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This will show our fight with Fibromyalgia, so others can learn that it's real. |
This blog will chronicle my battle with Fibromyalgia, sometimes comparing it to the battle my wife, Kenzie  has with the same illness. Many don't believe it's an actual illness, though its existence is recognized more and more in the medical community. I'm hoping that by shedding some light on what it can do to a person we can make others aware that it is indeed real, and that it can hit anyone of any age at any time. It's not deadly, by any means, but it can drastically change your life. It can be a real and aggravating pain in more ways than one (pun intended). MANY more ways.
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| Remember that irritated sacroilliac joint I had to deal with using the cane a few weeks back? Well, it looks like it's back in a different, and thankfully more manageable form: as the newest "member" on my list of Fibro pains. Yep, over the past week or so, it's been coming and going all over again. Shorter stints, milder in intensity, but definitely consistent, about every three or four days at this point. Only time will tell, but I'm hoping it cools down rather than getting worse. We shall see. I have to make an appointment with my doctor for July anyway, so I'm hoping I can get him to give me consistent refills on the muscle relaxer so I can take them as needed to cover this darn pain. Time will tell. Thankfully, it's only a nuisance pain at this point like my others. If it has to be here, I just hope it stays in THAT category. |
| Those of us with Fibro never know when a pain will start, where it will hit, how long it will last, OR, what will cause it. Often, we never know the causes, only the surprise pain. But, there are also times when we can predict a strong likelihood that we'll get a pain, and sometimes, where. In my case, the latest one of those came when I went to take our biggest dog, Zeus, out for his latest chance to do his business last Sunday afternoon. The moment I took him out the door, he spotted our next door neighbor, Ryan. Those two have a mutual admiration society thing going.  That meant Zeus took off running at top speed, when I didn't even have time to turn around and start after him after closing the front door behind us. The end result? I was yanked so fast that I took 3 or 4 running steps but couldn't catch up to keep my balance. I landed on the grass on my stomach, and he pulled me about 3-4 feet before stopping right in front of Ryan. Stunned, I sat up and began retracting the leash, shouting at Zeus to get back here NOW! Ryan, a little startled I think at my reaction, walked back to his yard.Marilyn came up beside me and took the leash. I got up, and made sure everything still moved like it's supposed to. It did. At Marilyn's request, I went up to the porch and checked in detail to see if I had anyplace where the skin had been irritated enough to bleed. Everything felt and looked OK. But, Marilyn and I both knew, as we talked later, that that evening, and the next day or two could be interesting. We were right. I started feeling it in the joints on my right side before bed. Just a little. The next day it set in. Those joints, my back, my left leg, and a skinned spot on my left elbow. And even now, 4 days later, my right shoulder still pops when I move it a certain way. I'm trying to decide if I have to do anything about that or not. Most of the other pains are down or mostly gone, but the shoulder hangs on. We shall see what comes later. |
| The question mark in the title is because I think that's what I have had today but I'm not sure I'm ready to concede that; not sure I want to buy into that idea. But, that doesn't change what happened. With the imminent threat of "scattered showers" after rain during a number of days this past week, I figured I'd better get the grass cut before it rained again this afternoon. No telling how tall it would be when I get my next chance. So, I went for it. Got the mower out, unrolled the extension cord (the mower is electric), scraped the remainder of dried grass from the underside of the mower, plugged it in, and went to work on the front yard. Later, having finished that part of the lawn, I sat down on the porch to take a short break before tackling the back yard, which had the potential of being a bit soft yet since water tends to puddle back there. On the driveway apron, and the yard itself, keeping things soggy for quite a while, sometimes days after the rain passes by. I should have known something was up when it took a little effort to get up from the chair on the porch to finish the mowing. But, I got the job done. Got my shoes a bit muddy from the too-soft spots back there, but it's all cut. I figured I'd better get it done, even if it was a tad soft, since I didn't know