I Think I Tripped Over A Rabbit Hole

I have had a lot of trouble with the Fibromyalgia lately, so I decided to take my supervisor's advice and ask my doctor to fill out paperwork allowing me to take my sick days under FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). This is a federal law that allows you to take up to 12 consecutive weeks off, or multiple days throughout the year, to recover from or manage an illness. I saw the doctor this past Monday, and was excited to learn that a medication commonly used to treat depression had recently been approved by the FDA to treat FM. He said that, among other things, it was found to have a positive effect on the peripheral nervous system receptors, which is suspected to be part of the problem for FM sufferers. I was very excited to hear this, and thought to myself that I might be able to get a part of my life back that I had recently lost to this condition. He sent a prescription order to the pharmacy and had me leave the FMLA forms with his medical assistant. I asked my husband to pick it up for me the next day, and took my first pill that evening.

At this point, I was dealing with a new pain which I had thought was a migraine, but my prescription migraine medicine hadn't affected it at all, even after taking the maximum dosage allowed. I realized how good this medicine was for FM, when just 30 minutes after taking it, the pain I was experiencing was gone! I could not believe how quickly and thoroughly it had resolved my pain.

I should point out that, based on the way I had reacted to another medication last year, I was cautious and had read about the side effects online before taking it, but when I was reading the insert that came with it (after taking my first dose), I noticed there were precautions for those who were also taking migraine medication. I got back online to review drug interactions, and became concerned that my particular medicine could interact in such a way as to cause a severe adverse reaction that could lead to death, if the signs were overlooked and counter measures not taken promptly. I read what it said to watch for, and started making mental notes of everything unusual.

The first day I took it, I developed a mild nausea, and noticed that I felt as though I was dreaming at some points, for brief periods. I presume that this was in part because the medication is in a time-release capsule form, and every time a little more of the medication went into my system, I would feel my body respond to it. The next morning, I decided to wait until I was at work to take it, so that it would not affect my driving ability, and that I would take the second dose I was supposed to take when I got home. While at work, I noticed that there were times where I felt that dreamy feeling, as well as times when I felt I couldn't concentrate or maintain focus. The nausea, however, had remained constant from the first dose. I also had occasional trouble following other people's lines of thought. When I got home and took my third dose, all these symptoms were still present, and I experienced my first serious side effect from the medication.

That evening, I was typing a comment to someone on my Facebook page, when suddenly, my left arm developed a mind of its own. Bap!Bap!Bap! went my left hand on the keyboard. I thought, of course, "this isn't good." I had read that tremors and involuntary movements were side effects of the medication, so I decided I should probably talk to my doctor in the morning about this. I continued my typing, and it happened again. Later, after I had given myself a break, I was typing something else, and it happened a third time. By now I was completely annoyed with my arm and decided to hang up the keyboard for the night.

When I got up Thursday, I didn't really feel well. In fact, I didn't really feel like myself, but I went into the kitchen to get ready for my day. I noticed that I felt a bit weak, and as if I had run a marathon and gotten winded. I also noticed a bit of a flutter, but thought nothing of it at the time. I tried to push through these feelings, and started making my breakfast and lunch for the day. I got my oatmeal in a bowl and my teabag in a cup, then proceeded to start making my sandwich. I got the bread out and cut, and the lettuce rinsed and dried. Then I had to sit down. For 10 minutes. I got up and tried again, and got the meat and cheese out, then I had to sit down again. I had almost finished making my sandwich, and I had the same feeling come over me, and had to sit down one more time. I felt my breath was gone, and as though I was gasping for air. That's when I knew it was time to go to the emergency room.

I called my husband, who was away since Wednesday visiting his Mom, after waking my son to tell him to get ready to take me to the hospital. I started to get dressed to go, and that's when I felt my very first, ever so slight, twinge of pain in my chest. "This is really not good," I thought. After my son helped me to take care of our cats and our dog, we got in the car and headed to the emergency room. Once there, I went up to the window and explained my symptoms and added, "I think I'm having a bad reaction to my new medicine." The young man at the window poo-pooed the idea, saying it would have happened on the day I first started taking it, if it were that. I thought, "Fine, Mr. Know-it-all-who-isn't-even-a-doctor, I'll just list my symptoms on the form and let you guys figure it out."

After returning the paperwork, I was taken into the triage area, where the nurse there asked me, "What do you think is going on? You look fine to me." I shot her a look and again explained my symptoms. She went through all the normal questions, did I smoke or drink etc., and wrote down my responses. She then turned over the paperwork to another nurse and continued to go over my symptoms and history, asking me what else I had besides depression, since my medication was for depression. Another look, and I explained, politely, that I have FM and that the doctor had prescribed this medication for it, based on the FDA approval. Then she asks again, do I smoke or drink. I look at her. The guy who was helping looks at her with a "gotcha" grin on his face, and says quietly, "No, she doesn't. It's right here where you wrote it."

