Anyone else up?

Question

It's 12:32 here and I'm still up.  I'm wondering if it's a change in the medication it seems to have me wired?  Does that happen?  Who else is up tonight?  Love to chat....

geminigirl1963 · Answer

I hope you do find that the Opana works well for you - I think it's horrible how much medications cost, even with insurance!  I have Medicare Part D for my prescription coverage, so my co-pay on what they do cover is very minimal, but when I look at the actual prices (on the slip that comes with my scripts they list the price charged to Medicare and then the price that I pay), it totally shocks me!  And one drawback to the Medicare (and it could be with all insurances, but I'm not sure) is that they tend not to cover the newer meds - at least for a while - and sometimes not until a generic form is available.  I had that situation with my Ambien.  I was taking the Ambien CR, which was working quite well for me because I not only have trouble falling asleep, but also have trouble STAYING asleep, so the controlled release was a good fit for me.  Anyway - they covered it for a while, but once a generic form came out for the regular Ambien, they stopped covering the CR and will now only cover the regular 5's or 10's.  I've heard that a generic of the CR should be coming out soon, so hopefully when it does, they'll cover that and I can go back to the controlled release - it really did work much better.

Best of luck with the Opana - keep us posted on how it's doing for you and I hope you have a much better night sleeping tonight.

designgyrl · Answer

Sorry you had such a restless night last night. I totally know how that feels and it seems that I'm getting used to not sleeping much lately, and I'm getting used to it. Gem, the Opana was 80.00 for 56.00 pills, I have pretty good insurance, so this is some very expensive medication. I just can't see myself paying these kind of prices for the medications. I will have to let the doctor know (unless he's willing to give me a few hundred of them at one time, then 80.00 doesn't seem like such a horrible amount to pay) but I'm used to my 180 vicodin for 10.00. Imagine my shock when they told me 80.00. I almost said to them to take it back, but I can't do that, I want to do what's best. I know he told me he liked Opana because it doesn't make people feel the highs and low's, and he's right. I think I can tell I have some sort of medicine in me just not how the vicodin felt. But at least it's a start and hopefully it will work.

geminigirl1963 · Answer

I'm sorry I missed the beginning of this thread.  I WAS awake, however, I was hurting to bad that I didn't even DARE move out of bed and attempt to come onto the computer - I knew to do so would make things even worse.  I REALLY need to get myself a laptop for just those times - that way I can still get on the computer and hopefully find some fellow insomniacs to talk to.  holding a conversation with yourself when you're in horrible pain just is not very fulfilling, interesting, or comforting!

Tuck - I completely understood what you were saying about constantly being sleepy, but nto being able to sleep and seemingly needing less sleep.  I find it amazing at how long a person can go with only about 2 hours of sleep a night - if you're even lucky enough to get that much!  But yes, I wonder too, if when a person doesn't sleep much if they just naturally stop making sense - I know I definitely tend to babble more when I'm running on just an hour of two of sleep than I do when I've gotten even an hour more than that.

Design - I, too, quite often have a period of feeling different, not always wired, but just different, when changing a medication.  Most obviously is when I have to add a steroid into the mix - when that happens then my normal terrible time sleeping goes into absolutely HORRIBLE mode.  I"m sorry I can't provide much information on the Opana - my doctor did mention it to me when my hip problems began and she was going to give that to me, but she also mentioned that it is relatively new and she didn't know how much it was OR if my insurance would cover it.  I certainly didn't want to take the chance of the insurance not covering it and having to return to her office to get a different prescription, so we decided on the dilaudid instead - I had had that before, knew I could tolerate it well, and also knew that my insurance covered it.  As it turned out, when I got home, I looked it up through the website and the opana is NOT covered, so I was very glad I decided against trying it.

I hope everyone has a restful day and an even more restful night tonight.

designgyrl · Answer

I'm glad you just told me that because I didn't sleep at all.  I was thinking it was due to the new medication?  I feel ok,  just strange, my body feels like it has different medication in it, but not in a bad way, just in a weird way.  Tuck, have you heard of Opana?  Do you know anyone who takes it?  So Tuck, you haven't been on a LT opiate for that long of a time?  I did not know that, I was thinking you know so much that I just assumed (bad word I know) but it's kind of nice to be able to share this experience with people that are going through it at the same time.

Alison, I never went back to sleep and I'm feeling ok today.  Going to work, so we will see how my day goes from here on out.  I fell asleep for about a hour, and that was it.  I've been doing that a lot lately not sleeping, so hopefully I'll get used to the long acting medication and I will be fine.

Tuckamore · Answer

I have been up but just got back to the board now. 

I have had no sleep again tonight. I blame my on the addition of a long acting opiate two months ago. I had hoped my system would adjust but thus far it hasn't. Instead it seems to get worse instead of better. I have been awake now for 20 hours. I seem to require less sleep but I am constantly sleepy. 

I know that probably makes little sense.  Maybe when one exists on just several hours of sleep a day they just don't make any sense. :)  

I hope you are fast asleep!

~Tuck