Insomnia, depression, anxiety

Posted by azkidney57 @azkidney57, Jan 11, 2020

So here I am it’s 4 am I have been awake since 3 am I often wake up. I can’t go back to sleep. I can’t text my friends I could be they would ask why I was texting so early. I tried my usual sleepy time tea, Clonazepam, deep breathing etc etc and I still wake up! I remember when I was I in the hospital I would call the nurse and I would have morphine injected into my IV port and that would help me sleep. I can’t have morphine. OxyContin also made me sleepy. Can’t have that anymore I ran out. It would be so nice if I could get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe someday.

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@rainer

Hi Ginger, I'm afraid the insomnia is strictly the lack of seroquel. Slept like a baby as long as I took various doses of lorazepam and then the 25 mg of seroquel (weaned down from higher doses.) The last titrated dose of seroquel was on Dec 31st (happy new year.) Now I can't fall asleep before around 4a.m. and am lucky if I can sleep 3 or 4 hours. I'm going to try melatonin (I think), but not totally sold out on that idea because of possible interactions with other meds and glaucoma. My sleep environment is good, I'm trying walking, diet and prayer to get through. Need a miracle.

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@rainer I was taking melatonin until someone on this website suggested magnesium. It's much better than melatonin for me. 250 mg (sometimes 2 250 mg tablets) and I am asleep in half an hour and sleep through the night. Of course you would check with your dr to see if this is an option for you. I suffer from debilitating anxiety so have always needed a sleep aid, Lunesta was the best but no insurance will cover it anymore (might be because of the crappy generic version).

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I have had insomnia for 10 years. I take Zolpidem for it. The local pharmacy that I go to for the zolpidem is horrible. On 9/9 I saw my psychiatric nurse practitioner. She called in a prescription for it into the pharmacy. A week later I picked it up and it was not filled because it is out of it. The pharmacy did not tell me in all that time. It is still out of it, it will not order it. The only way I can get it is for my doctor to call in a script to another pharmacy. She won't do this. I can't get the doctor to call so I can explain the matter to her either! I count sheep, count sheep ,stay in bed as much as possible right now. It is really getting to my depression

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@lsittll

I have had insomnia for 10 years. I take Zolpidem for it. The local pharmacy that I go to for the zolpidem is horrible. On 9/9 I saw my psychiatric nurse practitioner. She called in a prescription for it into the pharmacy. A week later I picked it up and it was not filled because it is out of it. The pharmacy did not tell me in all that time. It is still out of it, it will not order it. The only way I can get it is for my doctor to call in a script to another pharmacy. She won't do this. I can't get the doctor to call so I can explain the matter to her either! I count sheep, count sheep ,stay in bed as much as possible right now. It is really getting to my depression

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@lsittll you'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion about insomnia making depression worse. I did this so you can connect with other members with this experience like @azkidney57 @gingerw @shermananski @elwooodsdad and others.

@lsittll, your situation sounds frustrating. You need your medication right away in order to get necessary sleep. In times like these it's important to be our own health advocate. I encourage you to keep trying to find a way to get the prescription filled.

Could (or would) the pharmacy send the prescription to another pharmacy who has stock? Have you tried calling and explaining the situation to your nurse practitioner again? If the provider refuses again I think it may be necessary to take the situation to the next level. Would you consider contacting "patient experience" to request an intermediary to help?

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@erikas

@lsittll you'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion about insomnia making depression worse. I did this so you can connect with other members with this experience like @azkidney57 @gingerw @shermananski @elwooodsdad and others.

@lsittll, your situation sounds frustrating. You need your medication right away in order to get necessary sleep. In times like these it's important to be our own health advocate. I encourage you to keep trying to find a way to get the prescription filled.

Could (or would) the pharmacy send the prescription to another pharmacy who has stock? Have you tried calling and explaining the situation to your nurse practitioner again? If the provider refuses again I think it may be necessary to take the situation to the next level. Would you consider contacting "patient experience" to request an intermediary to help?

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@erikas Thank you for tagging me in to this dilemma.

