Those Days When You Can't Quite Wake Up

Today is one of those days. I just trudge along. I had two cups of coffee, and it didn’t help. Just an hour or so more of work and I’ll go home and rest.

dexmethylphenidate

I want to be able to think!

Honey, you need to get you some hormones!

ON's Amino Energy- Café series - I refer to it as Szzrrpp! You can buy it at GNC. works like a charm

Adderall?

If you have more than a couple of drinks every night, that could be a factor. Poor diet and lack of exercise as well. But you've heard this already OP. From my personal experience, even though I have no problem waking up in the morning, I did notice I had more energy when I limited myself to one cup of coffee in the morning, took more walks, and stopped eating processed foods. Rather than drink coffee at work, I started drinking water rather than coffee. My energy in the afternoon immediately improved. OP - you can continue to complain about "those days" or you can make some minor changes to what you eat and add some movement to your daily life. Though, before making any changes or following some of the well-meaning advice from DL, go visit your doctor. You may need to find a doctor who is willing to work with you to find the root cause of your symptoms. Hope this helps.

I don't drink anymore and I got lots of exercise yesterday.

The entire inside of my head feels like a fogged window you can't see through.

get your iron level checked.

I second R5

The ON stuff has aspartame or xylotil, so use sparingly, but it does give you a boost.

Aneurysm? Get checked.

could be thyroid, testosterone, Vit D, blood sugar,etc.... time for a panel workup

I take Adderall but it does not do much, if anything, at all.

Sounds like flu. Get ready for fun poop times, OP.

Same here, today is one of those days. I was so happy to have the day off, and I’ve just stayed in bed and napped most of the time. I’m on a day 8 of a fast right now though, so that’s just a temporary rough patch.

r15 are you anorexic or on a hunger strike?

Low T.

Especially if you're a lesbian.

Maybe depression? Some people don't have an obvious low mood but do cognitive symptoms (poor sleep, difficulty concentrating, poor memory/retention of new info, inability to read) and hypoactive symptoms such as fatigue, etc.

It is winter, so it could be seasonal affective disorder (might want to look into getting a sun lamp - probably helpful in any case unless you are in the southern half of the US).

If you have been like this most of the time (year in and year out) since you were a kid/teenager, it could be undiagnosed ADHD (likely inattentive subtype).

Could also be a combination of the above.

Some research suggests that low Vitamin D may be related to some of these symptoms and many adults in the northern half of the US have low Vit D.

If you are also having muscle pain, could be low magnesium.

If you are a male with no chronic GI issues (by chronic GI issues I mean Crohns/ulcerative colitis - that is, a history of bloody diarrhea or chronic small bowel absorption problems) then you should NOT have low iron. Generally, only regularly menstruating women commonly have low iron because the only way people lose iron is via the GI tract or via menstruation (assuming you are not a vegan of course - maybe low iron then but that is still quite rare). If you are over 50 you should have a colonoscopy. I don't want to freak you out, but anemia in a man (esp if he is over 50 and otherwise healthy) suggests colon cancer (at least, and should be ruled out ASAP. Really not likely but consider seeing a doctor if this is a possibility.

maybe low thyroid (but this more common in women, esp if over 50-60). Blood sugar likely not related (low blood sugar is very uncommon but simple to test for and high blood sugar unlikely to be the cause unless you are about to fall into a non-ketotic coma - very unlikely unless you are elderly with type 2 diabetes).

If you are HIV+ some of the meds can be related to low testosterone. Not super common but not impossible (or you could have low testosterone anyway)

There are other possible causes for your symptoms so hard to say. Not a bad idea to see a physician and get a physical exam and at least a few basic labs. That should rule out serious causes of these symptoms and get you on the way to feeling better.

***Caveat: I am a non-practising MD so this is not official medical advice, just some general info and encouragement to continue to be proactive. Hopefully you will be feeling better soon.

Jesus fucking Christ R18

You win for DL Aspie of the Decade

OP is a little tired TODAY. Not for the past six months.

you drop acid. lick the sugar cube, op.

Redbull works for me, OP.

R16, neither. My dad used to travel to Germany once a year for a Buchinger fast. Unfortunately I don’t get to travel to Germany, but I have been fasting twice a year for 2 weeks for the past 20 years.

Today was such a day and I had an important exam and surely fucked it up. :(

R19 not an aspie, just an ADHDer. And a trained physician. We are supposed to be thorough. That's what a good physician does (and difficult to do these days...)

I swear this peps me up more than Ritalin. It's getting hard to find, though.

I heard that you can switch to the mata tea, when coffee does not work for you anymore. I haven't tried, but it safe and will not kill you.

OK, so now my neck is covered in a rash. It started about 12:45am. Out of the blue. Washed it, applied Tri-Calm. Nothing. Took my regular antihistamine. Nothing. Took 2 benadryl. Went away in about 20 mins. As soon as I was up again today, it came back. And it came back worse. It's now spread a way down my chest and onto my chin and jaw. My whole neck is swollen, my lymph nodes are very red. And it is so itchy I want to decapitate myself. I repeated the steps above using hydrocortisone cream and then, again, protopic. Neither helped. Benadryl is not working this time. About an hour ago, I texted my doctor with pix of my neck but she's off on the weekends and I don't know if she'll respond. You guys have any suggestions?

On the bright side, I'm much less groggy today. So, there's that.

dexmethylphenidate is Focalin - an Adderall type drug. It "treats" some the dysfunctions you are complaining about OP. More exercise and oxygen is always good. Good sleep. But there is little wrong with Pharma assistance.

