Do you ever read the literature that comes with new prescription drugs? Well, I think you should unless you feel your pharmacist explained the medicine, how it works and its side effects to your satisfaction. Even then, I would still read about the drug.
Sometimes a medicine will come with a warning that side effects may include “vivid or disturbing dreams” or words to that effect. I often wondered what that meant. Now I know.
I have had difficulty sleeping lately because of the pain caused by neuropathy in my feet. I once had a prescription for helping me sleep occasionally as I have had insomnia on and off for years. That prescription worked very well but it ran out and my doctor, or primary care provider (physician’s assistant), decided to prescribe another drug. That medicine bore the warning about disturbing dreams.
Here I should make an explanation. I have never been troubled with nightmares or what I consider frightening or disturbing dreams. That is, I didn’t have such dreams until taking this medicine or that I can remember. I say “that I remember” because I have been told of disturbing others in my sleep and not just with snoring. When I worked as a firefighter and slept in a room with other guys, they told me I used to scream and yell in my sleep. They even went so far as to jokingly say “you’re possessed!”
And I have had my share of odd dreams including a couple in which the situation of which I was dreaming would in some way present itself upon waking. But I have never had nighttime excursions like I have had the several nights, including last night, on this drug which is generically called Temazepam, or by one of its trade names Restoril. The medicine itself has not worked well at all in helping me go back to sleep after waking, which is why I needed it in the first place. I have some Lorazepam on the way, which is what I previously used with success. But I have been desperate for sleep a couple of times like last night so I took this other drug.
One thing about the dreams I have had on Temazepam is that they include a lot of clutter. When I say clutter, I mean that a lot of what is in the background is often a myriad of complex items that often tend to prove a physical challenge for me. Last night, this clutter appeared in the way of junk, as one might see in the History Channel series “American Pickers,” about a couple of guys who go around the countryside buying junk they sell as antiques and collectibles.
The site in which my dream occurred was a very large and rambling house — this has often been something I’ve dreamed about even before my most recent excursions — that is the site of what appears to be something like an estate sale.
Some of the people with me on this outing I know although I cannot remember any of my close friends there. The woman who apparently owns the home and I meet said that I know one of her cousins and mentions a name. This is really odd. The guy’s name is of someone whom I don’t know other than having talked to him once, interviewing him for a news story in 2004, the story being a one-year anniversary piece on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster over East Texas.
Now I have had some scary dreams on this sleep medicine. They occurred the first couple of nights I took them. As I noted they were disconcerting experiences because I don’t have frightening dreams. Well, I say I don’t. Sometimes I do have dreams that most people and even I would think are frightening. I just don’t react frightened in those dreams. You see what I am saying?
The scary dreams included men whom I thought were out to do me harm and I managed to escape them although I went through a very disturbing experience to do so. My getaway was helped by standing upon a steel platform even though I was being threatened at the time by a bunch of half-rat, half-monkey creatures below who were bouncing off the ground. You see what I am saying about scary? If this was the old days, 60s and 70s, people would just tell you that you’re having a bad trip.
Last night’s dream wasn’t so scary as it was just plan weird. My outing around the big home where the junk sale was enhanced by riding a pig.
The pig was about the size of a horse and very friendly. I had a very fun ride on the pig whose name, believe it or not, was “Babe.” One difficult terrain Babe and I encountered before returning to the large house was plugging through part of the estate’s yard which was full of molten chocolate. Yum.
I believe I know where the clues to the pig’s existence lies, at the very least.
I am reading a book about a man’s canoe journey down the Neches River, here in East Texas. Richard M. Donavon’s “Paddling the Wild Neches,” is about his experience, which was to call attention to a fight to have the Neches designated as a National Wild and Scenic River. This would help prevent development such as the building of two dams on the middle reaches of the river. In addition to his description of the wooded Neches country, Donavon recalls stories he heard from his youth and his own experiences growing up in the 40s and 50s near the Neches. Among his stories are about killing wild hogs that roamed the river bottom, some of which can be quite large. (When I ran a small weekly paper in the area which he writes about, a couple of guys came by to have their picture made with the “Pineywoods Rooter” of some 800 pounds that they had killed hunting. They had the pig tied upside down on their ATV in the back of their pickup with its feet –hooves, whatever — sticking in the air). I wish I had the picture available.
The “Babe” reference also was easy to pinpoint. I never saw the movie “Babe” but am familiar with it. It was a 1995 family film, for those who are not, about a pig who wanted to be a sheep dog. A sequel was made. In the midst of all the talk recently about threatened violence on politicians came news of an actual threat against U.S. House minority whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. The man arrested after someone reported his rants on a You Tube video was described by neighbors as “a loon.” In addition to Cantor, suspect Norman Leboon also threatened movie studios over “Babe.” You got it. Pig movie. Capitalist pig?
Just where the chocolate ride on a pig comes from, who knows? Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I am riding down a path on a pig and am detoured on a chocolaty path by the drug Temazapam. Bring on old faithful, Lorazepam and hopefully pleasant dreams along with a good night’s sleep will be somewhere around the bend.
