Drama over the Weekend

My drama for the weekend actually started on Thursday. I've been having trouble sleeping, so my doctor gave me ambien to help with that. The pharmacist told me to take 1/2 if my problem was going to sleep, and a whole one if my problem was staying asleep. So, on Thursday night I took 1/2 and woke up twice during the night.

On Friday night, I took a whole pill. It really knocked me out pretty quick. But, at 2 am, I woke up in incredible pain. I was lying on my left side and the pain was all down my shoulder and left arm, so I thought that I had just been sleeping on it funny. I took some ibuprofen, pulled out the heating pad, and, after about an hour, went back to sleep. I woke up again just before 6. This time, I was lying on my right side and was in excruciating pain down that side, plus still a bit of pain still on my left side. I got up shortly after that, thinking that the ambien just made me sleep so soundly that I didn't move enough and had just slept funny. (This may seem strange that I was so quick to dismiss this, but I don't generally sleep on my side and had a hard time with it when I was pregnant.) Both arms felt kind of achey all day, like I had strained a muscle or something.

By Saturday evening, my right arm felt terrible. I tried to get Ashlyn to crawl around on her own as much as possible, just because every movement made things worse. After she went to bed, I sat on the couch with the heating pad on my arm for awhile. I was supposed to make two cheesecakes on Saturday night. One for a lady at church and the other for a potluck on Sunday night. So, I got up to make them. I kept trying to do everything with my left hand, since pain just shot through my right arm every time I moved. I made two crusts, but after adding the eggs to the first cheesecake, I decided to put the batter in the fridge and go to bed.

I had already taken ibuprofen and a couple of percocet in the afternoon. By the time I went to bed, I was taking percocet every 3 or 4 hours, plus the ibuprofen. It wasn't helping! I tried to sleep, and probably dozed at some point. Mostly, I just tried not to move. I kept looking at the clock and thinking, "When can I take my next dose?" "Why isn't Allen here, so I can just go to the ER?" "How early is too early to call Laura about watching Ashlyn?" I finally got up at 5, showered and just sat around the house. When Ashlyn got up at 6:30, my arm was finally feeling a little better, though I was still miserable. I called Laura at 7, which was too early, since I woke her up.

While I had originally thought that I slept funny, I was now imagining that I must have really damaged my arm. I was in way too much pain for this to be a sore muscle. So, I went to the ER, and waited. When the doctor came to see me, she basically just dismissed me! She told me to continue taking the percocet and ibuprofen and see my primary care doctor during the week. I was a little shocked. Obviously, (to me) if what I was taking had worked, I wouldn't have gone to the ER on a Sunday morning. So, I told her, "Wait, I've been taking percocet every 4 hours all night, and I didn't even get a bit of relief until this morning." Now, she's paying attention. So, she ordered an injection pain reliever and looked at a few other things. She told me that it was definitely muscle pain. I'm still imagining that somehow the muscles have become disconnected or something. Later, she said, "what did you take the night before for sleep?" Aah, yes. She checked out the ambien side effects. One of the RARE side effects is joint and muscle pain. Mystery solved. Now I just have to wait for the ambien to leave my system. I'll live with the insomnia problem. At least I wasn't in pain before, just tired!