Popping up to Update

Hello to all in the friendly blogosphere!

This past weekend I made pretty good progress on The Rose Garden. Didn't stitch all that I was hoping to, but enough to get me excited about the piece again. Below are the results of my progress:

As soon as I finish that little yellow flower, I am going to do the backstitching on the four butterflies, the lattice and the flowers and leaves themselves. I have been pretty good at doing the backstitching as I go along and I don't want to get so behind on this that it delays my finishing this piece. It's going to be a big boost to me to be able to finish this piece by this year. I'm starting to think it's possible.

Yesterday was the weekly SAL at my LNS and I went back to stitching on Rainbow Borders and managed to finish the sixth row after having to rip the last motif I had been working on. What is it about having to rip that puts me off stitching on the piece? I can't explain it.

Good news to share: I have been sleeping lately. It's been with the help of Mr. Guiness, but last night I didn't need him. It's possible that I've reset some cycle that was off. Too soon to claim victory, but I'm hopeful.

On another note, I'm excited Nick will be home in a week for good. I'm so looking forward to this! It's going to be fun having the kid around again. Unfortunately, Matt moving back home is not working out. He's driving me nuts and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask him to leave.

Sleeping Buddies

Hey y'all - I have a bed buddy. His name is Mr. Guiness. He's going to continue to be my friend because I just discovered that he is only 125 calories (the draught version). Sam Adams Light, which is the only light beer I will drink, is 119 cals. So, I rather hang out with Guiness than with Sam.

Last night, at the suggestion of one of my directs, I decided to dine with Mr. Guiness, instead of getting together with him later in the evenings (usually 9pm). It worked really well. I had dinner around 8pm and by 10:30 I was fast sleep. Managed to sleep 7 hours, which were sorely needed, let me tell you.

So now that I have slept, and am in a much better mood because of it, I will go back to stitching tonight.

Tomorrow I will be participating in a Stitch A Thon that will last all weekend. I plan to be stitching on The Rose Garden, which has been neglected long enough, and seeing how much I can stitch.

A Solution Which is Not a Solution

I have arrived at a solution to my insomnia, which is likely to upset my doctor, but whatever. He's not the one going through the sleepless nights, I am.

The reason I went to see a doctor in the first place was because I was getting drowsy while driving. (I may have posted this before already) The previous doctor had diagnosed me as a narcoleptic, and given me stay awake pills (ProVigil). Then, I when I went to see my current doctor, he ordered a test and we discovered that I wasn't a narcoleptic. That eased my mind, but it's become an increasing struggle to sleep since then, to the point that now I am averaging 4 hours of sleep a night.

So... the solution which isn't a solution (please bear in mind that these are thoughts from a semi-sleep deprived mind) is to stay up and build up a sleep debt, and then try to pay it back during the weekend. Hope it works!

Weekend Stitching

I did manage to stitch some this weekend and am more than halfway through the sixth row of Rainbow Sampler! The purple looks a bit intense, but I think that after the row underneath it is stitched, it will balance out. It is making the sampler look a lot brighter, though.

On another note, Friday night I did not sleep at all. At 9 pm Saturday I realized that, despite not having slept a wink the previous night, I was not sleepy at all and I was going to need some help falling asleep. If I was ever going to try Ambien CR, it would be an ideal night to do so because I do not have to go to work the following day and have to deal with any potential consequence there.. So, I did.

I slept really well, but the following morning, I woke up angry. I was cranky almost the entire day and I realized that I was having a paradoxical reaction. It was discovered that I have a paradoxical reaction to Valium during my second colonoscopy about 7 years ago. I'm pretty sure I've told my doctor about it, and it's probably buried in the notes somewhere. Ambien CR isn't actually a benzo, but it's pretty close.

In other words, not more Ambien-like sleeping pills for Trish... Will call the doctor today and see what he wants to prescribe to me next. Stay tuned y'all.

Picture Update - Finally

Late in the day, I know, but here as promised is the update of Rainbow Borders:

It's really fun to stitch, even though it has over 40 rows and will probably take forever. I really like small projects, don't I?

Now, for my next update, here is a current picture of the Sunshine State Sampler. You can barely see the over one pink outline of hibiscus in the 8th row.

I'm still angry about not being able to fall asleep when I want to. Right now I'm getting to the point that I don't even want to try. Still haven't heard from the doctor or the sleep lab. It takes awhile for the sleep lab to send the report to the doctor and he probably won't contact me until I show up in his office later this month.

Sleep Test From Hell

I’ve been away for a while, haven’t I? For the past 3+ months I’ve had some real problems sleeping. Both falling asleep and staying asleep. I have been really dragging. No desire to do anything. If I wasn't hilariously happy, I would say I was depressed, but to tell the truth, my personal life has been amazing lately and it's only going to get better with the twins returning home for good from their Marine enlistments later this month. Life is great!

About two weeks ago, I decided to self-medicate with OTC sleeping pills and I tried "Simply Sleep" by the makers of Tylenol. I know it's just a glorified version of Benadryl, my best friend is a pharmacist. But I had to try something. It worked the first two days, but on the third day it gave me a headache that lasted after I had awakened the following day. It had to go. Still, I did manage to consistently sleep 6 hours a night. The following week, I decided to self-medicate with my good buddy Guiness. I knew I would be seeing my doctor that Thursday, after I had a crown put in at my dentist, so it was just going to be a few days. Guiness worked really well and, again, I managed to sleep about 6 hours a night.

This past Thursday, my doctor sent me off for another sleep test to find out why I was having problems with the staying asleep part. For the falling asleep part, he prescribed Ambien CR, which I have yet to fill and don’t know if I will or not yet. If I do, it won’t be until the weekend, when it’s not going to matter if I am groggy afterwards or whether I oversleep. If I’m going to feel like crap, it’s not going to be at work. I can handle the low energy/motivation and tiredness. I don’t want to “work under the influence”.

So, on the sleep test from hell part: they decided to put me on a machine, for whatever reason, and it may be a valid one (I’m waiting to hear). This left my nose and throat painfully dry, not just at 2:30 in the morning when I woke up from the discomfort, nor just immediately after I woke up a few hours later, but I was miserable all day long. I thought my nose recovered by noon, but when I was trying to fall asleep, I noticed I was still sore from the night before. I don’t know how much water I drank that day trying to re-hydrate my throat. It was beyond just throwing water on it, it was rather raw.

To add insult to injury, I started getting sleepy around 5pm on Saturday. Nevertheless, I was not able to fall asleep until 3:30am. This is the worse part of my problem, that even though I get sleepy, once I am in bed, I cannot fall asleep. I've tried relaxation music, special "delta wave" sleep recordings through my iPod, changing all the lightbulbs in my house to a lower wattage, warm baths, etc etc. Nothing seems to work. Except Simply Sleep, which gives me headaches, and good ol' Mr. Guiness. If I didn't get sleepy at all, I wouldn't care, I'd just find something to do and accomplish a lot. I've always felt that sleeping is such a waste of perfectly productive time.

I have been working on my Rainbow Borders piece. I am about halfway through the fifth row. Will take a picture tonight and post tomorrow morning.

Also this past week, I picked up Wayne Dyer's new book. If you're into that kind of thing, I highly recommend you watch/TiVo his PBS special.