Tuesday I woke up after only 4 hours of sleep and I was in a crazy amount of pain. My body wanted to turn over and try a different position but I couldn't even lift my head without stabbing shocks. I was a big moany baby about it and the sleep deprivation wasn't helping. Ian wanted desperately to help so I went with the last resort: Robaxacet. I've taken in before and though effective it left me very stupid and walking into walls. Whatever, I needed to get rid of this thing. Ian (God bless him I love him so much) ran out and bought a package. When he handed it to me he said, "the Pharmacist said you should take two" to which I replied that I should probably only take one in case of any weird interactions.
This led to a 'discussion' about my annoying habit of undermedicating myself which led to me throwing up my arms in tired frustration and popping two tablets in my mouth "There, two, fine!"
And then I read the indications on the box. Well, I tried to, the writing was so tiny and my eyes were all bleary, and I couldn't find a section about side effects. Giving up I turned the box over and read the front, there in bright yellow letters: CONTAINS CODEINE.
"Oh shit" I say.
"What?" says Ian, fuming a bit in the other room.
"There's Codeine in this."
"Is that bad?"
"I'm allergic to Codeine."
"Fuck!"
Quick backstory. I had some back strain about 7 years ago and was prescribed T-3s or T-4s for a few days and developed an itchy spot on my forearm. The indications said to call a doctor in case this happened which I did, a nurse I spoke to said that I was allergic and should stop taking it. I insisted that I didn't mind having an itchy arm and she said that it could lead to a more severe reaction so stop taking it. This of course led to an interesting experience a few years later when I went in for day surgery to remove a lump on my cervix. The standard painkiller for the achiness afterward was Codeine but because of the "itchy arm incident" the surgeon gave me Oxycontin, the sledgehammer of painkillers, a sledgehammer with a great big Cadillac logo on it, which on top of being a day long high made a trip to the UBC campus A&W very memorable ("Dude! This is the BEST burger I ever HAD!").
So my first thought looking at the Codeine label was "Well, do I stuff my fingers down my throat or just wait and see what happens?"
The pain in my neck answered that. On one hand, I really wanted the ache to end and on the other, throwing up with a neck in this much pain just seemed so much worse than a trip to the hospital.
And fortunately it turned out fine. A little itchy arm, a little itchy leg and whole lot of goofy wooziness. I could also move my head.
Ian had to do a show at Yuk Yuk's so Vic came over to keep an eye on me "so I wouldn't die or anything". We watched House and had ice cream.
I crashed at midnight and again I woke up after only 4 hours feeling stiff. I could try the meds again but I'm not comfortable going to sleep while using it. Right now I've got a rice-filled sock nuked warm on my neck. If anyone wants to make one of these for aches and pains I would recommend Jasmine rice, smells great.
The rain is pounding outside. We've got a huge storm front over us at present and people all over the mainland are freaking out over flooding (the brief tsunami watch this morning certainly spiced up the anxiety for a while there).
I'm going to try and sleep some more. Hopefully the rain will do it's rhythmic job of knocking me out. This afternoon, if the office is still there, I'll be doing some work.
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