Saturday, July 06, 2013

Great! I'm not just getting "old"...I have fibromyalgia!

I'm 48 years old.  It doesn't bother me to say it or to be it.  It is what it is.  My kids love telling me that I'm OLD.  If I didn't color my hair, I'd be completely grey, like my daddy, who was not only grey, but white in his early 40's.  No one knows when my mom would have been completely grey or what her exact natural hair color was, as she has been Loreal's Dark Auburn for as long as I remember.  God, please make Loreal discontinue Dark Auburn.  It is a rather unnatural color and doesn't appear anywhere in nature other than in a sunset, but I digress.

All of those aches and pains I've been suffering on and off for a couple of years made me truly believe what my kids were saying.  Getting old sucks!  I just tried to accept it and deal with it.  Finally, last week I decided to go see my GP just for shits and giggles.  I actually told him when he walked into the examining room that I didn't know why I was there and that he probably couldn't help me.  He asked me questions, gently poked and prodded, and said, "You have fibromyalgia".  I almost burst out laughing because all I knew about fibromyalgia is that you hurt all over.  My husband and I have been joking for a couple of months because after watching me walk painfully after getting out of my chair I exclaimed one night that I must have fibromyalgia, haha.  I was somehow relieved that there is a reason for my pain and it's not just me getting old.  He put me on a combination of vitamins and minerals plus something called Tangy Tangerine that I had to buy from Amazon.com to see if that would help and wants to see me back in 6 weeks.  I'm not relieved to have fibromyalgia.  It sucks like an open chest wound.  Especially what happened next.  The very next day I was in so much pain from my left shoulder that I really wanted to die.  You would just not believe how many movements you make involve your shoulder!  That was on Sunday.  Aleve didn't touch the pain, 800 mg of Motrin didn't touch it and I was looking through my husband's mini pharmacy for some oxycodone but didn't find any.  By 5:30 am on Tuesday I had had enough.  Three days without sleep and I was in tears.  I begged him to take me to the ER.  Did I tell you that my husband doesn't believe in fibromyalgia?  He doesn't have a clue!  Luckily, at that time of the morning I was the only one in the waiting room so I was taken back and immediately given IV morphine.  I was in heaven!  After 5 hours there I was sent home with prescriptions for oxycodone, Motrin 600 mg, and I think doxepine for sleep (which I didn't need, thankfully).  I mostly slept for the next two days.  I finally felt more like myself on Friday and feel pretty great today.  I made an appointment to see my doctor again on Wednesday because I wanted him to know what happened.  He said that after 6 weeks on the supplements, if they didn't help he'd prescribe a pharmaceutical for treatment.  I think the options are something like Lyrica, Cymbalta, or Savella.  We shall see!  I also made sure that my husband's appointment coincides with mine so our doctor can tell him that yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as fibromyalgia!  Argh!

No comments: