After reading the October 2004 Reader's Digest, a new pharmaceutical,
Provigil, sounded (to me) like exactly what I need.

I'm wide awake when I should be sleepy (9pm until 6am) and sleepy when
I should be wide awake (6am to 9pm). I have tried and tried to resolve
the problem but sleeping pills just make me groggy or allow two or
three hours of nighttime sleep at best.

Presently I get prescriptions from two sources, 1.) a free clinic that
treats my diabetes and diabetic neuropathy, and 2.) from a friend M.D.
that only prescribes meds he thinks I really need, mainly antibiotics
and Rx cough syrup and most recently Klonopin for my restless legs
syndrome.

Now I want to try Provigil because that article made it sound like
just what I need, but I don't know how to get it. I'm afraid to ask
the clinic because I have never told them I considered my nighttime
insomnia a problem. I'm afraid to ask my M.D. friend because he may
think of it as "speed" of sorts, although the article pointed out it
had none of the jittery side effects of the amphetamines.

I am looking for advice here as to whether I should shop around for a
third doctor or try getting them from another country where a
prescription might be obtained via VOIP consultation or a web
questionnaire. I'm of the opinion, "where there's a will, there's a
way," but I haven't thought of the best way yet. I have already done a
drug interactions review with Provigil and my current regimen of drugs
and I noted there were moderate but no severe side effects. On that
note my present doctors already have me on drugs with the potential
for side effects with other drugs they've prescribed, so what's one
more?

I guess the main reason I am writing is because the Reader's Digest is
such a popular magazine that surely other readers may have decided
Provigil is the drug for them, too, and I am just wondering how
successful they were at getting it, and what did they have to do when
their primary doctor did not know enough about the drug to make a
weighed decision as to whether this Rx was in the patient's best
interest?

Please respond here or via e-mail. I check my Hotmail account several
times per week.

Thanks.

"Bob"