One of the worst symptoms so far of this new illness I have is that it causes insomnia. Not just for me but for all my loved ones too. I don't think Jeff, my parents, my sister, or Coffee Friend 2 have had a good night's sleep in several weeks. Coffee Friend 1 does but that's because she takes Ambien. Although, even that didn't work for her those first few days after my surgery.
We compare notes and ask each other what time we woke up, trying to figure out if we should just get together every night at 3:00. Poor Coffee Friend 2--when she wakes up she never goes back to sleep--just lays there "waiting for the f***-ing sun to come up" as she said. My parents told me they wake up at 3:00 and ask the other one if he/she is asleep. My sister-in-law in LA said, "I went to sleep worrying about Judy, dreamed about her all night, and woke up thinking of her."
I myself seem to wake up at exactly 1:30 and 4:30 every night.
I am normally blessed with the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. It's a gift really. As I have often said, I respect sleep and it respects me. But even I wake up a couple of times a night and play "what if" in my mind. I find if I talk to my Grandma Zimmerman at those times it helps. I can fall back asleep. Grandma Z. died in 1990 by the way but we still chat when I'm worried about things. She's very reassuring.
When we found out about Lilly's illness on vacation in Florida we tried to go to sleep that first night and I don't think I slept a minute. When we got up I told Jeff that was the worst night's sleep I never had. My mom said she had slept like a baby--she woke up every two hours and cried.
I hate that I am keeping people up at night. But what can you do? That's what happens when people love you.
Last night Jeff slept well for the first time since my surgery because we finally had a good day with some good news. I still found I had to have a chat with Grandma but I'm hopeful that this symptom will go away soon.
For anyone else out there who has had trouble sleeping, I apologize. I hope your insomnia is gone now, but if you still have trouble you can always talk to my Grandma about it.
If that happens to me, I try to get to sleep for twenty minutes, and after that I start reading. Even when not all that many bad things are going on in my life every possible worst-case scenario conceivable seems to force itself on my mind in the middle of night.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, in such a case I always hear my mother saying to me, when I was young, that I should never think about problems in the middle of the night, and I imagine her saying that to me again. That helps.
I'm with the Ambien crowd, of course, but thanks for loaning out four grandma. I may be looking her up, too.
ReplyDeleteWow...I need to send Fiona your way. That's her wake up and go to the bathroom...wake up Mom to say "hi" schedule. She would LOVE someone to talk to for about 10 minutes in the middle of the night.
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