So after writing that I was off Oxycodone 10 days ago, I went 3 days without it, and then the pain started showing up again. I think it was due to me doing more with the leg. So I have been min running the dosage for 6 days. I am taking Percoset 5/325 (whatever that means) amd the dose is 1 every 4 to 6 hours. I was taking 4 a day then yesterday I did 2 1/2, and today none. I am definatly having cravings and sweating like crazy, but I am pretty convinced I am done. Its kind of a bummer knowing I am looking at 3 days of......depression and fitful sleep, but I am determined to get my "happy" back. Another side effect of the "down" feeling is that you get more....creative? I walked into the living room, picked up the guitar and fooled with effects and models on the amp I have never explored and started belting out a song that somehow I named "I'm living through burning it down". Hint: lots of depressing things rhyme with "down". I went online and ordered a grapic equalizer and a delay pedal AND a powered pedal stand/container. What is that all about?
Anyhoo, just writing here and KNOWING that "this too shall pass" cheers me up.
Tom
-- Edited by turninggrey on Sunday 7th of October 2012 05:26:03 PM
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"You're in the right place. That's the door right there. Turn around."
Glad you are feeling better. There is a lady at some of my meetings with over 20 yrs sober who also had some recent surgury. She said the opiates where a bitch to come off even after only using for a few days and was mad at the Doc's for prescribing.
-- Edited by Rob84 on Sunday 7th of October 2012 10:26:28 PM
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
Glad you are feeling better. There is a lady at some of my meetings with over 20 yrs sober who also had some recent surgury. She said the opiates where a bitch to come off even after only using for a few days and was mad at the Doc's for prescribing.
-- Edited by Rob84 on Sunday 7th of October 2012 10:26:28 PM
Hey Rob,
That is what I found out twice now. I am not sure, but I think it only took me a full day this time. I was pretty shook up at about noon.
Tom
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"You're in the right place. That's the door right there. Turn around."
Well FWIW, I'm still taking hydrocodone for my back, only at night. Fortunately I can get through the day without it, and it tends to flare up after dinner. It enables me to function in the evening and sleep comfortably. There was a time when I resisted the idea of anything stronger than an ibuprofen, but I'd be slamming large amounts of aspirin and/or ibu to get the relief I'm getting from one hydrocodone/ibu. My Dr. knows who and what I am... oxycodone OTOH has a much stronger pull. When I was in the hospital back in Feb. for a blocked bladder (absolutely the worst pain I've ever had, period) I was on percocet around the clock alternating with hits of IV dilaudid. It took me about 2 weeks to get off of the percocets once I was home. When the mystery back pain still hadn't gone away, that was when he started me on vicodin, but switched me to vicoprofen to avoid the acetamenophen dosage which doesn't get along well with an alcoholic liver (even after long term sobriety) or taking Lipitor.
I am a typical middle aged fat guy... I take stuff for cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure... and other supplements like massive potassium pills to counter the depletion caused by the BP water pills... dropping 50 lbs would I'm sure do wonders, but sometimes I have to just accept that one miracle per lifetime is what I get. Abstinence doesn't work as well on food as it does on alcohol. I couldn't stay sober if I had to drink exactly two beers a day to survive... and as long as I'm having to put food in my mouth to survive, I'm going to put the wrong things in there and too much of them. But I figure I have a pretty good shot at managing diabetes while not drinking. And TBQH, taking the silly little pain pill in the evening has enabled me to start exercising on the treadmill again. So I have some chance of at least preventing any weight gain. I'm way below my former maximum weight but I'm still hovering around the 235-240 mark and have been the last couple years, but that's 50+ below where I used to be and I've kept it off. Going down from here is much much harder...
So. I've had to accept some things in these last couple of years, about mortality, and the fact that I'm not 25 anymore. I wouldn't go back to being 25 even if it did mean having the younger body... the aches, pains, doctor visits, occasional hospital and ER trips.... and the medications, they all come with age and experience... I guess I'm ok, no regrets. Still have lots of things left to do in this life. I can do anything I want but I can't do everything I want.
Hey Barisax, Nice post, Yeah, I guess I should not make that big of a deal about this. It just scares me when I get dependent on something. I love your outlook. I;ll remember the last line. Tom
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"You're in the right place. That's the door right there. Turn around."
