Monday, March 08, 2010

Blood tests and Bed Times

Went to see my primary doctor today. She had been concerned about the raise in my blood pressure over the winter. I figured it was because I was so sick in December. My blood pressure is back down to normal.  YA for something good.

They took a couple of vials of blood. One to retest my ANA ANA and one to check my  SED rate.  Talked about all the problems I am having sleeping. She finally put me back on Ambian (well the new generic) at 10mg.  YA!!!!  I use to take 25 at night because it was the only thing that let me sleep through the body quakes and twitches. So it's a start. A small start, but still a start.

Both my rhumy and primary care doctor are still not giving me any body wide pain meds.  You know the ones that make you not feel pain like narcotics.  They increased my muscle relaxers, but me on a higher dose of Amitriptyline a anti depressive medication that has been shown to help in some cases of chronic pain and migraines.  Since I am having fewer migraines I can say it has helped there. But why am I taking 75 mg a day when the medical book says 10 to 15 mg a day are usually required for pain modification. 

I still feel like just a simple small narcotic pain med each day, even something as small at 20mg Oxy would go a long way to making me feel more human. Most of my pain is in my joints, not in my muscles.  

Just wondering if I could ask my readers who have fibromyalgia vs lupus. 



--Where does your pain come from? 

--Is it a more joint oriented pain, where joints in use, or carrying weight hurt?

--Or is it more muscles in use hurt, with the pain reducing when you stop using the muscle?

--Or is it just an all over shoot me now muscle joint and bone pain?

--How many of you have both lupus and fibromyalgia?

2 comments:

  1. I have been diagnosed with both fibromyalgia and, depending on the doctor, either lupus or a non-associated autoimmune disorder. The pains differ. In a lupus flare, it's more true pain and it's more the actual joints that hurt. With fibro, it's more of an all over tension/ache in the muscles that end up making the joints hurt (rather than the reverse on the lupus). It's sort of a weird distinction that took a lot of years for me to sort of work out through experience. There's still times now wher I can't tell which is the issue or what causes the shooting hip pains, or knee pains or whichever one flares up suddenly for a day.

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  2. Hi there! Tammy here. I have Lupus, RA & Polymyalgia Rhuematica. I can tell you with RA it's bone pain, Lupus is joint pain and the poly is my muscles. There are days when it's rough and I know them by the fevers the night before and the morning sweats when I wake. I am on relaxers and stronger meds to help kick back some of the pain. They dont' last from one dose to the next but I also don't want to be on more than needed. I am not sure why your doctors are not addressing your pain aggressively as it is proven beneficial for chronic pain peeps to do much better when pain is controlled. I hope you have more pain less days than pain filled. Thanks for having me. Tammy

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