Up in the middle of the night

And no, it wasn't the soda.  I sleep in two braces, one on each arm, and tonight they're hot and uncomfortable, they're not helping the pain in my hands, and one arm is hurting from the hand all the way up through the shoulder to the point where I'm having trouble sleeping.  L Although the pain is radiating UP my arm, I know it comes from nerves being impinged at the neck on between the chest and shoulder, as I've had trouble before. I just got up to go to the bathroom, originally thinking it was later and I might as well get up and stay up, but it's only 3 am.  Still, that was good, as YKWIA was sitting up with his glasses on and a cat on his lap (sans a cup of tea in his hand, at least), totally asleep, which is bad for his neck.  I woke him up, which was good, as he also hadn't taken his medicine before bed.  So I went and peed, he took his medicine, I took some ibuprofen, and I'm waiting for that to kick in.  I wish I could take one of the muscle relaxers, but it's too late.

He is winning the war of dog comfort.  One dog sleeps in the bed.  One dog wishes she did, but she's older and can't get into it, for one, and they were discouraged years ago until the puppy came and melted hearts and was spoilt just a bit.  So the little dog usually sleeps at the foot of my bed (well the side, it's a daybed, so it's complicated, anyway, the short end) on a blanket that's actually a thin comforter/bedspread, so it's comfier than the others, which are fleece.  She also loves a little purple blanket I was given when I broke my ankle, that on impulse I put down on a cold night, because one, she knows it's hers, and two, she can make a pillow out of it.  But the other day YKWIA put an old worn out comforter under the thick fleece blanket in his room.  So just now, despite apparently starting out in my room, she was stretched out on this nice, thick, padded bed.  That, and I may have frozen her out with the fans going, but really it's 62 outside right now and the heat is on because YKWIA is from a desert people and freezes in sub-80 degree weather.  My people, on the other hand, are from a cool, rainy island, and I sweat like a pig in any sort of humid summer day.  He'll actually come up in the middle of winter and hold onto my hands, which generate their own heat or try the back of my neck, and his hands will be like ice.

Okay, it's not really easing up yet (in fact my thumb, which is the focal point of my arthritis, is actually throbbing and referring up the arm), but I think I'll try to go back to bed now.  I'm having trouble opening not only jars but resealable pouches due to my arthritis, or turning certain things.  If I'm like this at 51, that's not a good sign. Typing's uncomfortable too, at least at the moment, and since I do an awful lot of that, it's not good either.  :(