Magnesium helps stop my restless legs, cramps and the massive myoclonic jerks - the kind that throw you about.
It doesn't help my sleep, but it stops my symptoms disturbing it and getting in the way.
I haven't needed any sleep aids since I have been on the codeine.
It seems to help with a lot of my symptoms too, certainly when I started it - or perhaps just reduces general pain and discomfort, making things a bit easier.:thumbdown:
Benadryl (diphenhydramine, to give it its Sunday name) is a drowsy-making kind of antihistamine.
I find it works for a few days, but that it is better to alternate it with herbal things too.
Do not, however, take it if you are taking codeine for pain.
It disrupts the body from converting the codeine to morphine.
I find that the other OTC sleep aid, promethazine, is very good, but can result in a bit of grogginess the next day.
(perhaps I should break the tablets in half, and see if they still work?)
I have been waking earlier since I cut back to 5 painkillers....
I had some gut crampy pains the first day, but not serious and not for long.
I might have slept a little longer today if it had not been for some really, really weird and very lound
booming noises coming from outside...
Loud enough to sound like a helicopter coming down on top of you - I cannot work out where they are coming from - the noise is booming everywhere outside - seems to be echoing in the sky all over the city...
yes!
- my background has been of value in coping with my ME.
I may never have done something amazing professionally, or published a seminal paper on bullying, or made any money.
But I was able to look after my Dad when the medical profession failed him.
(pronouncing him as "in denial" - needing locked up in a nursing home, 24/7)
He had short term memory problems. He could not
understand he had a drink problem, it was
not denial.
He was a steady drinker, not a binger.
His drinking could be controlled by controlling his money.
He had a very happy last 9 years of life, living with the illusion of independence in sheltered housing where he made loads of friends.
My education has not been
any waste of time, finances or effort.
xchocoholic - I so much empathise with the jitters, it's horrible, horrible, horrible.
That's why you need to cut down slowly, a little at a time - stabilising at each lower level before cutting any further.
However, with benzos, I believe there are proper protocols for titrating down exceptionally slowly.
Not that many gps seem to know about them.
But whether or not you need that severity of slowness depends on the particular drug and on your own response to it.
If you are getting jittery, perhaps you are cutting out too much, too soon.
You are going through some very nasty
extra physical and emotional stress.
