Tag Archives: chronic pain

Atypical Flare Day

Itchy. Everything is itchy. The burning itchy kind of itchy. The under the skin kind of itchy. The normal itchy. EVERYTHING itches!!!!!

It’s been like this for hours now. Why it just now hit me that I’m in the middle of a flare, I don’t know, but it did. Usually, my flares agree more pain involved. This doesn’t have much pain. But I am SO irritated. Everything itches, even my eyeballs. Because of that, everything is driving me bonkers.

A hair fell off my head and touched my arm and I almost burst in to tears. No, I’m not kidding. My phone put “feel” instead of “fell” in that sentence and I felt inexplicable rage.

My internet isn’t working very well, which is why I’m writing this on my phone (I hate using my phone for posting). The lack of functional internet also means i can’t work on my homework right now. Xfinity was being awful and made me uber angry, again, so I had to stop watching TV. My hands are uber stiff so I don’t want to hold a book of any kind right this moment. Dan is at school working on a project for class.

My hands and feet are swollen. I just noticed that. Maybe I’m dehydrated? Maybe it’s the medication I’m on for the sinus infection? Who knows. But it’s not helping.

I just want to cry, but that’ll just give me a headache. Crying is great for the soul sometimes, I just wish my head would agree. Ugh.

 

Empathy vs Sympathy by Brene Brown

This video is a very short and beautiful way of describing the difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is important and how we connect with people. Empathy is what everyone needs, what everyone wants. Learn empathy. Practice empathy. Foster connection. Foster love.

Summary of A Pilot Study Using AVS for Insomnia in Adults and Chronic Pain Patients

Here is my paper. I had to write a summary of the article that I read. At the bottom is the reference, which includes all of the information for the article if you are interested in finding it for yourself.

Summary of A Pilot Study of Audio-Visual Stimulation as a Self-Care Treatment for Insomnia in Adults with Insomnia in Chronic Pain

Chronic pain and sleep disturbances are comorbid conditions, meaning they are often diagnosed in the same patient. It is estimated that one in three Americans suffers from chronic pain, and as many as 88% of those suffering from chronic pain also suffer from some sort of regular sleep disturbance (Tang, Vitiello, Perlis, Mao, & Riegel, 2014); that equates to about 78 million American adults suffering from chronic pain, with about 68 million also suffering from sleep difficulties (Howden & Meyer, 2011). These statistics show a shockingly high level of comorbidity, and a need for a solution. It has also been suggested that the relationship between pain and sleep may be bidirectional, meaning that increased sleep disturbances increases pain levels and increased pain levels increases sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances have also been linked to other physical and psychiatric problems, which have also been shown to cause chronic pain problems, suggesting that treatment for chronic pain should focus on sleep disturbances.

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Soon I’ll Have Research to Share

The paper I’m writing for psych isn’t a traditional research paper. Instead of a research paper, we had to find a short article related to psychology and then summarize it in plain English (I think it’s so we can have more practice in reading and understanding scientific articles). I chose an article that is related to insomnia and chronic pain. Once I get my paper turned in, I’ll share it with you guys because I find it very interesting.

Here’s my paper: Summary of A Pilot Study of Audio-Visual Stimulation as a Self-Care Treatment for Insomnia in Adults with Insomnia in Chronic Pain

FINALLY a Recovery Cocktail

How do you recover from a month of crazy emotional stress, travel stress, chronic illness, and allergy testing?

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Zofran, Tramadol, two Benadryl, two Excedrin Extra Strength

I just got home from my allergy testing, and this is the first thing I did. Well, technically the second. This has just been the most ridiculous month, and definitely not in a good way. Grama passed on the 3rd, and now suddenly it’s the 19th. I do not know what exactly happened to the month of April, but I do know it has been a giant ball of stress of all kinds.

Here is why I’ve been a ball of stress:

Chronic Illness “Uniform” Sweatshirts

I was thinking of making some generic chronic illness warrior designs, for those of you without dysautonomia or fibromyalgia. Since it just snowed another foot here (yup, I just more than a foot of snow this weekend), I decided to start out with the standard “official uniform” design on the sweatshirt! I’ve just been doing women’s clothing so far, since most of my readers are women and the majority of chronic illnesses seem to primarily impact women (sadly). Let me know if you there is an interest in male designs though and I’ll get right on it! Here are the basic sweatshirts and hoodie designs I got together you other chronic warriors 🙂

 

 

 

 

I’ve also been growing the art portion of my Zazzle shop significantly: I’ve added throw pillows, coaster, art pieces, postage stamps, and many other items. Please check out my entire shop and let me know what you think!

