Last Thursday I started having cold symptoms. Nothing too horrible, just some sinus congestion and feelings of a head cold. I spent most of Friday and Saturday sleeping, hoping that by Monday I would be back to being healthy. It didn't happen that way.
By Saturday night my symptoms had switched from cold symptoms to flu symptoms (achy, feverish, chills, etc). The worst part was a horrible sore throat that made it miserable to swallow. Somehow, with everything going on in my body, I was not able to fall asleep Saturday night. It was horrible. Nights go on forever when you are sick, exhausted, and unable to fall asleep. Sunday night I had the same experience. No fun!
Monday morning greeted me with an even worse sore throat. I made an appointment to go to the doctor first thing in the morning. Since I had all the symptoms of Swine Flu they checked me for that first. They shove a long q-tip up your nose (clear up your nose) to do this. It's about as pleasant as it sounds. I was thrilled to be told that I did not have swine flu. They found instead that I have a bacterial infection in my throat, which is easily treated with an antibiotic. YAY!
When I told the doctor about not being able to sleep, he agreed that sleeping is necessary to the recovery process. He suggested that I take some Benadryl before going to bed, which would help with the congestion, and also help me to sleep soundly.
So last night I got ready for bed super early, took two Benadryl, and waited for drowsiness to kick in. Do you know what happened? Nothing. At all. Seriously, a HUGE disappointment. It's not that I wasn't tired (believe me, I was). I spent hours staring up at the ceiling, hoping that my brain would shut off. I finally got up and spent several hours watching re-runs of "The Nanny" (which runs at 3:00 in the morning). I finally fell asleep around 4:30 and dreamt of Fran Drescher until my alarm went off at 6:00.
I checked the Benadryl box to make sure that it wasn't a non-drowsy form (it's not). I can't figure out why it had no effect on me. I have seen Benadryl knock people out for hours! I'm hoping that tonight will finally be the night that I can sleep, because three sick & sleepless nights in a row is way too many!
By Saturday night my symptoms had switched from cold symptoms to flu symptoms (achy, feverish, chills, etc). The worst part was a horrible sore throat that made it miserable to swallow. Somehow, with everything going on in my body, I was not able to fall asleep Saturday night. It was horrible. Nights go on forever when you are sick, exhausted, and unable to fall asleep. Sunday night I had the same experience. No fun!
Monday morning greeted me with an even worse sore throat. I made an appointment to go to the doctor first thing in the morning. Since I had all the symptoms of Swine Flu they checked me for that first. They shove a long q-tip up your nose (clear up your nose) to do this. It's about as pleasant as it sounds. I was thrilled to be told that I did not have swine flu. They found instead that I have a bacterial infection in my throat, which is easily treated with an antibiotic. YAY!
When I told the doctor about not being able to sleep, he agreed that sleeping is necessary to the recovery process. He suggested that I take some Benadryl before going to bed, which would help with the congestion, and also help me to sleep soundly.
So last night I got ready for bed super early, took two Benadryl, and waited for drowsiness to kick in. Do you know what happened? Nothing. At all. Seriously, a HUGE disappointment. It's not that I wasn't tired (believe me, I was). I spent hours staring up at the ceiling, hoping that my brain would shut off. I finally got up and spent several hours watching re-runs of "The Nanny" (which runs at 3:00 in the morning). I finally fell asleep around 4:30 and dreamt of Fran Drescher until my alarm went off at 6:00.
I checked the Benadryl box to make sure that it wasn't a non-drowsy form (it's not). I can't figure out why it had no effect on me. I have seen Benadryl knock people out for hours! I'm hoping that tonight will finally be the night that I can sleep, because three sick & sleepless nights in a row is way too many!
6 comments:
I'm so sorry sister that you are so sick! :( I want you to feel better if it helps any. I too hope you can sleep better tonight.
When it comes to any meds that are supposed to make you drowsy, I have yet to find one that has that effect on me. Maybe it's genetic. I truly hope that the fact you've had so little sleep in the last three days will FORCE your body to sleep soundly tonight!
P.S. I'm so glad that you don't have the swine flu. A gaming buddy of Steve's was super sick all last week, and we just found out that his was the swine flu. Yuck!
So we gave Jack Benadryl once for some hives... he was up all night too!
It is not fun being sick! I'm sorry that you couldn't sleep. That is the ONLY way to get through an illness- so you don't have to suffer as much. Good luck next time.
:( I'm so sorry that you've been so sick AND that you haven't been sleeping! Yucky! It's SOOO horrible to go without sleep! I really hope you'll be able to sleep soon. Hang in there!!!
man, how cool would it have been if you had had swine flu! it's a pandemic, you know, and we haven't had one of those since the 60s or was it 70s. and i'm sorry to hear benadryl didn't work out for you. when i read that you took two, i thought for sure you would die, since that stuff makes me groggy for a day after having only taken one. and i'm happy you're better now.
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