Thread by @AlexandraErin

Okay, so, here's a little state of the me update on my summer sickness.

I'm definitely coming out of it. I'm not all the way out of it. Right now it basically feels like a normal cold.

Two big complicating factors:

One, I'm trying to figure out what's normal environmental allergies and what's lingering sickness! I stopped taking my normal antihistamine while sick because NyQuil has a 1G antihistamine in it.

I also took waaaaay less loratadine (from 20 mg to 5 mg a day) after going on my water kick, because my allergies were less bothersome. While I was sick I switched to drinks with calories in them because that's how I was getting my energy, and I'm still switching back.

Second complicating factor: I spent a couple of weeks sleeping heavily with NyQuil, and now my sleep schedule is non-existent and I'm having a hard time sleeping without doxylamine succinate (the antihistamine in NyQuil), which leaves me logy and unfocused the next day.

So for the next few days I'm going to try taking the doxy earlier (like at bedtime instead of when I give up at four in the morning), and then try weaning myself off it.

In the meantime I am using barely any caffeine and no alcohol, in order to avoid exacerbating anything, and because they depress the immune system.

But I'm hoping to be back to an even keel by the end of the week.

I was actually just talking to my dad about this, about how I think I've had a rough time these past couple weeks because it's hard to separate out the grief from the misery of being sick and tired.

https://twitter.com/HerHandsMyHands/status/1155945797734686728

So, good news: turns out my problem is just a bad sleep schedule, not dependency ok doxylamine to sleep.

Bad news: I took a doxy hours ago and I am still awake yet too addled to actually get up and do anything.

This is about the time I have been giving up on sleeping unaided and taken a pill the past several nights, but if I take another one now I am going to be useless tomorrow.

So I guess I'll just give sleep another try and see what happens.

I guess update on my status - reviewing the past several days it seems I actually have a rock solid sleep schedule, it just runs from 5:00 AM to about 12:30. Which is honestly not bad, just inconveniently located.

Going to skip the pill tonight.