The smaller therapeutic window for the drugs means that my sleep has been incredibly disturbed over the past few days. Even when exhausted, it takes a long time for the pain relief to kick in enough that I can sleep and then the pain wakes me before I'm fully rested. It's not a situation I'd recommend to anyone. If things continue on in this fashion I might just have to bite the bullet and visit a doctor again and see if anything can be done. If nothing else, maybe I can weasel out a prescription of hillbilly heroin and see if the time release makes me a happier camper.
While at Ubercon, I chatted with Sherry, who also apparently has pain issues. She's practically a walking pharmacy of drugs, most of it in forms I've never tried before. She had not only topic analgesic patches but also steroid patches. I've always thought it might be interesting if I could get a tub of novocaine like they have at dentist offices and lather myself with it. Chances are, I'd just OD myself myself on the stuff though. Besides, I'm not sure if you can just go squirting that stuff into wounds and not run into complications. Still, it sounds like it might be something interesting to try. Maybe I'll try to palm a jar the next time I see a dentist. I'm pretty sure they don't allow people to just pick up a case with a prescription.