Good Advice

After writing that I am still having hot flashes & can't sleep if I don't take the meds my doctor gave me, I got a very helpful email from my old friend Karen N, who is also a doctor. We were interns together at UVA in 1996-1997 and shared many a night on call together during our training. You develop a special relationship when you've seen each other bone tired from trying to keep up with all the work on the floor. We shared a call room often and helped each other answer the nurses questions when they paged us frequently. In her email, Karen reminded me that I need my sleep to heal, to fight infection, to resume work with energy, and to maintain my immune system. She made me see that this thing I have of toughing it out w/o sleep medicine is just plain stupid. Thanks for that. It takes a hard headed, no nonsense doctor to get through to this hard-headed, no nonsense doc what is right. Truth is I am not that far out from my last treatment, only 6 weeks, and my body still has work to do. I keep forgetting that. I keep forgetting how much sleep is part of good health. I owe Karen a big thanks for reminding me of all that and giving me "permission" to keep taking those little pills that let me sleep, even if I don't want to need that. Get over it already.