Oh Night Divine

Can you remember the feeling of waking in the morning after a good night's sleep and feeling so good - you feel rested and have not a pain in your body. Well that is a very rare feeling for me and hundred's of others who suffer from chronic undiagnosed pain.
Better sleep is not about getting a better mattress, no matter what the salesman or The Better Sleep Council brochure will tell you. It also says on the brochure that a good night's sleep is essential for your mental health, your emotional health and your physical health and "If you think you are suffering from a serious sleep problem, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy or restless leg syndrome, consult your doctor or a sleep specialist" It does not tell you that your doctor may just add these symptoms/conditions to your already large list of symptoms and do nothing about it. If you think I'm angry, I am. I just want a good night's sleep...well that's a start anyway.
Apparently what I have is not life threatening - according to my doctors - I have no liver problem, no heart problem, no kidney damage (all the pain killers may have something to say about that soon!) so just give me something to manage the pain.
But I digress - the pain specialist - who is treating me as if I have fibromyalgia, as no other diagnosis has been offered, says all my symptoms may just be due to sleep deprivation. So did any one order a sleep study??? No one ever checked for tender points either!
See previous post 'Go To Sleep' Tuesday, May 1, 2007
I am not my disease - I have a life. (but it is getting smaller) Oh Sleep Divine.

PAIN

Note the capitals - PAIN, chronic pain is a strange thing. You start to live with it, you cope with it, you manage it but you do not see it is slowly changing your life. You stop doing certain things...maybe not going out at night or getting someone else to do the shopping, sitting more, exercising less...whatever. It is insidious. Then one day we have had enough and we try a new doctor, a new drug. We need to try other things but it is hard to think clearly when we are in pain and just trying to get through our day to day existence. I will try and place here links to things that help us - those in chronic pain. Maybe you could post something that has helped you.

I am going to try

• yoga
• massage
• emu oil
• hot baths

See more info on pain and a brief history of pain

"Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself." Dr. Albert Schweitzer,