Adrenalin

It's amazing how I can have a terrible night's sleep, and after a hot soak and a good breakfast, be raring to go. This is the adrenalin that kicks in when I know I have a lot to do. I can run for days on empty, but if I do this, I'll eventually crash hard.

I made the mistake last night of believing I could sleep without any pharmaceuticals. Even though I skied, walked the dogs, did yoga, in addition to numerous other errands, I didn't feel too tight. So I skipped the meds.

I took my usual hot soak to relax my muscles and mind before bed. Then I played a breathing CD as I drifted off to sleep. If you believe the experts, I should have been situated for a perfect night's.

It was too warm. The temperature had risen earlier that day. My wood stove had been going and the sun shone brightly causing my passive solar panels to kick in. The end result was a nice warm house. The problem, it wasn't cooling down. I like my sleeping temperatures in the sixties.

After two or three hours I woke up sweating. I kept kicking off the blankets. A throbbing pain had started in the lower back and was getting more intense. The pain was starting to affect my hips - a problem spot for my fibro.

I tossed and turned all night trying to find a position that didn't hurt. Just as I'd drift off, the pain would wake me and I'd have to change positions. It wasn't a simple matter either. I can't just roll over and go back to sleep. My limbs are hot, stiff, painful, and heavy. It's a mighty effort to change sides.

My pets are also sensitive to my insomnia. When I start tossing and turning, it keeps them up. The two labs were behaving pretty well, but they still got up a few times during the night to run out through their dog door into the yard and bark at things -- usually just as I started to fall back asleep.

The younger cat was over-stimulated by all the activity. She took my agitated movements as a signal to frolic loudly in the hallway. Then she would run back into the room to check on me by walking all over my extremely sensitive muscles. She repeated this all night long.

I finally dragged myself out of bed painfully as the sky brightened. I'm up now. I feel okay, but I think I'll skip the skiing. I have races tomorrow and the next day. If I push too hard and let myself get too tired, I could get hurt. I think I'll take the meds tonight.