Tag Archives: chronic pain

Today is Not a Good Day

I had class today. My alarm goes off at 6a because I need to leave by 7a to get to school. My classes start at 8am, but traffic gets bad about 7:30am, so I need to beat traffic to my school. Anyway. My alarm went off, and I was REALLY out of it, so I hit snooze. I think I hit it three or four times, so I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:15-6:20a. I stumbled to the restroom, and nothing would move properly. I couldn’t coordinate my limbs very well because I was completely stiff. I tried to take some deep breaths, and I realized that my ribs were in a lot of pain. I was really disoriented, foggy, and in a lot of pain. My throat hurt and I was spitting out (not coughing up) little blood clots (I think they were in my post-nasal drip, meaning I got a small nosebleed last night). Pretty much, I was miserable. While I want to be responsible and go to class, I just couldn’t shake these feelings. I ended up going back to sleep and slept until 11a. I do feel a little better now, but I’m still not doing fantastic. Since I still feel horrible, I’m glad I decided to stay home.

I’m completely drained, and I’m in a lot of pain. I don’t know if the evening Pilates class I did last night pushed me over an edge, or if I am catching Dan’s cold. Dan has been sick this week, with a sore throat and cough and fatigue. I don’t really have my typical symptoms of getting sick, however, so I don’t think I’m getting sick… but then again, it’s almost impossible to tell. I just really want to sleep and I really want to stop hurting. I did take Aleve this morning, but I guess I’m going to have to take a Tramadol again because my eyes are watering just sitting on the couch. I just have to remember it’ll pass. Either I’ll get used to it and it won’t hurt me as much, or it will go away. Either way, it’ll pass.

Remember, I do not post these posts for sympathy or pity. I post these so that I am accurately portraying life with Chronics. Life with Chronics is unpredictable and sometimes sucks; sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s awful. These negative posts are to remind people they aren’t alone, and that sometimes the bad days just knock you down hard. But remember, it is possible to get back up.

 

Gastroenterologist and Neurologist Update

Gastroenterologist

I went to see my gastroenterologist yesterday. I told him everything, including the fact that I’ve been pretty much stuck on a bland diet since Sunday morning (due to the Saturday night incident). (Follow-up about the Saturday night incident.) Turns out that, apparently, when you’re system is backed up it’ll send signals to your brain essentially telling it to not put anything else into your intestinal tract, making you have the urge to vomit. Not really sure why this triggered after the fact for me, but it has. Either way, he thinks it is due to my severely irritable large intestine. Apparently, the pain I have is also due to this. He said that my large intestine is so sensitive I can probably just feel the entire thing all the time, so anytime anything goes through it I can tell. Suddenly, things make so much more sense now.

gastroenterology

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Some New Dysautonomia Zazzle Products

I made a few new dysautonomia products on Zazzle. I’m going to be making more today and will hopefully be making more consistently. For now, the designs are still pretty simple. But I wanted to show you some new products and get some more feedback 🙂

Check out the Chronic Illness section of my Zazzle store regularly for new designs and products! Click here to see the products!

I Had a Great Day, and Then…

… It was gone.

Now I’m writhing around in bed trying desperately to find a position for some relief while also trying to move agonizingly slowly because I don’t want to shake my stomach up and vomit. Don’t know what happened, but suddenly the urge to vomit appeared and it won’t go away, even with Zofran. Dan thinks I ate too many allergens. I don’t think that’s the whole picture, but all I do know is I feel awful.

I don’t want to vomit because last time I started I needed to go to the ER to stop… But I also kind of want to so I might feel better. What would be really nice would be the ability to remove my stomach until it calmed down. Oh, and sleep would be fantastic.

Why I Think My Dental Checkup Went So Well

Thankfully, I woke up feeling a bit better (yesterday was bad); especially thankful since I had a dentist appointment this morning. Unfortunately, the dentist appointment took a little more out of me and seems to have triggered a minor flare up (very minor, just enough to be obnoxious). You’d think that would mean I’d want to avoid the dentist, but NO. I very strongly believe in 6 month checkups with the dentist.

