Archives for 2006

I’m amazed at the traffic in this city. Toronto is after all the 5th largest city in North America so what did I expect! I Live almost downtown- A 10 to 15 minute drive if there is little traffic. My sleep clinic appointment was at 3:30 right in the middle of the down town area, and of course right at the start of rush hour. It took us 45 minutes to get there. Which wasn’t too bad when you compare that to how long it took us to get home- 1 hour and 20 minutes!

My husband was driving and for some reason he took the streets that are always busy, 24 hours a day. As we drove home I was wishing that I had brought my camera with me. Since we were sitting in traffic most of the time I could have taken some great shots of this diverse city. We drove through Kensington Market, the heart of China Town, the Fashion district, Queen Street West- the hip area, the financial district, the slums of East Dundas all the way to my area which is called “The Danforth” or Greek town.

If I’d had my camera I could have shown you just how different each area is from the next. It’s a beautiful city. If you’ve never been here before I think you should make plans to come for a visit. Let me know if you’re coming- I’ll be your tour guide.

Oh, we saw three movies being filmed on the way there and back too.

The sleep clinic doctor was very nice. I mean very, very nice. He was tall and handsome and quite friendly. I don’t think I’ll mind my next appointment with him at all. I saw a literally 80 year old allergist last week with poop breath, so this new doctor was refreshing.

The Dr. isn’t quite sure what my sleep problem is right now. I was sent to him to evaluate my problem getting to sleep after a night shift, but since I haven’t been to work for the last 5 months due to my illness he can’t really evaluate my sleep pattern related to my shift work. I do have a bit of a problem though … I mean, it’s 4 am and I’m sitting here on the computer instead of sleeping like I imagine most of you in my part of the world are probably doing.

I think we’ve decided that at this time, my biggest problem is my pain and how it affects my sleep. The abdominal pain wakes me in the night but usually isn’t too bad when I first get up. However, as I go through the day and eat food the pain gets worse and is usually quite bad by late evening onward which makes it harder for me to feel sleepy or want to go to sleep.

Now that I think about it, maybe you are keeping me up too? All the great writing as I surf and battle. If all of you would just write something boring for the next day or two maybe I’d decide to give up and go to bed?

He’s sending me for a sleep study. They tried to book it for next Monday night but I said no way! Next week is the first week in a long time that I don’t have a single doctors appointment booked. I’m looking forward to that. Plus I have a big wedding to get ready for. So I’m going to do the sleep study the following week. Not looking forward to that! I have to be there at 8:30 pm and they told me that lights are out at 11 pm. When I told them that it’s very unlikely that I’ll be able to sleep at eleven they called the Dr. and I now have special permission to go to bed at midnight when I do the test. Yeah! That will still be a problem but I’m going to try.

The Dr. also told me that there is a clinical trial going on that has something to do with insomnia related to pain. He called the researcher while I was there and left a message to see if I could get into the trial. I may not be able to because I have a chronic disease but he tried. Hopefully I’ll find out whether I’m in or not by the end of the week.

I don’t know much about the clinical trial other than that it involves the use of medical marijuana. In the past I’ve had people ask me “Are you smoking Pot?” when I’ve done something dumb, and in the last two years I’ve had a lot of people tell me that I should be smoking it … well now I might end up taking it in capsule form.

At this point I’m just about willing to try anything that will dull the pain that I’m in, so I hope that I do get a chance to be in this trial.

I’m pretty sure a lot of you have tried smoking and or eating pot before, maybe some of you are doing it right now, but have any of you used it therapeutically? As in for nausea, pain, or to help you sleep? I’d be interested in hearing your comments on the subject.

Speaking of smokin’, my pal Ed over at Parenting Toys is still burning up in the Texas heat. Maybe if you all go visit him at once from this site a waft of cool Canadian air will surround him and make him feel more comfortable? Doesn’t work that way huh? Well give it a try anyway.

Update: March 7th, 2007: Duh, I just realized that the date I originally wrote this post was 420. LOL How funny is that? I just thought I’d update this to let you know that I didn’t do the study with the sleep doctor. I would have had to give up my pain meds for a month or more at a time and I just couldn’t do that. However, I do have a pain doctor now and I saw her this past Monday and she finally prescribed the medical marijuana PILLS, well capsules. I’m going to try my first one tomorrow night. Wish me luck!