Connecting the Dots

Posted by Nuzzling Muzzles

Each week I have good days and bad days healthwise.  Approaching 50 is nothing like your younger years when you just took for granted that you would wake up each morning feeling just as good as you did the day before... and, of course, "good" was just normal.  At 50, not having any aches or pains or bizarre dysfunctional internal organ behavior is considered "good".  Being able to sleep is considered "good".

I made a connection regarding my insomnia this morning.  For a while I was doing well sleeping with the help of a little pill.  However, that little pill eventually stopped working and I had to add another sleep aid on top of that.  I'm not at the point that Michael Jackson was when he was so desperate for a good night's sleep, but I have learned that just because sleeping is a normal part of the human body doesn't mean that the human body will always allow it to happen.

I didn't get much sleep the night before last.  Temperatures dropped from around 80 degrees down to below freezing over a matter of hours and I put on a turtleneck sweater.  I played a video game that made me nauseated.  I had to shut it down, and when I tried to stand up I was hit was both extreme nausea and chills.  I laid down right where I was and curled unto a ball under the closest blanket I could reach.

I must have laid there for an hour feeling like every cell in my body was frozen and buzzing with dis-ease.  I couldn't imagine that the flu could hit me that quick, or even that a video game could make me that ill that fast.  My coldness eventually overwhelmed by nausea, so I got up and wrapped myself in a coat.  Two hours later, I still wasn't feeling better, so I assumed my blood pressure must be up.  I took a blood pressure pill and both the chills and nausea slowly dissipated.  I'm supposed to take the blood pressure pill every 12 hours, but I had taken the previous one really early in the morning, which forced me to take my evening pill earlier in the afternoon.

I took my sleeping pill in the evening several hours later, and had a full night's sleep as a result.  This morning it hit me.  The sleeping pill stopped working when I started taking both the blood pressure pill and the sleeping pill simultaneously.  Back when the sleeping pill was working, I took it several hours after taking the blood pressure pill.  So, apparently I have to get my blood pressure down before the sleeping pill can do its job. 

It seems like an obvious thing now, but how many of us pay that close attention to our habits?