Have You Ever Had Trouble Sleeping?

Have you ever had trouble sleeping?

I couldn’t sleep. More accurately, I woke up every day at 5:17AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. It happened for weeks. Then months. I’d get up, go to the bathroom, then try to go back to sleep., but it was impossible. Every day at 5:17 AM, exactly. I was gaining weight, I was miserable all the time, and it wasn’t getting any better on its own.

Finally, I went to the doctor. I’m generally distrustful of doctors, since my last physical started with me saying I had blood sugar issues so I tried to eat small, nutritious meals throughout the day, and ended with the doctor suggesting I carry packets of sugar in my pocket to eat in case I felt my blood sugar dropping.

I went to a doctor my wife’s cousin recommended. He was interested in my well-being, asked me sincere questions, and listened as I answered. I told him about my waking up every day at 5:17, and some back pain I’d been experiencing. At the end of the visit, he wrote me some prescriptions, but since I couldn’t read his writing and know very little about drugs, I asked the male nurse what the prescriptions were.

“This one is for pain, and this one is for erectile dysfunction.”

“There must be a mistake,” I told him. “I don’t have that kind of issue.”

He called the doctor over. “I’m pretty sure I don’t need this one,” I said.

The doctor explained. “In men, as you get older, your prostate enlarges, pressing on your bladder, which makes you wake up to pee. This will fix that. I’ll get you a trial box with a month’s supply.”

At this point, the male nurse spoke up. “I have that problem!”

The doctor told him, “I’ll get you a trial box, too.”

The male nurse thanked me profusely. ME! I couldn’t figure out why. The doctor was the one who gave him the solution!

I went home and took the medication as directed. It took a few days to start working, but when I woke up at 6:30 without waking up to pee, I couldn’t stop smiling.

The medication has a primary function. And, for the record, it performs that function extremely well. EXTREMELY WELL. I did not know things had changed in my own body with age, but apparently they had. All of a sudden, I realized how my body had changed over time, because now I felt like a teenager.

That 30 day supply was one of the weirdest months of my entire life. When it ran out, I went to the pharmacy with a prescription to get more. That’s when I found out a 30 day’s supply cost $150. I decided my sleeping later wasn’t worth $150/month, because I’m cheap. But I question that decision all the time. And I checked, it’s not much cheaper from Canada.