4 posts tagged “fibro”

Not recommended, by the way.  Occasionally I don't get prescriptions refilled promptly. You know how it goes, you think about needing a refill while the office is closed, and forget all about it when they open.  It is my fault usually, but not this time. 

Friday I rememberd (finally) to call in a prescription that needed renewing.  I usually take care of this while I'm at the doctor, but I didn't think about it when I saw the dr two weeks ago.  I called in the late morning and after being passed around a couple of times I get transferred to the refill answering machine.  I give my information and trust that they'll call in the meds.  I ran out on Saturday, but I had a couple of old pills (weaker dose) left over so I was good until Sunday.  I called the pharmacy and found out that eeeek!  There was no prescription to pick up.  I spaced out the low dose pills and hoped for the best.  I called the dr back Monday and when I said I had left the message on the machine, the nurse snorted.  Very encouraging.  They called in the meds and I finally started back up on Monday night. 

To make a long story short, I was suffering all the nerve pain and fibro pains from Monday through Wednesday.  Finally this morning (Thursday) I got up and felt like myself.  If there was ever any question whether Lyrica does anything to help me, it's been answered now.  Not the way I would prefer to learn. 

Needless to say, I will be taking care of all my prescriptions with that office in person from now on!  You'd think that they'd pay a little more attention to patient meds at a pain clinic.

I woke up this morning feeling really awful, like I had been hit by a truck.  My neck, shoulders, and arms hurt, my back hurt, and my knees were swollen.  I also had a terrible headache.  Not a day you want to get out of bed!  Fortunately, my husband took the dogs downstairs and out first thing so I had a little time to get going.    I grabbed a couple of Aleve and my morning meds and went back to bed until 2:30 or so, when I got hungry and had to get up to get some food and fluids.

What's wrong?  A combination of things.  For some reason I have missed two doses of my Lyrica, which keeps the fibromyalgia and the nerve pain in check.  Also, I've been having allergy problems for several weeks (thank you crepe myrtle!).   Finally, a gal called Fay is taking her time on the Florida coast and causing a lot of rainy, dreary weather here.  (The good news is we're in no danger from this tropical storm at this time.)

The combination has me feeling as if all my connective tissues are being zapped from time to time.  It's hard do describe.  Something between an electrical jolt and the vibration that you get from the slow-speed drill the dentist uses.  No matter what you do, it won't stop.  You play games trying to relax or lie in exactly the right position so the joint or limb is comfortable, but the only relief is sleep.

Honestly, I'm lucky.  Most of the time this is controlled by medicine now.  Just sometimes, like today, it all breaks through and I lose a day to just trying to get through.

Looking back over this blog, I see lots of posts complaining about fatigue.  I haven't really said anything about why I am disabled, etc.  This is as good a time as any.

I had back problems and pain from my late adolescence.  When I was 17 the doctors thought I had Rheumatoid arthritis.  After 15 or 20 years that diagnosis changed to fibromyalgia.

Then, in 2001 I herniated a disk in my back.  A couple of years later I had problems with tingling in my arms and I had two surgeries for removal of a herniated disk in my neck and removal of some bone to reduce pressure on the nerve roots.  That helped for about a year and then my neck pain returned.  I had herniated another disk in my neck.  Too make a long story short, I have chronic pain from my back and my neck and nothing can be done to cure the problem.  I can only treat the pain.  I have nerve damage in my left hand because of this problem.  I have several more herniated or bulging disks now.  There have been times when I could barely walk because of these problems.  Fortunately,I have improved a little from that low point and I am able to walk with a cane.

Since the beginning of this year, I have been having a lot of fatigue.  If I work one day, I have to rest the next day or two.  Many things could be causing the fatigue.  I guess I've been complaining about it more because it is a new symptom.

This all makes it difficult, if not impossible to do my artwork in the way I was accustomed.  I am gradually trying to figure out a new way to work, but it is not easy with all this fatigue.

Sometimes my business contacts and responsibilities require me to get up in the morning and function.  This is always difficult.  I often wake every couple of hours at night and it is only in the morning that I get long periods of uninterruped sleep.  Lately I've been getting dreams during my extened evening naps. 

Because of the fibromyalgia, if I don't sleep I don't feel good.  Muscles relax and are repaired during REM sleep.  After a couple of days of bad sleep I feel like every joint, every spot where a mucle attaches, has been damaged.

Knowing I had to get up early this morning I took a sleeping pill.  It took a long time to work, but it did work and I woke up feeling just a bit groggy.  My body wasn't cooperating very well at first.  Maybe I slept with my head wrong and irritated a spinal nerve or two. 

I'm now dringing my strong coffee and hoping that I will be able to function at the meeting this morning.  Thank goodness I don't have to drive.