unable to sleep and night time eating...a bad combination

I have been diagnosed with failed back syndrome (3 failed back surgeries for disks) and arachnoiditis (nerve block gone wrong) and so am now dealing with extreme chronic pain (ranging between 5-9 on the pain scale each day) - mostly neuropathic but sometimes in both legs. I also have random foot swelling, feet, knees turn bright pink at strange times and also tingling in hands. I have been chosen as a candidate for a back neurostimulator but until that surgery comes through I am on alot of meds including gabopentin 3x a day, long acting morphine 2x a day, aleeve for the weird swelling etc..

The problem is I sleep very lightly and each time I wake up I eat - mostly carbs and so now I am tired in the day and am also gaining alot of weight. I take clonazap... for anxiety which one would think would help at night with sleep but nope, and so to try to help with the sleep my dr. has decided to give zoplico... a try. It does not work AT ALL. I still wake up or sleep very lightly and eat cookies or crackers or cereal or anything (I am now trying to clear out my house of unhealthy carbs but my body seems to be craving them). I try hard not to nap and go to bed at approx 10-ish each night. I then wake from midnight til around 4:30-ish with the eating....

I am holding out hope that I will get the surgery soon and that it will help but until then I dont know what to do. Eating extensively causes eating disorder behaviour to emerge (including purging) and I am working hard to keep that under control. The weight gain isn't helping though...I don't weight myself but I know I have gained alot of weight.

Any ideas...I am feeling rather desperate and the pain has kept me from doing a whole lot which isn't good either...

I feel like I am dumping, but my close friends and family I feel are getting a bit tired of hearing the same details each day (even though for me they are very new each day).

Any realistic suggestions for sleep or not eating or anything from the above?

Thanks for your response. I will head to the pharmacy in the morning and will do some googling tonight.

Morning Kitty!

Well here I am, as promised....ready to"Welcome"you to this wonderful place we call a "Chronic Pain Forum"

I too suffer from the dreaded FSB (Failed Back Syndrome) ...and my right foot swells up all the time as well. I guess its from nerve damage. Boy howdy do we ever know how you feel!

Are you still working? I do!...and it has me worn out by the time I get home, that I hit the sack as soon as I get home most nights. I find myself cat napping.....and then Im up and down the rest of the night. Every once in a while they let me off for a weekend...and I tend to sleep in almost a whole day...and it sure helps.

I hear you about complaining to your family and friends, about you're pain...and it really is normal, especially if you're pain is not being managed well enough, so that you can enjoy some sort of relief.

I'm probably not supposed to say this, but I sure hope you have done you're research on the stimulator's....I think I hear more complaints on it than anything else here, although we do have a few members who praise them. Has you're DR or PM mentioned anything about the "Pain Pumps"?? If I had my choice, I would consider it over the Stimulator.

I can't help you with what to eat, but Jim had some healthy suggestions for you. And again look up the "Melatonin" to help you with you're sleeping problems.

Our head Moderator "Chutz" posted a nice piece called "Chronic Pain 101"....located at the top of our home page. Please do take a peek at it, as there are some pretty good articles and tool for the members to use. Promise me you will look at it..OK?

There is a pain journal there and and excellent "Pain Scale" for you to use as well. Please do a search on the Stimulator's, by clicking on the search button at the upper righthand corner of the home page. There have been lots of discussions on this, so please do look up the information on it. I really don't want to discourage you on this, but more than anything I want you to have all the information you can get, so that you can make a good positive decision on it.

Well I think I have covered most everything I can think of at this time of the morning. Please do visit us often and stay engaged with the members here. They will support you well here, as we have a great group, with lots of experience.

We also have a chat room that you may be interested in...many of the members meet on a nightly basis, and they will warmly welcome you in.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, and someone will pop in to suggest or guide you in a better direction.

Take care, and again,..Welcome!

SE

 

         Morning again!

              .....just wanted to say that I fully understand you're position as a teacher. I myself took a written test here at work a couple of weeks ago, and found myself struggling badly. I never would have noticed this,... working with repetitive type work I normally do.

