I got a call from my big sister yesterday. That’s a very rare occasion, and at first I thought maybe there was something wrong. But no, she just wanted to talk to me about my ADD diagnosis.

She said she had suspected that she had ADD for several years now. She asked her gynecologist about it a few years ago, because that’s the only doctor she goes to since she doesn’t have insurance and is healthy overall. But the gyno told her that she would have to go to a psychiatrist to find out.

I told her that she either go to a family doctor or ask her gyno about it again, because I didn’t have to see a psychiatrist. Then we got to talking about the medicine I was on, and how one of the side effects was weight loss. She didn’t like the sound of that much. But if I were her size, I might not either. She’s never been one to need to go on a diet or take fat burners.

She did say one thing that makes a whole lot of sense: We probably inherited ADD from our dad. He was one of those people who was always on the go, could never sit still for long. He was forever starting projects, and sometimes they would get finished, but often they wouldn’t. Our mom, on the other hand, usually follows through on things. So does our brother.

My big bro always did have more in common with mom. Big sis was more like Dad, and I was the oddball of the bunch. But I guess I probably get at least a portion of my oddness from my dad.

I’ve been dying to post about this since Friday, but I’ve spent the weekend working my butt off trying to get my writing work caught up. I finally got the last thing that was overdue done a couple of hours ago, so now I can do some blogging.

So my doctor called and apologized for taking so long to get back to me on the results of my ADD test. She said she was waiting on the results of my sleep study so she could get the whole picture before she decided how to proceed. It turns out that they found no kind of sleep disorder whatsoever. No apnea, nothing. You know what that means: No dreaded CPAP machine! Yay!

She then told me that the tests I had taken indicated that I had moderate ADD. To some people that would have been bad news. Heck, it would have been bad news to me a few months ago. But I was actually glad to hear it. Not so much glad I had it, but glad to finally get diagnosed so I could be treated.

She put me on Concerta SE, an extended release medicine used to treat ADD/ADHD. Truthfully, I haven’t been able to tell much difference. But I’m going to give it a little longer, and if I think it’s necessary I’ll give her a call and see if she can up my dosage or try something else. I’d love to see immediate results, but I’ll take what I can get. Due to the nature of the drugs used to treat ADD, I can totally understand taking a conservative approach. At least my foot is in the door to getting my life back on track.

She never has told me anything about why I’m staying so tired. From the research I’ve done, I think it’s chronic fatigue syndrome. And I’m thinking that maybe that’s what she’s thinking too. I say that because I don’t fit all the criteria for it, so she may be hesitant to make an official diagnosis, but the medicine she put me on is often used to treat CFS as well. Look at me, second-guessing my doctor. Us writer/researcher types are nothing but trouble, huh?

Anyway, I’m hopeful that things will start getting better. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

My back and tailbone have been giving me trouble lately, and I think sitting in this awful chair so much is what’s doing it. But when they start to hurt, I just remind myself that it could be worse.

Every job I’ve had outside the home has required me to be on my feet pretty much constantly. And most of them have had me on concrete or some other type of hard flooring, which makes things infinitely worse. Not only did that make the part of my foot that was injured when I was in high school flare up, it also made the bottoms of both feet hurt very badly.

My feet got in really bad shape when I was working at a factory. Pretty much the whole time I worked there, I had this strange problem with my feet being really painful and tender when I first got out of bed. Sometimes I would barely be able to walk for a half hour, then the pain would gradually subside. But any time I got up from sitting or laying down, they would hurt. A lady I worked with told me that she had a similar problem, and the doctor had diagnosed her with Plantar Fasciitis.

I talked to my doctor at the time about it, and she just gave me some medication to treat depression (which I was having a bout of at the time) and pain. It helped a little, but not that much. I finally just learned to live with it.

I quit having such trouble with my feet when I quit that job. I had two jobs that kept me on my feet all the time after that, and while my feet would hurt after a hard day’s work, it was nothing like it had been at the factory. It had to have been the floors, and possibly the fact that I had to wear steel-toed boots.

Now I don’t have to be on my feet much at all. I could use more exercise, but at least I don’t have to deal with constant foot pain. I know from experience that when your feet hurt, it adversely affects your whole attitude.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of other possible causes of my chronic sleepiness. I haven’t come up with many ideas, but I have thought of some possible solutions.

