Had acupuncture on Tuesday, immediately followed by my first PT appointment of this second go-round. Then an appointment with the pain doc the next day.

Acupuncture
I like the acupuncturist I saw at Berkeley Community Acupuncture on Tuesday & saw her again to day. (Her name is Elena.) The whole clinic is really great, very relaxed and casual. ( Read more... )

I visited the One Word website this morning for the first time in 2 1/2 months & wrote on today's prompt. (It's a 60-second writing exercise.) Wow. I was all over the place, even just within a 60-second time period, my thinking all fragmented and fractured. Kind of scary ( Read more... )

Brain Doc
Saw the neurologist yesterday, and he says I'm still having two different kinds of headaches, though now they are related: muscle contraction headache and occipital neuralgia. (When I saw him previously, the headaches were complicated by cataracts and codeine, as well.) This "two kinds of headaches" diagnosis makes sense of a problem I'd ( Read more... )

I had my first acupuncture appointment yesterday at AIMC (Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College) and am hesitant to go back ( Read more... )

My codeine withdrawal symptoms are mostly gone now, just slight gastrointestinal problems every couple days. Mostly, I'm just living one long, terrible headache. Well, that isn't fair: sometimes it lets up for a few hours at a time, though I usually realize afterward that it's because I was doing something very distracting & therefore just didn't ( Read more... )

The withdrawal symptoms are much better now. No nausea today at all. Only slight digestive difficulties. Headaches still terrible, but I don't think that's a withdrawal effect anymore; I think it's just the headaches that caused me to start taking codeine in the first place. They feel different than the codeine withdrawal headaches: sharper, and ( Read more... )

This week I got to thinking about something. The pain doc didn't seem to be taking me seriously when I told him about my withdrawal symptoms last week-not until he actual observed some of them for himself-and I'm pretty sure it's because I don't behave the way most people seem to expect when I'm miserable. Even when I've been at my worst-when I was ( 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... )

Talked to the pain doc. He says all my current symptoms--the headache, nausea, diarrhea, body temp instability, etc.--are classic withdrawal symptoms that might be significantly better by the weekend ... but alternatively might continue longer than that, because everyone is different, and that even then the symptoms might recur occasionally, ( 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... )