Snapshot_20160219_3

I love how clean my teeth feel after every checkup!

This belief might also sound weird given the fact that I definitely am no poster child for dental hygiene. Embarrassingly, …click for more

Just Breathe – Great Art for Chronics

 

Just a friendly reminder from one Chronic to another: Sometimes, you just have to take a second and just breathe.

This is also available as a wood wall hanging and on a spiral bound notebook!

Probably Not Good

 

I’ve been having odd neurological symptoms as of late:menschliches nervensystem

  • I’m still getting regular headaches, almost daily. Some of them are rather intense, but I’m not sure if the others are low intensity or if I got used to them.
  • My arm pain is still really intense still… but a little tiny bit better because I’ve been taking Tramadol regularly. I can’t stand nerve pain like that. Unfortunately, my left arm has started to get a lot of the same symptoms (tingling, numbness, elbow pain, and neural tension). At least the left arm isn’t as intense as the right. (arm 1, 2, 3)
  • My nausea seems to be getting worse. I don’t know if that is from my nervous system or something else. (nausea 1, 2, 3)
  • The thoracic vertebra (the ones at the ribs) pop constantly, and painfully. I think my spine is compressing for some reason.
  • Muscle weakness is getting a lot worse for some reason. I’m exercising a bit more, but it feels like I’ve been exercising less.
  • My muscles burn every time I stretch them. Even if I stretch them after sitting on the couch or lying down. I don’t know why my muscles are always burning like this when I stretch them.
  • Dizziness is coming back slightly, though my cardiologist’s MA thinks it might be from my body adjusting to the fact that my resting heart rate is now in the upper 60s now that it’s controlled.

As you can see, troublesome. Continue reading →

How to Clean with a Moderately Severe Dust Allergy

I’m allergic to dust. Yes, you read that properly, dust. Everyday house dust. (Read post 1 and 2 about this allergy.) As you can imagine, this makes things very complicated. Doctor’s orders say I’m supposed to stay away from dust, especially airborne dust, which also means keeping my house as dust free as possible. Do you see the catch?

Cleaning is very complicated due to the dust issues. First of all, let me emphasize the importance of good air filters if you have a dust allergy or sensitivity. Air filters are CRUCIAL!!! They are also necessary when cleaning. airfilterI have two different types of air filters, three filter units total. I have two Winix True HEPA filters, and love them. After we got them, we cleaned thoroughly, and it took significantly less time for a dust layer to accumulate. They also automatically sense air quality and will adjust the fan speed as necessary (if on “auto”) and can be put on a quiet “sleep” mode for overnight. We have one Winix on the main level of our house, and one in our bedroom. We also have a small Holmes HEPA mini-tower air purifier (I bought it from Target about 5 years ago). We buy the best filters we can for the Holmes, and it runs 24/7 in the office. All the air filters run 24/7. I’m not getting anything for these links, but these are the ones we use and I definitely recommend the Winix ones.

How to Clean and Dust Your House When You’re Allergic to House Dust

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Cute Compression Socks on Sale!

This is not a sponsored post… I just love fancy socks.

RejuvaHealth.com is having a small sale! They have a coupon code too: CELEBRATE. The code takes an extra 10% off, even sale products! I just bought three new pairs of compression socks, and I’m super excited about it. I love my socks!

rejuvahealth sale

I got the Chevron Slate socks, Rose socks, and the Sheer Floral knee highs. I’ve been stalking their sale page in hopes of finding some of their medium strength (20-30 mmHg) socks. As you can probably see, I got two pairs of the 20-30 mmHg socks, and another pair of the 15-20 mmHg. I have two pairs of the 15-20 mmHg, and they’re great for light compression on a daily basis. I can’t wait, however, for the stronger ones for when I go do things where I’ll be on my feet more!!!!

(I’m still working on a styling post, by the way. As it turns out, I don’t fit a lot of my clothes that I want to wear them with. Hopefully, summer will yield more styling options.)