Anyone else just freakin' tired all the time?

[kitkatz]

I am so tired I can't even think when I get home from work. Typing on the computer is frustrating because I am so tired I make stupid mistakes all the time and have to proofread it over and over.

I am tired when I go to bed at night.
I am tired when I get up in the morning.
I am tired before dialysis.
I am tired after dialysis.
I am tired before I eat
I am tired after I eat.
I am tired before I take meds.
I am tired after I take meds.
I am tired when I go to wok.
I am tired at work.
I am tired when I come home after work.

I think I AM JUST PLAIN TIRED! Maybe I need to call a tow truck!  Go to Pep Boys and get retired!  Oh Geez!

But seriously, I am tired all the time.  Anyone else in this group tired ones?

Katherine

[Rerun]

I wouldn't be so tired if I could sleep 8 hours like a normal person.  Six hours would be great!  I go to bed about 9:00p.  I wake up at about 10:30p.  I go eat something and try to go back to bed.  I listen to talk radio.  I may fall asleep for a half hour at a time.  I read.  I watch TV.  It makes me nuts.  If I take a sleeping pill then I can't wake up when I'm supposed to.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

Oh, yeah, I'm a kidney patient!   

[anja]

I wouldn't be so tired if I could sleep 8 hours like a normal person.  Six hours would be great!  I go to bed about 9:00p.  I wake up at about 10:30p.  I go eat something and try to go back to bed.  I listen to talk radio.  I may fall asleep for a half hour at a time.  I read.  I watch TV.  It makes me nuts.  If I take a sleeping pill then I can't wake up when I'm supposed to.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

Oh, yeah, I'm a kidney patient!   

I had similar difficulties sleeping and my doctor put me on Paxil for sleep and it seems to be doing a good job!  I take a 20 mg. tab. with lunch and then I have no leftover grogginess in the morning, as other sleep aids gave me.  Good luck, that just sounds terrible to continue along those lines for any length of time!

[kitkatz]

No trouble sleeping. except when on vacation.  My nights and days mix up when I am on vacation. I stay up late and sleep half the day away. Lazy me.  But when I am working full time I can sleep anywhere anytime.  I could fall asleep across my desk at school if it would not get me fired.  I am sleeping six to eight hours a night, usually 10 to 6. 

Are other people tired as I am? I mean normal people. Everyone else at work looks chipper and happy and raring to go.  Sometimes I feel like the wreck of the Hesperus and going down for the third time.
Tired of being tired.
Tired of tired of being tired.

Oh here I go again complaining!  Whine! Whine!

Katherine

[kevno]

YAWN!

Can't stop yawning, reading these posts I do not know a renal patient not tired most of the time.  The dialysis takes it out of you.  More so on Haemo than on CAPD. I have found. Plus if you are pain killers like me, I'm even yawning now.  The letters on the computer seem to be merging into each other.

Time to clear off for my afternoon snooze

Kevno

[susie q]

Oh, me too... some nights I can fall asleep fairly quickly but wake up after 2 or 3 hours and then toss and turn the rest of the night.. or take a pill.. other nights I just can't fall asleep even though I am tired as heck...   can't win.. I hate depending on sleeping pills.  I usually have to lie down for an hour or so in the  afternoon.. great life eh? 

[kitkatz]

Naaaps. mmmmmmm Naaappps!  I love naps in the afternoon, if only I could have one five days a week instead of one.  My next week looks like this:

Monday: Up at 6 a.m. work by 7a.m. (Yes I have the awards for fastest getting it together in the mornings!), off at work, home 2:15, out the door 2:25, dialysis 3-7:30, then home by 8p.m.
Maybe a nap at noisy dialysis.

Tuesday: Repeat Monday, except no dialysis, instead at 2p.m. an IEP meeting after school with student parents, then at 2:45 another one, then go home when the paperwork is done on the IEPs.

Wednesday, see Monday all over again.

Thursday see Tuesday- only one IEP afterschool.

Friday- See Monday all over again.
Well no wonder I am so damned tired!
Makes me tired just thinking about it.  I am NOT complaining, just explaining.  Even though it sounds just like complaining I know. 

My weekends are spent relaxing. Today at noon it is out to lunch with the family, then maybe out to a movie.  Not sure though. I still feel pretty punky.  Then Sunday I plan to read the paper in bed and relax.   
You all rest easy this week.