The one theory I have come up with, and I think it’s something I should mention to my doctor if I can ever remember to, is that it’s connected with mono. I had mono when I was 16, and it made me horrifically tired and weak. I slept all night, got up and went to school (thanks to my then-doctor who refused to write me out), came home, slept a couple of hours, did my homework, and went to bed. Washing my hair made my arms tired and sore, and I couldn’t do anything that was the least bit physically demanding. I was that way for several weeks before I got better. There were times off and on since then when I would get tired more easily than usual, and I often attributed them to that since it stays in your system. I wonder if this could be related?

Now, on to the solutions. The doctor mentioned that ADD meds often make adults more energetic and cause weight loss. Maybe if she decides that I have ADD, she will put me on them and all will be well. Or maybe some weight loss pills would give me an energy boost. I would try something like Orovo and find out for myself, but I don’t have the money to buy anything over the counter right now. So if nothing else, maybe I’ll talk to her about giving me a prescription for something (which my insurance will cover). I have no doubt that it would be easy for her to justify that, because I’m not at a very healthy weight.

I’m not a doctor, so maybe I’m way off-base here. I’m just so desperate to find out what’s going on and fix it. But I guess I’ve just gotta be patient.

Well, I had my sleep study last night. It went much better than I anticipated, and although the tech that was there couldn’t really tell me anything, she said something that gave me hope that there was no apnea present. Still keeping my fingers crossed, though.

She and another lady who was in respiratory therapy but training to do sleep studies came in around 9:30 to hook me up to all those wires. There were 22 of them total! I told them that the whole getup would make a great Halloween costume. They laughed, but said that some people actually brought in a Nikon D90 or other fancy, expensive camera and had them take a picture with all that stuff on them. I considered asking them to snap one of me with my cell phone, but it’s not really something I felt inclined to capture for posterity.

I slept very well considering all those wires and being in a strange place. I only woke up 3 or 4 times, and I went right back to sleep. Then early this morning the tech came over the speaker and asked me to turn over on my back and try to sleep that way for a while. I obliged, but I didn’t do much sleeping after that. I just can’t sleep on my back. But at least I dozed a little, so hopefully that gave them the information they needed.

I got home a little before 7:00 this morning, and I put Pumpkin on the bus and turned on the computer. I planned on going ahead and getting to work after taking a shower to get all that sticky gunk out of my hair and off of my body, but I didn’t even make it to the shower. I ended up laying down, and I didn’t get back up until after 10:00. And I still feel like I didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours last night.

At least I’m a step closer now to finding out what’s keeping me tired all the time. Even if the sleep study reveals nothing out of the ordinary, we’ve ruled something out. And I’m going to make sure my doctor does everything she can to get it figured out. I’ve had enough of being too tired to get my work done and enjoy life.

Tomorrow night is the big night. No, I’m not being whisked off to the Caribbean for the honeymoon I never had. I wish. But I’m finally going in for my sleep study.

I know it’s no biggie, but I’m dreading it. I have a hard enough time sleeping in a strange place, especially without Hubby and Pumpkin nearby. Well, maybe not so much lately since I’m dead tired most of the time, but I doubt it will be as easy as sleeping in my own bed. Especially seeing how they’ll have me all wired up like some sort of sci-fi experiment. Not my idea of a good time.

But worse than all that is the idea of having to use one of those dreaded CPAP machines. I know, not a big deal either, but I really hope it doesn’t come down to that. If it does, we’ll definitely have to rearrange the bedroom. The way it is now, there is no room on either side of the bed for a table to hold it. I’ve actually been wanting to rearrange for some time, I just can’t come up with a feasible way to do it. But I guess necessity is the mother of invention, huh?

And last but not least, I hate the thoughts of having to wear such a contraption. It would probably interfere with both my and Hubby’s sleep, as well as my movement during the night. And it certainly won’t be very attractive. I guess I can kiss those late-night snuggles goodbye.

But I guess I’m getting ahead of myself. Maybe, hopefully, they’ll determine that I don’t have apnea and it’s something else that’s causing me to stay so tired all the time. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

So I got up at my usual time this morning. Well, actually about 15 minutes late, since Hubby turned the clock off and we both went back to sleep. But I managed to get his lunch packed and help him get out the door at a reasonable time, and to get Pumpkin up and ready to get on the bus. Then I turned on the computer to warm up and grabbed some breakfast.

I ate and got a little work done before my eyelids began to close. It wasn’t a big surprise, since I stayed up until 1:00 this morning. As usual, I couldn’t fight it and had to lay down. I was conked out in no time flat.

