Monday, August 22, 2005

Cheap date

After getting up early on Saturday, I really made up for it on Monday. I haven't been sleeping very well lately for a variety of reasons, from late-night thunderstorms to cats walking on me, but mostly because I tend to have "restless legs," which I've had my whole life. Sometimes it's worse than others, but lately it's been kind of bad, and also one night last week I had one of those horrible leg cramps that require you to jump out of bed and hop around on it, scaring the cats and generally making a fool of youself, but it hurts so bad you don't care.

And this one hurt so bad that now, even three or four days later, the muscle still hurts. So in order to get a good night's sleep Saturday night, I took a pill. Not even a real sleeping pill, but Elavil, which my doctor prescribed to help me sleep on the nights when my legs are bothering me. I think it's actually an anti-anxiety drug, but he said they don't prescribe it much for that because it tends to make you sleepy, and boy, I can attest to that.

I stayed up way too late on Saturday, and by the time I went to bed it was nearly 2:00 a.m. I took the pill about 1:00, went to bed, and didn't surface until nearly noon on Sunday. And even then I could have stayed in bed, but I hated to sleep away the entire day and forced myself to get up. I was groggy for most of the afternoon. I suppose one of the reasons that things like that hit me so hard is that I so seldom take them. Drinking's the same way -- if I have one drink, I'm likely to go home and fall asleep. I'm an extremely cheap date.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The discusson came up at church about leg cramps and someone mention a bar of soap under the sheets as a preventative. I thought that was really weird and surfed for info. Seems that it's a widely accepted method. Go figure!

Willa said...

My mother told me that one, too! But it just sounds too weird to actually DO anything. Should I really try it? What would Bob say?? :)

Anonymous said...

I've heard of elavil before, but not in the context of an anti anxiety drug.
I googled it. It's actually a tricyclic anti depressent - http://www.drugs.com/elavil.html

Willa said...

No, I didn't know that! How cool! :)

Anonymous said...

I, also, suffer from RLS. The only thing that helps me is to go out to the living room and sleep on the couch. I put a small pillow between my legs and I curl up in a fetal position. I fall asleep right away with no problems, and it works absolutely every time. Give it a try - you never know - it might help you, too!