To sleep, or not to zzzzzz

I haven’t talked about my wife’s MS in awhile so think of this as an update on her.

She’s been on Copaxone for a little while now.  The only issues she has with the drug itself is the shot site on her legs.  She doesn’t seem to have much problems with her arms or her stomach, but her legs always swell up and look really red.  There is no way to actually tell if the drug is doing what it’s supposed to since it’s job is to slow down the progression of MS.  So no real issues there.

One of the two issue’s that’s really been affecting her is all the heat we’ve had this summer.  Heat absolutely kicks her ass so she does what she can to not go out in it.  She’s missed a few gatherings with the family (birthdays, 4th of July, ect) because she can’t be outside and they are held outside.  Tomorrow we are celebrating the kids birthdays, outdoors.  It’s supposed to be 86° and sunny, she’s going to suffer through it as much as she can since it’s the kids birthday.  We have some shade so as long as it’s not majorly humid, she should be ok.

But it’s not the only heat that bothers her.  Today, she is baking everything for the party.  So it’s warm in here and she’s been sweating profusely.  Between being in the kitchen and laying on the floor to stretch out her back, she’s been at it for around 6 hours.  But in order to keep herself as cool as she can, the air is kicked way down.  Here I am.

It hasn’t been so bad most of the time because it’s been so hot outside that the AC hasn’t been able to keep up and keep it cool enough.  But we use hoodies around here all year long.  She’s always apologizing that she keeps it so cold, I keep telling her we can put more clothes on.  It doesn’t bother me at all.  I think it bothers her more that she’s freezing us out then it does me.

So now if we can do something to fix the arthritis in her back, she would be doing better.  With all the baking today and being on her feet as much as she has, she’s been hitting the meds to alleviate the pain.  Which brings us to the second issue she has to deal with.

It’s all about sleep.  Most nights, she can’t.  Some days, she can’t stay awake.  Right now she’s in a drug induced stuper and trying to stay awake because of the pain meds.  But come bed time, she’ll fall asleep, only to wake up a little while later.  Eventually fall asleep again, to wake up a little later.  Part of it is me, part of it is the cat, almost all of it is because she’s way too light of a sleeper.  During the day, if she does too much (which she tends to do) it exhausts her body and she’s tired.

If she could find a happy medium somewhere, to only be tired at night and be awake during the day, she’d be fine.  But until she finds it, or the right combination of meds to not put her to sleep, she’ll do like she does with all of her other symptoms.  She’ll keep pushing on through it.