OT August Chit Chat

[agate]

Jeanie, when I had siding put on the place, I had them put the siding over all the windows in here (bedroom) and the bathroom right across the hall, so it always stays DARK in here. Plus, I have curtains just so it looks like I still have windows.

Who knew? Howie has non-windows!
I think I've mentioned this before but is it OK in terms of safety to board up your windows?

(Yes, that clucking sound you're hearing is probably one of those mother hens.)

[Sunshine]

Why did you want to cover the windows?

[Howie]

Sunshine, all vampires do that. It beats lying in a casket all day, waiting on it to get dark.

Agate, there is a door to the outdoors right beside the bed. Now stop clucking!

[Lazarus]

:) Virginia I added your brother to my prayer list. Keep us posted.

Howie and Lazarus I have the answer to not sleeping good. I have a sleep mask that shuts out all light. I can't wear the elastic around my head but I sleep on my back and just put the mask over my eyes. Since I have been doing it at night I discovered I dream a lot. So I am getting REM sleep. Before I only used it when I took a nap during the day.

I got the mask at the grocery store. Several things in the bedroom (phone, TV, antenna, clock) have red lights or blue lights so it is not totally dark. Jeanie :)

Here ‘s the stupid thing. I leave my tv on all night. I can always tell how well i slept by how much I remember from the programs I watch. When I have physically worked hard on the Farm I sleep well even with the tv on. Also, I am getting old and older people need less sleep anyway. Isn’t that right?

[stillstANNding]

Why do you keep the TV on all night? Did I miss something?

ANN

[Cherie]

Add me to the poor sleepers lately. For the past three weeks or so I have been working on trying to see if CBD oil with THC can help me sleep and wean off years of Ativan use. I have already gotten way down in dose and off sleeping pills and OTC sleep aids. I seem to have worse sleep with the oil than without and with the higher concentration of THC sleep more fitfully and fewer hours and am more exhausted. Yesterday was a day off and without it I slept beautifully from Midnight till 7:30. They are supposed to be sending me a higher dosage to try.


Virginia ,
Praying for your brother.

[nuthatch]

Oh Virginia, I am so, so sorry to hear of your brother's fall, injury and difficult situation. I will keep him in my prayers. Please take care of yourself too.

[Virginia]

It has been a really awful day here. I can't remember everything that has happened, but I went on FB and talked to my brother's daughter-in-law on private messaging. I told her that we (here in Raleigh) were not getting enough news. So, then one of my brother's daughters started forwarding all the text that she got from my older brother's wife (not Mother of his children, she is dead and he remarried). I am not on the text list because I have a flip phone, but other brothers keep me informed as they hear. First they had said they couldn't do the surgery there because he is a high risk patient. But the last we heard they apparently are. They do not know if it will be a plate or a rod. They plan to do that tomorrow about 1:00P.M. if scheduling permits. If not it will be after hours Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Cardiologist and I think kidney Doctor consulted and saw him and says that he has ventricular tachycardia and this is the reason he is falling. He is blacking out. Cardiologist wants to start to work on him Friday, but they want to do the leg first. They say it will be a long recovery - a minimum of six months. Of course he will be going to rehab when he gets out of this hospital. They have put some kind of IV in, but pain is still an 8. He has asked that no one come or call. Says there is nothing anyone can do and he isn't able to talk. Some of his kids will take turns going down later to help out. His wife has asked that everyone pray real hard that while things do not look all that good right now she says he is such a fighter and that he wants to make it.

In the meantime I received a letter from my Prescription Part D Insurance Company and when I called the number they told me to call I felt I was being attacked. They are saying that the co-pay assistance I get for Rebif is another insurance. I was already upset and she insisted that I had another policy. Then she wanted to call PAN and I had to give her the number. It was a 3 way call and even that lasted quite awhile as both of us tried to insist that it is a grant from donations and not insurance and that it is not anything I can count on getting every year. We told her that the money had already run out for this year and as far as PAN goes I am on my own. She still says I have had another insurance all the while I have been getting help with PAN. The PAN lady told her they were a non-profit organization that tried to help people with high co-pays who were on Medicare get through the donut hole. All of this was of no use it appeared, so I don't know where this is going to end up.

Meanwhile, I have got someone who is working on something financial for me which was started a couple of weeks ago. We are supposed to meet Thursday for signing of some papers so he was e-mailing me with more questions and I was trying to answer them, but it would bring up more questions of my own.

I am an emotional train wreck.

Edited to add: My brother has been falling for quite awhile. He was put in rehab a couple of times. They first said it was his medicine and now it is his heart. Please, someone tell me, as many times as he has been in the emergency, also been hospitalized and in rehab why did they wait until something like this happens before finding out what was causing all the falls.

[Cherie]

Virginia,
There is just no cause for that kind of disrespect in a call center!

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

((((((Hugs to All)))))) ~

Virginia ~

Continuing prayers for your brother, you, your siblings and family during this very stressful time. I will pray for him during tomorrow's surgery.

The only reason for not diagnosing the cause of your brother's fall prior to this crisis is negligence.

I'm so sorry you were treated so badly by your insurance company. There's no excuse for that either.