from the current forecast when my next chance would come. As I sat on the porch, enjoying the breeze after putting the lawn mower and extension cord away and taking the dogs out, it began to drizzle. "Nice timing," I thought. Next thing I knew, I was jolted awake when my neighbor, Ryan, stopped over to ask my thoughts about his putting a fence along our property line to keep his dog in his yard. Harley is a big dog, and he's been getting away from Ryan and his wife Tracey on occasion lately. And, if he did put that in, our backyard woud then be fenced in accept for the driveway and a short distance between his fence and our side porch. That meant we could then fence ours in at minimal expense and let our two dogs run, too. Which would be nice. Naturally, I told him to go for it. He said, smiling, "Sorry to startle you, go ahead and finish your nap." That confirmed the way I had felt when he first awakened me. Cutting the grass doesn't usually make me this tired. But it had today. That nap was an off-and-on thing that totalled about 2 hours. I went inside, took the dogs out again, then hit the bed, asking Kenzie to get me up in time for the news at 6:00 if I wasn't up by then. When I layed down, it was 4:30. As was usual when either Kenzie or I take a nap, or when we go to bed at night, both dogs kept me company. I awoke at about 5:55 PM when Zeus jumped from the bed. Obviously, with his size, it would shake the bed a bit.I've been up since then, still feeling a bit sluggish as if I'm not fully rested. Now the big question: will this happen every time I cut the grass from now on? I guess I will find out. We will see, and I'll let you know the outcome. |
| Yep, you read that right. I THINK I have a new pain that's going to be part of my ongoing group of them - the ones that take turns bugging me. It's a milder form of that sacroiliac joint pain. It's not sharp enough to cripple me like it was originally, just enough to be a nuisance when it appears, and also send a shot of pain down the front of my left leg once in a while. It's been taking turns recently with my right shoulder and my back. And even my back pain has morphed a bit. Now it's no longer just on the left side right above the beltline; it runs all the way across my back at that point. Actually, for some reason that change makes the back pain a bit easier to deal with. Don't ask me why or how, I have no clue. But I"m not knocking it. It's just not as severe a pain when it's spread across my whole back. Go figure. Obviously we'll have to see what the future brings here, too. |
| Here's another dilemma that Fibro suffers have at various times. When we get a pain, is it Fibro, or a separate warning sign of something we should have the doctor check out? It's very hard to tell. In my case, after I've been in the sunlight a while, my energy level goes down rapidly. My former allergist (I only changed because he retired) said that in my case that reaction is part of my allergies. I appreciate knowing, but in this case the bottom line is the same. I feel like I need a nap, and I've only been up a little over 4 hours. Since about 9:00 AM. And all we did was go to church. When we got back I took each of the dogs outside to do their thing, then took the cat out for her 1/2 hour walk. But the sun was out, and still is. I felt fine when I took Pi out the door on her leash, but as that half hour came around, I was dragging. And when I finish this, I think I'll give in and doze in my PC chair for a while. I could end up laying down and taking a real nap, and right now that sounds inviting. Maybe I will. Now I know what Kenzie felt like when she felt like shutting down in the middle of that Bengals game we were watching with others at our church last season. All those cheering church members and the volume of the sound from the broadcast didn't keep her from running out of juice, and this isn't going to keep me from doing it either. Makes me glad my primary employment is indoors, but it also gives me first hand appreciation for what Kenzie goes through every day. I can see why she gets frustrated. I want to clean up some in the back yard and cut that part of the grass. Might not happen today now. Sheesh. Later, all, I'm going for that nap. |
| Pain and no pain situations are still reversed, even after almost a week. If it bugs me at all, it does it more when I'm sitting than when I'm walking. Once in a while it'll let me know it's there when I'm walking, or, in tonight's case, bending over to put my laundry away in the drawers. That one hurt a bit, but still much lower than they had previoiusly been, and pains while walking have been almost non existent the past week. Not sure whether to keep looking into this or wait and see if it gets worse again. Medical bills are tough enough now. I have an appointment to review the xrays on Wednesday, so I'll decide after that. I AM a bit curious whether anything will show or not. We shall see. |