Intimate Link Between Body and Brain

It’s interesting how, in this time of intense emotional pain, the link between brain and body can be so tangible. I’m in intense emotional pain and it’s messing with my body. I’m getting random aches and pains that shouldn’t be happening, my IBS is acting up (which is definitely something that can be emotionally triggered), and even then I know my headache medication is working I’ve suddenly gotten a bad headache going again. Ugh. Maybe my brain knows I can kind if handle physical pain and is trying to “help” by making it more “manageable” or something? I don’t know. But the link is interesting to notice.

Day 3 of Digestive Distress and I am so Far Out of My Element – Please Help!

When I was trying to determine what “severe diarrhea” was defined as, medically, I couldn’t find anything. Seeing as how I have suffered from the exact opposite problem my whole life, I don’t exactly have a reference point. The Linzess says to stop taking it and contact your doctor if you have severe diarrhea. It’s to treat IBS-C. I see problems with this, in that most people that need medical intervention for constipation probably don’t really understand what qualifies. However, while I was trying to find a definition, I did find that you should seek medical help for diarrhea lasting for more than 3 days in an adult.

Today, I woke up completely exhausted, and decided to skip classes to recover my strength (my stomach didn’t hurt at 6am). Then I woke up again at 11a, and realized that my stomach hurt again and I was still exhausted. Sadly, I seem to once again have very watery diarrhea. Tuesday, when I had the watery diarrhea, was a Linzess day, and so is today. But I seemed to have adjusted to the Linzess and it wasn’t causing any problems for a week or two so I don’t know if that’s causing it or if it’s a coincidence? Ugh.

Tuesday, I had one non-watery diarrhea episode, and three watery diarrhea episodes. Yesterday, I had one non-watery diarrhea episode but could barely eat anything at all so nothing was in my system to pass through my intestines anyway. Today I have so far had one and I can tell in about two minutes I will need to rush to the restroom again for another episode of watery diarrhea. Does this count as three days? Why is medical intervention necessary after that long? I don’t have any signs of dehydration above anything that is normal for me (my lips are chapped, but they are almost always chapped; my skin isn’t dry and it is still completely elastic). I’m doing my best to drink fluids, but my belly is upset so I can’t do it too quickly or I feel like I’ll vomit. I see my GI doc on Wednesday. I just need to know  if I should be calling my doc tomorrow morning or if I might be okay over the weekend. My Urgent Care centers can give IVs, so I don’t think I’ll have to end up in the ER if i get dehydrated. I’m just worried and very confused. Any advice?

This Time I Didn’t Eat Mold, So What is the Deal?!

(Started writing this 3/29) If you read this post, then you already kind of know what I’m dealing with today. If you didn’t, a quick summary is that last week I accidentally drank a moldy LifeWater and had to deal with watery diarrhea for a day (and overall feel like I was dying).

Today, I had to go to school. I managed to wake up at 6am and make it to my 8am class because I had to take my exam.

instagram waiting at school signed

just waiting…

I haven’t been to class much at all, but my math teacher is very kind and still recognized me by name and seemed very happy to see me today. I had two hours to take my exam, and I finished it in 45 minutes (that was the total time even after looking it back over twice). I had 15 minutes to kill before the “graduation expo” (or whatever they called it) opened, so I could buy my cap and gown, and my next class wasn’t until 10. While I was waiting, my stomach issues of the last few days got worse. The last two days I’ve had a lot of gurgling high up in my abdomen, and I’ve been having a lot of bloating and some distention, but nothing has really been moving. I’ve really just felt awful as a result, and really haven’t wanted to move. I don’t know what has set this off. But while I was waiting to buy my cap and gown, I started to feel even more sick. My lower abdomen started to get stabbing pains (which is usually a sign that things are about to get dramatic in a not so fun way), but it still didn’t feel like anything was moving; the bloating feeling was getting way worse; I felt like I wanted to throw up just to empty my abdomen out, but I’d only eaten two homemade blueberry muffins so I knew that wouldn’t actually help; and my upper abdomen started to get all gurgly again. I started to get the acid feeling in my throat from the urge to vomit, and was swallowing hard to keep it at bay (I knew I didn’t need to and it was just a last ditch “please help” type of reaction). Then I got all light headed, probably from not being able to take all my meds.

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