@Isittll Wow, this is really unacceptable in your eyes, and many others, too! Did the pharmacy give you any reason why they will not order it? If there is a shortage of this medication, then can they offer an alternative for your dr to approve? Push for it, if so. If you cannot reach your dr, there are a couple of routes to go. If you have a county Agency on Aging, contact them for an intermediary to get involved. Contact your county medical association to see if they can offer you a recourse; they might be pretty interested to know a dr is practicing less than standard care. If your dr is part of a medical group, contact the administrator of that group, and let them know what is going on. Keep rattling doors, making phone calls until you get an answer. Keep notes of who you talk to, time of day, subject, etc.

Please let me know what comes of all this?
Ginger

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@lsittll

I have had insomnia for 10 years. I take Zolpidem for it. The local pharmacy that I go to for the zolpidem is horrible. On 9/9 I saw my psychiatric nurse practitioner. She called in a prescription for it into the pharmacy. A week later I picked it up and it was not filled because it is out of it. The pharmacy did not tell me in all that time. It is still out of it, it will not order it. The only way I can get it is for my doctor to call in a script to another pharmacy. She won't do this. I can't get the doctor to call so I can explain the matter to her either! I count sheep, count sheep ,stay in bed as much as possible right now. It is really getting to my depression

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@lsittll can this really happen? I am so sorry for what your going through. Shouldn’t some sort of official medical reprimand be able to happen? Both from the pharmacy and the NP? Unbelievable! Please keep us posted. We care.

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Thank you for your response and your caringness. I can't believe this has occurred! I have called other nearby pharmacies in the same chain. They are out of it too. It is on backorder at some. The warehouse must be out of it. I will sort of penalize the pharmacy in not giving it any of my business any more! None of the the pharmacy techs know what they are doing there any way. I don't know about the NP? I wouldn't know what to do but change doctors there too. I called twice today to get things done. Let's hope things occur

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@gingerw

@erikas Thank you for tagging me in to this dilemma.

@Isittll Wow, this is really unacceptable in your eyes, and many others, too! Did the pharmacy give you any reason why they will not order it? If there is a shortage of this medication, then can they offer an alternative for your dr to approve? Push for it, if so. If you cannot reach your dr, there are a couple of routes to go. If you have a county Agency on Aging, contact them for an intermediary to get involved. Contact your county medical association to see if they can offer you a recourse; they might be pretty interested to know a dr is practicing less than standard care. If your dr is part of a medical group, contact the administrator of that group, and let them know what is going on. Keep rattling doors, making phone calls until you get an answer. Keep notes of who you talk to, time of day, subject, etc.

Please let me know what comes of all this?
Ginger

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Thank you for the information @gingerw. The doctor is in a private practice so I could's do much there and all the senior centers are closed in my area. Yesterday the receptionist said she would ask the doctor to call me but I never heard from her. Today I called twice. I said the NP never got back to me so the receptionist tried to get the NP but she was on the other line. She asked where I wanted the script to go. The second I called to be sure it would be done and the receptionist said the NP would do it after her last patient. I just called the pharmacy and it is there. Hurrah! Now I must just go and get it.

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@lsittll

Thank you for the information @gingerw. The doctor is in a private practice so I could's do much there and all the senior centers are closed in my area. Yesterday the receptionist said she would ask the doctor to call me but I never heard from her. Today I called twice. I said the NP never got back to me so the receptionist tried to get the NP but she was on the other line. She asked where I wanted the script to go. The second I called to be sure it would be done and the receptionist said the NP would do it after her last patient. I just called the pharmacy and it is there. Hurrah! Now I must just go and get it.

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@Isittll Good for you for sticking to your guns and getting results! Frustrating but made you feel like you accomplished something, doesn't it? Hope you rest better tonight.
Ginger

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@lsittll

Thank you for the information @gingerw. The doctor is in a private practice so I could's do much there and all the senior centers are closed in my area. Yesterday the receptionist said she would ask the doctor to call me but I never heard from her. Today I called twice. I said the NP never got back to me so the receptionist tried to get the NP but she was on the other line. She asked where I wanted the script to go. The second I called to be sure it would be done and the receptionist said the NP would do it after her last patient. I just called the pharmacy and it is there. Hurrah! Now I must just go and get it.

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@lsittll . Congrats!!

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