Insomnia strikes again

Can't sleep. Again. I have been like this as long as I can remember, although my mother claims I slept fine as a baby. Tony is a big part of my sleeping trouble. About three or four months before he was diagnosed, he started needing to go out in the middle of the night (one of the most obvious symptoms of diabetes), and my sleep was way out of whack until he went on insulin.

I'm one of those people who has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep (and, of course, falling asleep again). In the mid-1980s, I tried an experiment where I used self-hypnosis tapes to get myself in a pattern where I slept only four and a half hours a night (this was based on the 90 minute sleep cycle most people have); after 3 cycles, I would wake up easily, and I was pretty alert. I did that for almost a year, and accomplished a lot, but I think it made the overall sleep problem worse, not to mention that what made me stop was that my arthritis was getting worse, too.

I eventually got back to where I was getting at least six hours most nights, when Tony developed his bladder problem in June, and that set up another problem, what with the blood sugar crashes and so on. I couldn't sleep because I was afraid he'd have a crash and I wouldn't wake up, and now that he's stabilized, more or less, HE'S not sleeping at night. Part of his problem is almost certainly his skin condition; he's not scratching as much as I expect him to, but he has trouble getting comfortable. The last round of antibiotics doesn't seem to have done much, so on Tuesday, we're back to the vet for his biopsy. I have to trim all of the mats he's developed from the "extreme" shedding this thing causes, and he's going to look like hell. In the past week, he's lost fur on his face for the first time, so he's nowhere near looking his best. His mood seems good, anyway, and since he finished the antibiotic, his appetite is better than it's been since spring.

But he keeps waking me between 2-4 AM. It takes me an hour or so to fall asleep, so it seems as if I only had a few minutes of sleep before he's bouncing against my bed, wanting to go out.
My short-term memory and general recall have been taking a beating from menopause, and the lack of sleep is compounding the problem. Just tonight, I had to stop myself from freaking out because I thought I had lost a set of essays that needed to be graded. It turns out that I returned them on Monday.

I'm taking another shot at sleep now. I really just wanted to update about the biopsy.

How do you deal with frustration?

Well, I tend to do it badly in some circumstances, but there are a few where I really shine, if I do say so myself. For example, when one of my students needs something explained in a dozen different ways before he or she understands, I stick with it until I see the lightbulb going on, no matter how long it takes. This ability is particularly valuable when it comes to dealing with Tony's problems. I mentioned in my last post that he was having blood sugar crashes. After talking with both his vet and another doctor in the practice, we decided to take him off the Royal Canin Urinary SO and put him back on Lamaderm. I had taken him in because he seemed to have injured his right hind leg, but they checked him out on all fronts, which I always appreciate. It makes me wonder why I can't find a doctor for myself who is willing to take the time to cover all the bases (of course, I haven't really been looking, since I'm without health insurance -- for the last 4 years!-- so there's no point, but still . . .).

The results of their examination? Tony has a mild ear infection, which means a daily ear washing; his skin condition has spread from his stomach to other areas; his weight is down to 10.5 pounds; and he's developed osteoarthritis in his knee. At the moment, the tendon on his kneecap is "subluxated," meaning that it's come out of the shallow groove it's supposed to sit in. Dr. Campbell tried for several minutes to pop it back into place, but it wouldn't cooperate. Tony, however, didn't even whimper when she was stretching his leg out and moving it around -- this after he started shrieking at home, which was why I rushed him to the vet in the first place.
So, he's now on Rimadyl twice daily (and probably permanently), along with a daily dose of Torbutrol, since his trachea collapse is bothering him a lot more, and an antibiotic. Do I need to stress the importance of getting health insurance for your pets? I wish somebody had told me about it when Tony first arrived.

Because of the quantities of pills involved, I asked Dr. Campbell to give me prescriptions for both drugs, but now I'm kind of sorry I did that rather than just have them dispense -- I thought I could save money on the Rimadyl by getting the generic Novox instead (it's about half the price), but it's been a real hassle, and I still don't have the prescriptions filled after a week! Hence the title of this post. First, the pharmacy (at Drs. Foster & Smith) has to have an actual prescription or one faxed from the vet, which I understand and actually agree with as a policy, but mailing the rx's delayed the order a few days, and then yesterday, Fed Ex failed to deliver, leaving a sticker on the front door instructing me to pick up the package before close of business or they would have to wait until Tuesday (Labor Day weekend, remember?) to try again. Unfortunately, I didn't go out the front door until 7PM. The sticker said that the attempt was made at 9:57AM. This is what ticks me off. I taught an 8AM class and was home by 9:45; my mother, sister, and brother-in-law were all home and awake, too, as were all three dogs. The doorbell never rang -- when it does, it triggers a mammoth barkfest -- and we couldn't have missed that, even if we didn't hear our extremely loud doorbell!

I would love to boycott FedEx, but that's pretty much out of the question -- I do most of my shopping online. However, I am going to file a complaint with them. There's no excuse for what they did, and Tony will be out of his meds before the shipment gets here. I'm guessing that the dogs frightened the driver (they bark over noises outside, and the neighbor was mowing, so we probably thought that was what they were barking at). The two Great Pyrenees sound like all the hounds of hell when they get going; if just their minor warning barks scared him, it's too bad he didn't ring the bell. He probably would have lost control of his bladder over the ruckus that raises, a thought that I find very satisfying right now.

I hate to think that Tony might have to suffer even for a minute because of FedEx. I think that I'm going to start favoring businesses that use UPS. It's not a boycott, but it's the best I can do, and my frustration really needs some kind of outlet.