Manufacturing Class and Lyrica

So this is my 366th post! That mean's i've written (all together) a year's worth of posts. Pretty exciting.

Anyway, Lyrica is pretty heavy duty. I woke up in a complete fog. It was like walking in a fun house most of the day. It cleared up later, around 2 pm, so I was able to attend class. This is at 75 mg twice daily mind you, so i'm starting out a bit heavier than others i've read about (who started at 50 mg once daily). I think i'll be alright though. As I said, I made it through class and tomorrow is a day off then the weekend so i'll have some time to adjust. I'm also titrating off amitriptyline, though I don't think the fogginess was from that.

In other news, I had a really great time at class! We were learning about herbal tablets and capsules. We actually made some tablets (although they are wet, and would need to be dried out) :D. It's amazing how easy they were to make, but granted we had medical grade herbs in class. If we were making it for clients we would need to be much more careful about measuring and whatnot. Still, it was fun :).

Pain level was down today, maybe only a 2 or 3. Whether that is due to lyrica or just a good day i'm not sure. I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow :) quite excited for it.

48 Hours Later

It's been a long 48 hours. Monday I was feeling pretty good, until the evening when my back hurt so much I had trouble sleeping and woke up a lot. Tuesday my back spasmed horribly, and more of my leg went numb (i've had a numb stripe since the microdiscectomy). ER, three crying fits, and a few hours later i'm sent home and told to see my gp and start some nerve pain meds. So thats what I do. I missed class again today (which I HATE doing) to see my gp (and have another crying fit >.>) and get a script for Lyrica.

I also got a script for sertraline. Because i'm not coping and my anxiety is up so high that i'm apparently crying infront of every health practitioner I come across. I'm not particularly proud of this...the crying or the sertraline...but I can't keep going like this, with either the pain or the emotions about the pain. I've used sertraline in the past with success, so i'm hoping it'll help carry me through this rough patch. 

So now i'm starting up a small dose of Lyrica and titrating down the amitriptyline before adding sertraline in 8 days or so. It isn't going to be a fun 8 days or so. I've already given warning to my husband. But i'm hoping this will help. I'm just so tired of this.

Lovely GP

I had a productive meeting with my GP today. As usual she was lovely, and quite concerned with my spike in pain levels. She agreed that trying the tricyclic antidepressants was a good idea, she actually has some other chronic pain patients on them so she knows that they can work well. She has also added 'round the clock panadol osteo (which is just a slow release panadol/acetaminophen) to my list of meds.

I took the amitriptyline a bit ago, and honestly i'm feeling a little bit speedy (not that i've taken speed before...just mind racy and that sort of thing) so....we'll see how I feel in another half hour. I'm hoping it will help...really really hoping.

I've also lost two kilos since my last visit! Yay! BP is also fine so...yeah...other than being diseased and symptom-ed and fat i'm pretty healthy ;)

Housesitting

I've been away for a few days, I bet the 1-2 of you who read this missed me ;). The truth is that my husband, pup, and I have been housesitting for my MiL as she went down to Sydney for an interview about the book she's written. I'll write more on that when it's available. It's been a nice few days over there, being able to take a bath and wriggle the wrinkly skin of her shar pei Cimba (who is a 12 year old rescue dog whom she adopted last year <3). Milo had fun having another dog around and being able to walk around his old stomping ground.

But now it's nice to be home. It's nice to have my ingredients for cooking, my bed, my pots and pans...

I did have two days over there were I was feeling very low. I'm not sure if it was just changing things around so much, or the increase in st. john's wart, but it wasn't very nice. I've bounced back though, and i'm feeling much better. Pain wise I haven't been too bad, my back was very sore for a day, but it's gotten better. I've continued to use the tennis ball to help with tight muscles in my back as well as adding in magnesium. I think it's been helping with the generalised muscle pains. I need to find an acupuncturist to try next as I think the one I went to before had shut up shop for the time being.

BC and GP

Ah dear, what a day it's been.

