deluge in a paper cup

7 hours of sleep last night — Yay!
Headache still here — Boo!

Apparently, the digestive problems I've been having lately could be side effects of the Tylenol #4. Also, my recent lower back pain and sleep issues (both extreme tiredness/sleepiness and, ironically, having trouble sleeping) are also common side effects. It makes sense to hold off on any obsessive diet tracking (such as my planned effort to discover any new food sensitivies) until I see if anything changes when I'm off the codeine.

Today has been a haze of headache and exhaustion. As has happened in the past in this tsunami situation, the headache never actually goes away: it lightens up a bit, especially when I distract myself well with coloring, but it never actually goes away. I have hopes for tomorrow, though. Not like I'm planning to go write the great American novel while simultaneously performing mathematical impossibilities and bicycling across the continent, but just being able to think a bit more normally would be cause for celebration.

14 Tylenol #4 tablets in the last 50 hours, following 6 days of 2 tablets/day. This is exactly the kind of roller coaster the pain management doc will (I presume ... I HOPE) help me prevent. 50 hours (approximately), and the headache hurricane continues at full strength. It's like a marathon, except without anyone sponsoring me to see how many hours I can go.

I try to remind myself that millions of people have suffered much worse than I am right now, but it doesn't really help. The pain feels pretty darn bad to me when I'm inside it.