To Flinch or Not To Flinch

To flinch, or not to flinch, that is the question. As the nerve block wore off, I knew I would be needing a little help with the pain that was settling in. When I left the hospital, I was given a generous supply of Hydrocodone. I'm not a big fan of the dopey feeling that it causes, but I'm also not a big fan of pain. Besides, I could use a little help sleeping that second night. I snuggled comfortably on the couch, nestled between blankets and pillows to give me just the right amount of support. As the pills kicked in I began feeling nice and light as my eyes got heavy. My body was getting to that perfect state of relaxation where you almost feel like your floating when WHAM!, I was hit by a massive flinch that sent me through the roof in pain. I've flinched before as I'm falling asleep and have even done the head bob as a passenger on a long road trip, but this one was brutal. In fact, I think the epicenter was right in my left shoulder. I was sure I just yanked some stitches out.

After a few minutes my heart rate settled down and I began to allow myself to drift back in to that blissful state of relaxation. WHAM! It happened again! Seriously? Is my body trying to kill itself? What the WTF is going on?

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Three more times that night I was jolted awake like I was struck by lightning. The next morning I was exhausted and sore to say the least. After the allotted six hours, I took two more pills. Those started to kick in around noon. While watching TV, I began to doze again. I don't know if it was the pills, my exhaustion or the fact that daytime TV sucks. All I knew was that I needed to get some sleep. WHAM! It happened again. By this time I was wide awake, scared to close my eyes.

I was up until about 2 a.m. when I decided to give it another try at sleep. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! I wanted to scream. I honestly started whining out of delirium. I finally fell asleep around 3:30 only to wake up at 6:20 to the sound of my nine-year-old son puking in the upstairs bathroom.

I fell back asleep at 8:30, not for lack of flinching, but at that point I was so tired, I was back asleep ten seconds after the flinch.

The next few days were a blur of small doses of sleep, lots of medication and way too much tossing and turning. I did some research online as to whether or not Hydrocodone causes flinching and I never did find a clear answer, although the list of other side effects was longer than Santa's naughty list. I decided to ween myself off of the pills, at first splitting the dose with one Tylenol and eventually switching over to just Tylenol. The flinching is still there although the intensity has subsided.

Now the real question is why am I wide awake at 3:20 a.m. to be typing this. Last night I took two Tylenol P.M., which knocked me out way more than the Hydrocodone, but it also made me very irritable. I woke up fighting with the blankets because I couldn't get them to go where I wanted with one arm. I didn't like the irritability so I didn't take anything tonight, and here I am.