We've had a bit of a tiff in the body corporate over what trees were meant to be cut down along our side yard. It was generally understood that tree which could cause damage were to be cut down and poisoned  I have no idea which trees can cause damage here, so Bran and I left it up to the tree lopper and other people in te BC. Well, I woke up this morning to the people cutting down almost all of the trees on the property. Again, maybe they were all potential damage inducers? I wouldn't know. But now we have some of the other owners very upset about it. It's sad to see the beautiful big trees being cut down, and I feel like I should feel worse about it...but I also feel that we need to protect our home, and it was decided that we would plant more suitable trees there once things are settled. Anyway, upset on the homefront is never nice...so thats been part of my day.

The other part of my day was going to my GP and taking care of some paperwork that I need to deal with centrelink. I've also got a new six month card for blood tests and we've decided which path to go with for the psychologist i'm seeing. I also got a big thing of good olive oil for half price :D. Tomorrow i'll need to go deal with centrelink and see of they can actually be of any assistance, if not i'll have to try somewhere else...

Overall i'm alright today, my mood has been better since I had a nice cry over labs testing on beagles yesterday. Painwise was meh, my right arm is still sore and my muscles are more tender than normal. I'll start back on my DMARDs tomorrow, but i'm glad I got a blood test done while i've been off of them for a while. It'll be interesting to see what they say.

I will also say i've taken a tramadol, I need a bit of pain relief. Goodnight

Tall Stack

It's been almost a month since I last updated. Oh, and what a month it has been!

I ended up getting food poisoning and being quite ill for two weeks, this ended with me deferring one of my exams. I also ended up going off my meds because obviously there is no point in taking them if they just go through you (or potentially make your immune system even less able to help).

Being off my meds has brought on some interesting symptoms though. I've found i'm much more cognitively impaired at times (brain fog) which would mean that is an autoimmune aspect and not a mystery fibro symptom. I've also started developing psoriasis plaques again. Which would mean I do indeed have psoriatic arthritis and no sero-negative rheumatoid (though it's possible that could develop at any time). I've kept off my pharmaceuticals so I can show this to my doctor on wednesday.

I have gone back on my naturopathic medicine, and while I definitely see the benefit in the anti-anxiety and anti-depression herbs (St. john's wart, hops, and valerian with passion flower extract as an emergency for panic attacks), I don't think i've had much help with the saligesic or the herbs that are meant to help with energy. But considering most of my pain is fibro, i'm not too surprised. I also tried taking some magnesium, but it caused stomach upset. My next course of action is to go back to Mark the acupuncturist and see if that will help.

In other news, I am a permanent resident. That actually doesn't mean so much...they can't kick me out as easily. In a year I can apply for citizenship. I can access centrelink if need be (although Bran is thankfully earning a good living, thus I cannot access anything). And I pay domestic prices for uni. But I am not able to get the HELP debt (which is a gov't loan for school which you start paying back once you earn a certain wage). Which I thought I could get... So i'll likely only be going to school part time this year and hopefully finding a job.

I got a new phone. It's shiny.

Finally, i've gone to a few more meet-ups. One of my usual pagan ones, one for a fibromyalgia group, and one for a different pagan group. The fibro one was nice, it was good to be able to talk about things with people who understand a bit more. The other pagan one was quite fun and i'd like to meet up with them again. Quite a lively bunch! We had a nice discussion about crystals, contacting the other side, and a bit about older magic systems. I also had the opportunity to try mead, which I quite enjoyed.

Thats about it for me. I'll try to get back in the habit of regular updates.

Rheumy Rant

As you could have guessed, i'm having a rough time right now. All this stress has thrown me into a flare, especially in my right shoulder/elbow/wrist. I had a rheumatology appointment today, when I came home I ended up sleeping for 4 hours! And i'm still tired!

Speaking of my rheumatologist, he was once more pleasant but dismissive. Basically no inflammation in the joints = not his field. And fibro is just misinterpreted pain signals o.O. Really? Because I totally couldn't tell between the brain fog, fatigue, GI problems and horrible pain i'm experience. Must be something else right? Because tai chi will totally fix all that.

