Bad night

Since we had to leave the house at 4:30 for SO to make his plane, I decided to forego my Ambien last night. I did not feel comfortable driving six hours after taking the drug.

Wow, is all I can say.

I drifted through most of the night, never really falling asleep. I was so very achey! It really hurt a great deal, despite the muscle relaxer. Finally, around 1 AM, I took another hydrocodone, which allowed me to sleep a little, until the alarm went off at 4.

Much of this sleeplessness and pain was likely more due to an addiction to the ambien for proper sleep conditions, rather than the properties of the drug itself.

It was an interesting insight. I have never been a fan of Ambien, preferring Rozerem. However, like many people, I am dictated my prescriptions by my insurance company, by price rather than utility. I have been on Ambien for four years, when I started my last job with its fairly substandard state insurance plan, despite the governor of the state wooing big pharma and supplement manufacturers. **Sorry mods--if you want to remove that, you may** But, now I have ambien in my bloodstream, and getting it out (depending on the next round of insurance) will be a battle.

My sleep habits are awful, admittedly, being a night person after years of nighttime rehearsals and performances. I read in bed far too much. We eat dinner late, due to SO's commute.

I expected I would have a little trouble sleeping, but not the monster withdrawal and resultant pain. So, I learned a valuable lesson about drug dependence.

That sounds like an awful night, I'm sorry :( I hope you are able to take a restful nap and wake up feeling loads better!

Good for you - that's the spirit!

I hope you do lots better tonight. I hate to think how I'd sleep without all my drugs - unfortunately.

I went to a 90-year-old man's birthday party today, someone in my church. He's the sweetest guy, and had family from across the country at the party, which was wonderful. But unbeknownst to me, he'd just gotten out of the hospital with pancreatitis, and seems a shell of who he was 2 weeks ago. Now he's heading for a nursing home, and his wife is beside herself - same old story, but it's sad sad sad! This aging bit is not for the faint of heart! :(

I hope your journey goes well and it's not too painful for you, physically or emotionally.

Debbie

I unfortunately am completely dependent on Trazadone and when I don't take it, I have nights much like you describe. There are nights when I choose not to take it, and I regret it *every single time*. You'd think I'd learn by now, but no! I just don't. For example, when I started taking Lyrica, I was nervous about taking the Trazadone because of too many meds with sedative effects, so I didn't take it. I was tossing and turning the entire night. Often when I'm having a bad night Crohn's-wise, I hesitate to take it because it can upset my stomach and I don't want to make things worse, but then I just doze off and on throughout the night and stare at the ceiling.

Even taking it, my sleep quality is pretty crappy, but it's virtually non-existent without. My neurologist said I'd be able to get off Trazadone once I was on Neurontin, but that was a failed experiment. I managed to get down to 50mg/night, but could never get lower.