More of my return to work in a bit, but first of all a catch up on the last few weeks.
GP Review
As I mentioned last time, I arranged for a face to face appointment with the GP to talk about a few things going on to rule out any of them not being associated with my messed up nerves and side-effects. It was a little unnerving that his opening statement was that he is not a fan of neurosurgery for managing pain etc. He also spent a lot of time looking at his watch, despite the fact I had booked a double appointment. I was late starting (he was well aware) due to a delay with my appointment with the practice nurse just before, but I did feel the very obvious time-checking was somewhat unprofessional. Ruth came with me, partly to make sure I went through all of my questions, and partly to help take on board what he told me.
We talked about the medication I’m on, and he, like the Occy Health SPR, doesn’t think there is anything else going on with my memory other than the medication. Ruth asked him about doing a memory test, and he said it was quite clear from the conversation we were having that I would pass the basic memory test, and that we should concentrate on what we can do with the medication. Obviously that is dependent on getting the anticipated benefits from the SCS, which have not yet materialised. We discussed a potential reduction/removal of duloxetine to see if it is providing suitable benefit. I discovered from a urologist last year that it is the most likely cause of an unwanted side-effect so we agreed to try reducing the dose from 60mg to 30mg initially and see how it goes. He also checked my right ear as I’ve had a really annoying feeling of something tickling it or even something crawling around in there. He said my ear was very clear, not even any noticeable wax build-up, so he thinks the feeling is related to my strange nervous system.
Phased return to work
After 5 long months I started back at work last week. Occupational Health had advised potentially only doing 1-2 hours a week, but I couldn’t see how that was going to show how ready I am to do my job, nor enable me to do anything useful at work. I therefore agreed with my boss that I would do 1-2 hours a day and see how it goes. In the end I did closer to 2.5 hours per day. I didn’t bust a gut to start at a specific time, although had set myself a target of 9-9.30 start to allow me to get myself together after any potential bad nights. It was a good target as my sleep last week was pretty bad. My pain had worsened from Tuesday and it was only in discussion with a colleague on Thursday that I realised that it was the Monday evening that I had started the reduced duloxetine dose. On Friday I therefore called the GP again to get agreement to put the dose back up again. A GP I hadn’t spoken to before called me back in the afternoon and I had what I think was the best conversation I’ve had with one of them in years. We talked about how things had been with being back at work, my upcoming appointments, and the reduction of duloxetine. I explained that I didn’t feel I was doing any more hours on the computer since starting back at work than I’d been doing for personal things over the previous week or so, and she felt that, whilst it was a sensible thing to have tried reducing the dose, it was most likely to be the cause of the increased pain, and so she put the dose back up to 60mg again. She also suggested I give her a call back in the new year, once I’ve seen the surgeon and had any further tweaks made to the SCS, and talk again about how we might approach a reduction in any of the meds.
I’m sticking with roughly 2.5 hours a day at work this week, with a view to going to 50% hours next week and potentially increasing a bit more in the 4th and final week of my phased return. I have also had it agreed that I will start using up some annual leave in December, and only work 2 or possibly 3 days until the new year.