I once floated through a blissful week on codeine. I'm on vicodin now (muscle spasms in back), and if it's helping, I don't want to know what the pain would be like without it.

Codeine makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and then I fall asleep for a long long time. I love it.

Xanax also makes me sleepy, but makes me depressed, so eff that. One weekend a while back I accidently took 2 Xanax instead of my AD, and slept 20 hrs/24. Freaked me out until I figured out what I'd done.

Sucess! Joy! I managed to get a full night's sleep! It took a total of 14 hours, 1 12-hr oxycodone, 3 naprosyn, and a vicodin near the end but i got a solid 4 hours, then 3, then 2. I feel SOOOOOOO much better today, actually human. My face even looks human again (it was grayish/green yesterday). I might try the ambian tomorrow night and see if that eliminates the waking every 4 hours and need to re-dose on anti inflammatory...i'd rather not take the highly addictive narcotics if there are other options.

Interesting, tho, the oxy totally does knock out the "inner" pain: bone, muscles, tendons, ligaments...all that was quiet all night. I can totally feel it coming back now that the oxy has worn off. It did not, however, touch the nervy skin-level discomfort that flares up after i've been horizontal for a bit. Ice helps with that. Too bad i can't sleep with time-release ice Packs strapped to me!

Bad day at work--a lovely person I work with was on bedrest because she was carrying twins, and she went into labor last night. Sadly, both babies died. They had reached over a pound each, so we were all beginning to think she was out of the woods, but it was not to be.

OMG, erin, I'm so glad you got to sleep and so sorry for the amount of medication it took to get you there!

My boss is gone for the rest of the day. Productivity ceases.... NOW. Not that I was very productive to begin with.

Hmmm, need to work on a packing list to expedite my departure this evening.

I could never abuse my medication (and it's fairly hardcore). Codeine makes me fall asleep. Ultram made me throw up and gave me incredible headaches. Most narcotic painkillers just make me ill. I was lucky the pain clinic stumbled on one that actually works for me without too many side effects, but there are still enough of them that I couldn't do too much with it, recreationally speaking. (I could sell them at a decent price, though. Heh.)

Shir, it was nice to chat about French verbs with you this evening.

erin, I'm really glad to hear you got some sleep at last! Hope that continues.

Many sympathies to Scrappy's co-worker.

On the medication issue, half a Xanax calms me down within about 20-30 minutes. I was told to take two whole Xanax to relax me for the last cortisone injection into my back. Didn't help much during the injection itself, but afterward, I slept the whole afternoon.

Scrappy, my sympathies to your coworker. How awful.

Today is one of those days where I really wish Liv still took an afternoon nap.

Oh, Scrappy, that's terrible.

And erin, I wonder if pain management has caught up to what pain medication can actually achieve. It seems to be so hard to get professionals to buy into shit, even to work out what works.

Oral narcotics don't do much for me. The amount I have to get IV means they usually hook me up to oxygen and have me on various monitors--if they actually believe my specialists and give me that much anyway, which can be a battle.

So no addiction for me, although my pain requires pretty regular medication. Just less than before. In between, I need Ambien to sleep through the pain. Luckily I don't seem to get the side effects anymore, although they were pretty wild and wacky there for a while.

I was told to take two whole Xanax to relax me for the last cortisone injection into my back.

Oh, yeah, and I've taken Valium when I've had to get my eye zapped (not Lasik, long story) but it didn't do what it was supposed to do, which is calm me down and reduce my nausea enough to keep me from almost fainting.