Insomnia

One of the side effects of living with mets has been terrible insomnia. Every night it seems to go like this:

11:00 PM Go to bed, fall asleep
2:00 AM Wake up with hot flash
2:20 AM Fall back asleep
4:00 AM Wake up with hot flash, identify pain, take vicodin
4:40 AM Fall back to sleep
5:30 AM Alarm goes off for Rik, have another hot flash
6:30 AM Hot flash
7:30 AM Hot flash
8:30 AM Hot flash
9:00 AM Give up; get out of bed

Today the 4 AM hot flash woke me from an unusually vivid dream featuring an earthquake, Pumpkin, Rik and an action-adventure-like escape. I don't know if this dream was a metaphor for cancer or just a bad dream (I ate too much for dinner last night).

In any event, the combination woke me completely. I got up and drank some water (I also had too much to drink last night!), took some vicodin, which often relaxes me enough to fall back to sleep. Not today. I heard the newspaper being delivered. The birds sang an early morning chorus. I started to think of all the things I need to do today.

At 4:55 AM I gave up and got up to write this post. Maybe I will take a nap this afternoon. Hopefully I will get a better night's sleep tonight!