Thankful for friends

[Winnie2013]

Hi Janice, yes I have tried melatonin but it didn't do much for me. I need to find something that works on the brain instead of relaxing the body!! Thank you for thinking of me I appreciate it. I saw your post about Doug I'm so happy that you are happy. You deserve to be happy and have someone special in your life 😊 Love and hugs Winnie

[SusansSoulShines]

Hi Winnie,
Yes, I will certainly be praying for David and Linda too. Why were you still up at 4:20 AM? I hope you can sleep good tonight. I hate it when I have a night like that. I usually get up and either read or crochet until I'm sleepy enough to go back to bed. Then, I feel lousy the next day! UGH!
Please keep us informed about David's condition.
Love you!!
~~ Hugs, Jo ♥ (Bill says "Hi")

Hi everyone, I'm reading some posts today and trying to catch up on this site. I've hardly slept lately so I'm going to add some comments of mine here if you don't mind. Learning from other people's experiences has always helped me, so I share mine sometimes hoping someone will get a little something from it to help them.

Winnie, I read online about your CDEF, which I wasn't sure about at first, but it sounds awful. I'm glad you're improving, it sounds like you went thru quite an ordeal. I have upper respiratory problems that cause chronic bronchitis usually in cold weather, which we're really having in the deep south now.

Then the meds for it overwhelm my system so I try to avoid them. But I don't want pneumonia setting in again... oh me oh my... I have a hiatal hernia and have many problems with that, and am going back to the dr. today in fact for a chest x-ray to see if my 5 day round of concentrated antibiotics has helped my lungs or not. I'm trying to avoid the 30 day dosage and the stomach issues that it can bring.

I'm taking some new whole food multi-vitamins to strengthen my immune system, it stay run-down for some reason. My poor body is a mess, I never thought I'd live like this, esp at such a young age. (58 is still considered fairly young, right?!)

Then I'm going next week for a heart echo/ultrasound next week to re-check my heart since I'm having edema again really bad with ankles and feet swelling, and my heart was checked 5 yrs ago with a very painful catheterization, to check for problems with valves pumping and such to prevent congestive heart failure. Good grief, is this really me I'm talking about??

People often wonder how I'm able to crochet so much, asking me don't I ever sleep, well, actually not a lot! Being at home on disability and living in chronic pain that is usually beyond comprehension, I've had a hard time adjusting to a lifestyle like this, altho I've been disabled officially since 1997. Of course I suffered for many years before that, but by now I doubt I'll ever get used to living in pain full time, and yes I do physical therapy and take the medications that are doing all they can for me which isn't much, but then without it it means me not functioning in much of any capacity.

I'm a health educated person but that doesn't mean that what I know always helps me, taking forever to accomplish anything physically which also affects the mental aspect, not being able to work and not having a lot of $$$ because of that, and trying to stay busy and enjoy it, which crochet does a great deal in helping with that. I used to do cross stitch and other needlepoint and barely had time because of work, now that I have time I'm not able to do that tedious kind of craft any more.

Needless to say, none of this helps my already existing lack of ability to sleep. I'm lucky to get as much as 3-4 hours of sleep, which is far from enough. Medications that I live on daily don't really help a lot in that. It takes me days of lacking much sleep to finally get a halfway good night's rest, and even then it feel like a chore to me, exhausting me mentally.

I just get up because lying in bed is painful for me now, with muscle spasms on top of it, well, I can't tell you how awful it is unless you happen to live with some of this and know already, which I know some of you do. And even tho I'll be tired from lack of sleep, I feel wired inside, which causes anxiety, it's quite a horrible combination.

I have learned to crochet thru my misery more, and it helps my pain for my brain to be so focused. Whether or not a project is perfect isn't the point for me, altho most crocheters tends to get that way anyway, I'm just happy to be doing something that keeps me occupied and trying!

Reading used to be the thing I always did to pass time and enjoy it, for most of my life I had a book I was in the middle of. But it got to the point that reading didn't keep my brain occupied, I'd lose attention in the book and feel a need for more. Hand crafting has always been that release for me, so crochet gives me a creative outlet I really need. I can very much re;ate to that book titled something like Crochet Saved My Life (you can search it to find it online), altho the author of that book had depression and it's a far difference from my type of pain.

I'm thankful to the Lord that I don't have depression, which is a miracle for someone put into the situation I'm in. I am happily married and my natural personality is to be mentally adjusted and driven internally, so that saves me there.

Among countless other things both natural and prescription, I tried melatonin but it made my body feel agitated and physically & mentally irritated, because it tried to make my muscles relax and they're either tight or feeling bruised from spasms, and I've learned they don't respond well to that type of thing.

I've tried many meds but I have my limits on being a guinea pig, and meds that really help aren't given out much altho they'll give you that awful ambien hypnotic drug in a heart beat and it doesn't help most people sleep from what I've learned, at least not people who have my conditions.

I like the online info available to me in that I can read a lot of people's experience with Fibro and OsteoArthritis, which are my most outstanding illnesses, and they both have extensive related symptoms that make everything a mixed up mess of confusion, and I can give my info back to a lot of people by being online.

There just aren't meds for helping everything, and many of them are so bad, with horrible side affects, I refuse to take most new drugs at all. I've tried to sleep when I can, but I'll be up many nights, posting, crocheting, whatever, I love being up at night for some reason and I always have.

I wish I could lie down at a regular time and just sleep, then wake up and carry on until time to do that again, but it doesn't work that way for some of us. I think an overactive 'busy brain' is most people's problems, but many of us have both combined mental and physical problem that prevents good sleep, and it's hard to fight the combined problems.

p.s. I really needed to release I guess, and I'm sorry I wrote a book.. maybe some of you were in the mood to read, or save this until you can't sleep and it will bore you to sleep, lol

[Megcsti]

Oh Susan, I am so sorry you are suffering like that. May the Lord bless you deeply in some meaningful way. *hugs*

[MeerKat]

I am sorry that melatonin didn't help you. I had insomnia for years and never had much good experience with prescription sleeping medicine. melatonin really worked for me.

Thanks for your comments about Doug, we both were caregivers for our spouses. His wife died about 4 months before Tom passed away. I believe God put us together and we both are very happy.