Off the Gabapentin

Since getting back from NZ I've completely cut out the Gabapentin phantom pain tablets. I think I said earlier that I thought they were interfering with my ability to think and remember, despite the doctors telling me that the dose I was on was too low to have that sort of side effect. One other side effect is that they are a depressant, so not only was my mood affected (not that you'd be able to tell with me), but I was tired all the time. Since I've stopped taking them, I am sure I am functioning a lot better than I had been, and I've stopped falling asleep all afternoon. I am getting more phantom pains, and they can be quite severe, but they are transient, and I'm prepared to put up with them in order to be able to think straight. One of the withdrawal symptoms of gabapentin is an increase in the condition that they are prescribed to alleviate, so I expected more phantom pains immediately after stopping taking them; I'm hoping that this will actually subside in the next few weeks. We'll see.

What happened to December and January

Yet again it's been an absolute age since I last posted a blog entry. Since my last one, I've been on holiday to New Zealand, and attempted to re-claim against my Income Replacement Plan for stopping working again. I've also completely stopped taking my Gabapentin tablets, which I think were contributing to my memory loss and inability to concentrate, despite the doctors saying that such a low dose could not be causing my problems. I have noticed that it's a little easier to remember things since I've stopped taking it, but by the same token, I have been getting more phantom pains. If not taking the tablets really improves my memory etc., then it's worth the occasional twinge of pain. There's a balance to be found here, so if the pain is tolerable I'll stay off the tablets.
We went to New Zealand from mid-December to mid-January, and took over 1,000 photos between us. We hired a camper van, and despite saying at the start that if we got fed up of sleeping in it we would stay in a B&B from time to time, we were only in a hotel on the day we arrived, and for two days over Christmas. We couldn't post any photos while we were there, firstly because of the number we took, secondly because our phone service provider didn't have a data agreement with any of the local providers, and finally, we were largely out in the middle of no-where, which only had basic voice mobile coverage.
I'm in the middle of editing my photos, giving them dates and descriptions in the filenames, so that we don't forget what they are of, and so they will show in order when we show them to people. I think I'm going to post the best of them in a Picassa Web Album, because I use Picassa on my PC to manage my photos, and it seems the easiest way of sharing them. I thought of using Flickr, but I decided to stick with a system I'm already familiar with. It'll take some time to re-label and sort the piccies, but I'll post an address here once it's sorted.