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Sleep meds & not sleeping; I think I'm headed for trouble
Sleep Health | Last Active: Jun 15 10:29pm | Replies (18)Comment receiving replies
i'm proud of you for keeping track of all this and letting us know about it. You have come admitted all this to yourself and come clean with us in forum. This is good. Now please "come clean" with your doctor. They cannot help you if they don't have the facts. I know...I was in a horrific accident, multiple surgeries, chronic pain & still need surgeries, managing pain or sleep is a nightmare and many people- including myself - get stuck in trying "whatever works"......until it doesn't or it becomes too dangerous...which is what your situation is sounding like.
TRUST ME, your doctor has seen and heard it all. You are not the first and will not be the last. Have some compassion for yourself and make sure that you are seeing the RIGHT doctor.... It sounds like you have several, maybe your cancer support group has a therapist. Get a bonified sleep study. There's so many things to try. This will not be solved overnight....good luck. Best wishes. PS I use to be terrified of going to sleep. And sometimes I would wake myself up because I was screaming...sometimes in horrible pain, sometimes with flashbacks from the accident. I talked to a friend who has had persistent cancer and she has sleep "resistence" It's like if we go to sleep, we think we will die or dream about it or just be in worse pain than being awake. I don't know if any of that is part of your experience. A good cancer and sleep therapist can help....and your doctor can help with the cocktail of meds you are taking. That mixture is not good for the long run. Good luck
Replies to "i'm proud of you for keeping track of all this and letting us know about it...."
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All of the suggestions here were good but yours was the best. I told my GP about all of this and, surprisingly, he gave no judgment and just said "you've been through a lot this past year so let's figure out how we can fix this." I told him about frequent nightmares I have where I'm ridden with cancer or dreams where I'm drowning or dying. He suggested I resume talking to the psychotherapist I saw during cancer treatment, and also said vivid dreams (and nightmares) can be an Ambien side effect.
I've almost weaned off Gabapentin by dropping 100 mg a night every week (600, 500. etc.). We agreed to stop hydroxyzine as that was the biggest culprit in me feeling terrible In the morning and that was relatively easy to give up.
I've also been dropping down 1 mg of Melatonin per week, so am down from 10-5 mg and will start on 4 next week, then 3, etc. I am still taking Ambien and Ativan. I will wean from Ambien next.
We agreed I will stay on Ativan for now since it has been helpful with panic and severe anxiety. I've also temporarily rearranged my schedule so I take a nap from 2-3 every afternoon but no more than one hour and even if I don't sleep I close my eyes and rest. I've also stopped exercising after 4 PM. I used to workout from 4-6 or so but now go first thing in the morning.
Finally, since my cancer treatment ended, the side effects of the meds I was taking, which include insomnia, are finally tapering down a bit and I'm actually now sleeping 4-5 hours despite the decreases in meds which is a huge improvement and hopefully will get even better over time. So some progress being made in a relatively short period of time.