Monday, March 31, 2008

Valium for Breakfast

Got back from the VaBook Festival last night and was going to hit the ground running today:
  • Orthopedist appointment at 9:30am to discuss the next fun surgery on my arm (alas, the surgery on Jan 2 isn't going to be the last of the year).
  • Pick up Jenny afterwards at Shylo, "the country club for dogs."
  • Post a gazillion pics and comments about my fabu time at the festival.
  • Send emails to old friends, all the wonderful people who were on my panels and the other wonderful people I met along the way.
Instead, the ground almost hit me at 7:30am, when I bent over (with knees properly bent, I'll have you know) to get something out of the suitcase on the floor, and my lower back went into a screaming spasm. It took me almost 10 minutes to raise myself up by leaning heavily on a nearby chair, and another 5 minutes to creep to the bathroom and down 5mg of Valium (God's gift for spasms; hence my "Valium de Loire" trip to France a few years ago). I very carefully crept back into bed, where I lay immobile on my back with a pillow under my knees and a furry, 14-1/2 lb. vibrating heater on my chest (that would be Max, purring loudly to show how glad he is that I'm home).

After 45 minutes, I thought I'd get dressed and head off to the orthopod. But when I couldn't straighten up after getting my jeans out of a bottom drawer, and the back went into spasms when I attempted to pull up and zip, I knew there was no way I was going anywhere. So I'm seeing the orthopod on Thursday and Jenny is having another day in the "country" (i.e., sere, brown--make that white, as we had snow overnight--windswept plains east of Denver airport).

New plan for today:
  1. Valium
  2. Bed
  3. Read
  4. Sleep
  5. Repeat
Now to heave myself out of my desk chair and work my way down the list.

10 comments:

Janet said...

Oy, poor Bella. Would a heat pad under the lower back help?

Lisa said...

I hope you feel better soon. I've already read lots of great reports about the Book Festival, but I've been especially anxious to read yours. Valium -- ah. I don't think it does anything to really alleviate pain, but it does make it so you don't care about it, which is almost as good.

Bella Stander said...

No, Valium doesn't ease pain, but it eases the spasms that cause the pain.

Yes, hot packs--followed by cold--would help, but I need spousal assistance for that, so must wait till he returns from work.

And now to repeat steps 1 & 2...

Eileen said...

oooh not good. Take care.

Doreen Orion said...

Let me add my "oy" to the mix. Oy!

Hope you feel better soon! (Actually, that should be ARE better soon. The Valium probably makes you feel better, just not get better.)

Bella Stander said...

Valium doesn't make me feel better, just less bad--and very VERY calm--and it does ease the spasms. Though I had to ditch step #3 as I couldn't concentrate enough to do any reading in bed.

Finally returned the cane to the basement last week, and now Darling Husband had to bring it back up again.

And now for another repetition of #1 & 2...

Judy Merrill Larsen said...

Oh Bella, I'm so sorry. Wish I lived near enough so I could bring something over.

It was grand to meet you!

astrologymemphis.blogspot.com said...

Prince Valium to the rescue! I hope it's not a slipped disc, and that you recover before the sun sets again.

Anonymous said...

My name is Paul Harris and i would like to show you my personal experience with Valium.

I am 55 years old. Have been on Valium for 20 days now. I decided to get off of all benzos after much reading and having a friend who was abusing Xanax kill himself (may have been other issues, too). I was taking about 4 mg of Klonopin daily. I read a lot of the reseach on benzos by Dr. Heather Ashton, one of the world's leading authorities on benzos. I was shocked to see her equivalency table for Klonopin and Xanax. 1 mg of Klonopin or Xanax is equel to 20 mg of Valium. That's right, 20!! Plus, Klonopin and Xanax have nasty side effects. That did it for me. No more benzos!! Because Valium has the longest half-life of any benzo and the least side effects, I'm using it and water-titration to get off Klonopin, a method widly used in Europe. 10% reduction every 10-14 days. So far so good.

I have experienced some of these side effects -
Headache, drowsiness in the morning. Hard time getting my Dr. to prescribe and go along with treatment program. Valium supposedly is far less addicting than some other benzos, with far fewer side effects. I hope that turns-out to be true.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Paul Harris

valium diazepam said...
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