Ouch I feel you there c, that would have been a rough week. I did cold turkey twice labouring in the mines, never again. Kudos though man, you feeling sweet now?
I too have never tapered on h, ive tried a couple of times but i ended up going crazy and wolfing down what I had as fast as possible so i didnt have time to think about the consequences and going through wd's until I could score again. Polo you could give codeine cwe's or poppy seed tea a go and see how it works for you, I'm still riding out bupe withdrawals and take 40-50 mg of codeine 3 times a day to help with the worst of the withdrawals. It allows me to get through work and sleep, it doesnt make it a walk in the park, the first few days will still suck but it helps me enough to make it worth it. Once i get over the worst of the wd's it's easy to taper off a low dose of codeine without any ill effects at all really. Could be worth a try, being addicted to h is a hell of a life, your circumstances seem to make it even tougher. Once you get a few days into it you'll be on your way man, you'll be sick but you won't have that awful 'delaying the enevitable' feeling you have now. After a week or so you'll be on the downhill slope.
Also be careful with benzo's, I replaced my h habit with a benzo one and it totally sucked, coming off benzo's is as bad as opiates. If you want a crutch you can see a doctor and see if they'll prescribe atenolol or clonodine to help with the anxiety and if you can't sleep go to the pharmacy and get either some snuzaid (diphenhydramine) or restavit (doxylamine) to help you rest. Be careful with them though, they can cause more problems than they're worth. And there is no way I would consider using ice during withdrawals personally, my anxiety would be through the roof and the insomnia would drive me to the verge of sanity. Use the Internet and gather info on what you're about to go through, the little tricks can swing the odds of succeeding in your favour. Goodluck man, wd's suck but theyre probably not as bad as hep, abscesses or going to jail, it'll be over by the start of august if you stick to your guns.