They call it a drug for a reason

What would have been Day 18, and a story to tell about Age 18, fell apart.  Maybe I just couldn't face discussing what happened in my 18th year.  Guess I get to save that for 18 days from now.

I mentioned before that I have been having leg pains.  It started at the end of last summer and all through the fall I used a bolster under my legs at night and resorted to having to sleep on my back to manage the pain.  I am not a back sleeper so this resulted in me having very disrupted sleep for months.

In November I went back to drinking wine every night, gave up on this quitting thing, and gradually realized my legs weren't hurting as much while sleeping but I was still really stiff upon waking or getting up after sitting for very long.  I was wondering if my leg pain, while not as bad as it had been, was caused by alcohol.  I think my body is in state of inflammation of some sort that I need to calm down.

I, optimistically, assumed that not drinking would help this.  But, since I stopped drinking on April 10th, my leg pain got worse and worse.  I don't have an answer for this but chronic pain and I don't do well together.  I am also loathe to take ibuprofen or other anti inflammatory medication.  Why?  I have no idea.

Last night after 2 nights of really poor sleep and a lot of pain, I just hit the end of my rope.  I had a choice, dope up on ibuprofen before bed or see if wine helped.  I had a craving so why not?  Uggh.  I guess it was a good experiment.  I had that bottle of white wine and other than a little heartburn, I slept the best in days.  Woke up and my legs don't hurt although still stiff.

What does this tell me?  Umm, duh, alcohol is a drug, the oldest in the book.  There is a reason why people took swigs of whiskey before getting bullets taken out in the old days.   Today is interesting in that I realize I took a drug.  It did help but it reinforces that it's not how I want to manage my pain.

So I'll get back to not drinking and spend some time thinking about inflammation and looking at foods in that regard and then, if I really need sleep, I'll dope up on ibuprofen and choose that as my drug instead of alcohol.  I've tried turmeric, fyi, and it really hasn't helped much but I'm going to keep taking it.

Has anyone else reading this triumphed over inflammation?  Maybe this is all just peri menopause/menopause symptoms that will resolve themselves like hot flashes.

Anyway, I told my hubs last night I wanted wine to see if it helped and it did.  Done.  Experiment concluded.  Yes, it has short term benefits but I know what it's like drinking day in and day out and I think I'll take the pain instead and at least have a clear head.  I still think alcohol has contributed to overall inflammation, I just broke after 2 and a half weeks of it getting worse not better.  This time I'll be prepared.

We're having a heat wave here and the pool is already up to temperature for swimming.  I'm going to use that as my exercise of choice this week and see if that helps as well.

Day 1 with 17 days under my belt.

HD