Katherine

PS: IEP is Individualized Eduaction Plan/ Program (In case anyone wanted to know).

[kitkatz]

Dialysis patients motto:
     
    If I weren't so tired all the time I'd.....
                climb Mt. Everest.
                get up and do the dishes sitting in the sink this week.
                run a mile in six minutes, walk a mile in twenty, put two steps together and call it quits?
                fall asleep standing up!
                be awake now and then!

Okay, now add to it.  Some humor for the folks out there. What would you do if you weren't so tired.
               

[Rerun]

If I weren't so tired I'd wake up at 3:00 in the morning and check my email!  OH, wait I already do that! 

That is why I'm so damn tired!   

[kevno]

DO THE DISHES Not me. Let Ann do the dishes and cook, hoover, laundry.shopping  Plus anything else to do with the house the Cleaning or the kitchen. Which I keep a wide berth off. Not a new man. I sometimes have to hunt the remote control down, make the bed, seeing as I am usually last out of it! Boy it's hard work being a man! No wonder I am alway so tired 

OK! Now waiting for the insults from the New Woman!

  Kevno

[Naggy6]

I'm hardly ever not tired  I figured it was just a way of life for dialysis people.  I'm not sure I would know what it feels like to not be tired. 

[fireguy]

I'm just tired of doing dialysis. Tired of taking pills. Find if I stay busy, don't notice how tired I am, but stop for a bit and its time for a nap:)

[kitkatz]

I know the feeling.  I would do things like clean the house, do dishes, cook dinner, but ....
Say it with me....I am too darn.........tired!
Katherine

[kitkatz]

I am working on developing a new word to encompass the tired feeling a dialyis patient feels all the time.

dialystired

ummm. too awkward

tiredysis

nahh.. sounds like a car part from Pep Boys

diatiredlysis

oh Lordy. It MUST be the late night!

rundowndialysispatient

Nahh...too sick like

tiredology- the science of being tired. 

tiredessence- the essence of being tired. 

Ohhh getting worse, not better.

tiredallthetime
tiredmostofthetime
justplaintired

hmmmm.....

I need a thesaurus. After I consult one, I will be back with more silliness!

Katherine

[kitkatz]

I'm back. Went to the thesaurus and found these words:

Extremely tired: bleary, dead, drained, exhausted, fatigued, rundown, spent, wearied, weariful, weary, worn-down, worn-out. Informal: beat, bushed, tuckered (out). Slang: done in, fagged (out), pooped (out). Idioms: all in, ready to drop.

Still not quite the word I am searching for...

So the search continues.  Maybe someone out there with better word skills can combine some words to describe the feeling.

Katherine

[kevno]

English slang
Neckered

Then the usual ones.
ucked with a (F)infront 
Shattered



Kevno

[kitkatz]

Those are good ones.  Noone could figure out what you meant when you say you are neckered.
Still looking.... The word is somewhere out there!

Katherine

[Stacy Without An E]

Dialysis and Fatigue seem to go hand in hand, but I know exactly what you mean.

I've tried Ambien, Levitra, Tylenol PM, Nyquil and banging my head into a wall, and I still can't get five to six hours of complete, uninterrupted sleep.  In the middle of the day, between my two jobs, I grab my Steeler pillow and lie on the floor of my office.

Fortunately, due to the immunosuppressives from my first transplant, I'm only 5'7" so I fit perfectly behind my office desk.  I flip off the lights, throw the pillow down and usually don't sleep, but just lying down feels better and recharges me a little.

After a while, the lack of sleep and rigorous Dialysis treatments turn me into Zombie Stacy.  I don't feel sad or happy, joyful or depressed.  I don't feel anything anymore really.

And I miss that about myself.

Everything is a muted grey and color is a faded memory.

And all because of kidney failure.

Sigh.

[Naggy6]

try this one out and see how you like it

dialyspent 

[Stacy Without An E]

You said it perfectly, I'm tired all the time too.  Especially lately right after a treatment.  I'd ask my doctor for help, but I never, ever see her at the clinic.  I'm going to make an appointment at her clinic on the other side of town.  I'm either getting too much or too little Dialysis, I don't really know.

Just know that you're not alone.

Stacy Without An E

[kitkatz]

I am dialyspent...Now that was clever.  I never thought of it that way. 

