Cancer Update 2/23

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A cold night on the Blue Mountains Trail….probably about 3am, writing and drinking coffee as I tend to do!

Good morning folks. 

It’s 2:02 am and I’m officially asking for your sleep advice.

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Please provide:

  • Tips for falling asleep in the first place
  • Tips for staying asleep
  • Tips for getting back to sleep once I wake up
  • Foods that will help?
  • Rituals that will help?
  • What are the sounds/music/podcasts that will help?
  • Meds that will help?
  • Meditations/breathing that will help?

Lay it on me.

I’ve come to this pattern in my sleepless nights where I look forward to the dark and early hours when my brain has had 3-4 hours of sleep and I can get in some good reading or writing time. The house is quiet and I can indulge in having hours by myself to play.

I know a part of getting past this sleep interruption and into a solid 8-hour REM cycle will be interrupting this enjoyable part of my day, which may be tricky to do. 

Are there other ways to go about it? Maybe I sleep for 4 hours, get up for 4, and go back for 4? I tried to go back to sleep yesterday morning for a few hours, but only lasted about an hour and never really fell asleep again. Just lay there and rested with my eyes closed. 

Ok, doors are open: what do you think?

33 thoughts on “Cancer Update 2/23”

  1. I was just reading about the history of second sleep.(yep I’m that exciting). It’s where people used to go to bed, wake up for a few hours and do stuff like read, pray and maybe socialize, then go back to sleep. Once electricity became popular, the practice faded away. Maybe you’re just finding your inner 18th century self. If you can still get a good chunk of sleep on either side of your middle of the night musings, maybe it’s not so bad. Love you!

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  5. It might be part of the journey to embrace where your body and mind are, a couple things I try:

    This is kinda funny, drawing in my breath through a pinhole in each big toe, and imagining and feeling the strength of breath needed to draw up through such a tiny opening, up the parts of my body as if feeling it and watching it travel to my heart, and then imagining the same with the exhale. In repeat to see if my mind relaxes into sleep.

    When nothing around mindfulness works, I will take a sleep gummy with CBD/CBN/THC, gives me a solid 4 hours pretty quickly, drawback for me is waking with cotton mouth. Have tried CBD/CBN only and sometimes that works to a lesser degree.

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    • The toe breathing technique is a new one! I definitely could try more in the way of meditation/mindfulness. Mayne I’ll spend some energy there for a while. A few people have suggested the calm app or other meditation apps. I think it’s worth a shot!

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  8. Also, magnesium has the opposite effect on me as it does most people meaning it keeps me awake instead of helping me sleep. Someone recently told me that could not be true so I took my magnesium at night and sure enough, I slept very badly. If you’re taking magnesium at night, try not taking it. I hope you can find some solutions as I know sleep is critical for my well-being. I do believe in trusting your body but right now rest is important.

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  9. I don’t know what happened to my previous comment. It seems to have disappeared.
    I took 50 mg of trazodone for years to help me sleep without any side effects. Also no withdrawal symptoms when I stopped taking it. It is an antidepressant that helps sleep in small doses. I stopped taking it a couple of months ago and have quite a few left. If your doctor approves you trying it and you don’t want to fill A prescription, I can drop it by. Also, steroids wire me. That is a real challenge.

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  10. Hi! I can send you some chaga for a bedtime tea for AK. I keep a pot on my stove all winter. You can also buy it online. I would ask your doc/ease into it as it does have some pretty strong effects on your immune system. I know folks who have auto immune issues can’t use it, or can only use in low doses because it will kick your immune system into overdrive. I will actually send you a care package with rishi and turkey tail (if you want) from a local company. A few folks I know who have gone through chemo said that a high dose regimen of those specific mushrooms really helped with the side effects. Paul Stamets has a good video lecture about this and his mom’s journey through cancer.
    Obviously I’m not a doctor but that’s my anecdotal experience.

