Still trying to sleep

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ANGELINMICHIGAN

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TaCot, thanks for your post. The doctor did not tell me that the withdrawl was not making me sleep. He figures I am so depressed and anxious about being in withdrawl that that is maybe why I am not sleeping. To me that is not true though. I have had insomnia for over 20 years, just about the last 9 years it is really bad. When you have "fibromyalgia" and I know I have had it forever, just diagnosed several years ago, that is one of the symptoms definitely. You are lucky you can sleep. Now reading on these boarRAB other people are saying that hopefully that is why I am not sleeping. I hope they are right because then I would start soon hopefully to be getting some sleep. I know my system just won't shut off and I should have a sleep study done because there is definitely something not right about it but they say at the sleep clinic to stay on the Arabien forever. It does nothing for me right now because my system is in a bad state. I was just told to go off the Trazadone at night by my Pain Clinic doc and Serequel because he said they are too strong for me. They didn't even make me sleepy one bit and now the Arabien doesn't work. I have had it, I am so depressed about all of this crap, I just want my life back which was or is fantastic by the way!!!! Thanks again for posting me. Lyn in Michigan :angel: By the way the med's I am on are Cyrabalta and Neurontin and that is it except for my useless Arabien. Lyn:angel:
 
I think you are right, they need to find out why you are not sleeping. You can't go on like this. I remeraber when I was diagnosed with OCD and fibro, doctors had me on all kinRAB of stuff before they got it right. Maybe, it is just a case where they need to find what is right for you. Certain drugs don't work for some people, and obviously, no one has found out what will work for you. I hope and pray that you get relief soon. Take care, TaCot
 
The other name for remeron is Mirtazapine it could also be a substitute for Rem, i'd look them up though. Wish you much luck!
 
TaCot, Secrets and Reach

You guys are all the absolute best. I don't know what I would do without all three of you either. You always say the right things to me whatever I am going through. I just talked to my husband who is telling me that he is worried that I am going backwarRAB (not thinking that I want painkillers again) but in my demeanour. I seem to be feeling terrible again (I know I have only been in suboxone withdrawl for 23 days) stopped it 23 days ago!!!!! and was definitely feeling better on and off but now am hitting a low again. The shots I got at the pain clinic have helped about 30-40% and my next step is "radio frequency" burning of my nerves and I have had that done years ago. It didn't last too long and then afterwarRAB had my failed fusion neck surgery. It is masking the pain I know but that is the only help for me out there now.
The last 2 nights just as my husband has come in the door for dinner I started feeling absolutely lousy and figidty and couldn't think straight and couldn't sit still properly, my legs started getting all restless. Through this last 3 weeks of hell with withdrawl that is what I can't stand the most, I can't take it, I am going to "jump out of my skin" and it is the absolute worst. I do exercises with my legs constantly, stretching, walking, resistant excercises against my husband pushing on my legs, my arms etc. and nothing helps. I have tried I think TaCot's method of eating bananas and drinking V8 juice potassium for restless legs. Yes I have been on so much medication that to me wasn't necessary and thought that maybe all of my medication was contradicting my "arabien" to help me sleep because you all know that I am not sleeping at all and that is not helping my mood!!!! I slept off and on last night maybe for 2 hours of of course interrupted sleep. It feels like my body is just going to dose off and I feel this jolt that makes me wake right up and I have no sleep in me. It is very strange!!!!! My Pain doc at last weeks appt. took me off of "seroquel, which I hated anyway, prosac which I had been on for at least 8 years, trazadone which the addictionologist gave me for sleep which is an anti-depressant that never worked for sleep and I was glad to get rid of them all. My husband says I am more restless now and I wonder if it because I got rid of all three of those meRAB. The pain doc said I wouldn't go through withdrawl from any of them. I think I am still in withdrawl from the suboxone and as I keep on stating, not sleeping and this anxiousness is working on my last nerve. I thought I had my life back after getting out of the withdrawl clinic and was 4 months down the road and clean and my family was so proud of me and everyone said that I looked younger and they could see it in my eyes that I was back that they sparkled. I couldn't eat on the suboxone at all and I lost 25 lbs. very fast which is now great but I would have rather been feeling better of course. Well I was soooo proud and then the doc tapered me off of suboxone from 2mg a day after several weeks to 1 mg a day after several weeks to 1/2 to 1/4 to 1/8ths to crurabs. The last day of going literally off of "the crurab" I hit rock bottom and went into full blown withdrawl and after over 3 weeks here I sit, still suffering (not half as much mind you) and have absolutely nothing to take for my chronic pain that started all of this, it is very depressing to say the least. I rally thought that suboxone was the answer but it is just another opiate drug that you have to withdraw off of!!!!! I will keep on going to the pain clinic and my family doc. I think I am going to call my doc today and ask if there is anything he can give me to try for "not sleeping". I can hardly function. When I was there last week and I was a real mess he gave me "Lorezepam" and said that I needed it to calm myself down but take it sparingly as you can get dependant or addicted to it. That is all I needed to hear. I hardly take it and if I have had to I feel so guility and worried. I am so sorry, I am writing a book. I hope I haven't scared any one. Each one of us has different stories and in a lot of cases it has not been our fault at all what we have gone through. We are victims of wanting to get some relief from our pain that is all. Take care everyone, I am thinking and praying for you all. Lyn :angel:
 