I'm not putting down tai chi, I actually haven't tried it, but I have done other gentle exercises and while they help with loosening things up and relaxing they don't help with all the other problems! Plus, quite a bit of the pain I feel seems more tendon related. There would be inflammation in the tendons, yeah? But that once more isn't joints. Apparently medicine doesn't work very well for inflamed tendons. How about some pain killers maybe!?!

Not to mention he is continuously comparing my pain to his own osteoarthritis and back pain. It's alright to make a comparison to try and explain that you have empathy, but he seems more like he's saying "yeah, everyone has pain, look at my pain! I'm in pain too! But I can still run and lift weights and you should too". I really just don't understand how comparing pain that is quite normal for a 50-something year old to an autoimmune disease in a 23 year old is meant to be helpful...

I just feel like i'm running into a brick wall as far as rheumatologists go. My first one was also very dismissive and told me to get off antidepressants and just be happy o.O. This one is dismissive and doesn't seem to be interested in actually treating me beyond methotrexate and making sure my blood tests are within normal range.

On a lighter note, I did actually get a nice nap in today. I was falling asleep on the bus, so my body must just really be trying to recover from all this stress. Hopefully this weekend will be a nice quiet one.

Also some good news to end with! My husband's job is now offering flexible hours and as he goes in early anyway, he'll now be able to come home earlier :). This will help a lot with Milo and i'm sure be nicer for him <3 maybe we can go back to our afternoon walks together.

STRESS

Oh. My. Goodness. It's been a very stressful last few days. My anxiety has been increasing anyway as I have final exams coming up, my family hasn't contacted me, as well as dealing with the ever ongoing pain and problems that come along with PsA and fibro. Now i'm having problems with my neighbour. I wont go into too much detail, our dog scared her cat and that caused some upset. I can understand that, I just hate knowing that someone who shares a wall with us is mad. Plus I know Milo didn't mean any harm :( he just hasn't met a cat....but it also puts a stop on our plan to adopt a cat until we know Milo will calm down.

Anyway, it's all caused too much stress and I was really starting to break down. My naturopath gave me another herbal tablet and a vial of passion flower extract to help deal with anxiety, i'm very thankful for that as i've been able to function much better for the past day and a half than I have for the previous week! Which is good, as I have a very busy week of meeting with my GP, rheumatologist, and osteopath. I met with my OT already today to deal with my wrist brace hurting my thumb, as well as class and getting blood drawn for my monthly tests.

Honestly, i'm tired and really in pain from my wrist, elbow, hips, feet, jaw and ankle. But my back is feeling mostly better! It's nice knowing I have some people on my health care team who are doing their best to help.

Osteopath and Ocular Migraines

Time for an update. I'm off the low carb thing, I started getting ocular migraines and losing weight is just not worth hallucinating.

My R wrist and elbow have been acting up the past few days. I can still use them, but since seeing the OT they have just been grumpy. My jaw is also back to being painful. I'm trying to figure out of maybe there was some trigger that caused it. Sugar maybe? Too much gluten? I'm too tired to try to cut anything else out of my diet right now. Though i'm likely to go visit a Naturopath that focusses for on allergies and diet soon, as suggested by my Osteopath. Speaking of osteopath, she's quite nice. A bit more hard edged than my lovely naturopath, but in a good way. Though she did give me the "sexual abuse is linked to obesity is linked to fibromyalgia" speech. I know that it is their job as a holistic practitioner, but how many times do I need to be told i'm fat? *sigh* But her manipulations have definitely been helping my hip/knee pain and tightness. Not as much the second time around but I can still notice a distinct difference.

She also brought up the anti-TNF meds, which was interesting. My rheumy doesn't want me going on them though as he feels the pain I experience is all fibro because my blood tests are fine. Except from my understanding fibro pain is more in the muscles, and while I do get pain in my muscles a lot of my pain is in the joints. I'm going to have to see my rheumy again soon as I got my MRI results, though i'm dragging my feet :P.

Aaanyway, other than that my energy levels haven't been bad. I went on a crazy 20 minute cleaning spree and got the kitchen and bathroom clean (mostly, the floor is Bran's job ;) ). Still getting good results from the naturopathic medicine as far as my back pain goes. We're going to take Milo to the dog park for the first time in a while, poor thing. He'll be happy that he gets to run around.

