"I Pooped Today"

My son has this t-shirt. It is a simple shirt that I can only imagine that someone has made millions of dollars off of. It is of a stick person with its hands in the air and a big smile on his face proclaiming that “I pooped today”.

My son loves to wear that shirt. This past year when we went to have our yearly picture taken with Santa, he had on his I pooped t-shirt. He goes as far as to try to strategically place himself so that the shirt can easily be read in the photo. And he never lets you know that he has it on before you get there. He just waits and then just before the picture is taken he takes off a sweatshirt and smiles.

That’s my boy!

So why would I write about a t-shirt saying? Well after the stent was put in I was in pain and couldn’t keep anything down. So when I was back down at Mayo last week I had them change around my pain medications so that I could manage until the stent comes out later this month. My pain management regiment was then changed to consist of a rotation of Tylenol, Tramadol, and Oxycodone. All at varying times, all prescribed to keep Roger warm and fuzzy.

However, one of the main side effects of hi-dose pain medications, that they tell you about but you ignore, is constipation. You can’t poop, or in this case I couldn't. Yeah, there I said it and feel free to stop reading now if you wish. This blog will get not get much better.

Here is the issue being constipated without a stomach. You have no storage space. Once you get backed up everything just shuts down. You can't eat or drink anything. There is no place for anything to go. Your body just sends it back out the way it came. The only medication I could keep down was the Oxycodone, because that was in a liquid form and my body was able to absorb it before my insides could decide that there was no room for in and send it back up. The challenge there is that the Oxy was the strongest of the pain meds I was on and therefore the one causing most of the problems.

Now I have been on Oxycodone since the stent was put in on the 23^rd of February. It has been a constant friend since then and I cannot tell you when the side effects started for sure. All I can tell you is that things started going downhill fast right away on Monday morning. I made it at work until 10am on Monday and then had to leave. Tuesday and Wednesday were a little better and I was able to tough it out until about 1pm on both days but then had to head home.

By the time last night came around I was grasping at straws. I had even gone so far as to tell myself to shape up or I was admitting myself back into the hospital on Thursday morning. I told myself I was serious this time and I was going to let them do whatever they want to me to make the pain go away.  

Got a garden hose?  Great!   

Want to stick it where?  Go ahead! 

I am not above threatening myself to get what I want. 

Well I had stopped taking any pain meds other than Tylenol Tuesday night. My hope was that 24 hours off of the strong stuff would help kick start things. And it eventually did. About two thirty this morning things started moving. Today I feel better and things seem to be working as they should. If you think this is "TMI", well I warned you to stop reading.

I can tell you this though, not taking any of the stronger drugs, with this stent in, still sucks and I hurt today. 

And not eating anything for three days has not helped me gain any weight back and I am now down to 174 pounds.

Yet, if I had Jack's t-shirt I would be wearing it and probably smiling like the stick figure guy. 

There are times when all the world's asleep,

The questions run too deep for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd But please tell me who I am.

(The Logical Song  Supertramp)