Re: Re: sleep problem!

[Guest guest]

Hello again ,

You wrote> I get the feeling that your experience with the beta-blockers - no

dreams and feeling 'dead' versus resuming dreaming - might be of a similar

nature. Ie, maybe unexplanable but possibly some relationship to something

physically wrong and the nature of your sleep. Not that I'm assuming that I

have your problem exactly, but something odd going on.

To some extent I think that my doctor's attitude to my diagnosis may be partly

my fault.....Because in the beginning, when he asked me if I'd had problems in

any areas, I fed him too much information.

I told him that I'd broken a bone in my neck and I told him that I'd had a

diving accident where I'd half drowned and was brought up from the bottom and I

also told him bits of a previous love affair and about being run over by a heavy

delivery bike when I was about 14 years old. (Yes I have had a 'fun' and varied

life!)

I think what I should have done was just said, " Get on with the diagnosis please

doc! " ..............And then let him do the best he could.

But he was asking many varied questions and as I gave him answers he'd say, " Oh,

well that's probably it then! " (Without looking any further or carrying out any

tests.)

For example: When I told him that I'd chipped a vertebrae he said, " Ah, well

that's probably fybromyalgia you've got because you don't have it in your lower

half and you have a damaged spine. "

(Apparently a lot of people with back injuries suffer from fybromyalgia,

according to my doc'.)

Or: " You had a diving accident so that's why you're getting " panic

attacks " .............Because you're remembering that accident!....You don't dive

anymore do you? "

My answer to the latter was, " But I'm not afraid of diving....I just don't dive

because:

1) I'm too weak and unwell to do it.

2) The diving isn't much fun in the UK, even in Summer.

3) I don't have the money because I've been unemployed for nearly 5 years and

diving is an expensive sport, etc.

I told the doc' that I sometimes woke up feeling as though I were choking or

unable to breathe or even drowning and he kept referring back to the diving

accident.

My response was, " Yes, I may get a panic attack because I feel as though I'm

choking, but why am I choking?...........It's my condition that's causing me to

feel this way. "

It's causing me to choke, or feel tight-chested and breathless while I'm asleep

and maybe the panic attack comes from my dive-related incident, or then it may

come purely from fear arising in my sleep, because I can't breathe. (To some

people that's quite natural.)

But I just can't seem to get him to look at my physical symptoms on that count.

I haven't had a panic attack for several months now and I think that my doc'

believes this to be due to the beta-blockers he's prescribed for me.

I'd say that it's more likely because of the cooler weather we're experiencing

in UK now, since it's Mid-Winter.

But I do often get sniffly cold symptoms, and any wet or running sinuses can

cause me to feel quite congested.

And, if this happens in the middle of the night while I'm asleep, it can cause

the drowning/choking sensation that I've had.

(Sorry for that vivid bit of description there.)

You wrote>

I relate to nearly everything you say. The " being over hot, waking

dehydrated and groggy " , but filling up with water and taking a

cool shower helps that for me.

Yes , the re-hydration is a must and of course a shower helps a lot...A

warm shower even moves my fybromyalgia away while my muscles are warm.....When

they cool, the fybro- comes back.

(If I go for a swim in a heated-pool and then a sauna, I feel terrific for a

while.....Until the muscles cool again.)

You wrote>

And what is going on now is different. And, I've had times where I've

incorporated noises into dreams/nightmares - like the guy next door mowing his

lawn at 7 in the morning, right under out bedroom window - and that leaves me

waking irritable and tense, but that is different

also. I do sometimes have nightmares - I had a really bad few

years after a trauma where I'd wake screaming and tense and

jerking all over - and that would be very bad.

I suppose that I have had a few traumatic experiences in my life.

In one early dream I felt that something in my dream caught hold of me and

appeared to be holding me very tightly.

It was so strong that I couldn't breathe and could not wriggle free at all.