| Well, I got the Xrays taken this afternoon. They'll be read on Monday, and I'll meet with the chiropractor on Wed. afternoon to see what's up, if anything. This is one of those 50-50 deals. You wonder which would be better - if they find something, or if they don't find anything. If they find something, it feels great to have a known reason for the pain, and be able to plan an approach to dealing with it. But you don't want the cost, and you don't want to wonder if whatever treatment may be needed will be painful. If they don't find anything, you wonder if you should feel relieved, or if you should wonder what it could be that woiuldn't show on an xray. The thing is, with Fibromyalgia being part of the mix for me, this is one time that having it involved is a good thing. Because it keeps me from pushing the panic button if they don't find anything. Because one of the most frequent symptoms of Fibro is just that - random pains, coming and going, without any rhyme, reason or pattern to them. Sometimes in places you didn't think it was possible to hurt. And that I'm already all too familiar with. More when I have that answer, or if something flares up before then. |
| When this sacroilliac joint pain started a few weeks back, it hurt more to walk than to sit or lay down. Sometimes it was almost too painful to take a step. Then, as I went through the other stages I mentioned here, about a week ago, that pain started trading places off and on with my old back pain - the one on the left side right above the waistline. And, once in a while, the joint pain would move from the left one to the right one, which to that point had not been part of the problem.The pain in the right joint was far milder than in the left one, more of a nuisance ache than a pain. Then the last 48-72 hours really got strange. Suddenly, the pain was there when I was sitting down, and virtually disappeared when I was up and walking around. Go figure. A complete turn around from the original problem. I know Fibro can make your pains move, but this is the first real first hand proof I've had of that. I have an appointment for an X-ray Friday afternoon. We'll see if it shows anything on my back, or if it's going to be as clean as Marilyn's test results were when her stomach started driving her crazy. Stay tuned. |
| Today's been a first. That irritated joint has only bugged me to about a 4 out of 10 since I got up, and it's been consistent all day despite shoveling the front walk, taking the dogs out a half dozen times (Zeus - the one we got from Tiff - loves the snow and would stay out all day if we could let him) and wading through about 14 inches of drifted snow to the garbage can on the driveway. I decided, before that garbage can excursion to take the two pills for the pain and see if I can finally get rid of this thing.We shall see. With this being the first time I've had a consistent pain level through a day, I have no clue what tomorrow will bring. With my luck the thing will start up again on Monday when I go back to work. Like I said, we shall see. |
| I said I'd check in after talking to the doctor, and here I am. I had called and given the nurse a moderately long explanation of what had taken place over the 10-14 days since I'd seen the doctor. Every detail, right down to the drop in pain level from 10 to about 4, that it had to have kicked in within the last 48 hours, even that the bucket seat aggravates the pain level. I'm going to make sure everyone involved with this is kept up to date so I don't have to go through this any longer than necessary. Well, she called back about 3:00 PM and said they had phoned my new prescriptions in to the pharmacy for me. I felt rather good about that; it meant that my explanation actually made sense to them. Since I picked up the two prescriptions a couple days ago, they've been doing their job rather well, keeping the pain either gone for a few hours or very manageable. The worst moments are the ones I can predict - the sharp jump in pain level after driving the car. Then, within the last 24 hours or so, another new "wrinkle". It's not constant yet, but I periodically get pains very similiar to the irritated joint on the other side - my RIGHT side, in the same location. So what's with that? Are both sacroilliac joints irritated now? And if so, how did the second one get started? I'm going to try to get the chiropractor to order an x-ray. The cost through her would be cheaper than through my primary physician. We'll see what comes next. Thankfully, I have about a month's supply on the two pills, so it has a decent shot at healing the irritation. I just hope it's able to considering the periodic flare ups caused by driving. We shall see. Obviously, it ain't over yet. |
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