No word on the procedure approval yet. Sleep was OK, but I woke up at 7:00. Pain was bad. It wasn’t horrifying exactly, but the kratom dose was a forgone conclusion. I took it at about 7:30. 6.5g of the green. Been playing some games. Pain is pretty bad now because of it. Going to stop and put ice on it. Did a short walk earlier. I kind of sailed through 11:30/12 when I normally would have taken like 4g. I guess I’ll wait as long as I can. About 2:00 would be the 6 hour gap. 12:15 now. Ice should help me get there. I guess I’ll just try to keep it to 2 doses if I can get away with it. Ice in the evening to get through the later part. Went to Aldi and another short walk. I really don’t know how I’m doing it. I think it’s an after effect of the drinking. Missing the drug for 2 days, then going back on it is somehow super helpful. The last time was when I got the brace. That was also directly after the drinking day. So that has to be the missing piece. I can’t imagine this will keep happening. I’m never that lucky. It has to be coming from a break in the drugs. Strange though that I don’t crave them like normal. I had 2 or 3 nights last time where I didn’t take any extra. It’s 2pm now and I’m in a lot of pain, but I feel good mentally. Laughing at this silly iZombie show. Feels good. (Feels good to have Succession out of my head). I’m just past the 6 hour mark from the morning dose. I don’t feel the need to really take anything else right now. I know it will fuck me later on when the pain ramps up big time. Especially if I keep sitting at my desk, which I absolutely want to do. The last time, with the brace, I remember crushing my spine badly from sitting at the desk too long. The next morning was pure terror. I just have such a hard time being couch locked. I prefer to take meds and be able to do something. I’m thinking of beers. If I feel like I desperately need alcohol before 4:00, I’ll just take the kratom. Tomorrow should be the injection. I want to stay the way I am now – local pain, not central – so I can judge the effectiveness of the injections properly. I don’t know what happened there, but as soon as I took the ice pack off, pain came back. Waiting until 3 and I will take 6.5g. Should get me through the day. If I dosed at the proper time this morning, it would have been like 5pm already by the time this hit and I would have sailed through. I remember a couple weeks ago after I got the brace and after the last alcohol fiasco, I was walking in the church parking lot feeling so good. Being grateful that I got a good day. I think I only took the kratom once that day. Today was two unfortunately, but I feel that same way. I was feeling a bit upset that I took it twice today. I really wanted to only take it once. I also remember that I woke up probably the next day and felt sheer horror first thing in the morning. I wonder if tomorrow is that day. I really want to go without kratom tomorrow morning. I don’t know if I’ll be able to. I definitely want to take only the one dose, but after the long drives, the procedure, I might need it. I need to plan another day off very soon. It would be great if tomorrow were that day. I think I just need to do it like once a week. If the injection helps, I definitely need to take advantage and get some time off the kratom.