It was a bit hard to say initially whether the change of meds (3rd October) when Dr Penny increased the gabapentin from 600mg three times a day to 900mg 3 times a day was really making a difference. I had the toe surgery a couple of days later, and so was taking tramadol occasionally as well. My nights were more disturbed because of my toes, so it took a little while to decide that, actually, the extra 300mg wasn’t really doing anything. When I had my next call with Dr Penny on 19th October, she therefore decided to put me back to the 3 * 600mg dose, but to start me back on 10mg of amitriptyline at night. At first I wasn’t convinced, but in recent weeks I’ve started to feel that, whilst the pain is still bad enough, I am having somewhat better nights sleep (even managed 7 hours uninterrupted a couple of days ago), and the really bad stabbing pains are less frequent and I think probably slightly subdued in their nature.
I had a call with Dr Watson from Adelaide surgery this afternoon – neither of us really knew what the call was for, I’d just had a letter asking me to make an appointment, and reception told me the GP must have had a reason! Anyway, we talked a bit about what was going on (I haven’t seen Dr Watson for quite a while – couple of years perhaps). She suggested I try doubling the amitriptyline and see if I see further improvement. I already have a review call arranged with Dr Penny for the end of next week, so it will give me a week to see how things are.
In the meantime, my toes continue to improve…slowly! I’m in to week five now, and I am still having weekly dressing changes with the nurse, and then changes during the week by Cat. Some occasional discomfort in my left toe, which seems to match how that is healing compared to the right toes, rather than simply the fact I can’t feel my right toes. The nurse on Saturday seemed to think it would be another couple of weeks of going there at least. The good news is though that she said I can have a proper shower! Flannel washes are all well and good, but you can’t beat getting in a proper shower.
I had an appointment with physiotherapy last week. I thought this was as a consequence of my appointment with the neuro physio in September, so I went along with my questionnaire duly filled out explaining how my back was impacting my mobility, life generally etc. Turned out I’d been referred about my toes. They don’t usually get referrals for toenail removal, and since that wasn’t affecting my walking etc, it was a very brief appointment. However, the physio did say she would pass on my questionnaire to the neuro team to see if they want to review me again.