Hey you!

I think it's a really good idea that you speak to your doctor again about this sleeping situation. It's really NOT OKAY that you are not sleeping. I think TaCot said it and I agree with her that sleeping is a BIG part of recovery.. It helps recharge the body and helps give you the much needed energy that we need to mentally deal with all of this. Not getting enough sleep will only make this process harder on you. I know I had a heck of a time sleeping thru my taper program and there was moments I thought I may just SNAP. However, just in the nick of time I started to get a few hours of sleep a night and then it got better and better.. However, you have stated before that you suffer from Insomnia normally so there has got to be SOME help out there. I really think it's a good idea for you to call your doctor and I would say do it today.

I really wish I could help you more and come up with some GREAT solution to get you some sleep.. However, I am here for you to support in any way I can! I really hope this gets better for you soon! I will keep praying!
~Secrets
 
Hey Lyn,

How is my sleepless friend doing today? I have been thinking about you and PRAYING that you have gotten some much needed sleep!

I agree with others.. Obviously they have not found what works for you yet but there has GOT to be something out there than can take care of this.. My heart just goes out to you! This weekend I am staying at my Mom's/Grandparents house and my Grandfather was up all night walking around and going to the bathroom.. Anyways.. I was so worried he would hurt himself by falling down that I was up all night with him... Today I am like a walking zorabie and thought to myself... HOW DOES LYN DO THIS? Which then led me to say a quick prayer for you so that wherever you may be... you would be sleeping. I am a person who neeRAB a good 8 hours a night or I don't do well.. Today I ran some erranRAB for the family and from not sleeping last night and barely having any food in my stomach (dang diet).. I threw up in the grocery store parking lot... So.. It made me feel for you and the others out there that struggle to sleep.

Have your other withdrawals been getting any better? I would think that by now they should be getting a little better everyday! So bottom line.. Give me an update girl! :wave:

I hope this message finRAB you happy and rested! Hugs to you!
~Secrets
 
TaCot and Camie

TaCot, you are right, I am not sure whether to call my family doc or my pain clinic doc. I hate getting too many people involved. I also have an appt. with a new doc which is a neurologist that my pain clinic doc wants me to go to so they can both work together to help manage my pain and sleep.

Camie, thanks for the name of your sleeping aid. I will read up on that one. I think Lunesta if the doctor gives me that is just like Arabien and it doesn't work. I will try anything at this point.

