Thank goodness the pain has come back down quickly. I'm back to my usual 5 or 6 so I guess that means that the new meds are working. Dr. D added Nortriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant used to treat chronic pain. I've not had much leg pain at all since I started it so it appears to be working. She also wrote a script for outrageously priced Lyrica but my co-pay is $60 and I just can't afford it. Since the reasonably priced generic Nortiptyline ($8.00 co-pay) seems to be working fine alone, I'm not going to get the Lyrica filled. I took Lyrica from April 2009 till January 2010 and it made a difference for about 6 months. Then as quick as it had made a difference in the pain, it stopped working. My question to her was "why do you think it would work this time?" Her response was that maybe it was working and I didn't realize it. I can tell you it wasn't working because there was no difference in how I felt after I went off of it 10 months ago. If it wasn't working 10 months ago, why would it work now? I would be remiss if I didn't admit that I'm waiting for the pain to come back. That's the way these horrendous diseases I have act. I feel my physical body is pain bi-polar and subject to change at a moments notice. With fibro, chronic fatigue, neuropathy and myofascial pain you're pain free one day and in so much pain you can hardly breathe the next. Did I say the next day? I need to correct that because I can be pain free one minute and in agony the next minute.
Monday and Tuesday stress brought my pain up to a 7 or 8. The spin switch on the washer decided to die and I was stressing about how much it was going to cost to fix it and how we were going to pay for it. I had to pull the laundry out of the water and wring them out. There were 3 pairs of jeans in the load and they were so heavy and awkward to deal with. I could feel my pain going up. Thankfully Bill was home so he took over the job for me. Then he loaded them in the car and we went to the laundromat. Sitting on the wooden benches waiting for our laundry to be done sent the pain up a little bit more. I had to take a couple of breakthrough pain pills and just knew that this morning I would wake up unable to move. It was great to be surprised and wake up without pain. It's days like yesterday that remind me that I can't make plans too far ahead and that I won't ever be dependable again. I just never know how I'm going to feel from one hour to another much less one day to the next.
It's bedtime now and my shoulder and neck pain is going up again so I'm off to take my medicine and hit the hay.
I agree that the pain changes from one minute to the next. Yesterday I spent two episodes ranging a couple of hours in bed, but in between was able to get out of bed for a bit and even walk some. Go figure!
ReplyDeleteStress is a big component with any kind of chronic pain. Remember the scripture found at Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
(((((Gentle Hugs)))) Fellow Fibromite!