Bari, sugar can kill you just as easily as alcohol can, and addiction to sugar is exactly what alcoholism is, really. Alcohol being a sugar and having a lot of other sugars as well. My mother has attended OA for decades, and it seemed to work, connecting sugar as a drug of choice. I too struggle with weight. I've been able to assign a maximum weight (180 lbs) which when I hit it's , it's diet time. Then I work my way back down to the lower 170's. 3 years ago I made it 165 and back into 32" waste pants. I hit 180 about a week ago. The alarm bells are sounding. Bari, you and I are the same age, I'd appreciate it if you didn't call us "Old" lol. Hitting the gym tomorrow to begin training for ski season. First ski trip is Park City December 1st.
Been there and done that. A good portion of us recovering alcoholics have, to one extent or the other, hypoglycemia, myself included. I first noticed it about 18 years ago. I was drinking a lot of diet coke (w/ nutrisweet), not eating lunch and having low sugar issues in the later afternoon. I was also not eating breakfast and relying on coffee. I woke up at 1 am one night, at 35 years old, and my heart was beating hard and irregular. I was plenty scared. I called up my health insurance hotline and a nurse answered. She asked how much coffee, tea, diet coke etc... I'd had that day and it was a lot. I realized that caffeine (although I love it) is not my friend. I began making protein shakes for breakfast, 15 years ago, with all kinds of food supliments and stuck with that. I eat a sandwich and a little fruit for lunch and a smallish diner with no pasta, bread, or heavy carbs. Usually just a small portion of meat and some veggies. Then I'll have a handful of frozen grapes for diner. My challenge is eating out a couple times a week, and sneaking a candy bar and diet coke late in the afternoons when I'm feeling low on energy. Thankfully I'm still out building wood decks for a living (at 52 yo) and it burns colories. I'd likely be 200+ lbs. at 5'-8" if I had a desk job. Don't give up bari. join a gym and get obsessed with a new health regime. It will add 15 years to your life and a lot of quality as well.
-- Edited by StPeteDean on Tuesday 9th of October 2012 12:01:32 PM
Bari, sugar can kill you just as easily as alcohol can, and addiction to sugar is exactly what alcoholism is, really. Alcohol being a sugar and having a lot of other sugars as well.
Perhaps, but I've never gotten drunk off a candy bar. However, in the years since I was diagnosed as diabetic, my reaction to sugar has become more pronounced. For me it's easier to avoid sweets than it is to lay off things like meat or pasta. But if I overeat, I really do feel crappy for hours afterward. I feel lethargic, uncomfortable, physically as if someone has let the air out of me. The longer I can go without eating - especially if I'm doing something physical - the better. But I'm still addicted. I eat fruit and vegetables every day for lunch, often that's all I need. I am not usually hungry until I've been awake 4-5 hours, and it might take me all afternoon to eat that stuff. But come evening, I usually have a much bigger appetite. I don't know how many people can relate but when I first wake up, food is the farthest thing from my mind. I need coffee... nothing else. But as the evening wears on, the night owl flourishes. I crave snacks... meat... cheese and crackers... leftovers... salt...
This may sound really crazy to you guys who might have heard that eggs are bad, but Dean and Bari - I have been through ALL of what you're talking about too. Dean - I'm 34 and just had the heart beating fast and irregular thing start. I am drinking more coffee again since quitting drinking, as I always do when I'm not drinking. Now that this time is for keeps, I'm looking at an egg in the morning when I don't want to eat. One little egg in the morning changes my whole day. If I don't do it, I suck and fall trap to food, sugar, carbs, salt. If I do it - and I must force myself sometimes - I'm apt to eat veggies instead of pasta for lunch - meat, veggies, cheese and fruits for a snack. Way better than the oreos and chips I grab if I let myself go wild on coffee and skip out on that egg in the morning.
Egg - Black tea 7am
Green tea - vitamins - fruit 10am
Green tea - salad - cheese - meat or high protein yogurt Noon
Green tea - Nuts or berries or both 2pm
Herbal tea - supper is whatever pleases the whole fam 5pm
We cut up apples and cheese before bed every single night cuz it's good for your teeth. Not sure how this affects everything, but it's kind of our family snack time and we all share this together every night while we read books before bed. 7pm
TRY - not to eat after that - but sometimes if my husband and I stay up and watch a movie, we have another snack at 9 or 10.
I have been steadily losing 2 lbs per week for 6 months. It was a lot more at first just because of not drinking about 200000 calories in wine.
If I don't start out with that egg in the morning, if I do cereal, or something sugary or carby - or nothing at all... my day looks like this.
Eat constantly - mostly pasta - cookies - and chips. Try to compensate with proteins, chose beef sticks or sausage - eat WAAAAAY too much, feel worse... Go to bed feeling blobby.
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Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