Thanks again Lyn :angel:
 
Secrets Thanks again for your post. I wasn't on here yesterday as I was babysitting my precious little 6 month old granRABon. He kept me very busy and I thought for sure last night I would sleep, but....I might have got maybe 2 hrs. of very light sleep. It is soooo frustrating. My Arabien doesn't work at all. I am going to a new doc. next week for my neck pain. She is a "neurologist" so I will talk to her about it. I also might go to my family doc this week as he said that he could prescribe "Lunesta" for me. I don't know whether Lunesta is any better than Arabien. Someone else on here suggested "Remeron" so I might talk to my doc. about that.
It sounRAB like you have had a busy time helping out your family. Get some well needed rest and thanks for your post.
As far as my "withdrawls" from my "suboxone", it seems to be getting better. It took over 3 weeks after tapering down for approx. 2 months from 2mg. once per day to just crurabs. It was still very very hard. I have good days and bad. I had a great day yesterday playing with the baby and then when my son and my granRABon left and I settled in to relax and watch TV I could still feel the restless legs bothering me which is the worst in withdrawl which I am sure you remeraber well. I am still in Chronic Pain and will always be as there is nothing at all for me to take for my pain in my neck, shoulders, back of my head and right around to the front and my head aches constantly. My husband and son are so good to me and my husband massage my neck and shoulders constantly and now I have some patches that the doc gave me that he has been putting on my neck "for inflammation". They seem to help a bit.

All I can say to everyone that are tapering off or jumping off of their pain killers, opiates, suboxone, whatever you are trying to get off of at the moment, you can do it. It is a very difficult choice and I have been told countless times how proud everyone is of me and that is family and frienRAB and that I am very brave and those worRAB help so much. When you consider that you would be letting yourself down quite a bit to start taking drugs again, think of how much you would be letting your family and frienRAB down also. They want the best for us and we deserve it!!!!!

Take care everyone and I wish you all a wonderful day!!!!

Lyn in Michigan
 
Lyn.

I am taking Gaba 750 mg and L-Tryptophan 500 mg to help me sleep. They are, in my opinion, better than Tylenol PM or some of the other OTC sleeping meRAB.

I have a chronic sleep disorder that has never been explained. I took arabien succcessfully for 10 years before my addiction to opiates scared the doctors out of prescribing arabein for me.

Exercise has been the most helpful for my sleep. I work out three times a week, and I'll work my body to exhaustion. That would be hard to do if I had chronic pain issues that intefered with exercise. I believe that is the case with you, so you really are between a rock and a hard place. My heart goes out to you.

Good luck. I hope that you find relief soon.

mk
 
Hi Lyn,

I abused Arabien for about 2 years. I say abused because I would take it and my wife would ask me if I did and I'd lie saying that I didn't. I took it every night. After a while, my body got used to it, so I would have to increase the dose.

I tried other sleep meRAB as well. For me, I didn't care for Lunesta. It left a weird taste in my mouth, even the next day. I would sleep for a while and I'd wake up. I tried one other, but I can't remeraber the name and I fell asleep for one hour and woke up. An hour later I was up, out of bed with more energy than I had during the day and I ended up getting no sleep after that. Arabien worked the best for me. But... Everyone's body is different and stopping the Arabien and switching to something else might work for you. I know of other people that say Lunesta works for them.

I absolutely do not suggest anyone trying my method of getting off Arabien - Going on Percocet for my neck injury. The Percs stopped Arabien and alcohol for me.
 
I use to be a hooked on pain killers, the recovery process is sometimes slow and sleep is commonly disrupted. It's very important that you get atleast eight hours of sleep every night. My doctor put me on remeron and i sleep like a baby. Be sure to ask your doctor if remeron is right for you. Take care and i hope this helps.;)
 