After eating a bit of humble pie, Nurse Attitude takes my vitals, then preps me for an EKG. A tech comes in and administers the test, then the male nurse points me to some chairs where I need to wait for blood draw. After that, I was led to the bed they were assigning me for the moment. A few more questions, a blood pressure cuff and a pulse rate sensor, then the doctor finally comes in and interviews me for more information. He told me he didn't find anything medically to base my symptoms on except for the new medicine, but was going to have a chest x-ray done and run some other tests to be sure. When all was said and done, that was the final diagnosis - medication side effects. I was sent home with more papers and instructions, and told only to go to work if I felt up to it. I called my doctor once I got home and left a message, and he was supposed to call me back that evening, but here we are into the weekend and he still has not called.

I was able to work Friday, but still had some difficulty with shortness of breath and weakness, so I kept my movements slow and relaxed to avoid additional problems. I haven't taken any of the new medicine since Wednesday night, but it was still working its way out of my system Friday. I am not feeling any of the symptoms now, so I'm certain, since today is the day it should be fully washed out of my system, that everything I experienced starting on Tuesday was a direct result of the medication, and I have no plans to take any more of it. I also plan to call my doctor on Monday to find out why he hasn't called me back to discuss things like trying a different medicine.

Yesterday, I was going over the written instructions that the hospital gave me about my aftercare, and found an interesting notation: "Continue to take all medication." Yeah, right.

Bumpy Ride

I need to give some background here, for those who don't read my Facebook status posts.

My son is 26 years old. His only exercise is walking the grounds where he works security. He weighs over 300 lbs, and several weeks ago had an accident at work that required treatment. It was discovered then that he had life-threateningly high blood pressure. He was prescribed medication and told he would have to get treated by a regular doctor to continue the medicine, but since he has no insurance, he wanted to try food supplements to keep his blood pressure down. We picked up what his friend had recommended, and I split the cost with him (he does have to pay for some of what he uses around here). Even though it was in the house, he admitted he wasn't using it as directed.

One week ago today, my husband and I went to do some shopping together, after my son complained of not feeling well in the morning. He made it sound like it was nothing serious, just a bit of stomach discomfort he was having. We got quite a bit done while we were out. When we came home, my son revealed he was feeling a heaviness in his chest, and that it occasionally traveled up into his throat. My husband's family has dealt with heart disease on his father's side, so we knew these were symptoms of a heart attack. I offered to take him to the hospital, but he said that he didn't think it was necessary. My husband told him he was going, like it or not.

Since my husband had to leave for work, I was obviously going to be the "ambulance driver." I took him down, and as soon as they heard the words "chest pain," the staff got my son prepped for an EKG. After that, he was then placed in a bed in the ER. I was with him the entire 5 hours. As it turns out, it was not his heart, but his pressure had again become too high because he had done nothing for it in 5 days. The doctor prescribed the medication he had been given originally, and strongly urged him to follow up with a clinic. He also made other recommendations, which my son has taken to heart.

The next day, Sunday, I really wanted to go to church, as health issues had kept us home the prior two weeks. Fatigued from the previous day's events, we attended services and went straight home. I sat like a lump on the sofa, then laid down there and tried to stay awake long enough to say goodbye to my husband when he left for work, which I was barely able to do. The last thing I remembered was the dog licking my bare toes and laying down in front of the couch. I did not wake up again until almost 4pm. The rest of the evening I couldn't seem to do anything, and felt like crying until I went to bed for the night.

I was supposed to go to a game with friends after work Monday, but the fatigue from the weekend just stayed with me all day, so I had to call and cancel at the last minute. I even worried about how well I would do on Wednesday, because we had Bible study and I didn't know if my energy would last the night, but I made it there and home okay. Thursday, I had promised to work with my son on his walking per the doctor's recommendation and a friend's suggestion to help me with my own condition, so even though I was tired, we walked twice around our block, a total of 30 minutes.

Friday morning came, and my head and neck were giving me serious pain. I took some medication and laid back down, hoping to be able to go in late to work. By the time it was time to call in, I suspected I wasn't going to make it. I also felt the fatigue affecting my body as well. I finally ended up taking a larger dose of medicine than I like to take, only to end up feeling doped up, as I expected it would do. I wasn't feeling the pain anymore, but now I was sleepy and fatigued.

This morning, I woke up feeling somewhat okay, but as the morning has worn on, I have felt my pain returning in my neck, which means I'll have to take another doping dose of my medicine in order to function halfway. I have also felt some residual fatigue, so I know I won't be able to go walking this evening with my son. I'm hoping to go with him tomorrow, unless he walks by himself tonight, which means he and I will walk on Monday.

