Fibromyalgia Thread

[melmathis]

kind of a personal problem here. dont know if i am alone or not. i only sleep good for about 2 hours a night, then i go to the bathroom 2-3 times at least. i am never in a mode of sleep that i am not aware of everyting going on. i dont know if i am going to bathroom so much because i am not really asleep, or if it is because bladder relaxes at night

 

[brighteyes]

I don't really know about going to the bathroom a lot. However, 2 years ago when my fibro intensified 10 fold - I was only able to sleep one hour at a time. I would then be awake for at least an hour and go back to sleep for another hour. It was an endless cycle, and I wanted to sleep was exhausted but just could not stay asleep.

It could be that you are just not sleeping so your bladder is more awake. Are you drinking more water throughout the night because you are awake more often??

Disruptive and light sleep are hallmark for fibro. I had a sleep study done and found that whenever I approached deep sleep, my body said NO WAY and back I came to the light stages of sleep. So even if I sleep for 8 or 10 hours with the help of meds, I barely enter the deeper stages of sleep.

Sorry if I wasn't much help.

 

[brighteyes]

I just wanted to share....I have a CODE I forget already what it is for - I think it is the 20/30/40% off code...but I cannot use it.

On the upside I just applied for a job, only part time, but enough to get me out of my mess I'm in right now and maybe put a deposit on Disney????

Ahh, I can dream right?

I have had a busy week, my sleep is all backwards, usually up till 4 am. I have finally completed my disability papers, and sent them. I applied for two jobs (both at the same place, one is a supervisor, one is just worker), and I have been excercising my little but off. Not really breaking a sweat but lots of stretching with yoga on my wii fit plus!!! Almost an hour and half per day I am trying to do. Next week I am also starting fibromyalgia swim excercise classes. So hopefully that will help me lose some of this weight. I already lost a pound. That may go back up but hey I will take it and hope for the best. It's motivation even if it's just water weight.

I hope everyone is feeling good and has a good weekend.

 

[melmathis]

no i only sleep first few hours, most of time, only with meds. some nights meds dont work and i feel like i just laid there all night and am so exhausted. i have been doing this for years. just seems lately i am having to get up and down more to go to bathroom. although; i do have to get up ad walk aroud quite often to have a break from laying there (back and sides get so tired)

 

[brighteyes]

is it a side effect from any of your meds. One of my meds gives me cotton mouth so I down about 10 glasses of water a day, my other med is a diruretic so I visit the bathroom every half hour. Water in - water out. LOL

The other thing is have you been checked for a bladder infection? If it is not too bad you won't necessarily have other symptoms such as back or pelvic pain or pain when you urinate.

Other than that that is the only reason I pee often. Apparently there is a chemical released at night that stops the bladder from producing urine. IF you are not in a deep sleep due to fibro you won't have this happen.

When my DS was younger he had a medication to help him stop peeing the bed which helped him produce this chemical to reduce the production of urine (I hope I make sense here).

 

[brighteyes]

Mel,

One more thing I just thought of. This happened when I went for an ultrasound. After they tell you to empty your bladder and ultrasound you again to see how much your bladder emptied. Well I guess I don't empty mine enough. The dr said it is due to age and weakening of the bladder muscle. She said it can also be from weight gain which I had at the time.

Just one more reason why? Not to give you too much to think about LOL but maybe just try asking your dr next time you see him.

Hope it gets better cause I get sick of having to run up the stairs every half hour to visit the washroom.

 

[melmathis]

hey, thanks for the suggestions. fortunately, i dont have to run upstairs lol

 

[brighteyes]

hey, thanks for the suggestions. fortunately, i dont have to run upstairs lol

No problem!

Uggh I am awake after only 4 hours of sleep.

 

[brighteyes]

Eeks, heat at home is nothing like being at Disney. I guess my Fibro is actually genetically altered to do better only in WDW!

Well I have my husband's surprise bday weekend all planned. A little back story. DH grew up as the youngest child of an alcoholic mom and father who had to work many many hours. He has siblings old enough to be his parents. Needless to say, despite his upbringing, he is the sweetest, kindest, giving person I have ever met. So since he never had birthdays, I give him a birthday week and or weekend. Last year we gave him a GPS and programmed a weekend at a few places in NY and PA. It was really fun....

So this year I planned a trip around his favorite new past-time: Soccer! He loves watching it on TV and watching the kids play.

