Fibromyalgia
I am writing this blog in rememberance of one of my goals. I wanted to change my lifestyle and make a habit of working out. Its something I crave to do durring the day now. I cant wait to get to the gym when I wake up! I also reached another goal of mine, to improve in a small way, my outlook on my health situations and also my attitude about myself. I feel I reached that accomplisment and surpassed it. I am not constantly thinking about how sick I am! Thinking about that brings you to rock bottom low.
I have (possible) fibromyalgia. Its where I have chronic fatigue, achey pain in my body, random stabbing pains, swelling in the hands and feet, and I am unable to sleep normally. Its not very much fun to say the least. I also have the autoimmune hypothyroid (Hasimoto’s) where it desensitizes the body. I was always exhausted, has mock depression symptoms, chronic infections (if someone sneezed two blocks away I would get sick, gained weight while eating only 900 calories a day (clean), and worst of all had horrible brain fog. I could read something out of a textbook and literaly not remember what I just read 2 seconds later. I gained 20 lbs from July 08 to Jan 09. My self esteem was hit hard. I was diagnosed in november 08 and finally had my medication right by the middle of june 09. I was feeling better for about a month. No weight gain, not as tired, happier, etc. I was so happy to be feeling better, because all of those problems had been going on for 4 years. Then about three months ago is when all of my pain and other sympotoms popped up. I had pain in my joints, stabbing pains usually in my ribcage, back or chest( the chest ones are very scary, because they were close to the heart). These stabbing pains were normally short but the long ones last any where from an 30 minutes to an hour. Imagine the worst pain in your life, then concentrate it into one small point in your body then add the sensation of a large needle going in and out of that same point, thats what I began to feel on a daily basis, 5 ot 6 times a day. I also began to have sleep problems, I usually couldnt fall asleep and when I did it was never very restful. I gradually began sleeping more and more reaching a point of sleeping 16 to 18 hrs a day. I also gained another 10lbs probably from not being active. I just couldnt understand why I was getting sick again. I had just sorted out my hypothyroid issues. I just kept thinking over and over again how unfair it was to be sick and how this could be happening to me again. It was like my medication that had fixed my thyroid levels now had revealed this other problem. At one point I was scared I had lymphoma, I had swollen lymph nodes and itchy skin on my legs, typical signs of lyphoma. I just had to figure out what was going on.
Now, it takes a long to time usually to get into a specialist so a month after making an appointment, I finally had an appt with a Rheumatologist. I was unsure of what to expect, some doctors listen, other dont. But she was fantastic! She listened and reasured me. She said it was possibly fibromyalgia but maybe the start of lupus or another connective tissure disease. Only time would tell. She was frank in the fact that this would take a long recovery to even feeling "normal" (6 months to a year)and currently, there is no cure. She said swimming has helped many of her paitents and since I was a swimmer and I am a swim instructor, she thought it would be very beneficial to me. I started swimming and every time I hurt so much after and the next day. I just tried to persevere. After about three weeks, I decided, since I am an all or nothing time person, to start lifting weights again.
I take a very holistic approach to health. I dont think you should just pop a pill for every little malady. This doctor, while I like her, wants me to take two fibromyalgia medications. Savella and Lyrica. Savella causes no weight gain, while lyrica does. I dont think I am going to take it because I would rather be in pain and deal with it then be fat. I mean, some people gain 20lbs in two weeks, sooo screw that.
I have been doing stevep78’s pyschcotic fat destruction program for the last two and a half weeks. While I hurt the next day, I already see a difference in my pain levels several days out from lifting. The past two weeks I am experiencing less and less stabbing pains. My fatigue is getting better, plus I am feeling better about myself. So if anyone has Chroinc Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, or Hypothyroid KNOW that you can and will get better!
