Life is never dull. Nope....not ever. The doctor changed one of my meds a few weeks back and my body and brain are still trying to adapt to it. One of the symptoms of brain injury is the inability to go into and stay in a deep level sleep that allows for REM sleep. It's kind of weird for me because I have always been the girl who could sleep through pretty much anything. I remember being 18 years old and my first husband, Gary, and I lived in an apartment in Vancouver. In the middle of the night the fire alarm began ringing, loudly. I didn't even hear it. Poor Gary (wow... that's not something I've said often! lol) was in a panic because it took a few minutes to wake me up I was so deeply asleep. Thank heaven it wasn't actually a fire.
So this whole not being able to get into a deep sleep thing is pretty awful for me. I've never needed a lot of sleep, five or six hours uninterrupted usually sufficed, but it does need to be uninterrupted. Picture it now - sleep & wake up, sleep & wake up constantly throughout the night. For the first time in my life I have to take a sleeping aid in order to be able to stay asleep. I'm not good with drugs however, I am smart enough to know that sometimes they are a necessary evil. The one drug that I was taking for a long time since the injury was beginning to make me feel groggy in the morning no matter how early I took it. Actually, that may be incorrect. It may be that it always made me groggy but the more my brain recovers and I come out of my stupor, the more I became aware of the grogginess. I spoke to my doctor and she changed the med to one that will have less of that effect. Sadly, it comes with another whole set of side effects. One of which is nausea. It's not like I don't have enough nausea to go around by virtue of the vestibular injury, now I'm getting it full time from the meds and I'm on THE lowest dose available. I am cutting the lowest dose of the pill in half and taking that. Anyway, I needed to whine and this is where I chose to do it. That way it's out of my head and my family and friends don't need to listen to it! lol
Thanks for listening....I'll try REALLY hard to make it back here tomorrow to write again.... without the whining!
Have a wonderful day!
Barb
So this whole not being able to get into a deep sleep thing is pretty awful for me. I've never needed a lot of sleep, five or six hours uninterrupted usually sufficed, but it does need to be uninterrupted. Picture it now - sleep & wake up, sleep & wake up constantly throughout the night. For the first time in my life I have to take a sleeping aid in order to be able to stay asleep. I'm not good with drugs however, I am smart enough to know that sometimes they are a necessary evil. The one drug that I was taking for a long time since the injury was beginning to make me feel groggy in the morning no matter how early I took it. Actually, that may be incorrect. It may be that it always made me groggy but the more my brain recovers and I come out of my stupor, the more I became aware of the grogginess. I spoke to my doctor and she changed the med to one that will have less of that effect. Sadly, it comes with another whole set of side effects. One of which is nausea. It's not like I don't have enough nausea to go around by virtue of the vestibular injury, now I'm getting it full time from the meds and I'm on THE lowest dose available. I am cutting the lowest dose of the pill in half and taking that. Anyway, I needed to whine and this is where I chose to do it. That way it's out of my head and my family and friends don't need to listen to it! lol
Thanks for listening....I'll try REALLY hard to make it back here tomorrow to write again.... without the whining!
Have a wonderful day!
Barb
No comments:
Post a Comment