So I asked his boss if he could have Friday the 16th. off from work. On Thursday we will give him a card, with a few clues and have all the addresses programmed into the GPS. We are going to Columbus, Ohio. Really cool hotel called Drury, I got a suite very inexpensive. Friday night the special mall has a traveling Soccer camp for their MLS team the Crew. We will do that, eat, and shop. I got tickets for Saturday to a Crew soccer game and it came with free tickets to the Zoo. So we will do the Zoo in the morning and afternoon, go back to the hotel, freshen up, and they have free happy hour... Then I got great tickets to the soccer game. I think I will find a pizza place and we will swim or whatever for the rest of the night after the game. On Sunday they have a whole German Village that we will visit. Great parks, authentic food, and brick walkways/homes. They also have a huge bookstore. So both DH and the kids will love that. We will then drive home. Sunday is his actual bday, but I think this will do just fine.

I am getting excited!

Tink,

How did the bdweekend go?? Was your DH excited?? Hope you got everything done before you wanted to go. Tell us how it went when you have time.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

 

[EDuke98080]

Hey Bright... Thanks for asking.

Last night I was totally shot so I just slept when we got home.

Thursday I went to the dr. with all the problems I have been having and she felt the symptoms were all from a huge flair caused by my own.... stress. Yep, everything is okay, just in a huge flair..

The birthday weekend was a huge success!!

I picked up DH on Thursday, and he had no clue. The kids were good and we had most of the house cleaned and the suitcases all packed. We put the suitcase on his area of the couch with a "gotcha" letter.

We left early Friday morning and got to Columbus around 4ish. The hotel was nice except for a problem with the handicap parking. (I'll get into that in another post). We arrived in time to get the room and head off to this huge mall called Easton. Google it, it is really cool. They were suppose to have a huge soccer kids thing that cancelled unexpectedly. I went to Guest Services and they gave me a gift card because neither the mall or the soccer company had updated their websites and we drove a long time for it. So we used the money to get DH a pair of Nike flipflops and dinner at Max/Erma's. Plus Puma had a huge sale and I bought DS his warmup jacket. He actually liked me during the whole trip!!

We went to bed early and woke up. Free breakfast then went to the zoo. Very, very large, and it was warm 90ish. They don't have a lot of animals but the grounds are beautiful. I will be updated my pics to my facebook tomorrow. Take a peek. We left around 3 went to the hotel, vegged, and then the hotel had free happy hour and a mini dinner. I had my first drink in years and confirmed that it is just not for me! But the food was good. Then we took the "ride" and ended up at the Crew game. DH and DS were just so excited!! It was so cute to see them that way. And the game was great. On the way back I ordered a pizza to the room (I never do that, so the kids thought it was great).

Sunday AM, I was a lot under the weather so the kids and DH packed up everything while I took some meds. Then we did breakfast and went to the German Village. This was my favorite part. By the time we got there I was able to eat a little so we stopped at a little German pastry shop and I had a scone with jam... YUM!! Then we went the the Book Loft, aka the original Borders/Barnes and Nobles... Well over a $100.00 later, we left with tons of books that the kids loved... And a Hidden Mickey book for DH and I. We walked the park and ate at Schmidts German Sausage Haus, and then bought... FUDGE!! Then we drove home.

All in all, I did well. The pain now is unbearable, and I hate too, but I have been lying to the family telling them it is okay. Hopefully I can get out of the flair soon.

Did I miss anything around here?? Let me know, Diane.

I am glad you had a good time. I "fib" to my fmaily about how I am feeling too sometimes. I hate to ruin things for them. Most of the time they can tell even if I don't say anything. I am out of the loop around here from being too tired to read and catch up. Hope everybody is surviving the heat with minimal pain.

PS I can't drink either. Wreaks havock with me!

 

[brighteyes]

Glad your DH and family enjoyed the weekend. Sorry you weren't feeling good and aren't still/ I hope you feel better soon.

My silly brain almost posted to your wall about the weekend but thank god I thought about it before I did! LOL I wouldn't have wanted to ruin the surprise.

About the drinking, this might sound bad, but every so often I "plan" a night to have a few drinks with my neighbours in my backyard to relieve stress or get a little silly and just relax like to celebrate like my graduation, and I end up drinking one or two coolers and that's it. On the very few occasions that I do drink more than that, nothing happens. :confused. I dont understand how if I have a drink a few times a year, how I can have such a high tolerance to alcohol??? Last October I bought about 12 coolers to have on my birthday, cause that wouldn't do much to me. But I never drank more than a few. So the rest carried over to New Years. Again, I didn't drink them. I just had a few more the other week and had to throw one out cause it expired. LOL And I have 1 1/2 left in my fridge still if they're good. It's been a while since I was a little giggly.

So I try to have a little fun and get a little silly and just have a few maybe to take the edge off the pain but it just never seems to happen.

