Insomnia

Crazy thing, this insomnia. I'm actually sat here with my eyes drooping, and have been for the past 6 hours, but every time I lie down my brain is like a hive of bees - I just can't get it to shut down.

Every time I do think I'm relaxing, then I start noticing the itching, and then end up scratching. More often than not at some point I end up scratching so much that I draw blood, and then end up blotting away and trying to relax again.

This is a particularly bad night, which is a shame as the last couple of days have been pretty good. I slept pretty soundly after my A&E stint on Friday, then had a relaxed day on Saturday ending up at my good friend Jane's house with lots of friends having a christmas drinks party - I even allowed myself a half glass of mulled wine. Sunday I slept in til mid-day then pottered a bit before driving down to Egham to watch a dance competition in which several of my friends were competing.

It was great to get back to a competition and see it all happening, though of course I did feel a bit frustrated that I wasn't dancing myself. Still, it was particularly nice to see my partner Sarah doing really well - she's dancing for Oxford University while I'm not well but I do intend to steal her back as soon as I can!

A tiring day, and I felt physically and mentally exhausted at the end of it, and yet here I am, still awake at a few minutes to 6am on Monday, and I've given up any realistic chance of making it in to work and have already emailed in. Thank god they are being so understanding and supportive at work - I have no idea how I'd cope without that.

I'm going to make myself a nice hot bowl of porridge, watch some crappy TV then *hopefully* I'll finally feel like sleeping. Maybe if I'm lucky I can tempt my brother to drive over this afternoon with my little nephew Patrick - he always makes me feel better. We chatted on the phone today - its always cute to hear him say "he'o Unc Didi"!