Pain and Fatigue

I woke up this morning with burning pain all over. My toes, the bottoms of my feet, the joints in my fingers, my knees, and even near my armpits.  It's a day to stay off the computer and rest, but there is too much going on.

I still prefer this burning and aching to the nausea and headaches. I wanted to end it, seriously. The pain was too much. It was like migraine, but worse. Still not sure if it was the Naproxen, but I'm on day 4 of not taking it and haven't had nausea since day 2 and the head pain is gone. Now it's just the burning and aching, and the grogginess from the Norco, and tiredness.

Found this last night while looking up autoimmune issues. I love the Spoon Theory. It explains so much about what it is like to live with real fatigue.







*Edit 10/14/12: I have a migraine. Not sure what triggered it. Wondering if I should try going back on the Naproxen. I see the Rheumatologist next week.

Experimenting

So, I got tired of the headache and nausea everyday. I decided to stop taking the Naproxen and see what happens. I am on day 3 of no Naproxen. I've taken Norco (Vicoden) once to help me sleep. This morning I woke up with various joints burning and sore, and red. Also, there was a hive on one of my finger joints.

 I took a shower earlier, and that led to sore joints in my foot/ toes, and fingers. I might be taking the Norco again tonight to help me sleep. My appointment with the Rheumatologist is still a week and few days away.

Dealing with Chronic Pain - The Beginning

I'm not sure of the exact date, but sometime back in June I started to feel an ache in my middle, right finger. It wasn't anything major. I figured I had just over-used my hand. The pain got worse as time went by though. After about a week or so, I started to think back to see if I may have hurt it and forgotten. I couldn't think of anything. Then, one night at work, it hurt so bad that I couldn't pick anything up. My middle finger felt broken, but I hadn't injured it. What was going on? When I woke up the next day, the tendinitis in my right index finger returned. I had suffered from tendinitis in this finger on and off for two years.

At the same time, I had been suffering from a pain in my right leg, for at least 6 months, if not longer. I believe that it had started even earlier, but that because of my sedentary nature, before I started working again, that it stayed dormant until I started moving again. The pain went from my hip to my ankle, but centered on the right side of my right knee.  I researched it and the only thing I could come up with was an IT Band issue. I had noticed the pain after many uses of the treadmill and stationary bike, so it didn't seem far fetched.

I've been in a lot of pain, for most of my life. I have suffered from migraines since the age of 18. I have slight scoliosis and have had back pain for as long as I can remember. I am under a ton of stress, I am fatigued, I am tired of the pain. I also, thankfully, just got insurance. I had decided to go to urgent care so I could be seen right away. I was also hoping that if they couldn't help me, that they could refer me.

Supermom

The past week has been pretty busy. A good week, but stressful in new ways. The things to do keep piling up and new responsibilities keep getting added. I did not let go of Facebook, and I am still teetering on the edge with that. I find myself logging in too often. The first few days were easy. Now that I know I am keeping it, I find it too easy to log in and out.

My day job boss has added more hours to my schedule, so I am pretty much full time now. There is good and bad there. Good: money and affordable benefits, Bad: no time for me or my business. I have to give up my life again. Sigh. Trying to figure out how to make it all work; day job, business, homeschool, me.

So, I have my lists of things to do in each room to get the house in tip top shape. I got more checked off today, but still tons to do. The laundry room is now clean and organized. We added a new hamper from Ikea to keep the clothes off of the floor. We also got a new indoor recycling bin, with a lid, so that is all neat and clean as well. Grayson also got his very own hamper in his room so he has a place to keep his dirty clothes rather than on the floor. Progress.

Grayson will start homeschool in August and we are in the process of signing him up for soccer. We are all excited about it, and it will be a new, big, experience for Grayson.

I've also been helping Aaron with his photography business.

Yesterday we did the local Family Fest event. It was a huge success. Aaron demoed his portrait process and took portraits of people . He'll be sending everyone a free low res copy in their email and information on his portrait packages. 

I think that is it for now. Back to the drawing board and figuring out new ways of trying to do it all. 

RIP Donna

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/17/showbiz/donna-summer-dead/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Experimenting

So today is the second day that I won't be logging into Facebook. I decided, after  a couple months of thinking about it, that I needed to get away from Facebook for awhile. I'm so engrossed in it everyday, that I did not think that I could get away from it without deactivating the account. I really did not want to do that, but just wasn't sure.
So far, I think I am doing pretty well. Having my blog back helps. I do have to fight the urge to post something I find funny or interesting, but overall not missing it too much. I think that I have decided, though, that I will keep my facebook account active, especially because of my business account, but also because I know I will lose track of people who I would like to stay in touch with if I don't keep it.
The experiment will continue for the rest of the week and we'll see then what I ultimately decide. I am enjoying the freedom though. I almost feel like I'm on vacation.