I suddenly told myself, " This isn't happening, it's a dream and you're going to

wake up now! " ......But I couldn't wake up, so I started to feel that it was

real.......Then the real panic settled in, but suddenly I was free and

breathing.....Gasping for breath and quite badly shaken!

I can't recall screaming because I felt that my throat was also being held in a

vise like grip, and so I couldn't scream.

You wrote>

And, of course, when I'm having pain, I'll awake gritting my teeth and tense.

I also have chronic bronchitis and when I'm having a bad time

of that, I'll wake in a cold sweat feeling like I'm suffocating

and buried under tons of dirt with and elephant sitting on my

chest - now that's a horrible feeling - but even that doesn't

compare to this 'tornedo'.

Certainly I can relate to the elephant sitting on me and being unable to

breathe.....There's quite a similarity with my " unseen strangling monster " here

don't you think?

You wrote>

I don't think words can describe this feeling of having been tossed and battered

- it feels physically very real and just as exhausting as if it were real, I

feel bruised and beaten as well as this roaring so loud I can't hear. So weird!

I can definitely relate to the feeling of having been beaten while I was asleep

and feeling completely bushed first thing in the morning, although I don't

usually have a roaring sound in my head.

The Tornado ain't here.(Yet?)

You wrote>

Fasia is a connective tissue that is very thin, smooth, slippery with

a slight stickiness. Fasia surrounds every organ and muscle in the

body and connects the skin to the underlying tissues. Plantar fasciitis is when

the fascia of the arch/heel becomes inflamed and causes that excruiciating

arch/heel pain.

There is one theory that fibromyalgia pain is related to something not

quite right in the fascia - explaining the all over pain. The main

purpose of the fascia is to hold things in place while allowing for

limited movement, ie holding the skin to the underlying muscles and yet allowing

the skin to slide across the muscles as the work and move.

Internally, it holds the organs in relation to each other, prevents

their movement out of position with activity and yet allows the necessary ease

when changing position/jogging, etc. If you've every dealt with raw chicken, the

fascia is very obvious, it's that very slippery, sticky white layer that holds

the skin on but readily pulls off - leaving those sticky threads behind.

Some studies seem to indicate that people with fibromyalgia show some stiffness

and loss of slipperness and stretchiness of the fascia. Some people even seem

to develop a grainy feel in the fascia. But, the problem with fibromyalgia is

that there are lots of theories, lots of studies, some showing contradictory

findings, and most things around fibromyalgia seem terribly subjective. The

prime reason that many (most) doctors have difficulty treating it or working

with it. Don't misinterpret that, it's very real, just very subjective. But

then, headaches are just as subjective - it's just that most doctors have

experienced headaches, but not fibromyalgia.

I can appreciate what you say about fybromyalgia and the slimy substance under a

chicken's skin.....Certainly it can be like chasing a pain around the

body......My doc' doesn't seem able to understand (or believe) this.

Today it's here and tomorrow it's there, but last week it was all the way over

there, etc.

My fybro doesn't feel as bad as it was two years ago, when it appeared

suddenly.......I started a job and finished at 5.30 pm.

I arrived home and sat down in the chair..........By 6.30 pm I had a tingling

sensation in my hands and arms and I could not get out of the chair.......I

thought that it was a reaction with the glass-fibre I'd been working with,

earlier that day.

The next morning I still felt really bad so I phoned in sick and made an

appointment to see the doc'.

The doc' didn't know what to call it and named it Poly-Arthritis.

The itching sensation under my skin went away a few days later, but the pain

that we now know as fybromyalgia stayed, spread and got worse.

(And, I had to finish work the day after I'd started that new job.)

For the record, I actually feel a lot better now than I did then and sometimes

the fybro- goes away for a few days. But even when it returns it is still a lot

more bearable than it was when I first got it.

Anyhow, thank you for listening . I'm sorry that you've had these problems

but I'm pleased that you felt comfortable enough to share them with me.

So, here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happier and painfree New

Year!

Best regards!

Mal.