So I didn't write my weekly wrap-up on Sunday because I had my follow-up with the doctor on Monday and I wanted to include it (and then I was just lazy on Tuesday!). Last week, I was so incredibly tired and had lots of joint pain. Also, to kind of add on to my mowing adventure, I had a lot of trouble regulating my temperature. My normal is usually in the 96-degrees but there were several times it would spike up to the high 98s. I don't know if everyone with FM has this or not? As long as I can remember (lol, get it?) I've never had a high fever like a "normal" person. It seems like my temperature drops when I'm really ill rather than going up. Anyhow, not only was my temperature spiking, it was happening often, sometimes changing up to 2 degrees either direction in less than an hour. I brought it up at my appointment and my doctor told me that it was something I'd just have to work around since there's nothing that can be done medically to "fix it". We also talked about the insomnia which has incidentally gotten a lot better since I stopped drinking all of that Mt. Dew. I've still had a few sleepless nights though so I wanted to address it. It seems silly that I'm tired ALL the time but can't sleep when I get into bed at night but that's just the way it is. The doctor told me to try 10mg of Melatonin for the nights I can't sleep. Since it can build up an "immunity" in your system and I don't like to sleep TOO hard, I decided to start with 5mg as needed, I'll keep you posted on how that works. He was going to prescribe something for the joint pain but because of my allergies, I'm pretty limited on what I can take. I'm trying 1500mg of Glucosamine for a month to see if it will help. Also, as much as I loved Savella, I had called the pharmacy to find out how much it was going to cost to stay on it and the price for a month was $175 which is really not in my budget at all. Today I'm on my first full day of Effexor. So far it seems to be doing just as well but I'm having trouble focusing.... not my brain, my eyes. Maybe I'm just tired today? If anyone has had this happen to them, please let me know?
I almost felt bad for my doctor during the appointment. Even though my memory IS getting better, I'd written down questions and concerns that I've had so I wouldn't forget to ask. A lot of them, he just couldn't answer. I think he's an amazing doctor and I don't think it's a lack of medical knowledge, I think there are just too many "gray areas" when it comes to FM. He did his best to give me answers based on the single symptoms alone but he said that they could be different within the spectrum of all that's included in FM. One thing we talked about that still concerns me is memory. My short-term has gotten SO much better but I wanted to know if long-term comes back once it's gone or not. I'm not sure I like the answer I got but again, this is what he knows of and isn't necessarily the "gospel" so it could be different from person to person. His answer, as I understood it, was that sometimes we might have memories but they haven't "imprinted" into our brains so once it's lost, it's lost. It makes me wonder what's required for something to be important enough to you to do this "imprinting" or if you even have an option in what saves and what doesn't. I've actually had similar thoughts along these lines even though I don't want to admit that these things are truly "gone". My thought has been.... when is something a "memory" and when is something just remembered because you've repeated or heard it so many times? Pretty deep stuff, eh?
In closing, I asked if Parkview offers a Fibromyalgia support group and they don't. He suggested I start one! I don't know what all that entails but for now I think I'm happy with my little group of friends I have right now. Besides, support groups make me think of people crying and hugging and I'm not down with all of that touching, lol. As always, I appreciate your support and hope that you've gained something from my ramblings. Some of you have me on Facebook, some of you know me in SL, anyone else feel free to drop me an email at LOLA132@yahoo.com but be sure you put the word Fibromyalgia in the subject line so I don't think you're a hot cam girl or something! Thanks for listening! <3
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Week 3: April 30 - May 6
A full week on Savella 50mg and the nausea has subsided! Hooray! I had a few setbacks this week in terms of my mental well-being so I'll talk about those.
I haven't been able to be an "active" member of the household for some time now and earlier this week, I decided to change that. We have some pretty picky neighbors around here and we've had the police called on us once before for having our grass too long. It seems like every time J has a day off, it's raining or something else happens that he can't get to it and of course, working third shift doesn't help. I haven't been able to do any of the mowing myself since we moved here, though I DID make myself do it the first year. Every time I tried, I'd have trouble breathing, totally overheat and I'd end up broke out in hives. After each time, I'd have to take a totally cold shower just to get somewhat back to normal and it would still be hours before I could function. Well, with all of the improvements I've been feeling, I thought it was time to try again. It was probably around 10am so it wasn't HORRIBLY hot outside yet and the dew was dry when I went out to the shed and pulled out the mower. I tried a few times to pull the starter cord and that was totally fail, I ended up coming inside and asking J to come start it for me. I went out to the front yard and mowed the patch between the sidewalk and the road and then the patch between the driveway and the neighbor's yard. By that time I was already sweating and having trouble breathing. I went ahead and did about 6 passes in the main part of the front yard but that was it, I couldn't go any further. I felt defeated by my stupid yard. When I came inside, I was flushed and sweating, gasping for breath and my skin was itching. I grabbed a big glass of iced tea and the ice pack out of the freezer and turned on the air conditioner before I plopped down in my chair. Within 20 minutes, the ice pack was completely thawed and even starting to warm yet my body was still sweating and hot. I just kept drinking my tea and eventually after a couple hours I cooled down to what I would call normal. I was in tears. My yard is NOT that large or difficult to mow, I shouldn't have had an issue doing it but there I was. J ended up finishing it even though he had to work that night. I'm going back to the doctor a week from Monday so I'm going to discuss this with him because I can't imagine this is normal at all. (Anyone that's had a similar problem, feel free to contact me, I'd like to know I'm not alone in this!)
