The last time I posted, I expressed my concern about sleep deprivation. I saw the neurologist on Tuesday, and she confirmed my suspicions. The overwhelming majority of my current misery, including the breakthrough seizures and headaches, is coming from a lack of sleep. Easy problem to solve, right? Just add sleeping meds to my list of prescriptions and all will be right in my world. Not so!

I won't willingly take medications that impede my ability to think clearly. Heck, Ibuprofen is the strongest pain med I feel comfortable taking. Even after 8 major surgeries, I never used pain medication. It's not because I want to suffer unnecessarily or to prove my strength that I refuse pain medications, I just don't like the way they make me feel. An allergic reaction to codeine in my early twenties was enough to convince me that conscious-altering drugs were not the way to go, and it's been that way ever since.

So, how to tackle the problem of not sleeping through the night without using a sleeping potion? Dr. S suggested 25mg of Benadryl at bedtime. You'd think that because I don't take medications that can cause drowsiness, it shouldn't take very much to knock me out since my body isn't used to them. No such luck! Thus far, 25mg doesn't do the trick, so I need to up the ante to 50mg. If the 50mg dosage doesn't work, then we'll try Elavil. We'll see what happens. . .