i'm so tired of being tired.

[tpsbmam]

11. Sigh, I sooooooo understand! It's unfortunately one of the things that led to me no longer being

able to work. I was a professional working in a high stress, busy, competitive profession. I simply couldn't keep up the pace anymore. Part-time wasn't an option. I even tried to move to private practice, but I couldn't predict when I was going to be functional and when I was going to be crashing. I finally had to quit altogether. I hate it!

When I was working full-time, I worked it out so I could take a nap at work everyday. Taking an hour for lunch was not only accepted, it was expected. So I blocked out an hour, downed my lunch in 5-10 minutes & did my best to sleep the rest of the hour. I worked in hospitals, so it wasn't easy with overhead announcements and other noise. But I usually managed to sleep 20 minutes to a half-hour. It REALLY helped me get through the rest of the day, though by the end of the day I was still totally spent. I was always raring to go on Monday and dragging by Friday. Co-workers would get pissed because I never went out with them. Damn, it was all I could do to keep working! I was typically in bed by 8 pm and up at 6 -- I slept "like a log" for those 10 hours. No way in hell I could go out after work and weekends were out, too!

Weekends were spent doing the usual errands as fast and possible and then sleeping the rest of the time.....I pretty much slept all weekend, which is common among MSers who work full-time.

I take Nuvigil now, when I can -- I've gotten it free at times, but now have insurance with a massive deductible so I have to try and once again get it free. The insurance covered it 100% when I'd met the deductible, but with the start of 2012, it'd cost me $416/month! Yeah, not going to happen! But that is the one drug that definitely helped lately. I went the usual route for MS fatigue.....add drugs (Ritalin, Cylert, etc) -- they all worked for about a month and then were useless. There were a few other meds in there I've forgotten now. Nuvigil is the only thing that's been effective. It was originally made for those with narcolepsy. My insurance covered it, no problem (it had to be pre-approved). So, there's one option you might try. I still have crash days, but at least it's not EVERYDAY!

Yeah, I also get sick and tired of being sick and tired! I took 2 naps yesterday, so out of a 24 hour day, i slept about 15 hours of it. Fun, isn't it?