Fear of running out of drugs = No Sleep = No post

The physical pain I experience is related to inflammation. The BEST, by FAR, treatment for inflammation is medication designed specifically for that, the Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, aka NSAIDs.  A few years ago, when I got tired of the side effects of morphine, I was able to manage quite well with a daily dose of meloxicam. I went for nine months with that, and only took about 1/2 tablet of hydrocodone every week.
Then, the bad side effects of NSAIDs manifested, and my guts exploded. I was getting blood in my stool, and awful gastric distress, so I needed to re-visit the Pain Clinic. Unfortunately, when you are destroyed by one NSAID, you will be destroyed by them all, so I can't take an aspirin or an ibuprofen, or anything in that category.

I do have a good solution. There is a long-release patch called 'Butrans,' which dispenses (in my case) 20 micrograms of buprenorphine into my system every hour; I change the patch every week. It treats the bulk of the pain, and I am prescribed three 10 mg hydrocodone per day to manage break-through pain. Mostly, it works.

But we've had very changeable weather, and I've been active, and I've been gobbling down my daily allotment of meds every day. I counted the pills I had left last night, and while I do have enough to last until the next prescription, I'm always certain my car won't start or the snow will fall, and I won't be able to get a refill on time. So, I decided to grit my teeth, and make it on two pills, so as to have something in reserve.

Yesterday was probably not the right day to start that. As far as I know, I felt no pain in my toenails. Everything else? Ouch. Headache. Neck. Upper back. shoulders. Lower back. Knees.
Even my butt hurt.

So, I didn't get much in the way of sleep last night. At some point, I got out of bed, and quietly crept downstairs so as not to disturb my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, and I worked on my book for a while.

Then I went back upstairs at 5:30 so as to be there when she woke up. I stayed up to get the kids off to school; probably grabbed 30 minutes nap.

Anyway, that's why I didn't write a blog post today.

Except for this.