    Also, many of our members are on the "Methadone"....and do quite well with it. It can be a bugger to get on, and horrible to get off of....but once on it, I hear it is a very smooth form of relief. I'm like you, and hate the pain med's, but again if I had another option...I would opt for the pump. However, it too is considered a last resort, to where most all pain med's have failed.

    It's quite a mess we are all in, and not one of us wants to be on these med's. We take them, because were in pain....and to the point that we cannot function properly. It really is the lesser of two evils for me. Pain, or Med's....I will take the med's.

  As long as you have done you're research on the stimulator and you are comfortable with the Surgeon doing it, then you should be fine. I believe there is a test to see how you will do with it too, so this should help with you're final decision.

    Good luck, and take care!

  SE

Suzane, Thanks for your wonderful Canadian welcome. I am sorry to hear that you can't work anymore...you wrote with an emotion that tells me you were truly in love with what you did. The children I am sure are losing a out because you can't be there with them. That being said, doing your job with severe pain doesn't help anyone, especially you. I hesitate to say to much about my work and exact details for my work for the reason you wrote about - being terminated. I can do my job but I can't do "extra". My daily work takes all the energy I have and then some. But I do have a concern that at some point I will be looked upon as not being able to perform my duties. It is a human rights issue and I hope I don't ever end up in the situation you are dealing with. That is a sad thing to have to deal with, especially as you work(ed) in health care.

I am from the east coast and have an incredible doctor who will be doing my surgery for the stimulator. I am pretty sure he has been part of creating the stimulator for people with parkinsons and Lou Gherigs (spelling?) so I do feel that I am in good hands with him.

I do feel that I will meet folks here who get it and who do not judge...already I have felt support, and real support, not false words. That is encouraging and I think sometimes can help even more than meds can :)

Hi Kitty, nice to hear back from you. You are right, I did love my job. I miss those kids and even still have

connections with two of my patients. One is now 21 and the other is 16. It didn't take much for me to get

attached to these kids. I worked 25 yrs at this hospital and 7 yrs in Alberta.

So you are in the east coast.. Can i ask where? Hubby and I did a camping trip to the east coast and touched

all the provinces except Nfld. What beautiful country that is. We hope to go again in the future.

I would love to hear more about you getting your stimulator. I sure hope all goes well for you and that it

brings you low pain days.

Take care and talk again soon.
Suzane

Hi Kitty, I am Kathy (aka nini53), I spent years suffering from not being able to sleep.  I swear I know the work for it but of course  I cant remember it now.  Anyway, having tried many different medications like ambien, with that one I woke up in a psyc ward for about a week.  Apparently I had a bad reaction to this.

Then came the benzo's xanax, diazapam, and klonzapam, well except for the diazapam(valium) I had no good results with the rest.  They just didnt mesh well with my narcotic meds. 

So after many years of insomnia (see I knew the word would come to me), I becan listening to various tapes, I scoffed when my sister first gave me the tapes but a funny thing happened, I was going to sleep better and better than ever before.  I used various tapes, some just for sleeping issues, others were taped books, and just the sound of the voice over and over really helped.

I am happy to say I have not had to use anything for years, oh I forgot, I sometimes use over the counter sleep aides.  Its so weird, they work when the big guns didnt, go figure.  At any rate I try not to take them every night, if that happens, its the same with any meds, your body gets used to them and they become well useless.

I hope with all the good thoughts everyone has given you, you will find something to help you.  I to was a night time sleeper, I could eat a gallon of ice cream in one night.  Not good, I have to maintain my weight or I know my back will be worse.

Hoping you will feel better soon, and just keep trying until you find something that works for you.  Many thoughts and prayers to you.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. It is carbs...killers...so I did buy some fresh berries and carrots today as well as some melatonin. I will start it tonight (in a few minutes actually...lol) and see how it goes. My pharmicist was fantastic and spent 10 minutes making sure nothing interacted with my meds; I was impressed. Some people in health care do get it - one of her first questions was whether or not my pain was really being controlled enough. Very encouraging as often I worry about the opposite being brought up. I am guessing it will take a few days for this to work but you never know... :)