SMACK REPORT

I'm down to one and a half Vicodin a day. At this rate, the weaning process will be over in one week, with next Sunday being my last day on the smack.

The weaning process I chose was to go down half a pill every three days. At one point in the lengthening, I was taking eight Vicodin a day. After the horrible failure of trying to quit cold turkey, I went back up to six Vicodin a day and started my weaning process there.

The withdrawal symptoms have been ever-present, and have ranged from mild to moderate. Here are all the possible Vicodin withdrawal symptoms:

-Restlessness
-Muscle pain
-Bone pain
-Insomnia
-Diarrhea
-Vomiting
-Cold flashes
-Goose bumps
-Involuntary leg movements
-Watery eyes
-Runny nose
-Sneezing
-Loss of appetite
-Irritability
-Yawning
-Nausea
-Chills
-Sweating

Except for vomiting, I've had them all to varying degrees. The restlessness has been the constant, most prominent symptom, followed closely by the stomach issues, with the weird cold-like symptoms coming in a close third.

It's funny how the weaning process is also called "stepping down," because it really has felt like walking down a flight of stairs. Certain steps were steep, and the withdrawal symptoms were intense, like, for some reason, when I went from four pills to three and a half. At other times, I felt like I was on a plateau, with only mild withdrawal symptoms for days at a time.

Now that I'm almost off the Vicodin, my symptoms seem to be more of the irritability, insomnia and involuntary leg movement variety. One night this past week I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me, and last night I fell asleep okay, but woke up at 2:00 a.m. unable to stop moving my legs back and forth. And I've been ornery as hell, irritated by every little thing about this leg lengthening process that hadn't irritated me before.

I've read that after you're off the Vicodin completely, withdrawal symptoms last for about another week. So hopefully in two weeks, I'll be symptom free!