At least I can say I am NOT a cheap date. If a guy wanted to get me drunk to try to take advantage of me, I think he would go broke trying.

 

[melmathis]

my rheumatologist has told me in the past that people with fibro have a tolerance to meds. i suppose that goes with alcohol also. i dont drink because of meds i take, afraid to. but, yes, i guess guys could go broke if taking someone like us out on dates

 

[brighteyes]

my rheumatologist has told me in the past that people with fibro have a tolerance to meds. i suppose that goes with alcohol also. i dont drink because of meds i take, afraid to. but, yes, i guess guys could go broke if taking someone like us out on dates

That's interesting to know... If I have a few, I never take my sleeping pill or my evening lyrica. But summer is half over and I still haven't had my few drinks to celebrate my graduation.

I plan on doing that when I go to the cottage though. YAY beach. It's not WDW but it's 5 days away.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

 

[brighteyes]

Tink,

Take care of yourself, baby yourself, you deserve it. Sending you pizie dust for a recovery asap!

 

[EDuke98080]

Bright, Mel, and EDuke, it's funny how alcohol and Fibro affect us all differently. I am mostly afraid of drinking with the meds.

Well my flair is still going full force. Not what I was hoping for. I doubled up on pain meds tonight and got a whole 2 hours of almost pain free delight!!

So I hope everyone is coping and doing well today, tonight, and for the rest of the week. Diane.

I hope you are feeling better soon. Wish there was a formula for "fixing" flairs, do what you need to for you and hopefully you will be back on track soon!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

 

[EDuke98080]

Thanks girls. What used to work for me, doesn't anymore. I am at a crossroads looking for a new direction. I used to be able to act normal during the afternoon and evening when everyone was home and then crash when they were gone. But the kids are home from school and I can't seem to find the way around it. I lay on the couch until noon. Then I start doing stuff, but by the time my husband gets home, he knows. He can see it in my eyes and from the way I walk.

Oh well, I guess I am more depressed than anything, because deep down inside I wish the kids were at school so I could get onto schedule.

So my deep pain is my worry. What do you all do for it? It is in every joint and every bone in my body now.

You are better than me, I don't even make it to the couch. I stay in bed until around 11 unless there is something pressing, then take my prilosec then half an hour later breakfast or lunch depending on my mood. After that I take my shower which can be exhausting in itsself sometimes. Get dressed and then maybe lie down for a bit. I try and take a walk everyday with my dog(s) which is usually short but at least a little exercise . After that I may go to work or do housework depending on the day. I usually feel best in the evening, morning is the most painful and why I get such a slow start. I actually get sick to my stomach if I have to rush around in the morning, I just can't do it. My kids know that this is my routine and as "wierd" as it is to the rest of the world it's what I need to do. For bad days, as horrible as it makes me feel mentally I may do little. I have realized that sometimes I just have to take it easy and have accepted that. I find the following things help me; a warm bath, do activity in short bursts and rest in between, do things at night, not be too hot or too cold, get enough sleep, tylenol, reduce stress, try to not let things bother me, try and do something physically active every day no matter how bad I feel.

Not sure if this helps at all but sometimes knowing that it's ok to just be and take care of yourself helps. When I am really bad, sticking to a schedule helps get me back on track as well. Oh and an ocasional meltdown which is not productive but unavoidable....

Feel better!

 

[brighteyes]

Thanks girls. What used to work for me, doesn't anymore. I am at a crossroads looking for a new direction. I used to be able to act normal during the afternoon and evening when everyone was home and then crash when they were gone. But the kids are home from school and I can't seem to find the way around it. I lay on the couch until noon. Then I start doing stuff, but by the time my husband gets home, he knows. He can see it in my eyes and from the way I walk.

Oh well, I guess I am more depressed than anything, because deep down inside I wish the kids were at school so I could get onto schedule.

So my deep pain is my worry. What do you all do for it? It is in every joint and every bone in my body now.

I am so sorry you are in so much pain. I know when I was at placement for school as soon as I walked in my boss knew from my eyes and my posture if I was in pain. There's no hiding it when it's that bad.

The only thing I do that gives me temp relief is heat, heat, and more heat. I have a heating pad on me constantly, I switch it from area to area, no 20 mins on 20 mins off here, just straight on for 20 hours. Then I have the hottest showers I can directing the water on my most painful parts. Jammies of course. Just lay on the couch with the heating pad and/or hot water bottle. I also have been known to buy those heat theracure things that you attach to your body that provide heat. They don't provide ALOT of heat but like I said the more heat the better. Meds don't work when I am in this much of a flair.

I have been known to do this ritual for up to two days when I am in a bad flare. I am wishing you a speedy recovery. HTH.