Monday, September 24, 2007
Whew, I am really tired. It's been a long day.
I have been thinking about the various things that I've taken for pain and what works and what doesn't. Here's my list, sorted by the amount it reduces the pain (“actual pain”), the amount that it helps me deal with the pain (“effective pain”), how much it alters my mood, whether it helps me sleep, and what I think of the general side effects outside of those categories. Anyway, these are my thoughts on it… Plusses are good, minus signs are bad.
| |
Actual Pain |
Effective Pain |
Mood |
Sleep |
Side Effects |
| Codeine |
+ |
+ |
0 |
+ |
0 |
| Oxycocet (5mg/325mg) |
++ |
++ |
+ |
++ |
0 |
| Oxycontin (10mg) |
++ |
+++ |
++ |
++ |
+ |
| Oxycontin (20mg) |
+++ |
++++ |
+++ |
+++ |
+ |
| Marijuana |
++ |
+++ |
- |
+ |
– |
| Trazadone |
+ |
0 |
0 |
+++ |
0 |
| Fluorazepam |
0 |
+ |
0 |
+++ |
0 |
| Alcohol |
0 |
+ |
0 |
0 |
- |
| Lyrica |
+ |
0 |
— |
0 |
— |
| Misc. Anti-Depressents |
0 |
+ |
+ |
+ |
- |
| Misc. Tranquilizers |
0 |
+ |
0 |
++ |
0 |
I was told that I'm eligible for a medical marijuana prescription. If I didn't hate the side-effects and unpleasant mood effects, I'd go for it in a heartbeat because it really does go a long way to stopping the pain. Oxycontin is also extremely effective (and not very expensive in comparison to things like the Lyrica which are much easier to get a prescription for), but it's hard to get a prescription and it's expensive through non-prescription channels. It bothers me that there's resistance to prescribe things like that, because, as the one doctor I dealt with put it, what does it matter if I get hooked if I'm going to be in larger and larger amounts of pain for the rest of my life and there's very little that can be done about it?
Although I understand there are many contexts in which narcotic painkillers can be abused, I'd love to see some of these drugs be easier to obtain… I think it's needlessly cruel to craft legislation to keep people who don't need a medication from it, rather than crafting it so people who need it can obtain it…
Anyway, long day, and I have to get up early to move the car…
Sunday, September 23, 2007
So I'm taking a picture of Nefarious playing by the BBQ fire at the end of the day, and her aunt yells at me, “why are you taking a picture of my kid peeing?“ and I'm like… huh? Because of the smoke, I couldn't see him, but now, looking at the photo, I see he was helping put out the fire, hahaha! Anyway, it was a looooong day, and I have to get up early to move my car, so I'm logging out for the evening.
Oh, and speaking of family stuff, Rachel's brother is in town — he's a jockey and just came up and won a $300,000 race at Woodbine (or maybe more) — so we'll get to see him tomorrow. Uncle overload!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
I watched Radiant City (reviews) last night… It's sort of a surreal comedy “documentary” about the desolation of suburbia… I definitely recommend it. Tonight I'm going to watch Let's All Hate Toronto (on loan from Phil)… I love Toronto, so I wonder if I will laugh, or scream at my TV?
I've started work on a new collection of interviews, maybe for a book, maybe for a new site — maybe both… They're on homesteading, alternate construction, and so on — today I sent off an interview to Al Schwarz from “Robot Ranch” (because he has lots of robotic lawnmowers) who has a pretty neat site documenting the construction of his monolithic dome house. Hopefully he's into it.
Tomorrow I'm going to go visit my brother's homestead that's he's in the process of clearing and slowly preparing for construction… He's not sure yet what to build — maybe he'll feel like splitting on a shotcrete pump, haha… I sure could make some cool stuff if I had one of those!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Since it's getting picked up later this week — :( — I decided to jack up the Laser 917 this morning (after getting the latest Lizardman Q&A online finally) and de-seize the front tire which turned out to be really easy… I have to cut off the sway bar that got mangled on the last tow as well, but the good news is that this means that the new owners won't have too much trouble pushing it around by hand.
I was going to take the train tomorrow but I'm debating going and getting my other car out of storage and driving for the first time in ages (have to debate the cost-effort-risk balance)… Haven't written about it much and don't intend to, but I've been in a lot of pain over the last week so I don't know if I want to commit to a long drive — we'll see how I feel in the morning I guess.
Anyway, I'm covered in dirt (and I don't want to think about what else) from crawling around in that dirty car and on the floor of the garage. Time for a shower.
Friday, September 21, 2007
