Wednesday, September 9, 2015

It Has Indeed Broken

(Before continuing to read, scroll to the bottom of this post to the video and press play. Ready? All righty, then.)

I am having a really hard time getting a good night's sleep lately.

I'll be willing to bet that I'm not alone in my battle with sleeplessness.

My inability to get at least six hours of solid sleep leaves me feeling a little wobbly all day and with the disconcerting sensation of teetering on the edge of an energy abyss. Last night was one of those nights.

I know that my insomnia is due to the fact that I am having a hard time managing my peripheral neuropathy and restless leg syndrome right now. I'm taking gabapentin (Neurontin) which up until about six weeks ago was barely - just barely - keeping the shooting pains and vibration sensations in my legs and feet under wraps. My prescription of pramipexole (Mirapex) for RLS leaves me mildly nauseous about an hour after I take it, and since my symptoms of RLS are increasing, I'm left to wonder which would be worse: increasing my dose to relieve the RLS causing an increase in that nasty barfy feeling OR doing nothing and grapple with that nightly uncontrollable urge to move my legs and get up to walk walk walk on my painful knee.

Wah. Wah wah wah wah.

I've got an appointment soon with my doctor for a strategy session. There's simply got to be a better way to manage this. Ah, but in the meantime, I've seen many sunrises.

I have a love/hate relationship with sunrises these days. I dislike having been awake from sunset to sunrise in a sleepy loop of irritation. But then there's mornings like this, when I see the horizon lighten and wonder yet again why my symptoms seem to fade as the sun begins to shine. I love that.

The pain gets better right about........now. So strange. 

This morning I grumped myself over to the coffee pot and poured myself a cuppa, and noticed that the sky was clear, so I slid open the patio door and shuffled out to the deck and my canvas swing.

Ahhh.


I sipped coffee and waited for........


THIS. Yessssss.

Lulu loves a good sunrise too.


These glorious golden mornings bring out my inner hippie. Peace, man. 

5 comments:

Marion said...

I refer to myself as a lark. I check the sky and stars. Listen to the birds wake up, the coyotes sing, and drink my coffee. At least it's a peaceful way to start the day. Even if I do fade by mid afternoon.

Anonymous said...

Glad you can get something positive out of this. I wake up every hour or so for bathroom trips, water, eye drops, nasal spray or for no reason. I get a total of 4 hours of sleep a night. Can't remember what is was like to get a full night of restful sleep. I think now I when I wake up, I will go outside and watch the sunrise. Make lemonade out of those lemons...

Unknown said...

Are you sure it is not the gabapentin that is causing you to feel wobbly and on the verge of an energy crisis? I had a hard time taking that drug and in order to work, I just had to quit taking it.

Shara from Seattle said...

Groovey music babe. Must have been in the stars, everybody having a hard time together. Fall, something dying or growing, floating in the air. I'm with you. I get inflammation that hits the nerves at the base of my scull and just a few hours ago popped a lower rib out of joint with a muscle spasm. My gabapentin starts to wear off and it feels like I'm getting bit by fleas - anywhere, inconvenient places. Wah. I still managed to keep moving today, not fast, I paced myself. So, sleeping sucks so much I just sort of find that I've been looking at the same article for 10 minutes and zoning out. Reminds me of my grandmother, she used to catch naps like that. I feel so damn old Julie! It's one thing to age, this is totally not fair!

Nicole said...

I had a bout of insomnia around the same time. Thankfully it's over now, and I hope that yours is on its way out, too! Love the sunrise pics. :)

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