The morphine zone

Is that the hernia? Just one of the hundred pictures I got

After months of increasing back pain, punctuated by doctor visits, various drugs, physical therapy and X-Rays, a specialist sent me for an MRI. I was in such bad shape when I met him that he put me on morphine.

It was then, about 3 weeks ago, that I entered the zone...

My previous week had been shitty, with 5 hours a night sleep at most, and pain most of the day. Then, I put on my first opium-derived patch. Specifically on a non-hairy piece of skin, which I easily found, I'm glad to report. Not sure whether I even swallowed, that day, one of the pills containing more of the precious drug. Probably did, actually. As a result, I was out for 13 hours of uninterrupted, restful sleep. Not even Nathan's shouts, on the top of his 3-week-old lungs, could wake me. Nor the hair dryer used to calm the baby - here I must say this device is used for white-noise, not as a hammer.

The problem is, you can't do much with your days while on morphine. Much less work or do other activities that require a brain. Granted, my last job didn't require much use of one, in its last weeks anyway. Good thing for them, my contract had ended the day before. Really, with 2 to 3 additional pills, spending the day watching the new Blogger Play could be satisfying enough.

Then came the day I went cold-turkey, because I ran out of patches, and chose to stop popping the magical pills, the pain being almost gone. The following day my doctor did an infiltration, which is an injection of cortisone between my back vertebrae, close to the guilty herniated disc, to sooth the inflamed nerve.

That night... I came to realize I had become a morphine addict. Bed sheets were too itchy, I couldn't stay still. Everything irritated my skin, and I was restlessly turning and shifting in bed, unable to sleep. I was experiencing my first -and hopefully last- withdrawal. In the middle of the night, I took my first pill in over 24 hours. Saving grace... 45 minutes later I was sound asleep. Following night, same thing. Only a pill in the night could appease my senses.

Still my productivity had returned to normal, during those days. I even successfully handled my first bottle feeding of Nathan, with milk mom put away for the occasion.

It took four days to be freed from the drug.
Though I still have a 15 days supply of patches and pills, in case of a new crisis...