Effects of medication on sleep

[purpleangels]

Hi all! Just wondering......my darling husband is on kapenol, oxynorm, panadol, somac, Lyrica, dex and cymbalta. He has a lot of trouble going to sleep at night, so much so that he wanders around the house most nights just bored. He has tried television, no television, hot drinks, dark rooms, pretty much everything written on insomnia, but to no avail. What happens though is that he will fall asleep standing up (I have found him several times asleep on the kitchen floor where he has fallen, on the toilet, up against our bedroom wall.) or he does something like puts his wheat bag in the microwave for 30 minutes rather than 3 minutes and then falls asleep (that one resulted in him throwing the burning wheatbag in the microwave out the back door onto the patio) .....as you can imagine, with two young children in the house, I worry about the consequences of things such as him cooking in the middle of the night and falling asleep, or burning himself or other stuff. I do hide the car keys as he is not allowed to drive, although he still has a licence, and he does wander the streets of our pretty safe neighbourhood late at night. I have seen to his GP and he didn't seem that worried......I haven't seen his palliative care nurses for awhile to raise the issue with them. Are there any suggestions/ solutions/ experiences? The medication is all for pain, and he is not having any treatment for his cancer. (rare- epithelioid haemangeoendothelioma). What often happens though is that he stays up for 3 or 4 days straight, then crashes into a deep sleep for four or five days.....forgets to take his meds, or takes them haphazardly, then gets into all sorts of pain issues........and the cycle begins all over again. Any suggestions? PA

[rarsie]

Hi purpleangel, My son is on Dex for a GBM brain tumor and many other drugs, but yeah the Dex is the crazy drug, he went phscotic 2 weeks ago so they dropped it to half the dose, they indroduced ENDEPT to help him slow down and sleep, now he is on 1 Dex in the morning, 2 Endept at night and 1 Endept in the morning, takes awhile for the Dex to leave their system so have to wait a couple of days to see if it is going to work, if he starts headaches we will just have to grin and bear it, coud they give your hubby some relaxents for him to sleep. Regards Sandra

[maddie86]

has he tried taking sleeping tabs? if not reading often helps me.. although i dunno if itd help him? 😞 xo

[SILLY]

I looked up this cancer and found a support group for this cancer and similar cancers. It's can be found at www.heardsupport.org/ I don't know if this is helpful but you can check it out if you like. I can't offer any suggestions in answer to your question.I can't imagine how you are coping but I suppose it's a matter of just doing your best.

[purpleangels]

Thank you for your suggestions.....Silly, he registered with heard way back when first diagnosed but we haven't been back there in awhile...Thanks for the prompt. Maddi- how are you? Is your man back yet? He has Valium and imovane. He had imovane when he was last in hospital...sent him loopy....he got dressed and told the nurses on night shift that he was off clubbing in surfers paradise.......he had to be restrained by security and doesn't remember a thing about it...... We battle on.....BUT the latest research into his cancer is that it can sometimes go into spontaneous remission.....a good enough reason if any to hope and pray for a miracle I reckon!!! Hope you are traveling well this night! Thanks for the energy! PA

[rarsie]

Hi purple angel. How is hubby going with the insomnia and not sure is his cancer a brain tumor?

[purpleangels]

Hi there Rarsie! My husband's cancer was in his peritoneum.....and on his bowel, gall bladde, ureter, omentum, appendix, liver...... It remains on his bowel and is now affecting his ureters..... Consequently he lost one kidney last year as his ureter was blocked and then about three weeks ago had kidney failure because his other ureter is blocked by tumor.....although they managed to get a stent in thank goodness!! He's just had another week in hospital with low potassium and uncontrolled vomiting.....I asked the doctor if this was his body shutting down, or an acute episode that we would get through.....it was an acute episode......he's through it and home.......until the next thing goes wrong........ I was actually asked by a health professional if he was in denial about the fact that he was dying......to which I replied.....aren't we all? I don't want to be the one to take his hope away from him...bags NOT!! But it's good to have him home, even if he is grumpy and in pain and can't help me put the kids to bed(I have a six year old who is allergic to sleep, sleeping in her own bed, staying all night in the one bed.......very tiring!!) But we continue on the rollercoaster!! Sleep well!! PA