Katherine

[Bear]

_Can_ you have too much dialysis? 
You can surely have too little.....most in-center patients are. Quite a few of the impatient patients (  )
on here doing it @ home probably are too!! 
Well, I'm getting a fair whack - 3 x 9 nights & a 1 x 6 Sunday evening = 33hours a week. And guess what!?
- I _still_ get the 'washed out after dialysis' feeling after every session.
Since I dx every work night (M/W/F), my days off are a catch-up on sleep morning & a lounge-lizard arvo.
But hey! - I'm fine on workdays   ...      boo-hoo 
Now if I could get out on permanent disability, those 'good' days would be mine too!!      ...can't
see it happening for a while tho!

[kitkatz]

Just freakin' freakin' tired and bitchy all the time now.
The test stress at school is horrendous this week.  I want off!!!!
The stress turns me bitchy and mean.  Watch out even though I am sitting in the back, I am still a mighty powerful voice.

Katherine
Yes, I am sitting in the back and still bitching!

[kitkatz]

I wrote and gave this speech at Toastmasters recently. Maybe it will help our nonsleepers to sleep.

Can You Sleep?

Sleep is not merely a “time out” from our busy routines; it is essential for good health, mental and emotional functioning and safety. For instance, researchers have found that people with chronic insomnia are more likely than others to develop several kinds of psychiatric problems, and are also likely to make greater use of healthcare services.

Some Before Sleep Ideas
•   Maintain a regular bed and wake time schedule including weekends.
•   Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or hot tub and     then reading a book or listening to soothing music.
•   Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
•   Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows.
•   Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime.
•   Exercise regularly. It is best to complete your workout at least a few hours before bedtime.
•   Avoid caffeine (e.g. coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate) close to bedtime. It can keep you awake.


My Tips for Getting to Sleep

1.   Basket of worries- put your worries in a basket and let them go.
2.   Muscle relaxation techniques- head to toe relax each muscle group from head to toe.
3.   Breathing exercises-concentrate on your breathing.
4.   Cloud surfing: ask a cloud if you can surf on it.
5.   Pool of relaxation: imagine a pool of warm water and you are soaking in it.
6.   Purring tapes or music/relaxation tapes-Maria uses a purr of a cat to sleep.  Soothing music can put your brain into a relaxed mode.

Tips from a website http://www.well.com/user/mick/insomnia/
Sleep with Your Head Facing North
And, obviously -- unless you have a particularly unusual body -- your feet facing south. This aligns your body with the magnetic field of the planet, bringing your own energies into harmony with those of the Earth. Sound like a pretty bizarre theory? Try it. You'll see what a difference it makes.
Imagine It's Time to Get Up
This is a neat one too. Kind of a variation on the previous technique. Imagine that you're not allowed to go to sleep. Imagine that your morning alarm has gone off and it's time to get up and go to work. You know how delicious that feeling is in the morning when it's time to get up but you're so tired and your eyes are very heavy and you shouldn't do it but you just want to fall right back to sleep for a few minutes more?
Well, we find you can often bring that about just by imagining as fully and realistically as possible that it's morning, that you have to get up, put your feet on a cold floor, stagger around the house, take a cold shower, and do whatever unpleasant things you associate with getting up in the morning. The more unpleasantly you can imagine it, the more you won't want to do it. And the more you'll just want to stay in bed and sleep. Try it. You'll be surprised how tired and sleepy your mind can make your body.
Don't Watch TV or Read Before Going to Bed
Toe Wiggling
Lie on your back (where you should be in the first place) and wiggle your toes up and down 12 times, wiggling the toes of both feet at the same time. This will relax your entire body, inside and out
Stomach Rubbing
Clockwise from navel outward then inward.

Organizations to Contact
Sleepfoundation.org

Sleep awareness week  was March 27-April2
Sleep is as important as diet and exercise.

American Sleep Disorders Association

http://www.peaceful-sleep.com

sleepnet.com

Lots of information and books for sale on the web about sleep and remedies for sleep.

Hope it helps.

Katherine

[Barry1]

Hello Again

I too am very tired and sleep very little at  night.  I go to bed around 10pm and listen to talk radio.  I complained to the doctor, and he prescribed ambien which did nothing.  Now I take some other sleepaid he prescribed and sometimes it works.  I am a hemo patient, and a sleep apnea patient.  Sleeping on dialysis is very difficult for  more than an hour due to the sleep apnea.  I am looking for a job, but I consider myself unreliable due to the sleepiness and extreme physical pain.  Be well and safe.  Barry1