I slept until around 11:00. That sucked, but I figured at least I would be able to hang in there the rest of the day. Yeah, right. I alternated between writing and washing and hanging out clothes until about 1:30, and then I became completely unable to concentrate. I had to lay down again. I managed to recoup without going to sleep, and got back up a half hour or so later.

Then after Pumpkin got home I started getting dozy again. Had to take another nap. This is just ridiculous, no?

I keep thinking that maybe I need to start drinking caffeine again, but that didn’t seem to help when I did. Maybe some weight loss pills would give me some extra pep and help me lose some poundage. I’m willing to try just about anything.

I need to call and schedule that sleep study, but I haven’t been able to pin Hubby down on a day he would be willing to take off work. I guess I should just go ahead and schedule it and hope for the best. I can’t make a living like this.

Despite all the trouble I’ve been having staying awake, I decided to try to quit drinking caffeine. I had considered it a long time ago, because caffeine is just plain bad for you. But I heard all sorts of horror stories about people getting wicked bad headaches and having other withdrawal symptoms, and thought drinking caffeine might not be so bad after all.

The doctor even told me that cutting out caffeine might help my condition, but he said that withdrawal might be tough and to just cut down if I could. So I didn’t bother. But when Hubby started having trouble with his blood pressure and decided to let me help him alter his diet in an attempt to straighten it out, I decided we should both give it a go.

Neither of us drink coffee very often at all, but Pepsi is our weakness. So when I bought groceries, I got a Caffeine Free Pepsi and a regular one. Partly to give us something caffeinated if we had those dreaded withdrawal symptoms, and partly in case my finicky husband decided he didn’t like the taste of caffeine free (even though I can’t taste a difference).

As it turned out, he liked the caffeine free just fine. And neither one of us had any withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. We drank the caffeinated Pepsi to get rid of it, and we’ve bought Caffeine Free every since. I’ve also been drinking Hawaiian Punch, and am finally starting to drink water every now and then. Hubby and Pumpkin already drank a lot of water, so they were a step ahead of me there.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that all this has helped my condition. But it does seem to have helped Hubby, along with the other changes in his diet (less salt and fat). And I don’t suppose I’ve been any tireder than I was before, if that’s even possible. So I guess we’ll stick with it.

As you probably know if you’re a long-time reader, my husband has a lot of stomach troubles. He was unable to work for several months last year until he had his gall bladder removed. That helped get him in good enough shape to get back to work, but he still has problems. He has pretty bad acid reflux, among other things.

I tried to tell him he needed to change his diet, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He is the world’s pickiest eater, and most of the things he does like are packed with fat, cholesterol and salt. As much as he hates to take any more medicine than necessary, I think he would have rather gone on Phentermine than to change his diet.

But for the past few weeks, he has been complaining with frequent headaches and fatigue. The guys he works with told him it was probably high blood pressure, and sure enough, it has been up just about every time he has gone to the doctor lately. I told him that he needed to try to get it lowered on his own before they decided he needed medication for it, because everyone I know who takes blood pressure meds wishes they didn’t have to because of the side effects.

He begrudgingly agreed to let me fix him healthy meals for a week to see how he felt. I was leery that it would take longer than that to see a difference, but it didn’t. He has felt much better, and he agreed to continue eating healthy.

Now comes the hard part: I managed to find enough healthy stuff that he liked to keep him fed for one week, but I’m out of ideas. He will get burned out on the same old thing (just like he has been with all the stuff he has been eating over and over all his life). But I’m going to give it my best shot. Maybe now that I’m making a little headway, I can talk him into trying some new things, and retrying things he claims he doesn’t like.

I have really got to find a way to get that sleep study done. I’ve been so tired lately that it’s just absurd.

There have been days when I’ve taken three naps, and still felt exhausted. That’s not very conducive to getting any work done, or anything done around the house. I’m still having trouble concentrating, not as bad as it was, but still quite noticeable. This seriously sucks.

I’m no medical expert by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve done some research online about causes of hypersomnia, and they range from sleep apnea to chemical imbalances to unknown causes. I think I even saw something about improper progesterone levels somewhere in there.

The doctor already did blood work including a thyroid panel, and all that came out fine. So the next step is the sleep study. I really hope I don’t have apnea, because I don’t like the idea of having to use a CPAP machine. But if that’s what has to happen, I guess I’ll do it. I’m sick and tired of being tired.