It seems I am rather cranky today, along with the pain and fatigue, and can't help feeling like crying again. It's almost as if I'm going through this cyclically. I just want this to stop so that I can go back to being my positive self, not this "woe-is-me" person I seem to be becoming. I am also upset at the thought that much of my blog posts have been somewhat depressing, and not seeming to me to help much with education on my condition, which was part of my original hope. In fact, some of what I wanted to study about fibromyalgia remains unread, as I have been dealing with life and not finding much brain power available for study, especially this past week.

If only Calgon really could take me away. Even if "he" could, I don't know that it would help much.

Overextending

The end of this week has been a little busy for me. It's a long story, which many of my readers already know, but a pit bull mix pup found its way into our garage, and now we're trying to find someone (home or a shelter) to rescue her from the pound before she meets their time line max for holding pits. I am sure, because of her breed, that she doesn't have as much time with them as other dogs, so I've been doing what I can to reach out to the different rescues. But that's only part of what this is about. I mention it because it is part of what I was doing yesterday.

We had quite a list of things to do, and I was feeling really good, so I was up early to get started. After breakfast, I emptied the dish machine, reloaded, and cleaned the sink. I have an older cat, a male Maine Coon named Jobie, who needs to be bathed regularly because of his medical problems, and I needed to get him cleaned up before taking him in for his regularly scheduled lab work. He got his bath in the freshly cleaned sink, which I of course, cleaned again when we were finished.

My husband and I then headed off to the grocery store for a few things, came home, put them up, then took the cat to the vet. We waited to hear about his thyroid levels, which turned out to be on the high end of normal. We took him home, then headed out for lunch and to shop for a Bunco gift for Monday night. When we got home, I wrapped the gift and pulled meat out to defrost for cooking this evening. That may have to wait for my husband to do tomorrow, because it's still not defrosted.

I spent some time online trying to contact different rescues about the dog I mentioned above, even speaking with one of them over the phone at length. I also spent quite a bit of time on the phone with our vet, when she called to discuss the results of the lab work and the future course of treatment for this cat, as well as how to discourage and eliminate some bad behaviors he has developed. By now it was dinner time, and I was a bit tired, so my husband went out and picked up dinner from a place we like to go when we are in the mood to get out of the house. Since I've been on a diet for some time, we made sure I had a healthy, low calorie selection. It was filling enough that I put some away to eat today. At the end of the evening, I went to bed feeling good and planning to take care of some things today, that I just didn't have time for yesterday.

Today, the alarm went off at 6 am, as usual to help me get up and ready for church. I was having trouble waking up, so I allowed myself another 30 minutes to try to sleep off the tired, and added another 30 when I realized that church service was scheduled to be later than normal. When my timer went off, I still was having trouble waking up, and fell asleep again as I was trying to get up! Twenty five minutes later, I woke up on my own, but still felt very fatigued. I forced myself to get up, and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. I barely got my own breakfast together, and was cleaning up from eating it, when my husband came in the kitchen, and announced he didn't want to go to church because he was still recovering from some medical problems of his own that he had to deal with the day before. Have I mentioned that he has Crohn's Disease and is in stage 5 renal failure from lifelong kidney problems?

I was doubting my ability to get ready in time anyway, so he got no argument from me. At least I was able to do my daily bible reading.

I went to the computer to work on more contacts for the dog, but just couldn't seem to get started. I just sort of stared at the list of web addresses in front of me, and realized I couldn't think straight. Instead, I started playing a game to try to get the cobwebs out of my brain and get ready to work. Not happening, even after an hour. I realized it was because I was still tired, so I went to take a nap. Yes, more sleep. I woke up again about an hour and a half later, got up and shook off the cobwebs slowly. By then my husband had got ready for work, and left for his day at 1pm. I realized later that it had been 5 hours since I had eaten, so I warmed up my leftovers and ate. It is now after 2pm, and nothing I had planned to do for today has been done.

Some of you may think I'm wasting time or procrastinating by taking the time to write about this, but I felt it would be important to share just how the fatigue, which I believe is from the fibromyalgia, can hit someone suffering from the condition. It's not that I don't want to do more today, it's that I can't seem to get myself going to do the things I want to do. It's hard to describe just how this feeling stops you from doing even those things considered to be simple tasks. Writing is not normally a difficult thing for me, so I can struggle with the feeling long enough to get a single blog post done.

And now, I'm off to take some medicine, as my neck, left shoulder and elbow are starting to complain at me, and I want to be ready for a phone call I'm expecting this afternoon.