I am in India bizi and the time here is GMT+5.30 hrs.

I saw my pdoc a few hours ago.
He'd already seen the e-mails that I sent him.
He does agree that I have a sleep disorder, but is not happy about my popping Xanax.

I had my left, lower wisdom tooth out about three and a half weeks ago. There was some cutting and breaking involved and as is normal with lupus, the wound took ages to heal, actually still healing. There was quite a bit of pain and I had to take a narco-type painkiller (T), along with the normal painkillers (NSAIDS) that I take regularly, as often as five times a day.

On a normal day I get by with just one T with the NSAID an hour before I get up from bed and then just take the NSAID every six hours after that.
T is well known for causing insomnia, and is highly addictive, so even on a bad day I don't pop one anytime after 5 P.M., and when the pain begins, grit my teeth, take a Xanax and go to bed early.

Because of the stupid tooth, I had to have five Ts a day for the first ten days or so, then tapered it down to four for a while, then three and now I am on two.

With that many Ts sleep didn't stand a chance and I needed 2 mgs of Xanax to even begin to want to put my head down on a pillow.

I know that I need to start tapering off. Otherwise it will ultimately pickle my brain.
He has given me 25 mg of Dosulepin, a TSA to try to help sleep and plans to increase it gradually.

I am not going to start right away. I've just started making some progress with my weight loss and I need to look for something that will least effect it.
A cousin had been on Amytriptilline for years and put on a lot of weight. She is on Paxil now, but eating seems to have become an addiction.

Now that my steroid Rx is lower, I want to do my best to get rid of as much of the weight I carry around as possible.

Tonight I've just had 1.75 mg of Xanax. I'll wait to see how that does. I also will be seeing my Rheumatologist next week, so will ask him for his take.

BTW, T also has some AD properties, so I'm flying a bit too.