Verrrryyyyyyyyyy interesting appointment.

She looked at the list I'd written (jaw clenching, weird activity while sleeping, etc.) and asked, "Have you been under any stress lately?" (Ummm- do bears poop in the woods?)

I told her that, yes, I have been under a great deal of stress- but I have always been able to handle it. I've been under more stressful situations than this, and didn't have any of these issues.

Dr: Have you ever walked or talked in your sleep?

Me: As a matter of fact, yes. I have a long history of walking and talking in my sleep (since I was a little kid), but I've never done this. And yes, I'm more prone to doing this when I'm under stress.

Dr: What you're doing now and sleep-walking are really the same thing-just different manifestations of the underlying problem.

She went to explain that all of the stuff on the list is indirectly related to the head bonking because people who have had head injuries, depending on where their brain was injured, sometimes have less of an ability to deal with stress. That, in addition to the sleep disturbance is probably causing every thing I'd written on the list.

That made complete sense to me and I felt a little relieved, but then she had to go and tell me that this may never go away.

So, what's next? She gave me some drugs to completely knock me out at night- saying that the drugs should nip the nocturnal activities in the bud immediately. No, it's not Ambien. She said that Ambien would be a nightmare for someone like me because people who aren't prone to walking in their sleep have been found to do very crazy things in their sleep and recall nothing. She laughed and said, “who knows what you’d do.” She prescribed a low dose of Seroquel and ordered a sleep study to get to the root of the problem.

She knows that I'm the type to research things- so told me up front that Seroquel in higher doses is prescribed for people with bi-polor and schizophrenia and wanted to be clear that this isn't my problem. Seroquel has a nice side effect of knocking you out at night as well as slightly 'flattening' out the emotions (hopefully helping with the stress) during the day.

She was kind enough to give me samples to see how it works, saying that it's very expensive.

Trust me, if I can get a full night's sleep- I don't care HOW much it costs. I look and feel like hell. (have you noticed no visible risible's lately? there's a reason!)

The sleep study will be interesting. I can't imagine being able to fall asleep in a strange room, hooked up to wires, knowing someone is watching me.

Have any of you ever had a sleep study?