Reduced medication

[Charlie15]

My husband had tbi July 21 he’s been on a number of meds to help him sleep his consultant has reduced one of his tabs but he is starting to shout in sleep and waking a number of times during the night and resulting him to get up even earlier than before . Do I ask consultant to put him back on meds he’s getting up at 5am now

[Leaf100]

Hi Charlie. Do you have a good pharmacist? I would maybe try having a chat with one first. It could be this is a normal reaction to adjusting to the change in medication. They can sometimes have helpful suggestions.Talking to a pharmacist is something I do a lot. It's also something I consider when choosing a location - it's good to have everything in one place because they can keep an eye on things. (And they do. I moved things from a big box to a smaller one in my neighborhood and I am just amazed at how thorough they are, and they have literally saved my elderly Mom some potentially serious oopses when the doc rx'd something that wasn't really a great idea for her given her circumstances.)

It's good for you to have a basic understanding of what he takes and why. For example some medications make your mouth and eyes dry - a dry mouth means a lot of cavities - xylitol can help (Yes it is a sugar but cavity forming bugs can't digest it and literally starve to death - keep away from pets). And dry eyes can hurt your vision long term because of scarring.

It's also practical - It's the weekend, and a pharmacist is available much more easily than a specialist is.

I'll also say disrupted sleep is not uncommon for people with bi to have issues with sleeping, everyone is different, and as for myself I learned not to fight it.

There are also things you can try that are less prone to issues long term, such as melatonin or tryptophan, and again - the pharmacist may have some ideas and may even be OK consulting with the doc.

The other thing I would sat for is long term impact on liver and kidneys. Some of these drugs are really hard on you and need monitoring.

It may be a period of adjustment that is expected.

Leaf

[fity123r]

hi charlie15

my husband was on alot of medication for his sleep when he had a brain injury he did not sleep for more than 18hrs straight his rehab consultant put him on lots of meds like melatonin zolpedem lorazapam and halpedrol to help with his sleep when he was discharged home he will sleep all day long and night and than he will have a couple of nights we're he won't sleep at all so the sleeping meds did not really work they way we wanted

I spoke to his consultant who said he still needs them at this point I was getting really worried about him sleeping day in and night so I stopped giving him halpedrol lorazapam he started to engage during day time but night was a problem where he will be restless all night long but I still did not giv it him his sleep pattern slowly improved after a couple of weeks than last year I spoke to our gp and wanted a medication review so he stopped zolpedem and this year in May his totally off all sleeping meds yes he does have a few restless nights but that's probably one of the side effects of meds

sleeping meds are really bad for the long term as leaf100 mentioned especially for the kidneys

my hubby has omega 3 at bed time they help him have a more relaxed sleep and he also has a cup of warm milk at bedtime to our gp told us milk has melatonin in it so it relax all your body x