I've decided it's time for desperate measures with regard to the insomnia, so I'm receiving acupuncture treatments with a chiropractor, Dr. Bones. It comes with a free tarot card reading and we burn incense while chanting and rubbing crystals over our faces.
My first visit was last week. Dr. Bones performed an all-over body exam to see if anything was out of whack. Aside from a pelvis that seemed out of place, and some minor tension in my shoulders and neck, I was relatively in place. Dr. Bones did a few adjustments and then moved on to the acupuncture. It's too soon to tell if it'll work; it may take 3-5 treatments before I start to notice.
My 2nd treatments was today. The needles are placed in the following places: outer wrist, inner wrist, index finger joint, shoulders, and stomach. Weird, and it hurt more today than yesterday. Perhaps related to the accident.
Dr. Bones made a preliminary diagnosis of adrenal fatigue syndrome. The symptons online are pretty compelling when I take a personal inventory. One of the factors is difficulty getting up in the morning, along with feeling tired between 9 and 10 p.m. but resisting going to sleep. Dry skin and a heart murmur are also factors, in addition to inability to lose weight and serious sugar cravings. It may includes other character flaws, including bossiness, impatience, spending sprees and animal hoarding. The problem is that it is difficult to treat - mostly involving changes in diet, sleeping from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. (no shit, that's srongly recommended), no caffeine and eliminating all stress. Um, I can maybe do one of those things, but not all of them.
So, thinking perhaps I found the answer, I did some online research. Mayo Clinic does not believe adrenal fatigue syndrome actually exists as a medical condition. Well, that fucking figures. It's a more of holistic diagnosis, and I think it's probably similar to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as far as being medically accepted.
Regardless of whether I have an adrenal gland issue, I realized I need to start looking into the physical cause (word? physiology? Neuropathy?) of my ailments. I've been treating with a psychiatrist for about four years. Clearly, it's not just in my head. Dr. Bones will refer me to a real doctor who also practices in chinese medicine and may or may not believe in adrenal glad fatigue.
So, then I decided on my own to finally get a real doctor so, whenever I got to the clinic, I don't have to see the disappointed stare whenever I get that question. They certainly don't like "you guys" when you're at Urgent Care at 9 p.m. Anyway, I have a date with a family practitioner for the first time since high school. We meet in a month, and I hope she knows what she's doing and not blow me after deciding it's stress. Right. Stress. Despite being medicated to the point where you'd think I was on a soma holiday all day every day. Over the years, I've brought up the insomnia/can't get up/weight gain thing to other doctors, but they've just brushed me off as being anxious and stressed out (because I had an undiagnosed anxiety disorder - nice, huh?)
If the acupuncture treatments don't work, I'm headed off to an MD that also practices in traditional chinese medicine too, per Dr. Bones' suggestion.
And, finally, each hospital here has MD's that practice in sleep medicine. I plan to have at lest one sleep study done before year end, if not two. As you may recall, I had a sleep study done in Minot. Their conclusion: you do not have sleep apnea. Frankly, I'm just lucky they didn't accidentally kill me or steal a kidney while I was knocked out from the sleeping pill they made me take so they could figure out if I had sleep apnea. Still, it was quite strange waking up in a tub of ice with a telephone and a note instructing me to call 911.....
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