I'll Order Some Sleep with a Side of Snooze

Right before I had surgery in January, I read someone's blog post that had a "Top 10 Reasons You Know You Have Crohn's" list.  Most of the list was the usual, but one of the spots said something about only being able to sleep on your side with your right leg bent under - or some such strangeness.  And I totally was sleeping like that at the time - I just had no idea that it was related to Crohn's.  I felt like I belonged to a secret club.

But for a tummy issue that would probably benefit from some really good sleep, Crohn's has a way of making it hard times to sleep.  After I had surgery, I could only sleep on my right side or my back - sleeping on my left side made it feel like my stitches were being pulled out.  With other flare ups, I've only been able to sleep on my left side because it hurt to sleep on my right.

I'm a total side sleeper.  It makes me happy to snuggle with Will while falling asleep with the cat at the foot of the bed- one big warm happy pile of Hendersons.  With this latest flare-up, I can't sleep on either side without waking up in pain which usually leads to throwing up.  So I have to fall asleep either on my back or on my stomach.  And sleeping on your back or stomach doesn't make you a very good snuggler.

Falling asleep on my stomach is possible, but I usually wake up in the middle of the night with two arms prickling because they've fallen asleep.  Trying to roll over or push myself up with fast asleep limbs has resulted in a few not so cool rollover moves.  One night I even contemplated waking Will up so he could help shove me over because I couldn't feel my arms at all!

Sleeping on my back is okay, but I've been waking up with horrible back and neck aches.  My very awesome mom and I went to the Woodhouse Spa in Denver on Thursday to get massages and I had the guy crank on my neck and back.  Which I think helped - I'll let you know as soon as I'm not so sore from the massage.

So last night I couldn't fall asleep on my back or my stomach.  I thought, screw it, I'm sleeping on my side and I fell fast asleep.  Then I woke up in pain at 5 am and have been throwing up ever since.  It wasn't worth it.  And now I just keep adding food to the list of things I never want to see again.  Goodbye beef tostadas - never want to see you again.