We've learned over the last couple of years that our responses to medicines can be unreliable. And from what I've read, it seems this is common among multiples. How we respond to medicine depends heavily on which alter was in control when we took it, who's in control now, and what the problem is that we took it for.
Narcotic pain meds are the easiest example to notice. In the past, narcotics have a few times been known to put all of us to sleep except Kiara. She is apparently very resistant to pain meds. However, she doesn't handle pain well. Any kind of pain meds, though, tend to make us fuzzy in the head, like I'm in the middle of switching back and forth quickly.
Yesterday, I had a tooth pulled. Now the last few times I've had dental work, the local used by the dentist has not taken hold as solidly as it should, so they've had to use a lot of it, and even then, my feet started going numb before my mouth did - and this was a local anesthetic that should not have affected the rest of my body. The dentist I saw yesterday, though, took it really slow, injecting once, then waiting a while before injecting more. And most of my head went numb easily, so needing less of the drug and not affecting the rest of my body. I did get the shakes, but that seems to be normal.
There may also be some correlation between my switching and the anesthesia. Usually I try to stay solidly in control, dealing with the entire visit on my own. Yesterday, I actually had two appointments, with a little time between, and the tooth was pulled on the second one. Perhaps my control was not as tight as usual. And besides, I asked Sam to see if she could turn some of the pain I was getting in both visits to something a little more fun. She said dental pain just isn't sexy; no go. But she tried anyway. And I felt Cherish in there taking some of the pain onto herself, rolling it away as she does. I wonder if it was because we were working together that the drugs worked so well.
When I left the dentist, I was more clearheaded than I would expect after being all drugged up, and had no trouble driving to the pharmacy and waiting for my pain meds. I got all the way home with my face still numb and still not hurting much.
Unfortunately, that's the end of the good news. I took an hydrocodone when I got home, as I was starting to hurt in my mouth. The numbness slowly wore off, but it doesn't seem like the hydrocodone ever did kick in. I couldn't manage to switch to any of the alters until my boyfriend got home and was able to call Cherish out - that's not unusual when I'm hurting or feeling bad - no one else wants to hurt or feel bad either. And still, the pain was there. But Cherish accepted it and rolled it away, so it wasn't a problem. And yet, the meds should have reduced the pain - and my thinking as well. We couldn't even tell we'd taken any pills at all.
Today, I'm at work, so I've got to be out. I took another hydrocodone, and this one did dampen the pain a little bit, and made me sleepy a lot. Well, at least Kiara's not stuck here trying to do my job!
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