I've been getting overwhelmed by anxiety this past day or so, starting late yesterday afternoon, growing worse in the evening, and then becoming debilitating today. When I get overwhelmed by anxiety, I stop being able to identify what I'm anxious about and it becomes more of a generalized panic, with hyperventilation and inability to think clearly ( Read more... )

Headaches are severe daily again. Sigh. Going to see my primary care doc tomorrow to try to get a referral to acupuncture, and so I decided to write up a timeline to give her an overview of how things have progressed.

The Headaches That Ate My Brain
as of March 20, 2015

Timeline

• February 2014: First noticed frequency of headaches: often severe. ( Read more... )

Reduced Neurontin dosage again from 500 mg/day to 400 mg. This means the pain may get worse again, which is a joy, because it's been pretty bad lately anyway. But the stupidity problem is just unbearable.

If going places was not an issue, I would DEFINITELY prefer to be stupid than to be in such pain, but the fact is that it's just not realistic ( Read more... )

Caught a cold, most likely thanks to a guy at CWC who mentioned on Monday that he'd started getting sick the previous day, which prompted me to think, "And yet you decided to show up today & expose dozens of other people. Thanks a lot, CWC guy ( Read more... )

A nice day yesterday. Not too much headache, not too much digestive difficulty, no nausea to speak of. An date evening out with Shannon, including a walk up and down Shattuck (looking for a restaurant that wasn't closed on Tuesday nights, which apparently does not include Venus, La Note, or The Very Sad Restaurant [a nearby new Greek place called " ( Read more... )

Saw the pain doc today. He was surprised by how severe my withdrawal has been, but said that I am still showing visible symptoms. He saw me sweating and shivering in his office, my hands shaking slightly, my face flushed. The nausea and the headache were better today, but the diarrhea continues unabated & my body temp is still very wonky ( Read more... )

Wow. Yarn is really expensive. I think I'll be making the most expensive afghan ever, but if it helps me forget about the headaches, it will be worth it. In any case, it's going to be gorgeous. I'm using these hand-painted, ombre-effect yarns from Baah in shades of green, blue, and purple. The colors are incredibly saturated, which I love. If you' ( Read more... )

Headache: holding a pretty steady 8 out of 10 for the past few days (and I do mean "steady")

Nausea: holding a pretty steady 8 out of 10 for the past few days (and I do mean "steady")

Body Temp: holding a rather unsteady 1-10 out of 10 for the past few days (and I do mean "unsteady ( Read more... )

I keep remembering this book I read when I was a kid: Christiane F: Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict. (When I say I was a kid, I mean I was 13. Yeah, possibly not the most appropriate reading material for most 13-year-old kids, but I found it riveting.) What I've always remembered most vividly about the book was the girl's ( Read more... )

Today is my first day with no codeine whatsoever. My last Tylenol #4 tablet was yesterday at 11:50 am (almost exactly 24 hours ago), at which time the headache was excruciating. It's worse now ( Read more... )