The past few nights have been rough. I have a cold, which makes sleeping difficult. I hate breathing through my mouth because then I cough and/or get dry mouth, and I physically can not breath through my nose. It's a problem.
In addition, on Monday night I took some fanschy-schmancy cough syrup prescribed to me by the Doc. He pitched it to me like some sort of miracle drug (makes me wonder now if he's getting a kick back from the drug company...). So I took it right before bed because he told me it would knock me out and give me a good night sleep. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Meanwhile, my thoughts were racing. I wrote a few blog posts in my head (including the bagel one). I made to-do lists. I thought of chapters of my life story (which someday I will write). I couldn't shut my mind off. Thinking that maybe a half an hour had gone by since I shut off the light, I checked my watch. I had been unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep for TWO HOURS.
The whole night was like that. I didn't sleep AT ALL. Turns out the cough syrup (called Flemex, por si aca) has codeine in it. Apparently, Abby and codeine don't mix.
The next day I got up at 6:30 because I wasn't sleeping anyway. I thought I would crash at some point during the day, but I didn't feel tired until around 8:00pm. I wanted to be super tired before falling asleep, though, so I waited until around 10:00pm to fall asleep. And I took a NyQuil which always knocks me out.
I slept a little that night, but it wasn't a deep, good sleep. I woke up twice to go to the bathroom, and had a strange dream where I thought there was a plastic bag in my bed so in the middle of the night I stripped my blankets off in search of it...
Yesterday I was TIRED. All day long. And my cold, instead of getting better, was getting worse. Despite drinking tons of Emergen-C, taking propóleo and drinking approximately twice my weight in water, I could literally feel my sinuses getting more and more congested.
I took a nap yesterday afternoon, which meant that last night? Yeah, you're right. Bad night's sleep again. Although this time I know it was partially because I had sleep anxiety. After two nights of bad sleep, my inner monologue went something like this: Abby you have to sleep. Go to sleep now and you'll get 8.5 hours of sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep is amazing. Okay, go to sleep now and you'll get 8 hours. 8 hours is good. Well, now 7.5 that's not so bad. Now it's only 7! GO TO SLEEP NOW ABBY!!!
I eventually did fall asleep, only to be rudely awaken a few hours later by an EXTREMELY dry mouth (thank you, congested nasal passages). Then, to fall back asleep I basically repeated the above monologue, except with much lower numbers.
Needless to say, today, my first day back from my licencia médica, was rough. I was crabby. I wasn't super productive at work and I was short with my teenage students (two of which were new today...oops! sorry guys). In my adult class, a student offered me some peanuts and I was like "NO I HATE PEANUTS" (that's not even true) but it's just what came out of my sleep-deprived brain.
I need to sleep tonight. But I'm fighting to stay awake a little longer so I'm good and tired by the time I hit the sheets.
7 comments:
Jesus, Abby!
Why are you suffering from a cold?
Today you can find the right medicine for any kind of discomfort. You just failed to find the right doctor, but as you know, they are like mechanics: if one doesn't know how to fix your car, you just look for another one.
Have you tried "PaltoMiel"? It´s really nice, and somehow, helps me with both the dry mouth and sore throat
Sorry that you aren't feeling much better yet, I thought you would be for sure by now! I HATE that feeling of trying to shut down your mind and not being able to...that happens to me a lot.
My comment is about the dry mouth (though I do hope you're feeling better.) I wonder if it has to do with the f-ing smog in this city or the dry air. I wake up every morning like that, at like 3 am and it's awful!! I have to chug about a gallon of water, it seems. So desagradable!
Cerveza con limón y Mentolatum.
Gonzalo: Can't really tell if you're being sarcastic or not...but unfortunately I don't have a bottomless pocketbook to go to the doctor until I find "the right one"; also, I'm not a big fan of taking a ton of medicine just to find the right one either.
Marmo: No, but I will. Gracias por el dato!
Heather: Me too :( But hopefully after this weekend when I can really rest.
Andrea: Yes, super desagradable. Not sure if it's because of the smog, but maybe! I think it has something to do with the dry air, though.
Anonymous: No me gusta mucho la cerveza con limon, pero quizas si las cosas empeoran, lo pruebo..jaja. Y que es Mentolatum?? Gracias por los datos.
Abby,
The advice was given by a friend of mine some 5 years ago when I came to a meeting almost dying from a cold. And I haven't suffered ever since.
Like you, I'm not a good friend of medicines and try to keep away from them as much as possible. But I know my pain threshold and certainly you must know yours.
There are many OTC medicines your doctor should recommend by phone, free. Most doctors do that in Chile (make sure you got his or her number). Just be careful to follow your doctor's instructions for not overdosing or taking it too long. Marmo's Paltomiel is a very good example of a natural OTC medicine against coughing.
And once you find the right medicine for you, it will probably stay by you very long.
As for smog, I think all of us who live in Santiago have some kind of health problem because of it, but that'd be another post.
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