Finally! Saturday night I took Lunesta instead of Trazodone at 1:00 a.m. I fell asleep right away, woke at 9:30, then dozed and stretched for another 45 minutes. My first conscious thought was, "Oh my god what IS that awful taste?!" It was amazingly bad. Rinsing my mouth didn't help at all ... I found that plain water tasted worst of all, with milk a close second. Coffee, thank god, was okay. Once I got going, I had a pretty good day, but the bad taste in my mouth never subsided.
Monday was the day my bird feeders disappeared (see Crying for the Birds), and I was pretty much a wreck all day. Yet by evening I was clear-headed again, doing some pretty good garden planning. However, I still had a terrible taste in my mouth (except when I as eating), and I could not drink water, milk or other cold beverages.
Turesday morning I turned the alarm off and went back to sleep, so I was late for work. This was the day I found out that the feeders had been stolen and destroyed by the jerk next door. It was also the day that the landlord forbade any more feeding of the birds, and I cried most of the day. Whether having a different depressant in my system intensified my upset or not, I don't know. I honsetly don't think so, but I've been wrong before.
I was pretty damn sick of the taste by now but thought it HAD to start wearing off, so I still took another Lunesta Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I dozed through the ringing alarm for an hour. And the bad taste was just as bad as it had ever been. At that point, I decided I'd had enough, and Wednesday night, I went back to Trazodone.
The taste in my mouth didn't go away until Friday evening.
So I went four days out of ten. At the follow-up interview I learned that I'd been on the highest dose prescription, 3 milligrams. Maybe I'd have done better on a lower dose - this was too strong, it was too hard to get up in the morning, but it was better quality sleep. If the truly vile taste would go away after a while at a lower dose, I'd like this drug.
But then I have to remember - Trazodone is one of the least expensive medications out there. My copay is $10, and I think if I didn't file it on insurance at all it might cost just $4.95. The copay on a prescription for Lunesta would be $40.
GOSH I wish I could still take Elavil.
