The last few days have been rough.
I seem to be living in a binary life. I am either exhausted, tired, and can't sleep, or I am sleeping my life away.
I am probably getting the right total amount of sleep, over the period of a week, but is is in bursts. I can get zero sleep for 36 hours, then be out for 20 hours.
Yesterday I never even opened the curtains or windows. It really didn't matter if it was 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. That day time, night time thing is for other people.
Two nights ago I took a pain killer, a sleeping pills, and a muscle relaxer at 20:00. At 22:30 I took another sleeping pill, and another pain killer. I listened to music, and played Sudoku till 02:30 and was still wide awake. I took a shower, and drank some hot horlicks. I fell asleep around 04:15, and awoke at 15:30. I had coffee and an egg, then napped till 18:00.
Today I got online and Googled "Chemo insomnia". Wow. Lots of info there.
Three quarters of cancer patients and survivors treated with chemotherapy suffer insomnia or sleep disorders that often become chronic conditions, hindering patients’ ability to fully recover, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
37 percent of participants suffered from insomnia symptoms and another 43 percent had insomnia syndrome, as categorized by the Hamilton Depression Inventory, a widely used measure for symptoms of depression. These patients had difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep at least three days per week.
Nothing new to me there.
They say to try to never nap during the day. If you do only shorter than 30 minutes.
Try to go to bed the same time every night, and set an alarm and get up at the same time every morning.
Do NOT lie awake in bed for more than about 20 minutes. Get up and go somewhere else. Bed is for sleeping only.
Do not have anything to tell what the time is. It only makes it worse.
OK...I totally don't do any of those. I will need to start on those, but I don't think they will help much in real life.
My 2 clocks on the wall, and my projection clock on the ceiling, and my tablet, computer, and cell phone all have to go out of the bedroom.
Then I decided to Google "Phantom pain amputation insomnia". More bad news.
Phantom limb pain can be mild to agonizing and even disabling for some. And it may lead to a lifelong battle with chronic pain and insomnia.
Two-thirds of amputees complain of sleep onset and maintenance insomnia; in those who suffer from phantom pain the percentage increases to 80%.
I guess that since I am doing chemo AND have phantom pain, my days of normal sleep are over. :-( or should I say =-(
Today I had coffee with a friend. Then we did the shopping thing again. She knew most of what I wanted, so I mostly just slowed things down and got in the way. The shopping would have gone much better if I had sat in the car and read a book. But I now have lots of food.
Just what I need. I weighted 80.6 this morning. Up from 79.8 after visiting Maddie in George.
Not having Maddie to blame things on is frustrating. It is terrible to have to take responsibility, for your own actions.
I have been trying to learn more about layer 3 IP traffic encryption. I want to be able to encrypt all traffic between any of my VPSs or computers.
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