Off the Vicodin

I came off the Vicodin last night. Mainly it did it because I felt the pain was manageable. And I did it because I'm tired of being a prisoner -- unable to drive, go to lunch or dinner with friends, even pick up groceries. Tired of having to take naps after I take the next pill.

Yes, I have a little pain this morning, but it's not bad. I also have a stomach ache. I have no idea if it's because of the (lack of) Vicodin.

Just to recap, I went through surgery (hysterectomy with removal of the ovaries and a sampling of the lymph nodes because of cancer of the uterus) on March 9th. I have been recovering ever since. That's three weeks-and-a-half, almost three weeks since my release from the hospital.

They had me on a dilaudid pain drip, intravenously, while I was in the hospital, but that induced low-level nausea, and I couldn't eat, which delayed my release by a few days. Once they figured that out, they put me on morphine. Once I was released from the hospital, they gave me a prescription for Vicodin and Motrin (Motrin is just 600mg of Ibuprofen). I went in for a check-up and to have the stitches removed a week later, March 20th, and they gave me another prescription for Vicodin.

The pain is getting less and less each day. I was able to start really reducing the Vicodin about a week ago, going from two Vicodin tablets every six hours to one, and then one every seven hours, every eight hours, etc., until I got up to every 12 hours on Saturday. And then, on Sunday, I figured I could come off it that night.

I hope those days are over for me now. They told me initially it would take 6 to 8 weeks for everything to heal and for most of the pain to subside. When I think about it, I'm only half-way through that process. There is some more pain to come. But it's nothing compared to the first few days.