OK, here as promised: “Letting you know”.
I managed about two days of no pain killers before I threw in the towel. Not a bad effort, all considered, and I learned some stuff.
1) The pain I feel is very real.
2) It's unlikely that I am hooked on pain killers.
3) Stopping them has no other side effects than pain. No sickness, no wooziness etc.
4) Ah well, but.... stopping does seem to make me poo a lot.
5) In some ways, stopping feels good.
I suppose item six would be that starting again after two days off is pretty amazing. I realised that I was getting less sleep each night, the second night being down to 3 hours, and that my prospects of sleep on the third night were pretty remote because of discomfort. In short, I had no option but to take the infernal pills again.
I also learned that I could just about hack 48 hours without them if I had to. It's not nice being a slave to tablets, so it is useful for me to know that I don't actually lose my mind for a couple of days.
On one level I would have liked to go for longer without in order to observe how my body dealt with and reacted to sustained severe pain with no relief, but alas TL is nothing like a concentration camp doctor and offered me only support through the whole process.
I feel I should look into alternative medication which does not rot my guts as badly, so I will seek Doctorial advice. In the meantime, I have changed my pill-taking habits in order to have a clear head for as much of the day as possible and to sleep really well.
I now take pills in the late afternoon and night only. It's working so far.
You can open your eyes again now, Jason. The whining “Oooh, look at me and my pain” posting is over. :)
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