Wednesday Weekend Wind-Up: Withdrawal
So, I had been excited for it to be 2016 already, but then I woke up in the middle of the night on the first day of the year and my toe was aching. I think it's been infected for the past year and a half, and I've tried alternative therapies - Vicks VapoRub, tea tree oil, and just icing it when it starts aching too bad. And then I kicked off the first week of the year with really bad insomnia. I was completely exhausted and unable to sleep. I literally ended up making myself sick and came home early from work with bad nausea and shaking pretty bad. I was like this cannot. be. happening. Francisco thought I might have the flu, but I never developed any other symptoms. He and I talked and tried to think of what, if anything, had changed in our lives lately that might be having such a huge impact on my quality of sleep. I realized I was likely in WITHDRAWAL. What?! Yeah, I know.
Long story short, the neurologist had prescribed Gabapentin to take as a preventative medicine for my chronic migraines. I decided that I wanted to taper off my dosage and try to return to managing my headaches without medicine. And I really didn't like my doctor and felt like he'd been dismissive when I'd expressed that I wasn't comfortable with having to take a daily medicine. Since I didn't want to go back to see him, I just started scaling down my dose. Basically by just reversing the instructions I'd been given on how to build up your dosage. Well, when I started Googling, I found a few places that noted that signs of withdrawal from Gapapentin included insomnia, the shakes, irritability, headaches, etc. So...that's what's been going on. If anything, this makes me more determined to get off this medicine - I hate the idea of being dependent on medication, especially when it's something I don't really even want to be taking in the first place. So...I have a doctor's appointment next week - just a primary care physician whom I've seen once before and liked - and maybe I'll have a better treatment for my toe and my insomnia. Even if this bout of sleep issues has been due to withdrawal, I have enough sleeping issues that I want to make sure I explore enough options.
Anyways, long segue into the weekend recap, but those issues really dragged into the weekend, and I was so ready to get the work week over with. We had a couple outings - for Mexican food Friday night and Cheddar's after we made some returns at the mall, but it was mostly a relaxing weekend.
We took down all of our Christmas decorations after we got home from the mall.
On Sunday, we had out first real snow of winter - finally!
So, we took that opportunity to throw Colby outside and see what he would make of it.
At first, he slid around and then the wind blew, and he ran back inside. Then he wanted more and more, lol! I envy that cat's thirst for life and excitement. :)
Long story short, the neurologist had prescribed Gabapentin to take as a preventative medicine for my chronic migraines. I decided that I wanted to taper off my dosage and try to return to managing my headaches without medicine. And I really didn't like my doctor and felt like he'd been dismissive when I'd expressed that I wasn't comfortable with having to take a daily medicine. Since I didn't want to go back to see him, I just started scaling down my dose. Basically by just reversing the instructions I'd been given on how to build up your dosage. Well, when I started Googling, I found a few places that noted that signs of withdrawal from Gapapentin included insomnia, the shakes, irritability, headaches, etc. So...that's what's been going on. If anything, this makes me more determined to get off this medicine - I hate the idea of being dependent on medication, especially when it's something I don't really even want to be taking in the first place. So...I have a doctor's appointment next week - just a primary care physician whom I've seen once before and liked - and maybe I'll have a better treatment for my toe and my insomnia. Even if this bout of sleep issues has been due to withdrawal, I have enough sleeping issues that I want to make sure I explore enough options.
Anyways, long segue into the weekend recap, but those issues really dragged into the weekend, and I was so ready to get the work week over with. We had a couple outings - for Mexican food Friday night and Cheddar's after we made some returns at the mall, but it was mostly a relaxing weekend.
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