Shingles, R27.

[quote]dexmethylphenidate is Focalin - an Adderall type drug.

It's the dextro isomer of methylphenidate, or Ritalin. Ritalin is nice but a pretty mild lift, IMO.

OP, try the green tea pills at R25 with a cup or two of coffee. You'll be a new man. And it should be that brand (Mega-T) if you can find it. It seems to work better than others.

r29, I worried it might be that, but there are no pustules or wounds or bite marks or anything like that. As a kid, I somehow got chicken pox 3 times so I'm not sure if that makes me more or less likely to get shingles. My doc texted me back and said to try Claritin or Allegra in combination with Zantac or Pepcid and that if this didn't work she'd call in Prednisone for me. I don't really want to take Prednisone. So, hopefully, these other OTC meds will fix it...

If shingles you need to be valtrex STAT.

I am Team Shingles as well

Shinlge belsh, shingle belsh...

Surprise anal.

Wim Hof Breathing, look it up - it's very simple...and life changing

Pills aren't helping yet.

Ok, this is gross but I took a couple of pix. I really think it looks more like hives (?) than shingles.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Well, any skin related problems often mean that one of your detoxification organs like liver, gall ... isn't "working" properly. I've found fasting cures always very helpful- actually the best thing you can do for your body.

OP you type like a nervous wreck. Why don't you go to doctors and sort this all out. At least you can have confidence in an MD,

Have you used any new products lately OP? Have you worn any new clothes, a scarf, hat, any new or unwashed fabrics? Have you eaten any odd foods? Have you been to South America or South Africa or South Anything recently? Have you googled dermatitis for images?

R34 one of your better , Lizsha!

r39, could I just drink more water? I'm really skinny.

r40, she's not in on the weekend. She texted me back with her suggestions and said if they didn't work she'd call in a steroid for me. I am overdue for a physical though.

r41, I had spinach ravioli at midnight. I don't usually eat that. But by now my stomach acids should have destroyed it all. I was rooting through an old box of CDs last night, but if it's a contact allergy why isn't it on my hands too and after washing 8 times shouldn't it be gone? No new clothes. I had a problem with my furnace early this week and the repair guy took out the filter saying it was "strangling" the air flow. I haven't had time to get to a hardware store to buy a replacement yet. Could it be something in the air coming up? I used some butcher block refinisher the other day, and it stinks but it's safe to eat off of so probably not the cause. I rarely drink but had a mini-bottle of prosecco on Tuesday. I took a friend to the ER on Wednesday; it was crowded, but no one sneezed on me and I didn't notice anyone else with horrible rash. Nothing else out of the ordinary has come in contact with my body recently. It began about 15 minutes after the ravioli. No one's allergic to fucking ravioli...right?

OP, good of you to stay connected to this thread; you seem genuine. It IS possible you could be allergic to anything in that fucking ravioli or the sauce or cheese that you were never allergic to earlier in your life. It could be anything.

A visit to the derm might not produce any answers but you will definitely walk away with a script for a $200 cream.

I recommend no more ravioli for a month while you let this rash disappear. Then have another plate of ravioli and see what you wake up with the next day. (This is how I found out I was allergic to a particular food.)

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks, r44. It was getting really bad and still spreading by late afternoon yesterday. My doc told me I could double up the meds. I did. That provided relief for a few hours but by 10pm I was crawling out of my skin again. I was sure I was going to have to get her to call something in today. But it's actually better today. Still swollen. Still itchy. But mostly tolerably so compared to yesterday. So the solution may be: take 4 times the recommended dosage of both H1 and H2 blockers for 24hrs. Whatever it is seems to only respond to the H2 antagonist in Zantac. I found out there are also H3 and H4 pathways but no one has developed antagonists for them with the exception of one H3 blocker that caused fatal liver toxicity. The more you know! I think I'd rather swear off ravioli than find out definitively.

So, I spoke too soon. It didn't clear up. It stopped spreading but my ears, neck and chest are still covered and swollen and itchy and painful. I went to the doc and she prescribed a topical steroid which is not supposed to be used on "thin skin" and that's basically everywhere its itchy. She also sold me a natural antihistamine called D-Hist and told me to pick up cbd oil, which I did. So I'm now taking 4x the suggested dosage of Zantac and Zyrtec plus the D-Hist and the cbd oil. And I'm not noticing anything getting any better. I haven't picked up the topical steroid because what the hell am I going to use it on? A friend suggested anti-rejection drugs. He had a horrible case of poison ivy and his doc prescribed them and it stopped immediately. I haven't slept more than a couple hours at a time since last Thursday and I'm starting to get pretty rough around the edges.

Hey, OP/R46? You still alive? What happened?

I had the flu (really bad) last year, Thanksgiving through mid-January; I'm still not 100% better.

During the worst of it, I couldn't sleep and my doc gave me this sleeping aid, prescription; it's been working great; I'll never take for granted again a good night's rest.

Problem one: I got addicted to them. And I was drowsy in the a.m., needed two coffees to get up and running.

Problem two: My health insurance was taken away at work. (I'm living in gratitude I had it during the flu). But I'm about to run out of pills.

So the first few nights without them should be problematic.

Haul your ass to your doctor/endo., asap, OP. May be a thyroid issue, which is very serious, and not to be messed with.

Modafinil, or Provigil. Works like a charm but there WILL be a crash later in the day.