A-Dub’s Thoughts
Thoughts of a wife and mother

I have had better days lately, but the last three days were a little rough.  We are moving through them.  I am so thankful that I have a family that can be here for me to help me when I am down and have fun with me when I am wanting to get out of the house.

I haven’t posted lately and that has a lot to do with how I have been feeling.  I have had a lot of bad days.  Aaron went to Boston for a week and luckily his mom was able to come out and spend the week with us.  I don’t think I would have made it without her.  She helped me out with a lot and I couldn’t thank her enough.  Then, poor Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth pulled so both of us have been kinda on the lower end of great.  But he has been the best, as always.

Before, Aaron went to Boston he bought me a scrapbooking desk to put in our bedroom.  I have been able to get back my destresser, which is great.  What a great gift!

I am hoping to be able to scrapbook more soon, as soon as my arms and hands stop being such a pill.  I think in my stretching I have over done it and I am paying for it.  I am trying to take it a little easier.  As Aaron says, he wants me to make a budget of my energy and only pay out to the most important “bills”.  We will see how the next couple of weeks go.

It started last night, I was watching a movie with Rachel and Aaron.  I was laying on the couch and I could feel my body start to tighten up.  I felt like I was frozen from the inside out.  I went to bed I feeling like a giant bruise and it hurt to move.  I hope that a good night sleep would help but no such luck, I am so sore this morning.

I plan on taking the rest of the day very slowly and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I just finished the second book, “High Fructose Corn Syrup and the Fibromyalgia Connection: Fibromyalgia Recovery Handbook”, and it was a waste of time!  Janice Lorigan, the author, has no connection with Fibro, no medical training, nothing.  I think she was just using the book to get people to stop using corn syrup and eating rice.

This book was a waste of the money and time I put into it.  I hate dead ends.

I finished the first book that I ordered, 100 Questions & Answers About Fibromyalgia.  There is so much information in those 100 questions it was unbelievable.   I learned that I have a muscle and tissue disorder which cause my muscles to ball up or knot and lock in place.  I am also hyper-sensitive, meaning that my nerves (and body) take everything a little too seriously.  For example, if you give me a light hug it feels like you are crushing me or if you give me some NyQuil I am completely out of the game.

I learned that there is no one cause for Fibro but the solution I found while reading that fits my condition is it was most likely caused by my Epstein Barr Syndrome (EBV).  EBV is the virus that causes mono; I caught mono when I was about 7, again when I was about11, then when I was 12, and so on and so on.  Instead of my body building an immunity to the virus it adapted itself to it.  EBV causes many problems for its “victims” but I think this is a big one.

I know that my thought train derails a lot and it never did that when I was younger.  My dad used to ask me what was on TV for the night, and I would rattle off the TV listings to him or my mom would ask me someone’s address and phone number and I would recite it like it was my own.  Now days I can barely remember how to finish a thought.  It is very frustrating and it makes me feel very inadequate; come to find out I am not the only one who suffers from this.  “Fibro Fog” is the most common complaint with Fibro patients.

From reading this one book I do have a few things that I am going to ask Dr. Soloman about.  I am wondering if some of my pains and complaints would be caused by interstitial cystitis (IC) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).  I know those are a few things you probably didn’t want to know but I am being honest in these posts.

As I got to the section on the medications and management, I learned that most things related with this section had the side of effect of “may cause weight gain”.  Thanks!  Here I am trying to control my cholesterol and weight and this darn syndrome is doing everything in its power to stop me.  Can’t a girl get a break.  I did also learn that as for the meds I am on, they are the latest and greatest.  That is a good thing.

The writer’s of the book suggested that along with the medications that patients try other therapies.  This includes water aerobics (uh…no), message therapist (people touching me, I think not!), and a psychologist.  The psychologist is for teaching you how to deal with life and teach you pain techniques.  The book did suggest using a tennis ball for about 20 to 60 minutes as a way to massage a muscle that has a flare up, I think I can handle it.

They also state that stress is a big factor in causing flare ups.  The book suggests that you find some soothing and calm activities to do daily.  Scrap-booking is one of my major stress relievers, and I am hoping to find a way to be able to do it again.  The book also suggest that you start journaling how your days are going, what was your pain like and if you had any stress.  So, along with what I am learning in my book I will be occasionally posting what my days are like.

Today:

I started off with about a medium day of pain, but like yesterday my lower back and legs have began to hurt.  I have also had a low roaring headache today.  Rachel helped with distracting me by taking me to see All About Steve.