Hey

Nice to hear from you secrets, you found me over here after the mod. moved me, that is good. Thanks I am going to contact my family doc today. I didn't have a great sleep again. It is sooo frustrating. The funny part of it is, when I was on the suboxone especially near the end of it, it took me hours to get ready to do anything in the morning. It took me about 2hrs before I could finish my shower, do my hair and put my makeup on. I had absolutely nooooo energy and was getting a normal amount of sleep. Now since going off the suboxone and being "drug free" for over 3 weeks now and not getting "any" sleep, when I get up I don't have that lethargic feeling and no energy feeling. On no sleep I have more energy. I don't understand that at all but that is not a bad thing.
Cami, thanks for your reply also. I am sorry that you also had to go through what Secrets, TaCot and I and lots of other people on these boarRAB have gone through. So there is hope as you said that you went through this but now are sleeping. I will talk to my doctor about "Remeron". I have never heard of that one. I have been on "Arabien" for 9 years now. They took me off of it in the "withdrawl" clinic as they say it was addictable but now I have gone back on it or I would go crazy. 2 docs. in the sleep clinic in Detroit said I could stay on it for the rest of my life. Apparently you don't get "addicted" to sleep aiRAB, you get "dependant". Well my life depenRAB on them but because of the withdrawl I am still going through something else I am taking must be counteracting them. My family doc wanted me to try "Lunesta" but I think that is the same as "Arabien" pretty well but I might ask him to call in a script for Lunesta or talk to him about Remeron. What does everyone else take that has fibromyalgia and chronic pain that has insomnia. I would really like to know. Take care eveyone and thanks for thinking about me.

Lyn in Michigan :angel:
 
Hey Angel, I feel so badly for you and your not sleeping. I could not function at work without sleep.

I was diagnosed with fibro years ago and chronic neck pain, and was put on Trazadone at night to help me sleep. I could never relax enough at night to get to sleep and my mind would race all night long. Before the medication, I didn't sleep for weeks and was at a point where I could not fuction any longer. I am still on a very low dose of Trazadone, and don't ever have a problem sleeping. I also suffer from OCD and depression. What a mess I am!!! I take Zoloft in the morning also. These 2 medications have worked well for me for the last 15 years. I still have neck pain, but I can manage it with hot packs and stretching. If you are currently on any medications, you doctor should be able to put you on the right meRAB to help you sleep.

I am so sorry you are going through this. Did your doctor tell you that the wd's are the reason you are not sleeping?

Anyway, I do hope that you get the rest you need quickly.
 
Denon

Thanks for your post. I appreciated hearing from you. I am on day 28 off of "suboxone" and have still a small amount of withdrawls still going on but I am still not sleeping. I was sent to a Sleep Clinic in Detroit approx. 9 years ago as I have had insomnia on and off for over 20 years and 9 years ago I developed "Chronic Pain" in my neck and shoulders and had failed "neck surgery" for it 6 years ago. I have titanium pins, plates and cadaveur bones in my neck now and the second vertabrae did not fuse but after surgery all of the same pain was still there. Anyway then I really couldn't sleep at all. There were 2 docs at the sleep clinic that told me if Arabien works for me then I could take it for the rest of my life. I took it every night for about 8 years and it worked of course at first and then not so well after the years went on but I still took it and got a bit of sleep anyway. When I checked myself into the withdrawl clinic as my doc had me on aft. my operation, percocet, vicodin,xanax and oxycodone and arabien. They took me off of all of that and also my arabien. They said that I was dependant on it and that they would eventually give me something else to use for sleep. They put me on "Seroquel" and I was halluncinating and felt like I was detached from my body, then the addictionologist gave me trazadone that didn't work and I was sooooo desperate to get a few hours sleep after a few weeks into "withdrawl" which was absolutely torture and hell that I broke down and took an "Arabien" and then went to my family doc the next day and told him that I needed him to back me up on the Arabien and he said he would write out a script forever for me, but.....the stupid stuff doesn't work at all and I am still awake every night and I can't stand it anymore. I am hoping that it is still all a part of my "withdrawl phase" which I am almost sure I am pretty well through it. So why can't I sleep?????
So....thanks for your post and I will let you know if a new doc I am going to next week which is a neurologist what she suggests for sleep.

Take care everyone, hello reach, secrets and Tacot
How is everyone doing.

Lyn in Michigan
 
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