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[felicula]

Last night's regimen of hot pack, chamomile tea before bed, more arnica massage, and trying a different mattress were all unhelpful. I had problems falling asleep only to end up with my body attempting to get comfortable all night, unfortunately waking me up each time in the process. By 6:40 I was thoroughly sick of that BS and got up to start my day.

I called the doctor promptly at 8. The triage nurse returned my call within half an hour. I was slated to go in at 11:30.

After waking up mechanchaos, we killed some time with a trip to Lee's Oriental foods. I was low on mirin, and wanted some frozen unagi kabayaki for next week. I also said yes to daifuku, since I've been in rather foul spirits between neck pain and lack of sleep. It may be calorie-heavy, but I have a soft spot for bean paste confections.

The doctor confirmed my thoughts that this is a muscle spasm-thingy. What I wish I'd known before was that cold is more often recommended for this sort of thing than heat. He also gave me a prescription for something I'd never had before: carisoprodol 350mg, better known as Soma. I'm supposed to take one pill four times a day as needed. To try to help with the sleep position issues, I also sprang for one of those C-shaped travel neck pillows. The doctor also sent me home with a couple handouts on neck pain and exercises to help it out in the future.

Once I was home, I read through all the handouts, the prescription sheet, and got online to see what the Vaults of Erowid had to say about the stuff. The only negatives seemed to be coming from folks who'd taken 5-8 at once, which is way more than I'd consider taking at any given time. The pharmacist had advised me to be careful standing up or sitting down too fast, and that it makes one drowsy or dizzy.

I took one around 1. I think the most I feel is a little distant, with a vague tingling in my extremities. I haven't noticed any problems standing up or sitting down. Then again, most of my time since taking it has been on my ass in front of the computer. I've been using ice packs on the area as well (20 min on, then 40 min off). There isn't much of a difference in how my neck feels though.

I'll have to keep an eye on how things go. The doctor asked me to call tomorrow to let him know how it's working. If it wasn't helping at least some by then, he's thinking of upping the dose.

I don't really know what to think of the current treatment. So far it doesn't seem to be doing much. If there's anything I've learned from the reading, though, it's to be patient with the stuff.

Anyhow, I'd like to apologize in advance to dawnstar and kolys if I'm a little spacey this evening. I still would like social time. Social time is a good thing.

Comments

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

I tend to be insanely tolerant of most meds. I think this being something completely different has been an asset in that regard.

So far it hasn't been bad for me. I've had 4 of them so far, as per doctor's orders. Each time after the first it was pretty much the same feeling. My extremities got faintly tingly, and I had a mild version of that "the world's moving on me" drunk feeling. That sets in about 15-20 minutes after taking it. Over the course of the evening yesterday, a combination of the Soma and ice packs increased my range of motion and decreased my pain considerably.

With those and the travel neck support pillow, I was able to sleep through the night for the first time in several days. Down side is that I woke up with a lot of the pain right back where it was the morning before. A little later I'll be calling the doctor to see what he has to say about that. In the meantime I've been keeping up with the Soma and ice pack.