11/13/13

Starting vacation tomorrow. I'm excited, but scared out of my mind. I have to make the long drive to Kennedy Space Center on a deadline. Technically, there's wiggle room in that deadline, but I'm still worried.

The Xyrem seems to be helping. I didn't get up quite so rested this morning, but I was alert and focused, even if I was still a bit tired. I've learned that the reason people keep saying "if you wake up before the alarm for the second dose, and it's been at least 2.5 hours, it's ok to take the second dose" is because when the Xyrem wears off, you wake up. It's weird.

I'm mostly done packing for the trip. I just have some toiletries to pack up. And I got most of the stuff on my to do list done. More than I expected to.

11/12/13

I woke up this morning at 6:45, before my alarm went off. And I didn't feel too bad when I got out of bed. I felt almost like a normal person. Hopefully this isn't a fluke and the new medicine is starting to work.

After work, my wife and I went to sign papers for refinancing the new car. Same term, slightly better rate, and free gap insurance. It's a good deal, and it's done before the trip, so in case there's an issue, we're covered.

Gaming was tonight. I only got through setup, which is ok since I didn't have anything set in stone as to what we'd be doing. I want to do a short adventure with some skill checks and 1 combat. I just have to figure out what to do. I guess I'll figure that out when I get back from vacation.

11/10/13

I don't think the Xyrem is working. I slept 9.5 hours last night and I wanted to sleep some more most of the day. However, it's still early in the game. I've only been on it for 2 days and I'm still on the lowest dose. It may take a little while to start working and I may need to increase the dose (Which I'm supposed to do next weekend). So I'll keep going.

My brother didn't show up to work on the kitchen. I still got some work done. I installed the garbage disposal, adapter, and P trap. I also hooked up the waste water for the dish washer. So while there's still no electricity in there, we at least have running water. It only took me 5 hours or so.

Made dinner and watched the Walking Dead. It was a good end to the night.

11/9/13

I was up early today. I think that was because of the Xyrem. I was tired, but at a point where I couldn't sleep anymore.

I spoke to my brother, who says he'll be over tomorrow to work on the kitchen. I picked up what I hope is the last part for the plumbing. If we can finish the plumbing and electricity, I'll be a very happy boy.

We also did some grocery shopping tonight. And I made a frozen lasagna.

And we went to Crossing Vineyard for a wine tasting, complements of my mother. She got us a gift certificate.

11/8/13

I figured out a problem that I've been struggling with for the past 2-3 days. It's not an easy solution, but I at least know the logic and how the numbers go together.

Tonight was Friday gaming. I had fun.

We also did Fridays, which was nice. Even though I forgot that I'm not supposed to eat for 2 hours before I take my new meds. I don't think it'll be a problem though.

And speaking of new meds, I'm starting the Xyrem tonight. Hopefully all goes well and this actually helps.

11/7/13

Got into work closer to "normal time", but I was able to get to work faster this morning. I needed less wake up time once I got to work. So that's good.

I had a relatively pleasant meeting with my boss and ex-boss that ended up devolving into car talk. Those two are usually at each other's throats, so it was nice that everyone was able to get along. It made the meeting much less stressful.

I watched the Cornhuskers play tonight. It was a close game .vs Northwestern, but the Huskers won with a last second hail Mary. Good game and I'm glad the Huskers won.

11/6/13

I got into work at 9:20 today, which is earlier than normal. I also stayed until about 5:45, so I worked my 8 hours and then some. Then came home and worked for another 2 hours or so. So I should be good for hours this pay period. Which is good, since I'll be just about out of PTO after the Florida trip.

I went out to lunch with one of my coworkers today. We had Thai. It was good, but it just seems a little lacking to me.

We were approved for the refinance of the new car. It comes with a slightly lower rate and built in gap insurance. We currently don't have gap insurance since that was extra. I'll work on pushing that through tomorrow.

11/5/13

The Xyrem was delivered today, so I have the new drugs. I'll probably have to wait until the weekend to start them, but at least I have them and can try them and see if they help. That's a huge step.

I worked from home today and finally realized what the problem I was having with the new cubes was. Now that I know the problem, tomorrow I can fix it. It's just a pain since I've been wracking my brain with this for the past 2 days to no avail.

Gaming was had tonight. I had everyone bump up their characters from 5th level to 9th. I don't think everyone is done, but I think this will be the final play test. I may spot check a few things here and there, but I think by and large things work. I have a few things still to write, but then I'll lay it out and release it to the world.

11/4/13

I was off to a slow start this morning, but I think I did pretty well. I got into work at 9:10, which is probably 30 minutes earlier than normal. I was also at work until 6:30, so I started the month off with a little extra time under my belt. Which is a good thing, since I'll be just about empty of all PTO by the time I get back from Florida.

I was relatively awake today. I upped the Nuvigil to 150 mg to try to keep me awake as a short term resolution until I get the Xyrem. At the very least it helps me get up in the morning (it's not supposed to, but it seems to regulate my sleep cycle).

I spoke with John at SDS and he's still having trouble getting to talk to the sleep doctor to resolve insurance issues. Apparently insurance now isn't going to cover any refills? I don't know. However, he said he was shipping the Xyrem out again and putting me on the coupon plan they have. I got a tracking number this time, so hopefully the meds will actually reach me tomorrow.

11/2/13 & 11/3/13

Yesterday we got up early to go to Shady Maple for breakfast for Mick's birthday. It was nice to see everyone, and breakfast was very good, as usual.

From there he hit the grocery store and bought stuff that we didn't need, but would taste good.

I also bought a bunch of stuff from Lulu, since I had a coupon.

That evening we went to Jenny and Damian's place to celebrate Halloween/Jenny's birthday. It was nice and we saw the same people from breakfast. There were a lot of great costumes.

Today I made some popcorn that we got at the Shady Maple grocery store.

I also worked on Happy Feats some more. I was going to lay it out today, but I realized there were still some parts to write, so I worked on those.

We ended the night with going to Valley of Terror with Matt and Emily. It was a great haunted hayride/walk/paintball experience. The actors were very interactive, the animatronics were fantastic, and the whole thing was very well put together. I had a blast.

11/1/13

Worked from home today so I could be here when the Xyrem showed up. Someone had to be here to sign for it.

I got a fair amount of work done. Not great, but I made some progress.

I got a call from the sleep doctor letting me know that the doctor "fought and fought" and finally got the insurance company to cover 2 months of Xyrem. Which is a crock of shit, since the insurance company denied the claim because they never heard back from him and his own office said he'd been out for a week (and apparently no one picked up the slack.)

It turns out UPS never came with the package, so I called SDS Pharmacy. They told me they never sent it out. So when I talked to John, the guy who's been managing me, I let him know how unhappy I was. He said he only found out insurance was going to cover it today. So why the hell didn't they send it out yesterday? And why the hell didn't they give me a call when they found out? I made it clear I expect more communication from them.