August 12, 2008

Following up on my last post... my neck and back pain continued to get worse. On Thursday August 7th, I went to my regular doctor and described the pain and my visits to my chiropractor (as well as advising that I was taking 1800mg of iburpofen a day). He prescribed me 5/500 Hydrocodone (5mg hydrocodone and 500mg acetaminophen), 5mg Cyclobenzaprine (generic for Flexeril, a muscle relaxant) and prescription strength naproxen (500mg). I don't do well with drugs and spent much of the next 3 days either napping or (at night when I took 2 Cyclobenzaprine tablets) hallucinating (I think I was, anyway; it might have just been really weird dreams). My sister-in-law lent me her TENS unit (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), too. If you've never heard of it, it's an electrical stimulator that is supposed to help with muscle pain. It seems to help, some.

As I just mentioned, I can't handle drugs well, which means I can't take the pills before work (can't drive while drugged up). I do take them once I get to work, but I can't take more until I get home. Around about 3:30, the hydrocodone and Cyclobenzaprine wear off and the pain starts roaring back. It's not easy to remain completely focused, but I think I'm doing OK.

As I said before: getting old doth suck.

Below is Harley Quinn, our Green-Cheeked Conure


Harley Quinn in November 2005

To the left, you’ll see Drusilla,
the Vampire Parakeet, named after
a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
because she bit like a vampire.
She passed away on 12/20/04.