Day 19

Day 19: The last of the 4 cleanse days for this month!
And sometimes you just have to have a sleepathon.
And by the way, for those keeping score, I didn't fart today!
(Joe, does that count as not mentioning farts on my blog?)

Carla
http://www.thesingingpatient.com

day 12: sleepathon!

Day 12 turned out to be "recover from day 11 day."

Whenever I see people running 5ks or marathons for lupus I think wow- the only way most lupus patients could participate would be if they changed it to a sleepathon. I'd have been a serious contender today.

Of course I do believe it's possible to get well enough to run a marathon (if I wanted to), but I am not there yet- that's for sure!  But I'm working on it. And some days working on getting healthy means doing less.

I had a strange episode when I was 17 where for 3 days I kept falling asleep. On the couch, even behind the wheel. I was getting a normal night's rest, but I just kept falling asleep. After 3 days, it passed, and it never happened again. I will never know what that was about, but that is how I felt today.

My sophomore year of college, I was constantly falling asleep as well. On the couch in one of the classrooms (I think I slept through someone's entire music theory class on that couch), in the hallway with my books under my head. Sometime during my 2nd semester, my piano teacher asked me "We've been wondering- are you on drugs?" What?! We?!? The whole faculty is sitting around gossiping about me? I was, I'm sure, visibly shocked and offended, and assured him that was not the case. So then he suggested I get some multivitamins.

I had my wisdom teeth extracted right before that fall semester I don't think I've ever recovered from it. I've never been quite the same since. So once I'm feeling stronger, I'm going to look into possibly getting those pockets looked into and maybe filled in (where my wisdom used be). But no oral surgery right now. Right now, building health.

carla

http://www.thesingingpatient.com
http://www.facebook.com/carla

Lupus and sleep

Question:
Does lupus cause extreme need for sleep?

{This was so succinct I did not know whether they were asking on their own behalf and they were just too tired to type anything further... or whether they had a friend or relative show sleeps a lot and they were either concerned or suspicious. So I answered it assuming they were asking on their own behalf.}.
 
Hello-

Thanks for your question.
Yes lupus causes fatigue, sometimes extreme fatigue, and definitely requires that you get plenty of sleep, more sleep than you normally would, especially when the lupus is "flared up" (really active).

If you can get the lupus under control, you may not need quite the large amounts of sleep you do when you're flared up. But it is very important to get as much sleep as you need when you have lupus.


Allow me to also point out there is a trap of sleeping to avoid things, because you're depressed. Only you can really know when you've crossed the line between taking care of yourself and avoiding life.


(Thoughts on sleep, anyone? Comment below!)

Carla Ulbrich

The Singing Patient: Author, Humorous Songwriter and Entertainer

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www.thesingingpatient.com - performance  info and dates

www.youtube.com/user/carlaulbrich - funny songs

www.linkedin.com/in/carlaulbrich

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"I am reading Carla's book How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? and loving it. I LOVE Carla's songwriting, so I'm not surprised that her prose writing is as smart, funny, and insightful as her music." - Christine Lavin

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