Have you ever gone through detox? More power to you!

That was some kind of living hell. I really did not expect to have such serious, intense, long lasting annoying side effects from detoxing off of the morphine. I’d been on such a small amount, or so I thought and I’d started decreasing the amount slowly, I didn’t think much about the side effects. If there is ever a reason not to get addicted to pain killers it would be so you don’t have to detox. My most pervasive symptom was the jittery leg/body. I could not hold still. I’ve had bits of restless leg syndrome in the past, and this was restless leg syndrome on steroids. My whole body just needed to jerk and jiggle around. I had 4 nights of very limited sleep. One night I’m quite sure I could lay still for no more that 10 minutes then I had to get up and move around. I left Mike alone in our room and used every other possible sleeping surface to try and get comfortable. Bloody hell. During the day I had little to no energy. I wanted to walk to try and get some of this out of me. I walked Wilson 25 minutes each morning and then would collapse after that to catch my breath.  As soon as I recovered I did a few PT/pilates moves as I have got to build up some core strength again. MY goodness, I feel like a spineless wimp. From there I just coped through the day; doing a little here, a little there, collapsing and recovering and then hopping about on my jittery body once more. I did try some THC/CBD combos but without great success. I tried to eat healthy, but had very little appetite.

Finally toward the end of all of this I got an appointment with Dr. Standish. She sent me home with marching orders for epsom salt baths and some ayruvedic supplements, with in two days I started feeling better. But all in all the detox took nearly a week. And I was on a low dose…let this be a cautionary tale!!!

One of the things that finally pushed me over the edge and back into the land of the living was having company over the Memorial Day Holiday! Lucy (my sister, Kathy’s youngest), her husband Stephen and their boy, Hunter came to stay with us. They’d been to a big wedding in Portland so drove up to spend two nights with us. They got in Sunday and we spent the evening at Alki and then dinner at Elliot Bay. Monday we caught the water taxi and spent time at the market; lunch at Lowells, flowers from the vendors, the usual! Came back that same way and everyone except Lucy and Maggie came home for nap o'clock. The girls headed to Fremont, to explore Seattle a little more and to have some fun.So great to have family come visit! We were disappointed that Michael and Eva were not around to enjoy the visit; they were back East, Eva's brother just graduated from Brown and they were celebrating with her family! Congratulations, Eli!

Lucy is the first of her siblings to come this way since they’ve had children. I expect this to open the flood gate…come on Gilroys! 

HEALTH UPDATE

Tomorrow I am going to go see Dr. Mignone and he is going to fit me to a lovely heart monitor vest that I wear for 2 days so they can monitor me for 2 days straight. While I was on pain meds my heart had some funny moments and so they just want to be double sure that all is well. Ok, I’m good with that. Not like you have a backup heart incase one goes off line…right…at least not most of us.

I’m also planning to check in with Dr. Kaplan soon. He told me in an email since all those tests came back clear we would not have a scan anytime soon. Well, I am A-ok with that. I think we take a summer vacation, come back and get a scan and go from there. I’m starting to feel a teeny tiny bit normal post radiation, post pain meds, post detox. I would sure like to enjoy feeling a teeny tiny bit normal for a teeny tiny bit longer. That is my hope…fingers crossed.

The weather has turned again. It is beautiful. This Friday is Lou's Make-A-Wish Run. I'll be there, I'll be making lots of wishes but be doing very little running! Any Pathfinder alumni, you should join us! You know Lou's run is always a good day!

Love to you all. 

Janet