Thanks, Graybeard

[oldandslow2]

I didn't use your under the knees pillow suggestion because I am unable to sleep on my back for any length of time for some reason. It's been that way for a long time. Sleep a little while, wake and have to turn on my side where I can get a decent night's sleep. The suggestion did trigger a memory that my wife used a between the knees pillow earlier this year so she could sleep better while medical since was working on her. I had forgotten about it as it had been sometime since she needed it but it popped into my mind after reading your post. I found it and it works. I can now sleep on one side or the other as I normally do and spent my first night in bed in over two months last night. My bum hip has even felt better this morning than it has in quite sometime. I hope the relief will continue. I was getting really tired of the recliner.

[Graybeard]

Yup if ya gotta sleep on your side a pillow between the legs really helps a lot. I've used that too but for some reason thought you were trying to sleep on your back. I also have to have a pillow on top of me when I sleep on my side to rest the upside arm on.

For me that pillow on top of me to rest the arm on is an absolute necessity for sleeping on my side. My bum left shoulder will throb like a toothache without it and the right arm will go numb on me without it.

You are of course quite welcome for any help my suggestions might give you even if only by reviving an old memory.

[Land_Owner]

Hats off to you guys sleeping in a bed.  I can get almost an hour of horizontal sleep, on my left side, never on my back or right, before the hips and legs start to ache and force me to move to a recliner, not missing a chance to use the bathroom along the way.  Fortunately, I can get another 3 to 4 hours of sleep in the recliner before the bladder wakes me.  Then I am fully awake, making a pot of coffee.  Today, like most days, will be a series of naps interrupted by periods on the PC, seeing what's going on everywhere. 

On another note, I can drink a 24-ounce cup of coffee, check the news and email, read a few threads, post a few responses, and most times in about an hour or two go right back to sleep (in the recliner).  Caffeine affects me the opposite way.  Only once in a great while it will perk right through to my brain and leave me with that wide-eyed attention of the frozen deer in the headlights.

[Lloyd Smale]

ya im about the same. Slept in a recliner for the most part for the last 10 years. When im having a good day i try the bed (hospital bed) and at best i can get about 2-3 hours of sleep before the pain wakes me and i head back out to the recliner. Last 6 months there havent been any good days because the back is flaring up again. Doc wants to do another fusion but ive been operated on every year for the past 6 years and i told him i was going to wait at least till next summer. Hopefully i can make it that long. The back is pinch nerves and im getting real bad cramps in my legs and the left one has gone completely numb 4 times now. Im wondering if sleeping in bed is just aggravating it. Might just go back to giving up on the bed.

Hats off to you guys sleeping in a bed.  I can get almost an hour of horizontal sleep, on my left side, never on my back or right, before the hips and legs start to ache and force me to move to a recliner, not missing a chance to use the bathroom along the way.  Fortunately, I can get another 3 to 4 hours of sleep in the recliner before the bladder wakes me.  Then I am fully awake, making a pot of coffee.  Today, like most days, will be a series of naps interrupted by periods on the PC, seeing what's going on everywhere. 

On another note, I can drink a 24-ounce cup of coffee, check the news and email, read a few threads, post a few responses, and most times in about an hour or two go right back to sleep (in the recliner).  Caffeine affects me the opposite way.  Only once in a great while it will perk right through to my brain and leave me with that wide-eyed attention of the frozen deer in the headlights.

[oldandslow2]

Last night didn't go as well as the the night before. Lots of short periods of sleep and wake and turn to the other side. Only one bathroom trip. I am going to keep on keeping on with the bed for awhile but if my nights continue like last night I'm moving back to the recliner. I'm a tired puppy this morning.

Like Land-Owner I am pretty well immune to the effects of caffeine, being able to drink it right up to bedtime and then sleep soundly. I have heard people complain that it makes them shaky and never have felt that way. I even did an experiment in the early stage of essential tremors when I switched to caffeine free coffee for several months, and then several months of no coffee at all. The tremors didn't change in the least.

Excuse me, please. I'm hobbling off to get a cup of coffee.

[Lloyd Smale]

wish i only had to get up once a night to pee. Its every 2 hours about like clockwork anymore for me. Thats even taking prostate meds.

Last night didn't go as well as the the night before. Lots of short periods of sleep and wake and turn to the other side. Only one bathroom trip. I am going to keep on keeping on with the bed for awhile but if my nights continue like last night I'm moving back to the recliner. I'm a tired puppy this morning.

Like Land-Owner I am pretty well immune to the effects of caffeine, being able to drink it right up to bedtime and then sleep soundly. I have heard people complain that it makes them shaky and never have felt that way. I even did an experiment in the early stage of essential tremors when I switched to caffeine free coffee for several months, and then several months of no coffee at all. The tremors didn't change in the least.

Excuse me, please. I'm hobbling off to get a cup of coffee.

[oldandslow2]

I limit my fluid intake before bedtime. Seems to work for me. Since doing so it's seldom I have to crawl out of bed and make the walk twice in a night. I do take the easy-pee meds.

[phalanx]

I limit my fluid intake before bedtime. Seems to work for me. Since doing so it's seldom I have to crawl out of bed and make the walk twice in a night. I do take the easy-pee meds.

I take a No Pee drug.Hydrochlorothiazide. No kidding thats what it says on the bottle.

[Graybeard]

I also take Hydrochlorothiazide a 25 mg pill each morning. It is for my blood pressure not to keep me from urinating.

I take Finisteride for my prostate, been taking it for a few years. I rarely have to get up during the night but if I do only once except very rarely. I do reduce my fluid intake after supper tho to almost nothing. Just enough to take my nightly pills most of the time.

I seem to sleep better in bed than in my recliner tho I can sleep in both. I so have to have extra pillows tho to sleep in bed. One under knees if sleeping on my back and one under my upside arm if sleeping on my side.

[Lloyd Smale]

i take both of those pills. Hydrochlorothiazide  twice a day and finasteride at bed time. Still get up at least twice a night and sometimes 3 times. But i think alot of it is the pain wakes me up and i notice i have to pee. So i have to get up and walk off the pain anyway so i go and pee. I should take some advice from a few of you though. I probably drink two glasses of ice tea after supper every night. I like a full glass of crushed ice with some tea in it. Its almost like desert to me. If id cut that out it would probably help alot. But the fact is id be up 2 or 3 times a night anyway because of the pain so whether i have to piss when i do it doesnt really matter much. 

[oldandslow2]

I also take hydrochlorothiazide for blood pressure. After starting the medication I started having to pee more often and at my next checkup I told the doctor about it. He told me it's water pill and that's normal. It's also a PITA when traveling any distance with the increased need for potty breaks. I take generic flomax To keep the flow going.