I used to fight sleep when I was driving and felt my eyes getting all heavy and gritty instead of pulling off the road. It was almost painful to have to stay awake but I used all the typical strategies to keep me going. You know the drill - open windows, loud music, sitting up really straight, singing along with a peppy tune or sipping a cup of coffee just to try to make it home. There was one night I actually went off the road and felt the rumble of my tires as they hit the gravel off the side of the paved road. That was, no pun intended, a real wake up call for me. No more tired driving. Ever. No matter what. Period. It wasn't always late at night when I felt that kind of overwhelming exhaustion. I could be that tired driving in the morning or early in the afternoon. I never really know when fatigue will overtake me and make my travel nearly impossible.
Driving tired is not a good thing. One of my fibro docs once warned me that in the state where I live, a person who has an accident because of behind-the-wheel sleepiness is given a DUI. Yep. It's considered to be driving under the influence because you are not fully capable of making a split-second decision when you are tired and sleepy. You can also get a DUI if a police officer notices you driving erratically, or sees you drifting between lanes because you are dozing off. Pretty serious stuff.
Yesterday was one of those days on the road for me. The fatigue struck while I was trapped in stalled traffic and I had to get past the congestion before there was a place for me to pull over and rest my eyes. I really struggled to stay alert. I wound up taking a forty minute, sound-asleep-nap in a bowling alley parking lot. Not an ideal location, but I just couldn't drive any farther without falling asleep behind the wheel. I have some strategies for sleeping in the car that keep me feeling safe, but yesterday I wasn't even thinking about my overall safety or security. I just needed to sleep. I will say that after a forty minute nap I was more awake - but man did I have a nasty migraine. I woke up, popped a couple of pain pills and waited for them to start to take effect. Only then was I ready to get back on the road. I lost a full hour of travel time.
There are so many ways my life is impacted by my fatigue that I sometimes don't even care about pain management. I can live with aches and pains and I have my meds to get me through a migraine. But the overwhelming tiredness where I go from awake to exhausted in a moment is the hardest thing to deal with. I have slept along the road in more places than I can count and I have found myself stranded on trips where I just couldn't drive home. That is not a good feeling. I am nine weeks into my recovery and my pain is better - but this fatigue is another story. I want to be able to get on the road and know that I can get where I need to go and then back home again without stopping for a nap, or worse yet, getting stranded. This has got to get better!! My bed is for sleeping - not my car - got that, body??
Driving tired is not a good thing. One of my fibro docs once warned me that in the state where I live, a person who has an accident because of behind-the-wheel sleepiness is given a DUI. Yep. It's considered to be driving under the influence because you are not fully capable of making a split-second decision when you are tired and sleepy. You can also get a DUI if a police officer notices you driving erratically, or sees you drifting between lanes because you are dozing off. Pretty serious stuff.
Yesterday was one of those days on the road for me. The fatigue struck while I was trapped in stalled traffic and I had to get past the congestion before there was a place for me to pull over and rest my eyes. I really struggled to stay alert. I wound up taking a forty minute, sound-asleep-nap in a bowling alley parking lot. Not an ideal location, but I just couldn't drive any farther without falling asleep behind the wheel. I have some strategies for sleeping in the car that keep me feeling safe, but yesterday I wasn't even thinking about my overall safety or security. I just needed to sleep. I will say that after a forty minute nap I was more awake - but man did I have a nasty migraine. I woke up, popped a couple of pain pills and waited for them to start to take effect. Only then was I ready to get back on the road. I lost a full hour of travel time.
There are so many ways my life is impacted by my fatigue that I sometimes don't even care about pain management. I can live with aches and pains and I have my meds to get me through a migraine. But the overwhelming tiredness where I go from awake to exhausted in a moment is the hardest thing to deal with. I have slept along the road in more places than I can count and I have found myself stranded on trips where I just couldn't drive home. That is not a good feeling. I am nine weeks into my recovery and my pain is better - but this fatigue is another story. I want to be able to get on the road and know that I can get where I need to go and then back home again without stopping for a nap, or worse yet, getting stranded. This has got to get better!! My bed is for sleeping - not my car - got that, body??
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