I'm Mad Now!

I have been using Tramadol for over 2 years as my main pain reliever for fibromyalgia.  I use 4 a day on average, but occasionally require a fifth one if I do something out of the norm.

I can generally call in my prescription 3 days in advance and have no problem getting it refilled. Not so this time.  I called on the 27th to my doctor as my refill was out and I needed to make sure I wouldn't have any problems.  The nurse  called over to our pharmacy and ordered the prescription.  When my husband went to pick it up he was told that this was a "watched drug" and that it cannot be refilled until the exact day it was due and that I would have to wait the 4 days.

Of course I called back my doctor and was told by the nurse that the pharmacy was quite rude to her and even accused her of sounding like she was driving in a car while she was reordering my meds.  Apparently the pharmacy made it a point to call the doctor's office back to confirm that they were indeed the ones who called it in at all.

So now I wonder; is there a new mandate about certain controlled drugs or was this pharmacist on a power trip? Either way I am the one who suffers.  I had to go 3 days without any medication at all. I can't take Advil, aspirin or Tylenol as I break out in hives.  My doctor did call over for another pain reliever (Darvacet) for the interim time but it has never worked for me so the pain just escalated.

I couldn't sleep as my arms and hands were throbbing with pain. I would try to get comfortable in bed but found myself getting back up and trying to figure out what to do. This must have happened at least 5 times as I was so tired.

Have you ever been so exhausted you can barely function but cannot go to sleep due to pain?  I have experienced this before when my "restless legs" were at an all time high, but this was beyond anything I have ever endured.

Finally at around 4am I decided to take a very hot bath to see if it might calm down the throbbing and jerking of my arms.  It did seem to work so I was able to sleep.

It's a very scary thing to realize how dependent you are on drugs to get you through a normal day.  It is also quite sad to realize that your life as you once knew it is forever gone.  You will never be normal and function as others do.  You will forever be subjected to the doctors whim as to whether they will continue your medication.  Fortunately I have a great doctor who was the first one that realized I have fibromyalgia and works closely with me on medications.

I finally got a new prescription and am doing much better but I can guarantee you that I will never allow myself to get so low on my pills again. 

Until next time. :)

Painting? Not So Much

My husband and I bought a house last month because we know we want to downsize in a few years and the prices just couldn't be beat. We hope to rent it for a year or two and give the market a chance to balance out so we can get a decent price for the home we are currently living in.

The good news is that it will be perfect for us in that is has 3 bedrooms and one is outfitted with upper and lower cabinets on both sides of the room (see photos) for my mosaic studio. The bad news is that it was left very dirty and in need of paint so we have spent the last 14 days straight doing just that.

The first few days I was working over there I honestly didn't think I  could walk to the car I was so beat up feeling and my pain pills had long worn off.  I had been cleaning the cabinets, fridge and stove in the kitchen and it was a lot of scrubbing and an entire bottle of 409.

It really hit me the rest of the night and all the next day.  The muscles I used to get up and down were screaming and my pain pills only lasted about 4 hours instead of the usual 6-8 so I am now running low for the month.

Each day I was over there working for at least 4 hours and all that leaning down and squatting to cut in around the baseboard with paint nearly killed me.  It has been almost a week since we finished and I still wake up sore in spots.

To think just 3 short years ago I painted our entire Townhouse from top to bottom by myself and didn't have any problems.  The fibromyalgia hit me one day and my life is altogether different.  It just seemed to come upon me suddenly and never left.

We still have to paint the front of our house this fall before it gets too cold but I think I will leave most of it to my husband.  He is very understanding when it comes to my aches and pains and never expects me to do too much, but it's hard not too when I have been doing things like this nearly all my adult life.

Oh well, just glad I can still help out most of the time.

Until next time :)

Some Days Are Better

Some days I get up and I think, "gosh, I feel so good today" that I don't even think about taking any pain pills for a few hours. Usually I head for them before the coffee even finishes brewing.

Lately I have been doing a great deal of cleaning and painting and I am surprised I can still function pretty well.

My husband and I bought a house last month. We knew we wanted to downsize from the place we are living in now and figured the market couldn't get much better for buying one. Unfortunately because the market is so sluggish and the price of houses are at an all time low we felt we had to continue living in our current home and rent out the one we just purchased.

The house we bought was in need of some serious TLC so we have been painting every room and scrubbing all the tile, doors, windows, and cabinets. It's taken an entire bottle of 409 already and we aren't even finished. Lots of work. But amazingly, I am still in fairly good condition.

I did take off from going over there today because it has started to catch up with me and I was tired and sore most of the day, but I plan to be back at it tomorrow.

I think having something different to do makes a bit of a difference in how you feel. If I was just doing all that cleaning in my own home I might not feel as chipper, but knowing this needs to get done so that we can get it up for rent puts a different spin on it. Besides, it was fun to think about what I might do with the rooms when we do move in.

All in all, things are pretty good these days. I think the longer nights help me to sleep in better as it stays dark until around 7:30 in the morning. If nothing else it helps with a better attitude in starting my day. Getting 8 hours of sleep compared to my usual 6 is a huge difference.

Until next time :)