Yesterday I was robo-called by the KC school district, with a reminder about bus schedules, online resources, and school supplies. Dunno how I got on their contact list, we'll see if it was just a one-time thing.

Last night was full of anxiety dreams about forgotten classes, being lost in the hallways, exams I was unready for.... Do not want!

ita ! you take ambien, probably 10 mgs a night, right? How much sleep do you get? Do you get a 30 day supply and take one each night?

I had been on Ambien CR, which is 12.5mg, and since it wasn't working as well as it was at the start, she switched me to Lunesta 2mg, which has me back awake before midnight every night, and awake again between 3 and 4, and that's really hard to fall asleep from. She wants to up that to 3mg, but only 4-5 times a week, and to stagger the off nights. I didn't try and sell her on not wanting to deliberately slant things in a direction of no sleep because of the extra pain I suffer--just that I can't usually do a day's work on 4 or fewer hours, and that's what happens with no meds.

If she does care about that, her issues is that I will soon enough stop reacting to Lunesta, and then there will be no more sleep medication for me ever, and so then I'll be fucked.

Which...really? But there will be other sleep doctors, right?

There should be other sleep doctors. If she's worried about you becoming resistant to Lunesta then she should be working on a plan to keep you medicated and deal with the fact that you become resistant.

When I switched psychiatists I told him I was having trouble sleeping and that I couldn't take Ambien because I was resistant.

He told me the resistance isn't permanent and I'd probably react well to a regular dose (and I did). And if I needed to use it regularly and developed a resistance then there were options - like alternating between different types of sleep aids (like Ambien and Lunesta) to deal with the resistance issues.

I'm really not excited about going outside and doing yardwork. It's like soup out there. 60% humidity.

I woke up this morning and washed all the dishes.

No wait! Don't praise me yet!

I washed the dishes before I had coffee.

ita !, anecdotally, Lunesta doesn't work as well as Ambien, esp/ for chronic insomnia.

Have you traditionally had problems falling asleep or staying asleep, and did anyone try you on the 10 mgs of regular Ambien, not AmbienCR, before trying you on the Lunesta?

And Lunesta can have some weird dreams and very odd aftertaste in the mouth aftereffects in some.

I told my doc flat-out all my travails with insomnia, showed her meds journals and she agreed to try me on 1o mgs of ambien plus 2 mgs of Xanax nightly, and it's worked the best of anything in the last 12 years of insomnia treatments.

The Ambien not working was more effective than the Lunesta 2mg is working. My Ambien problems are increased difficulty falling asleep (but with the amount of painkillers I'll be on for the next two or three weeks--not a huge issue), and more consistently waking up around 2, and taking an hour or so to fall back asleep.

Lunesta wakeup--there are 2, and one of them is so far always before midnight. Which is insane. But there's no way she's going to switch me back to Ambien now.

Then you need a differen doc, and I know you want to slap me for saying that since you've tried so many. But that's bullshit.

Sleep problems AND chronic pain -- if she's not willing to do whatever it takes to try to alleviate the sleep, the pain WILL NOT get better. Sleep heals. Fuck her.

I washed the dishes before I had coffee.

You totally deserve praise for that.

She recommended I use Flexeril on the off nights to help me get to sleep--she thinks I have built up a resistance to Lunesta and Ambien and hadn't managed to include Flexeril in my shenanigans? *If* it put me to sleep, it's still almost ensured that I'd have a wakeup within a few hours anyway.