’t long-term use of certain legal drugs to the same? The PSA from the 80’s with egg in the frying pan keeps going through my mind.
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Your Turn
Do you have a theory about the Brain Termites? Do you think that long-term use of legally prescribed drugs cause brain damage? Do you have a high tolerance for pain?
6 comments:
I think I might have brain termites, but I can't remember what I used to know. So I'm not really sure. But I have a vague sense that I used to be a lot smarter.
It's either the brain termites, or the fact that I'm over 40 with 2 kids under 6.
I think I do have a high tolerance for pain. I guess you never really know until you're tested.
I've never heard that about red heads.
I don't feel as sharp sometimes. Thankfully, it seems to be hormonal for me. There are times of the month that I'm sharp like a bowling ball. Other times I'm really on my game.
I've always takin lots of pain and other prescription meds for migraines. Not sure if my memory was ever that great. But I know the older I get and the more stress I'm under the worse it is. I have a constant list of things I need to do and places i need to go. Without my list I'm lost.
"Yes" in answer to your question. But I attribute my relative dullness today versus my sharpness of decades ago, to simple age. I am drug-free, always have been (except when I'm in the hospital).
It's terrible, but I feel that my recall isn't half of what it used to be. Husband can remember parts of our 11 years together--little instances--that I cannot. It scares me a little. And that's without the drugs. I think it must be stress.
I have a ridiculously high tolerance to pain. My husband? Unbelievably low. I've actually had his doctors say things to me like "He seems to have an abnormally low pain threshold" while he's writhing in pain over the smallest thing. As for the brain termites? I don't now. I wouldn't be surprised. I do know that as I get older I remember less and less. Yikes.
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