Painkiller, Part 4: Finding Lethe

Let's finish up this crazy subject. Having determined that what I really wanted was something to help me sleep, I called my chemo doc: Doctor Illyass. He ordered an Ambien generic for me. At first I was thrilled with it. I took half a dose and went right to sleep. But after a few days I realized that there was something peculiar about it. I would sleep exactly 6 hours and then wake up. Not a minute more nor less. I was sleepy! So I took a whole dose. Then I slept exactly 7 hours. And suddenly I became quite depressed and ANGRY. Very angry. Whether it was from the lack of sleep or the Ambien I didn't know or care. I stopped the Ambien.
Luckily I had an appointment scheduled with Dr. Illyass. And happily, he told me that I could use Melatonin, which I had used successfully before treatment. I had had to stop it during treatment because it is a sort of hormone.
I was thrilled. That night I took my dose and sweet sweet Lethe received me in her arms. Yes, I know what you are about to say, Lethe is the goddess of forgetfullness, not sleep. But she's always been my go-to goddess for getting to sleep. Here we sit on the edge of the river of the same name. Sweet Lethe!!!!!

Painkillers, Part 2: Trial and Errors...lots of errors

The next day, I called the nurse. She recommended I continue to take the Tylenol with Codeine, but add 3 colace a day, plus 2 senna at night. I ran right out and bought the medicine. But when I got home and looked at it, I was stymied. It was still early in the day. 3 colace?! What if I took it and got diarrhea, which was a distinct possibility? If I got it early, would I take an immodium? And then take the Tylenol with Codeine at night to got to sleep? That way would lead to constipation again.
Someone wrote to me about their experience with another painkiller: "after days of trial and error, we finally ended up ..." in her case it was several colace, senna, milk of magnesia, plus some prunes. But for me, the key words were "after days of trial and error". "Trial and Error" sounded like: Put yourself thru a lot of painful experiments. I really could not bring myself to do that to my body.
I waited until I saw Doctor Who a few days later. He blanched when I told him what the nurse had said. I'm glad I held off because he told me that dose would be too much. He said I would have to "Play around" to find the right dosage of colace. OK folks, playing around is the same as saying 'days of trial and error'. He also said to stop taking the immodium and only take the Tylenol with Codeine when I got diarrhea. Sounded ok, until I left the office and realized I usually got diarrhea early in the day. If I took Tylenol with Codeine at that time, it would knock me out.
He also had mentioned that the nurse I had spoken to was not his specific assistant who knew me but a generic nurse on call, spewing out the textbook answer (he didn't say this part) without really knowing ME.
At this point I was pretty mad. They say they will manage pain, but it seemed like they were leaving it up to me to CAUSE pain to myself in the pursuit of finding the right dose.
There will be a Part 3 to this saga.