Some med changes this week…

This week has been kind of a tough one.  Yes, I’ve managed to get to the climbing gym when it opens at 0600 hrs every morning this week for an alpine start, and that’s a great thing!  Part of the reason I’ve been able to do that, though, is due to the fact that I’ve been waking up, unable to go back to sleep, at around 0230 hrs in the morning!  This has led to naps immediately following my time at the climbing gym and having low energy and being tired all the time.  My doctor and I changed the dose of a medication that I’m on (lowered it) this week to see if it made a difference.  It made a difference, but the wrong one!  It didn’t affect my nighttime waking pattern, but it did make me more non-functional during the day!  So, today we decided to go back to the dose that I was on previously, which I’m glad about.  The problem still remains, though, how to get some restful shut-eye without upsetting the apple cart of side effects?  Next time we try a med change, we’re going to approach it from the other direction – lowering the dose of the sleep meds that I take.  All of this sounds counterintuitive, but it makes sense if you think about it and know the effects and side effects of the medications I’m on.  One thing’s for sure, my sleep has been all jacked up since I was in the military, and it’s something that needs to be corrected somehow!  It’s a work in progress and a process, like anything with my health.  It takes some time and some experimentation to figure out what works.  We don’t always, and as a matter of fact we seldom do, know why what works actually works.  I’ve given up on trying to chase the answer to that aspect of the thing down.  I gave up on trying to understand why some things work a long time ago.  The point is, they do (or they don’t).  So, next week may be a lot different from this week in terms of being functional during the day, and I certainly hope that I get some sleep at night, but there are a lot of things working against my quality of sleep.  Nightmares from the PTSD is one of them.  Try controlling that!  I’m glad we tried the medication change, though, because now we know the effects of that particular change while holding all other things steady and we can work from there.  It’s all valuable information.  It’s just not the most fun I’ve ever had!  No complaints, though.  I have an outstanding doctor who is very compassionate and understanding, in addition to being extremely knowledgable and downright smart man, and he always includes me in the process, as in taking my viewpoint into account and considering the effects that changes in my medications are going to have on my life.  It’s a collaborative effort, which I appreciate more than anyone can ever know!  Well, it’s past my bedtime, so I’m going to go see if I can sleep some tonight! Wish me luck!!!