Ibuprofen keeps Mom awake

My Mother is very sensitive to medicines. Plavix kept her from sleeping for 3 months (until I took her off of it). Sleeping pills have the opposite effect on her, as does Benadryl.

For months I was giving her Benadryl at night to help her sleep, and only after a long time did I figure out it wasn't really helping.

Now, I have found out that ibuprofen keeps her awake. How strange.

Because of the boil she had, the nurse suggested ibuprofen might help with the swelling from the infection. I gave my Mom just regular strength ibuprofen, 2 times a day. After about 5 days I realized she wasn't sleeping during the day.

Normally she will take a nap for 1-2 hours after she eats. Last Sunday she didn't sleep, the entire day.

On Monday, she was "out of sorts". Even the nurse noticed.

So, I decided it had to be the ibuprofen. Nothing else had changed (this was before she was taking the anti-biotics). I quit giving her ibuprofen, and the next day she was sleeping better.

Now she has caught up on her sleep, appears to have a little more energy, to the point she is making an effort to feed herself, even "stabbing" the food herself.

Amazing.

What is so disturbing about all of this is, when she was in the nursing home, all they could (or would) do to attempt to help her to sleep was to give her more pills.

They put her on an anti-anxiety pill, and when that didn't work, and anti-depressant.

No one even suggested that maybe her not sleeping was because of some of the medication.

Less is more.