So it turns out that codeine keeps me awake- loopy, but very much AWAKE. And it kept me that way, consumed with half-lucid dreams of choking on my own throat, until about 2 a.m. when I decided the medicine had sufficiently worked its way through my system to allow me to swallow a handful of Ibuprofen for the throat swelling and a swig of nighttime cold medicine to knock me out. I woke up 7 hours later, shocked to find Landon and JP gone for the day without my noticing and feeling not worse (though not better) than the day before.
I worked from home, which mostly involved me staring at the wall or out the window. No one was expecting much from me, in fact I was ordered not to work by the senior associate until I begged her to give me something to do. She told me that's the first sign of a workaholic- not knowing what to do with downtime. But when I'm feeling good I love and savor my down time- there's errands and shopping to be done, a house to organize, a Landon to play with, a JP to bother, etc. But when I'm feeling like crap and can't go out, can't nap, and hate everything on daytime TV, I might as well work, though I did thumb my way through Voyager for the 15th time.
I'm planning to repeat the Ibuprofen + nighttime cough medicine dosing and tuck myself in bed in a few minutes. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow without my first thought centering around how much it hurts to swallow. And then I'm going to work and being productive because oh my goodness do we have a lot to do before our hearing next week.
I'm so sorry you're under the weather! Narcotics do the same thing to me - Vicodin makes me organize sock drawers and clean baseboards. It's crazy.
ReplyDeleteFeel better soon!!!
Hoping and praying that by the time you read this you're feeling much better.
ReplyDeleteSaw and chatted with your mom tonight ..... she was being a wonderful teacher and cheering for her students at the la crosse game play off game (which they won and so are going to State this weekend).
You have a great mom.
Who also has a great daughter.
:)
Hi LL,
ReplyDeleteI too, used to be really prone to sore throats - so much so that a doctor queried if I should get my tonsils out. I was particularly prone in my first year as a lawyer and first year in a new country (but almost none now)
The only time I take sleeping pills is when I have a sore throat, or other pain that stops me sleeping. I got 7 from a doctor 3 years ago, and take half at a time, only when I'm very ill.
Otherwise, we had products called Night Nurse, and Day Nurse in the UK, and Sudafed Day and Night here which I've found really good.
Also sucking on a propolis lozenge, or slippery elm tablets coat the vocal chords and help provide a bit of protective mucus.
Happily, I don't tend to get sore throats now. I've explained this under the "link particular illnesses to emotional state" theory which says sore throats are due to holding back what you want to say, biting your tongue (metaphorically speaking.)
I used to hold back all the time when I was in a particular relationship, since passed, and the endof that relationship coincided with the relief from sore throats. If I get one now, I always think
" is there anything I'm holding back on saying - any bottled frustrations", and use it as a guide.
Take that with a grain of salt if you like (or in fact an entire salt-water gargle - also good!)
Codeine has a nasty effect on me too. Actually, it's fine if I take it during the day but if I take it before bedtime ... watch out! I do something along the lines of the half-lurid dreams, when I can fall asleep at all that is, I tend to jerk awake everytime I am about to fall asleep with the feeling that I am falling off a cliff. A few nights of that was enough, now I know not to touch the stuff if I know I want to sleep in the next few hours.
ReplyDeleteIronically, I had a bad experience with strep once too. I self-medicated for over a month, thinking it was just a cold. After using Neocitran and other stuff on a regular basis, I would wake up stoned every morning. I was working in a daycare as a summer job while in law school and I would wake up in the morning, walk into the wooden foot of my bed and not even feel/notice it until a bruise developed later in the day. I'm not sure if I was taking care of the kids or they were taking care of me at that point. It was that bad.
When I finally went to the dr she told me it was strep, gave me antibiotics and it cleared up. But ever since then, I found that I have to be very careful with cold medications. They never bothered me before but now there's certain stuff (like Neocitran) that I can't go near unless I know I can sleep in/sleep it off the next day. Otherwise it's stoned-city.
Yup, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Ack. I had strep once and will never forget how that felt, even thought it was well over 20 years ago! You poor thing.
ReplyDeleteOne a fun note, I over half-way through on Outlander. Thanks for the recommendation!
i just had a "cold" but oh man was it bad. I'm so sorry you ended up getting strep- yucky! If my "cold" was deathly painful I can only imagien what you are going through.
ReplyDeleteIn your last post I loved how you described Landon's flip flopping like a fish. Jacob recently learned to do that when he wants to throw a tantrum. He becomes impossible to hold and wiggles all over the place! oh kids...