The second fail of the week was actually the same night. I haven't really told many people because I wasn't sure I could do it but...... I'm now SIX days Mountain Dew free! I've been drinking at least 40 ounces a day for at least 20 years and I know it's horrible for you, not to mention the caffeine, so I decided to stop. I'm already an insomniac, do I really need that much caffeine? Since I quit, I've been tired a bit earlier in the evening so I'm pretty sure it's helping at least a little. Anyhow, after such an awful day with the yard and all, I was ready for bed at 10:30pm so I went! As I was laying there drifting off, I started having these horrible sensations in my legs. Now, in the past, I've had feelings of trembling in them or even those sudden impulse jerks but I've never experienced anything like this. It was like the impulse jerks but the jerk never came. I could feel the "energy" going down to my legs but then the big twitch never came. It was happening SO frequently that it began to actually hurt, especially in my knees. I laid there for awhile trying to jedi-mind-trick myself.... I thought if I could persuade my body into actually completing the impulse it would feel so much better. Well, I'm no jedi so that didn't work! I finally got out of bed and walked around a bit and stretched some. By the time I got back to bed it was 4:30am though. I hope I described this well enough in text for everyone to understand. I told my friend P what had happened and she said she's had the exact same thing so that made me feel a lot better, in that, at least I'm not alone!
3 weeks down! Onto the next! Thanks for reading! <3
I haven't been able to be an "active" member of the household for some time now and earlier this week, I decided to change that. We have some pretty picky neighbors around here and we've had the police called on us once before for having our grass too long. It seems like every time J has a day off, it's raining or something else happens that he can't get to it and of course, working third shift doesn't help. I haven't been able to do any of the mowing myself since we moved here, though I DID make myself do it the first year. Every time I tried, I'd have trouble breathing, totally overheat and I'd end up broke out in hives. After each time, I'd have to take a totally cold shower just to get somewhat back to normal and it would still be hours before I could function. Well, with all of the improvements I've been feeling, I thought it was time to try again. It was probably around 10am so it wasn't HORRIBLY hot outside yet and the dew was dry when I went out to the shed and pulled out the mower. I tried a few times to pull the starter cord and that was totally fail, I ended up coming inside and asking J to come start it for me. I went out to the front yard and mowed the patch between the sidewalk and the road and then the patch between the driveway and the neighbor's yard. By that time I was already sweating and having trouble breathing. I went ahead and did about 6 passes in the main part of the front yard but that was it, I couldn't go any further. I felt defeated by my stupid yard. When I came inside, I was flushed and sweating, gasping for breath and my skin was itching. I grabbed a big glass of iced tea and the ice pack out of the freezer and turned on the air conditioner before I plopped down in my chair. Within 20 minutes, the ice pack was completely thawed and even starting to warm yet my body was still sweating and hot. I just kept drinking my tea and eventually after a couple hours I cooled down to what I would call normal. I was in tears. My yard is NOT that large or difficult to mow, I shouldn't have had an issue doing it but there I was. J ended up finishing it even though he had to work that night. I'm going back to the doctor a week from Monday so I'm going to discuss this with him because I can't imagine this is normal at all. (Anyone that's had a similar problem, feel free to contact me, I'd like to know I'm not alone in this!)
The second fail of the week was actually the same night. I haven't really told many people because I wasn't sure I could do it but...... I'm now SIX days Mountain Dew free! I've been drinking at least 40 ounces a day for at least 20 years and I know it's horrible for you, not to mention the caffeine, so I decided to stop. I'm already an insomniac, do I really need that much caffeine? Since I quit, I've been tired a bit earlier in the evening so I'm pretty sure it's helping at least a little. Anyhow, after such an awful day with the yard and all, I was ready for bed at 10:30pm so I went! As I was laying there drifting off, I started having these horrible sensations in my legs. Now, in the past, I've had feelings of trembling in them or even those sudden impulse jerks but I've never experienced anything like this. It was like the impulse jerks but the jerk never came. I could feel the "energy" going down to my legs but then the big twitch never came. It was happening SO frequently that it began to actually hurt, especially in my knees. I laid there for awhile trying to jedi-mind-trick myself.... I thought if I could persuade my body into actually completing the impulse it would feel so much better. Well, I'm no jedi so that didn't work! I finally got out of bed and walked around a bit and stretched some. By the time I got back to bed it was 4:30am though. I hope I described this well enough in text for everyone to understand. I told my friend P what had happened and she said she's had the exact same thing so that made me feel a lot better, in that, at least I'm not alone!
3 weeks down! Onto the next! Thanks for reading! <3
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