Insomnia...

Hello,

It's 3am and I finally gave up on sleeping tonight. This happened about 2 weeks ago as well. My husband's alarm went off at 6am and I was wide awake. Boo. I have a feeling this is going to be a very long post. :)

Fibromyalgia is a bitch...I don't think it can be put more bluntly than that, huh? The pain makes one tired beyond belief, but the pain also keeps one awake at night. I can also blame some of this on my new prescription, called Savella, which was designed specifically to treat Fibromyalgia. I was previously taking Cymbalta, but I found that other than making me sleep 18 hours a day for the first few weeks, it had absolutely no effect on me. The dosage is designed to gradually step up over two weeks time, and today was day 4 for me...another step up day. I took my morning dose, got ready for the day, checked in on my hubby who was home sick, and hit the road (in the hubby's car that only carries liability insurance) to visit my sister. about 3/4 of the way there, I became EXTREMELY dizzy...on the interstate...in construction. At that point, I decided to continue to my sister's house. The first hour of my visit brought dizzy spell after dizzy spell. Thankfully, my sister fed me a ton of food and I got to the point where I only got dizzy when I moved to quickly. So, the drive home was a bit of a gamble, but I was ok. The rest of the evening through right now still finds me a bit dizzy. I skipped my evening dose of the med and I'm calling the doc at the clinic's opening time tomorrow.

On a completely different note, my Med Alert bracelet came today. I made the mistake of ordering the chain an inch too long, but it's nothing my craft pliers can't fix. Overall, the thing is pretty darn ugly. It's a stainless steel plate with a logo on the front, attached to a utlitarian chain. At least I was able to get the logo in lavendar. I've seen websites that sell beaded chains to dress it up, so I think that I'm going to dig out my beads in my craftroom (the upside of not being able to have children yet is that I have a 10 x 12 craftroom of my very own) and try to make a cuter bracelet to attach to the plate. And, speaking of the plate...this is what is engraved on the backside:

CALL 1-800-XXX-XXXX

MILD VON

WILLEBRAND'S.

ALLERGIC CIPRO,

AMOXICILLIN,

SULFA. OTHERS.

(MEMBERSHIP # HERE)

I'm not sharing the phone number and my membership # on the internet, but you get the idea. Basically, they listed the most important info and then the "OTHERS." refers to one additional drug allergy that the company keeps on file, as well as a list of the other pertinent conditions that I have. For this company, I listed Endometriosis, Fibromyalgia, and Intersitial Cystitis. Overall, I hate that I have to wear it, but I really love that I have the piece of mind that if something happens to me where I can't communicate, this information will be given to paramedics.

Another thing that this reminds me of: I was talking to my brother-in-law last year about the fact that I was going to get a medical id bracelet. He happens to be a paramedic, firefighter and a Registered Nurse who picks up shifts in the emergency room (a/k/a: hero!). He did tell me that many folks in those professions do not think to check for a medical id bracelet when a patient/accident victim is young and healthy looking. After we had this discussion, I did a little internet research and found out that many people/professionals recommend contacting local paramedics to let them know of a condition. In my case, I don't believe that anything I have is serious enough to make this contact, but I figure someone out there may find the info helpful.

Otherwise, I plan to research chronic pain and Fibromyalgia websites that were in a booklet with my new prescription. My hope is to find even more ideas to manage this mess that I'm stuck with.

All right then...back to the insomnia. Please send me any non-pill-popping home remedies that you have!

-S