Quandary!

So, I don't know if I've said this lately, but I love amitriptyline. It's my friend. But we've (we being me, but on my doctor's orders-so no one thinks I'm self-medicating) had to up my dose twice since I started, and that may be an issue. I love it; it's great that I discovered what real sleep was supposed to be like. I was always such a light sleeper that I didn't even realize how poor the quality of my sleep was until I started taking Elavil and experienced real sleep. I sound like Lindsay Wagner on those Sleep Number bed commercials. But seriously, good sleep! The problem is that now that it's a lot higher dose, I am knocked out within about an hour and a half of taking it. I was taking it by nine o'clock, because that way I could still get up in the morning without much trouble. But if I take this dose at nine o'clock I have issues getting up at seven. So I started taking it at like 5:30 or 6:30 and being in bed by nine. The only day last week I stayed up past nine was Thursday, for the debate, and that was pushing it. Shannon didn't know I was taking my medicine that early, so I think she thought I was massively depressed or dying or something. She said it was like I was just gone. If I take it that early, I even wake up before my alarm goes off, but I really don't like being dead on my feet at 8 o'clock. I don't know if I should call the doctor and try something different or just suck it up and sleep a lot. It's just weird because I have always been able to function very well on small amounts of sleep (small being maybe five hours, not like 2 hours). I don't like sleep cutting into my activity time...

Also, I doubt this is a side effect or anything, probably just my insanity, but lately I keep hearing a ringing when I turn my head to the left, but only around ten in the morning. I thought it must have been something in my office, but it happened to me on Saturday and Sunday too. As my father would say, then don't turn your head to the left, dummy! A side effect that isn't very fun, but does help me to remember to drink enough water is the dry mouth business. Yesterday I saw commercials that lead me to believe that Imitrex is going to have a generic soon! Yay! I totally got a pack of nine on September 28th and I'm already down to two. Oops. I've been having the head issues of late, again. The insurance only lets me get one pack of nine each month. Some months they decide I can only have eight or seven, and once, six, so then the pharmacy cuts some out and I don't see it until I get home and open it. That always makes me grouchy. It's the same price whether they give me seven or nine. I totally thought I was doing ok, at least not complaining about the pain, because that gets boring. But today my supervisor was like, I've been meaning to see if you're ok because I can tell you've been having head problems lately. Like, aww, crap, pull it together! But then she told me how well I was doing something or other, so I guess I've been managing acceptably. Maybe she can just tell. I know some people who can tell by looking at my face if I'm trying to function. Maybe that's where the lovely vertical wrinkle between my brows comes from...