Good morning everyone!!
Another bad night for me, I am about 14 months post transplant and I was wondering does anyone have the same experience that I am having, which is having trouble/issues falling to sleep at night. I went for a sleep study last week and I am just waiting for the results. It’s getting hard to somewhat feel good because in the morning I am so tired and fatigued, it’s almost starting to feel like my new normal. Any suggestions!!
Hopefully your sleep study will give you some answers. I get insomnia too. But I work 3rd shift so that sure doesn't help. I do take magnesium before bed and occasionally a sleeping pill. I'm almost 2 years post transplant. Here's hoping we both get some good sleep soon!
Yes hopefully the sleep study will give me some answers, are used to work third shift as well and I know it’s not easy. Like you said I hope we both get some amazing sleep SOON!! Stay safe and healthy!!
Have you tried melatonin? That use to help some but then my doctor put me on 10mg of Ambien which works wonderful and I have had no side effects or morning hangover. I don’t know if you can take it but you might ask. I take gabapentin and Tramadol too and have no problems with any of them. My doctor said Tramadol was better on your liver than Tylenol. Tylenol kills a lot of people yearly because of damage to the liver. Tramadol won’t kill a person as long as they take the prescribed dose.
I had the same issue but it was one of the medication ( cellpat). As soon I substituted it, no more insomnia for me.
Yes this is definitely an issue to bring up to my transplant team. I am on Cellcept, so we’ll see. Stay safe and healthy! 😊
Ever try meditation? I only have trouble sleeping when I can not shut down my mind. But as others have suggested check side effects of your medication. Good luck and take care.
No I have not tried meditation,? Maybe I should. Thanks for the suggestion! 😊
I don’t have trouble falling asleep but sleeping more then 5 hours is something that I have issues with . tacrolimus I was told can cause sleeping issues. Talked to my transplant dr about it yesterday.
Thanks for your input. I wish I could sleep at least 5 hours!! 😊 stay healthy
5 hours is rare it was 3 last night 3 1/2 the night before
Now I can relate better to those hours!! 😑 it just seems like my new normal
Mine to and I hate it. But I love my kidney and not being on dialysis ,so I will take no sleep vs being sick all the time.
YEEESSSS!!! AMEN!!! 🙏
Sorry you are having sleep problems. You are doing the right thing by getting the sleep study done. It will provide some direction and that will help. When I can’t sleep, I use various YouTube guided sleep meditations that are 8 hours long. It helps me to have a gentle voice to follow so I can relax and let go of the day. There are tons to choose from. Best of luck to you!
Thank you I have not gotten the results of the sleep study yet. Meditation does sound good 😊
I got a transplant last July. Early on, I had trouble staying asleep. I woke up at 3 AM every morning. Some of that may be that I was on a higher dose of tacrolimus, but I don't think it had much to do with prednisone because in the spring of last year, i contracted a rare auto-immune disease, and they put me on 40 mg a day with an eventual taper to 10 mg, and that did not affect my sleep.
What I also noticed was that post-transplant, the dexmethylphenidate I take for attention issues seemed to be working overtime. For the first 5 weeks post transplant, I stayed off it since I was not working. The minute I started back on it, I was awaking again at 3AM. I took the short acting version of that drug, and it helped with sleep, but was terrible for attention/concentration.
Also, as my tacrolimus dose has been lowered, I have had minimal issues. I take 1 mg 2x/day.
Finally, I was using a CPAP prior to my transplant, and that seemed to address some of the sleeping issues I was having. I had a mild form of sleep apnea (9 events per night), but because of my compromised kidney function, they had me start just to hopefully slow down the decline in kidney function.
Hope that helps.
I had same problem. Dr said it was likely the prograf. I went to other dr and got sleep meds,, after some trial and error found the right combo.
I have had enough
Medication
Mental health post transplant.
Overwhelmed 
