Hello to the night shift.

Morning All,

It sounds a bit Dixon of Dock Green but I think his saying was "Evening All".  Having only slept for about 2 1/2 hours the night before last, I slept from 10.30pm to 5am last night.  I even managed to stay in bed and idle away a couple of hours until 7am in that not quite ready to get up dreamy state, the best night I have had in ages.  It was cooler which helped and I was exhausted which certainly helped.  We have quite dark curtains but I find that it only takes one chink of light to break the darkness.  When we went to stay in Crete the house had solid wood shutters and when you closed them it was total darkness.  Arriving tired after travelling we would stay up late chatting and then go to bed closing the shutters.  We would get up with no idea what time it was and open the shutters to find out that it was 10 or 11 am and hot and sunny outside.

It is much quieter in the house now but that is simply because the house is not really set up for four people and there is so much more space with only the three of us.  Mel and Noah are only working until the start of the summer holidays at which point it will get much easier again.  Once school finishes as a fifteen year old Noah is unlikely to emerge from his bedroom on a morning unless we wake him up.  I have fond memories of my teenage years when I could happily sleep until 3pm regardless of how early I went to bed the night before.

Sorry to hear about your cooker Annette /anndanv.  I know that you enjoy your cooking and baking.  Have you thought about getting a combination microwave / convection oven?  They just plug in so don't need an electrician but can cook food conventionally if you want them to.  They are not as big as a normal oven but can be quite large.  The one we have will easily take a large chicken to roast.

It's lovely to see a post from you that isn't so dramatic .  Hopefully the three days of steroids will be the worst of it.

love Gragon x

Hi Gragon

are you calling me a drama queen? I had a good night last night too. I slept from 22.30 to 3.00 when I woke briefly to ignore the dog. Then again to 05.30 when I came down to let the dog out and then from 06.30 to 09.30. I’m still in my pjs now and think I’ll go back to sleep again. 

Hi @daloni,

Not at all, you compare favourably with most royalty nowadays and I think I would prefer to think of you being involved in a drama rather than a crisis.  I would hope to think that I could cope half as well as you given what you have been through in the recent past.  Although I'm sure that you would have the skills to be an excellent drama queen should you chose to take that route at any time.

I'm also heading back to bed now.  I'm getting a headache and that is normally my hint that I need more sleep.  I slept from 12.30 to 4am this morning.  Got back to sleep about 5am.  Woke again at 6 and dozed until 7am when I got up.  I still need a couple of hours to top me up.

Have a good rest.

Gragon xx

Ah yes, the tired headache. I get those too, Gragon. It is such a great feeling to close my eyes on a tired headache and wake up an hour or two later to find it gone. 

I am finding no matter how much I sleep I’m not refreshed by it but that’s fatigue for you. My big sister is here with me this weekend and she’s doing a grand job of stopping me from overdoing it. 

xx

Good Morning All,

i also think that the long days of sunshine Make me wake up at first light snd tend to keep me awake till it is dark. I track my sleep with an app and find my sleep cycle in the summer to start sleep around 1am and wake at 6 and every other day I have a much shorter sleep. last night was a long sleep so i did not join the night shift. I woke at 6am to a overcast sky. 

Daloni , it was good to hear your chemo of the 12th was uneventful. mine starts on Monday. 
Hugs to all the Gang.

millie

Hi Millie 

My capacity for recall is very poor so although I would wish to be the person who would look up time differences and post my good wishes to you first thing on Monday morning, I know myself too well. I am in fact the person who would wake up on Tuesday, slap a hand to my forehead having realised I’ve forgotten. So I will take this window to offer you my wishes for your chemo to pass with ease and hope for success with minimal side effects. Much love to you, Millie dearest 

xxx

Good morning Gang,  Well my new meds seemed to be doing really well until last night. In saying that I don't have the extreme pain of the last while, just my leg jumping when I'm trying to settle down. It sort of feels like a muscle spasm in my thigh, then my leg jumps, I can cope with it, I'm used to it. I wondered if anyone else who has tried these patches found that the day after they applied a new one, it took a while to settle. That was only my 2nd patch, so early days. Gragon I hope you managed to get back to sleep yesterday morning and your headache was gone when you wakened. Regarding my oven, I am waiting for the number of a local electrician just now, as he may be willing to connect a new one up, once we get it. The one I like is out of stock in quite a few places so if he gets back to me, I will look again to see if I like any they do have on. In the meantime we are doing fine with the microwave (1,000 w) and the grill, but thanks for your suggestion. If we can't get something sorted soon we may well go down that route!

Hi Millie, I know exactly what you mean about the light in the sky in summer. Here there is still a bit of light, if it has been a sunny day, until about 10.40pm, on cloudy days it is a bit earlier, maybe 10.15pm. Then the sun rises at about 4.10am. The gap will get even smaller until 21st of this month when it is the longest day of daylight. Am I right in thinking California is about 8hours behind us? I'm not sure, so like I will wish you good luck for your chemo on Monday and hope it all goes well. I hope you do not have far to travel to the hospital or centre where you have it done!

I will try to get some sleep now, I've been up and down all nght and now have the headache you spoke of, I hadn't thought about it being tiredness but it sounds very logical! 

Well good morning all,

I'm afraid that I might have to resign from the night shift.  I went back to bed yesterday but didn't manage to get to sleep although just lying there and resting made me feel a bit better.

I then stayed up until about 12.30am before going to bed.  I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and didn't wake up until 7.30 am.  I took off my sleep apnoea mask and laid back down for a couple of minutes and woke up at 9.50am!   This is the longest I have slept since I was knocked out when they increased my painkillers.  I feel really good now, better than I have in a long time.  It might be a one off but I shall enjoy it whilst I can.

I'm on the buprenorphine patches anndanv /Annette but at the bottom end of the scale.  I started on 5 micrograms per hour but that wasn't enough so they increased it to 10 micrograms an hour.  It was at that point that I spent the next week high either sleeping or siting staring into space.  The ones I am on are supposed to last a week but I have twice forgotten to replace them on the day but by the next day I certainly notice the difference which reminds me to change it.  I can't say that I have noticed anything when I put the new one on but I will keep an eye out from now on.  The problem I have is one that I hope you don't in that I am one of those very hairy men.  I have hair everywhere except the bald patch in top of my head and I refuse to put the patches there so I have to shave the place where I want to put the patch.  As the instructions say to avoid putting it in the same place for three weeks I have to have a four week cycle of where to put them.  I also need to remember to shave that patch at least a few hours before to allow it to fully dry and settle down before I apply the patch.

It is dry and sunny here today so I hope to get out and do a bit of weeding.  I also hope to persuade my 15 year old son that cutting the grass is a better idea than playing video games but hey, who knows, maybe miracles do happen!

All the best,

Gragon xx

Dear Gragon,

it sounds like you are in need of a full body bikini wax job!  It only hurts when you remove the wax with the hairs.

its good to heat that you are sleeping again. 
be happy, be kind and be well.

milliexx

Gragon, sorry but i had to laugh out loud when i did read you post, i can see you in my mind now looking like a roadmap....sorry but thanks for making my day!!!!

And i'm so glad you can sleep again, enjoy it!!

Pet