Tired

I've tried to think of something interesting to write, but honestly i'm just very tired. I'm not at my worst point pain wise, but I am sore. I'm just really tired both physically and mentally from dealing with diseases and my body falling appart on me. I'm only 23 but i'm already dealing with a seronegative arthritis,  degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, facet joint degeneration, nerve damage, some mental health difficulties (PTSD and depression related to it), and all the fun stuff that comes with the medicines for said diseases/conditions and of course my previous emergency microdiscectomy which kicked it all off (I think).

I'm not saying my life is awful or woe is me, I know i'm lucky to be in a country where healthcare is covered by taxes or is relatively inexpensive. I'm very lucky to have a loving husband and supportive in-laws. I'm lucky in that I can still walk, and that my pain isn't worse than it is.

I'm just tired.

Even over my "vacation" from school I was still running around dealing with health related meetings.

On a lighter note, I have some new herbal mixtures to try that focus a bit more on fibromyalgia and CFS. I do so love talking to my new naturopath, David :) he is such a funny guy. He also doesn't mind explaining what the different herbs do and whatnot.

Well, now i'm off to attempt to get some housework done before the end of the day.

Naturopath Appointment

I had an interesting meeting with a new naturopath today :). My other (lovely) naturopath had to take time away for family reasons, so he recommended this one (also lovely). He was so funny! And once he found out I am a naturopathy student he was happy to tell me all about the different herbs and supplements he was prescribing and took a picture of my iris and told me about it (iridology).

He said that the rings around the grey/blue/green parts my iris meant that I have had a lot of stress throughout my life that I haven't let go of (sounds like the psychic when she said that I have so much worry in me that if someone reached in and took it away I would crumble!). And that the wiggly fibers meant that I had a lot of worries on my mind. The ring around the middle represents my gut and that it is very out of whack, especially my stomach which apparently isn't digesting correctly (not enough stomach acid?).

My eyeball

He also let me peek in when he was making up the herbal extract mixture and let me smell the different extracts he put in ^__^ it was very exciting! *naturopathy-nerding out* It was great being able to talk to him and get a good idea of what he was prescribing and what autoimmune arthritis means in naturopathic terms.  The only down side is that he wants me to go back off gluten *grumble* but i'll do it if it'll help.

Freud + SNRI Withdrawal

I have three followers? When did this happen?!? Well, welcome third follower :) always happy to know my blog is interesting enough for people to read.

I've had a down day today. Getting off Cymbalta is kicking my butt and I definitely felt the drop in serotonin....or something. >.> It took the extra treat of an organic mocha to get me to class today, which i'm actually glad about as we were talking about the skeletal system and it was actually interesting. And mochas are delicious. So over all I did end up feeling better, though it isn't fun struggling with depression just on the edge of my moods.

And I continue to have some pretty messed up dreams. Once more likely thanks to the cymbalta. It seems like my mind is just putting the worst possible things together with whatever happens in my day to make my dreams, and let me just say that yesterday we were talking about Freud and Oedipus complex. Yeah.

Ankle is still angry, jaw was a bit better. R hip is angry. I think making the bed yesterday aggravated my back a bit. Blah. Need to see the physio tomorrow. I'm also just really tired. I think i'm likely to go to bed early tonight.

Update (yes, really)

Goodness, it's been over a month since i've entertained my two readers with my oh-so-interesting rambling!

Thats because we don't have internet at the apartment >.> but as the roof is being repaired, we are back with my MiL.

So here is an update in a nutshell:

-Did on the job training
-Had three shifts
-Had an incident on the third shift which resulted in me hurting my back
-Went on workers comp.
-Went into full on fibro flair
-Still figuring things out job wise, but it's quite possible I wont be able to return to that job :(

-Started back at Uni
-Going well.

-Started Cymbalta
-Hate Cymbalta
-Going off Cymbalta
-Starting to get withdrawal symptoms already, and i've only decreased the dose.
-If I still need something for anxiety, i'll try a naturopathic medicine. I'm tired of all these pills...

