I am AWESOME. I did not go out to eat to celebrate and I used stuff that would have gone bad. Woo freaking hoo.

See? Awesome!

*Yes, it does seem that all three problems come down to anxiety, doesn't it?

Anxiety is a real problem though. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was leading to more physically obvious problems like insomnia and back pain. Mine can, without a doubt.

Congratulations, smonster!

Speaking of meds, I'm not taking Wellbutrin anymore, and I have some left. What do I do with it?

I noticed that my CVS has recently started a program where I think they give you a prepaid mailer or something and you mail your drugs off to...somewhere. I don't exactly know. (Obviously I didn't look too closely at it, despite the fact that I, too, have some pretty old drugs that I need to ditch.)

The advice otherwise -- if you don't have a place you can take them -- is to just throw them away, but to put them in a lidded container, mixed with coffee grounds (I guess because coffee grounds mask the smell? and because they'd hide the pills?), in your regular trash.

Oh, Steph, that reminds me we have a bunch of my MiL's chemo drugs (specifically Tykerb, but there's other stuff too I think) and I need to figure out what to do with them. I don't want to throw them away, they cost so much (as in $1000s if you don't have insurance). I really want to find a way to donate them to someone who needs to take them but can't afford them.

Dag, I can't wait to see pictures of Todd in her sexy sexy eye-patch.

I will mention that I know an artisan that makes fantastic eye patches. (She mainly makes pasties for burlesque performers, but she makes very fancy eye patches, too. I have a stripey one.)

Did someone say insomnia? Sigh.

I had a really nasty sinus headache/mini-migraine all evening that nothing was touching (including Claritan D, which usually kills them), so I finally took a Midol, which has the acetaminophen and caffeine to knock it down. It worked! ...but I’ve been wide awake for the past two hours. I finally broke down and took an Ambien, which I’m hoping kicks in soon so I can get at least a little sleep.

Blah. Took several doses of Vicodin to get just a few hours of sleep, not much of it consecutive. Now I've got the TENS on. I want waffles. I could probably make pancakes, but that would require moving around, which isn't so much happening right now.

Team insomnia, hip pain brigade representing!! Got maybe an hour of sleep. I'm walking Frankie while StW keeps snoozing so we'll make our tubing trip.

I have toast. Toast is not waffles.

Oh, Steph, that reminds me we have a bunch of my MiL's chemo drugs (specifically Tykerb, but there's other stuff too I think) and I need to figure out what to do with them. I don't want to throw them away, they cost so much (as in $1000s if you don't have insurance). I really want to find a way to donate them to someone who needs to take them but can't afford them.

Man, I don't know. That's such a good idea, and I have no idea how to go about doing that. Maybe contact a free clinic in your area or something?

ION, I actually slept without Ambien again last night! Not as well as I did the night before, and I'm up brutally early (for a Saturday [for me]), but I did still fall asleep and stay asleep without Ambien.

I don't know why I consider it an achievement, because I don't think there's any virtue in being able to sleep without meds; I hope I was clear yesterday that I feel VERY strongly that if you can't sleep, then take the meds and screw the possibility of developing a dependence.

I guess I just didn't think I could do it ever again, and I'm astonished that I can, and have.

ION we're up to take the pooch to the vet. Hoping for a fatty tumor!