Today is Saturday and it is day three of withdrawals and all going okay so far. I didn’t plan to do anything different today as opposed to any other Saturday; I was just resting and seeing where the day took me. My Saturdays are mostly spent with me still in my pyjamas, eating junk food, watching TV and only doing any necessary chores when required.
Today was going good, I had just woke up approximately 1pm and I was feeling refreshed. I had surprisingly managed to get a couple of hours kip; between multiple night sweat episodes and restless legs and was now sitting up comfortably, I had a bit of joint stiffness and was pretty sore but nothing out of the ordinary.
However, once I was fully awake, I started to feel a little worse for wear. I racked my brain trying to work out why I was feeling this way and I eventually worked it out! It had now been over 13 hours since I had last taken Tramadol and I was dealing with severe withdrawals.
I realised this is what cold turkey feels like and I wouldn’t recommend! I didn’t realise sleeping in would have such a detrimental effect on my day regarding my medication schedule and I certainly learned from today’s mistake. To try and manage the withdrawals to the best of my ability, I quickly got out of bed and hurried on in to the kitchen to make something to eat.
The only other concern I had was that I’d already lost a massive five hour window of time that I couldn’t get back today and that it may have to come down to me missing out on my last dosage, as there isn’t enough hours left in my day. I made a conscious effort to try and stay on track with the rest of my medication throughout the weekend, to make sure I wasn’t cutting any corners.
If only I had a crystal ball; I could’ve tried to prevent this scenario somehow. If someone could have warned me that I was going to feel this way; I would have made a special effort to get up at 8am and take my medication and then go back to sleep. But as I had no clue; I didn’t think there would be anything wrong with having a few extra hours in bed.
My morning was a little backwards now with my brunch on a plate; I checked Facebook, answered Emails, perused the internet and watched a few videos on YouTube and after taking my medication; the withdrawals started to subside.
My doctor and I have recently arranged a timetable around my working day; breakfast at 8am. lunch at noon and dinner at 4pm. Clearly sleeping in has completely snookered this plan. The other issue is that I don’t tend to take all six of my tablets on a chilled/relaxing day as I don’t get up to any extraneous exercise and therefore I don’t aggravate my hip as much as I could, things may have been different if I had been out shopping or gallivanting for eight or more hours.
After taking my medications, my boyfriend and I settled down to watch season 3, episode 1 of Chicago Fire and I couldn’t wait as I’ve waited quite a while for the new season to start – I don’t want to say too much in case I ruin it for anyone but I am hooked again! The rest of my day was spent watching Falling Skies; I have almost completed season 4, my boyfriend and I were watching it together however I became very impatient as we work different shifts and I decided to go on ahead. I also caught up with the previous weeks recordings, as you do.
Around 8pm all hell broke loose. I kept shaking and initially put it down to me leaning slightly on my right arm but then when I sat upright the tingling continued. The shakes then progressed from my right arm in to the whole of my upper body. I couldn’t control my hands, I was unable to text or type and I couldn’t hold anything steady.
After a few hours, I also started to have what I can only describe as restless legs and I was unable to sit or lie still – talk about annoying!! Eventually around 4am the shaking began to calm down and I was able to crawl in to bed and try and get some sleep. My legs did kick out a few times through out the early hours but was nothing I couldn’t manage and I also worked out the less hours I sleep; the less likely I have to deal with night sweats.
Until next time.
Amytobefree 