-Milo was doing really well with barking and doggy daycare
-Milo got a tummy bug :(
-Milo was fine
-Milo's tummy bug returned with vengeance
-Milo lost a lot of weight do to tummy bug :(
-We had to be very careful what he ate, while trying to get his weight up.
-Milo is doing much better :) weight is back up and he's happy

I haven't been able to go to any meet ups or hang out with anyone due to all this random stuff that keeps popping up. I've also been tired, not quite exhausted, but easily fatigued.

On a lighter note, i've finally started losing weight again! I believe this is due to both getting off some of the meds that cause weight gain and bringing a very healthy lunch with me to school. Plus I just haven't been able to handle as much crap.

As far as joints go, they haven't been too bad. My jaw on the right side had been painful off and on for about three weeks, but really it doesn't hurt me to have to eat oatmeal instead of chips ;). My R ankle is bothersome, also for about three weeks. Thats a bit more concerning, but there isn't really anything that can be done. My walking stick has been getting a work out! BTW, after speaking with my lovely counsellor, I have decided to refer to my walking stick as my Happy Stick from now on.

Gp and Fibromyalgia

I am soooo cold :(. I've had a hard time warming up all day. Even with a hot shower and bath, I just can't seem to keep heat...

Met with lovely GP today. She discussed fibro in more detail with me and we decided to switch from sertraline (zoloft) over to duloxetine (cymbalta). It's an SNRI as opposed to an SSRI, and it's meant to help with nerve pain and fibro symptoms along with being an anti-depressant. I don't know how i'll go giving up sertraline though...it's been really great with bringing down anxiety without making me feel like a zombie.

Other than that I baked a whole chicken, my first. It turned out alright. I've also been quite sore, maybe because it's cold? Donno. But wrists hurt too much to type anymore. Goodnight.

Moving, Meds, and Milo

I may or may not have been looking at Lolcats for the last hour or so >.>...

Bran, Milo, and I are all cuddle up on the couch. Bran is watching his footy, Milo is sleeping, and i'm looking at lolcats and typing.

We had a somewhat busy day. The lot of us headed over to the apartment to do some unpacking and cleaning up for the big move next weekend. I still have some bits and bobs to pack, but most of our small things are over already thanks to Sarah's help (my MiL). Milo is starting to get more used to it and i'm sure once his bed is there he'll be happy enough.

Other than that I had a bad cognitive day yesterday. I ended up going to bed around 7:30 and sleeping for about 12 hours >.>. I am feeling mostly better today thankfully, though I did nap after we had a long walk to find the dog park in Northgate.

I'm still struggling a bit with figuring out what fibromyalgia means. I've looked up some studies, medicines, and whatnot but I think i'll just have to have a chat with my GP about it. She's been great with explaining things and helping to find the right mix of meds. I'm not sure if going on another medicine is the right thing, but I don't want to be talking the tramadol all the time. It lessens the pain a bit, but I know it's only covering up the symptoms (and making my brain foggier) and not actually helping.

Tomorrow is a relaxing day. Maybe grocery shopping though I can do that on monday and safe us a trip.

Milo has been doing much better on salmon, brown rice, and greens. He's just about entirely healed up though he had dropped weight :/. We're upping his salmon this weeks and trying out lamb to see if he can handle it.

Brain Fog

I've had a very marshmallow brain day. All day. But I think part of it was due to a migraine since I started having ocular abnormalities. A nap helped with that.

I had a good session with my counsellor. She helped me come up with some other pain management strategies and we talked about how to handle my rheumatologist. We also talked about a potential job i'm going for. The job is being a carer for someone with a spinal cord injury. It includes personal care as well as some cooking a light housework. I should be able to handle it just fine as it is a no lift job.

In other news, I took some tramadol earlier today. I haven't really felt hungry since. And my brain had been more foggy. It has taken the edge off the pain, but I still feel it. Maybe i'll try a voltarin and a tramadol tonight and see how that goes.

Heading over to the apartment tomorrow.