You have had a truly stressful day. I pray you can rest now. Please take care of yourself.

Sending many prayers for healing, strength, and excellent medical care for your brother, and praying for your family.

Cherie ~

CBD and THC can interact with pharmaceuticals. That is why we are not giving Jon CBD oil to curtail his current spate of seizures. It can interact with Dilantin and Depakote. In my research for Jon, I discovered that some BP medications can interact with CBD oil.

Perhaps you can address this aspect with your CBD/THC provider. And Google all of your meds for an interaction with CBD/THC.

If you slept better without taking CBD/THC, then how is a higher dosage going to help?

Are you weaning off of Ativan, while taking CBD/THC? Could some of your responses be withdrawal?

SLEEP

When Jim had issues with sleep, mostly because he worked the night shift, and because he has sleep apnea, I researched everything I could find about sleep.

I learned:

Establish a routine ~ Bedtime at X:00 and stick to it.

Turn off all TV, computers, phones, etc. one hour prior to bedtime.

Get some daylight exposure every day. Even if it's cloudy. At least 15 minutes of sun exposure (also helps with Vitamin D).

No caffeine after 12:00 p.m. Earlier, if you can manage it. Caffeine stays in your system a long time.

A cool room and light covers is better than a warmer environment.

Of course, there are many medical issues associated with sleep disorders, and we can only do so much about those. Some of the medications prescribed for assorted medical issues can interfere with normal sleep patterns.

I have observed from my own experience that erratic sleep patterns confuse my body. I like to think that if I had the opportunity to sleep unabated for a week, I would sleep 8-10 hours a day to catch up on all that I've missed. But, if I go to bed 1 hour earlier than usual, my body still wakes me up after 3 1/2 - 4 hours. And as soon as dawn breaks, even though we have shutters and heavy curtains in our bedroom, I still wake up. Because this is what my body has been trained to do for years.

Sleep is so vital to our overall health and well being, yet, so many people struggle with getting proper sleep.

Prayers for peaceful, restorative sleep for all!

Love & Light,



Rose

[Lazarus]

Why do you keep the TV on all night? Did I miss something?

ANN

I just do. Because I wake up so often I get to watch a lot of programs I never get to see. PBS runs all night and I get 6 different PBS stations so I watch snippets here and there when I am awake.

[stillstANNding]

Thank you, Linda. I would think that would keep me awake.

Peter goes to sleep w earbuds in listening to the dullest things he can find: car detailing one night, a discussion by the London School of Economics another. He says they are so boring, they put him to sleep. However he wakes often and looks at the bright phone screen to find another boring something many times a night.

Here, on vacation, he forgot his earphones and while they are easily available and cheap, he decided to sleep w/o his “system.” From my point of view, he is sleeping better. He falls asleep fast and stays asleep. If he stirs, he changes position and gets back to sleep.

Me, I’m a champion sleeper. I now sleep 7-8 hours but I used to sleep 10-12 hrs.

[Catdancer]

I don't have much trouble sleeping, either. At least, at first. I fall asleep quickly, even after doing everything "wrong" -- drinking coffee late in the day, getting in to bed and watching TV on my kindle, or watching a movie. When the kindle-watching is over, I turn it off and fall asleep immediately.

The problem I have, though, is STAYING asleep. I go to sleep around 9 or 9:30 at night...then wake at 3 or 3:30, and often can't get back to sleep. My kindle is nearby, so I read the news, play on facebook, play a couple of apps I have ("Township", and needlepoint). Occasionally sometimes around 4:30 or 5 I'll doze off...but then my cats and husband wake around 6, so I'm awake again.

Another thing people with sleep issues need to pay attention to is napping -- if you do nap during the day, try to not sleep more than a half hour or so....too much napping can affect your ability to sleep at night.

There are some people who are "night owls" -- who stay up late at night and do all sorts of thing. But they then fall asleep and stay asleep for 6-7 hours (or more), and are fine. And some people are 'early birds". TC and I generally "move with the sun". When it gets light in the morning, we wake. So we're up earlier in summer than in winter. But then we'll go to bed earlier at night.

[agate]

I'm usually so tired that I have trouble staying awake long enough to do my final exercises of the day. Sometimes I wake up around 3 AM and find the light still on and my exercise band and ball still on the bed, and my recorded book has been playing for hours because I didn't remember to press the button that shuts it off automatically after 15 minutes.

I wake up several times every night for the bathroom but go right back to sleep while listening to whatever is playing--using an earbud. Unless the book or article I'm listening to is spellbindingly interesting, I'm still so tired that I doze off pretty fast.

[Sunshine]

Virginia this is overwhelming. Re the rude person, call back and get a different person or ask for a supervisor. She was not only rude, she didn’t make sense. You can also call the insurance commissioner of your state and tell them about the insurance denial based on lies that PAN is an insurer. This can put pressure on the insurer.

- you can also insist on talking to the doc who signed off on this denial. Don’t they have to have. A MD review it?

I am sorry to hear about your brother. I am also so sorry to hear you have to deal with so much while having MS.

When I get overwhelmed, I go to. Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

It’s very relaxing. It puts you in a very light trance in a good way. It takes 60 seconds. I learned it at Mayo from the OT