Strange indeed.
I’ve accomplished quite a bit since I got up at 2:45 a.m. I think I’m going to eventually give in to the advice from my cousin, who takes Ambien, and see if it might work for me without making me feel like I’ve been hit by a truck in the mornings. She swears by it.
I did some research on my particular problem (I can fall asleep but not remain asleep), and found this. What say you? Apparently, there are prescriptions that pack less of a punch than Ambien, but I think I’m not willing to combine them with anti-depressants and muscle relaxers and other various flavors of overmedication.
I think I will try the melatonin route (least invasive) first. I’ve read mixed reviews on its efficacy for keeping you asleep, but it’s a natural remedy, and therefore worth a shot. Failing that, I will call the doc. Anyone out there had any experience with melatonin? I know RD has, and he has had good luck with it.
But that’s not the point of this post. Strange news is the point, and I will now get to it.
Question: how can you throw away a kidney? I can’t imagine the horror of this poor nurse, who apparently chucked the organ before it was scheduled to be transplanted into the donor’s sister’s body. Oh my.
It’s bizarre by any stretch. In the movies and on TV, you always see medical staff handling a transplant organ as if it’s the Holy Grail. It gets its own cooler, seat on the helicopter, bodyguards and escorts. It gets a special pillow in the operating room. It must have been a confluence of the most extraordinary circumstances possible that allowed this terrible thing to happen. I can’t imagine the pall of dread hanging over the doctor who had to go into the recovery room and tell the two patients — brother and sister — whose backsides were just carved open then sewn shut for no reason, “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this…” So, so tragic.
Especially sobering were the numbers at the end of the article: in 2011, 136 people in Ohio died waiting for a kidney — 4,711 nationally.
All right. Enough reading and coffee slurping. There’s work to be done, and young voices to be shaped, one wrong note at a time.
Hey, it’s almost the weekend — pshh! Jump on it!
I’ve heard (but cannot personally confirm) that valerian root helps with relaxation. There’s also a tea by Traditional Medicinals (makers of Throat Coat – all of my singers have it in their cupboards!) called Sleepy Time, which I believe has some valerian root in it.
I just have an aversion to giving my money to Big Pharma if there isn’t something out there that might work just as well.
That kidney thing is scary. Usually when they do a transplant from a live donor, the harvesting and the implantation happen simultaneously in adjoining rooms. The organ is just taken from one patient and handed through the door and implanted in the recipient. Something was screwy that the organ was trashed. Although in all honesty, I can certainly see how something like that could happen at the last hospital I worked (which shall remain nameless). Hospitals are wild and wooly places.
Hope you find some relief soon!
PK
I am on it!! I hope the melatonin does the trick. From what I’ve read on my comment on Facebook, it takes a bit to get going, but knowing me, I’d be comatose on the first night. Don’t want to risk it!
Know what has helped me sleep? Retirement! Unfortunately, your retirement clock says that’s still down the road for you. I have used melatonin in the past, and I believe that it helped, but I haven’t used if for quite a while. I still have periods where I’ll sleep well for several nights in a row, and then have a night when I’ll wake up 3:00ish and can’t go back to sleep. That really frustrates me! I hope you find something that helps you. Melatonin would be worth a try. It’s relatively inexpensive, so if it doesn’t help you, you won’t be out big bucks. If it does, yippee!
I want retirement!!!
Do you have a sleeping problem in the summer? I remember you saying that you have a definite bedtime now that school is back in session. 10:00 or so? What was bedtime in the summer? Perhaps you are messing up your natural sleep rhythm by trying to movie it up. I know that if I go to bed too early then I am wide awake too early. If I go to bed around 11:00pm I sleep really well. If that means changing your alarm clock to a later time in the morning then it’s worth it cuz honey we ain’t getting any younger and that sleep thing is important!
You know, I don’t think I have trouble in the summer — or at least not as much. I really think it’s the stress of school. I wake up at 2:30 or so, and immediately my brain focuses itself on the coming day/days.
The *only* time I really sleep well during the school year is if I go to bed drugged on NyQuil. I got 6 straight hours a few days ago when I did that. But that can’t be healthy, and you’re right — time’s a-wastin!!