Won't try THIS again for a while

Anyone who knows me also knows that I really do hate to take medicine, if I can avoid it. I have a few daily prescriptions that I'm probably stuck with for good, so I just take them with breakfast and consider them part of my daily routine. They're by far the lesser of the two evils when the alternative is, say, running around with elevated BP (which can destroy health if left untreated) or being up all night with the Acid Reflux from Hell (which won't kill you but it'll make you feel like death).

However, the pain meds have changed my daily regimen. Now I'm dosing 3x/day instead of just one, and I don't like it. So yesterday, I did something that I've tried before when I'm taking meds to relieve pain from a specific incident or injury. I went off the pain meds for a day just to see how sore the knee actually IS.

Well, now I know. It's awful, to put it mildly. (And "It's BLEEPING awful" would be the more accurate, if less family-friendly, way to describe it.)

So my 24-hour experiment is over, and I'm back on the meds as of a couple hours ago. I'm hoping they kick the heck in soon because right now, I couldn't find a comfortable position for my left leg if my life depended on it. Phooey.

But at least I know where I stand regarding taking the medication. I am NOT taking the pain meds needlessly. There's a substantial level of discomfort without them (again, putting it mildly), and it's far more than I'd be able to tolerate for any length of time. So I won't be trying this experiment again for at least the next few weeks.

The good news, though, is that the doc does want me to decrease Percocet over the next few weeks, with the goal of eventually stopping it altogether. GOOD, because the side effects of the Percocet are a stupendous nuisance. The sooner I can be taking just the ibuprofen for pain, the better.