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  11. I had a really hard time sleeping when I was in the middle of cancer too. A few things that helped me:

    Dexamethazone in the morning only
    Gabapentin or other pain suppressant at night before bed really seemed to help – it’s hard for me to sleep when I hurt, even when it’s just a fever.
    Lorazapam to slow the hampster wheel of anxiety.
    Melatonin.
    A small dish by the bed with a resupply of the above three items for middle of the night supplements & self-permission to rely on meds to prop me up during one of the most extreme physical challenges of a life time. Also a hydroflask with warm water to take my midnight meds.
    Podcasts by very calm and centered speakers, like Pema Chödrön. I like listening to the same tracks over and over so I don’t get hooked by the content, just lulled by the calm voice.
    Music – Insight Timer has some great sleep tracks. I found I often needed the very long (2+ hour) tracks.
    Breathing techniques: first take a few deep breaths and relax your body, *especially your face.* Once you settle down into an easy, slow breathing pattern start a regular, rhythmic counting about one beat per second. Your base pattern will likely be somewhere between 4 and 7 counts per inhale/exhale. Use this as the base/normal. Then slowly start increasing the length of just the exhale by about 1 second per breath. Most people can increase by about 4-8 counts. Once you hit your max, slowly decrease by one count per breath until you’re back to baseline. Repeat as desired.

    If all this fails – and it too often did for me – get out of bed, make some chamomile tea, read a novel, and remember that there are a lot of other folks out there sitting up in the wee hours of the night with you. Send them your loving kindness that you might all find some rest when you go back to bed.

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    • That’s pretty much the same med regime I’m on. Yes, I get up and read and do tend to doze off a bit, so it’s not super restful, but maybe more than I’m giving myself credit for?

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  12. I listen to downloaded “Sleeping Vibrations” from You Tube, he uses crystal bowls. You may have to experiment a bit, some frequencies will work better for you than others. I just do a short listening test to start, if it calms me then I go with it, if there is any “discord” that I sense or feel or hear I pass on that one. He has eight hour recordings. I particularly like the recordings with rain falling in the background, since we live in a desert, rain sounds are incredibly soothing to hear.

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  15. Hi Renee,

    Long time Shera fangirl over here. You are walking your cancer journey exactly as I would expect; with grit, intention and generosity.

    I’m well into my perimenopause journey (52 yo) and struggled with sleep for years. Would wake up at 1am sometimes from night sweats, sometimes from a racing mind, usually both, and think uncharitable thoughts about my partner sleeping so happily next to me. I finally said uncle and my PCP prescribed Trazodone a non-addictive and safe sleep aid. I still wake up, but the Trazodone keeps me drowsy enough to fall back asleep. It’s been an absolute miracle for me.

    Just sharing in case it’s an option you need at some point down the road.

    Sending you love and healing thoughts.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Good luck to you too! Yeah, I wonder I’d the days of 8 hour nights are over and it will just be short bursts. We’ll see! I hope you are fairing OK with your cancer journey 🤗

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  17. Ugh, yeah the steroids are a mixed bag.

    Sleep is so critical for healing, recovery, stress management, cognition. and what I call “defragging the hard drive”.

    Cancer terrors would wake me up, as well as bladder, thirst and pain. Klonopin, a long lasting benzo, can be habit forming, but works well for me with few side effects. I’ve tried many sleep aids (not all benzos) and this one is what I landed on. Follow Dr recommendations on timing with other prescriptions.

    Other things I do:

    -not eating several hours before bed

    -when I’m ready to sleep I wear a sleep mask and tape my mouth with paper tape so I don’t wake up breathing through my mouth/dry mouth

    -mindfulness mediation, w/focus on (nose) breath

    -I find getting up in the night when I cannot sleep *not* to be helpful as I get stimulated, even by light, and have to start the process of going to sleep all over again, which is sometimes impossible. If I need something to do when I can’t sleep, I read in bed for a while.

    Sleep science is still disappointingly primitive. I’ve had to do my own trials with different meds. I hope you can figure out something that works well for you.

    I am curious what brand/type of bed you ended up getting? That’s another important thing, and I need to upgrade mine.

    Sending you my best wishes and admiration.

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    • Fortunately I got the go ahead to reduce the steroids a bit this week! I think that will help. I’ve been wearing a lavender scented eye mask, that is great! I got some trials to calm and headspace, so gonna try those meditation options out. We got a split king temperpedic, the medium firmness. It’s a game changer to be able to lift and lower my legs and not wake kirk up. And it’s very comfortable!

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