I just need to vent

OK I completely understand the need to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer I just want to state that before I begin my rant. At any time of the year you will find pink everything with a percentage of the profit going to breast cancer. Now here we are in October and is everywhere you look. Does anyone know when endometriosis awareness month is?? What about ovarian and cervical cancer?? Does anyone even know what any of the other color ribbons mean??? Obviously I am partial to the other female issues as well as fibromyalgia and chronic pain syndromes. I would proudly support autism awareness or melanoma awareness but we never see any products or fundraisers for these other disorders and cancers unless a family member is participating in a walk or run which is all they have to raise funds for research for conditions that have no cures or have extremely lower survival rates. I lost an aunt to pancreatic cancer I have a purple ribbon but you never see anything else to purchase to help researchers find better ways to treat such a deadly cancer. I am all fired up about this as I create pink wine labels for the bottles my parents are donating to "flowers of hope" for breast cancer. I will be running to walmart later today to get a hanes t-shirt supporting breast cancer awareness since my family will be at the all day event at Violet's flower shop in Berwyn this Saturday (Sweetest Day). Just once I would like these companies big or small to look into helping other causes that need to get information out to the masses. Before I shared my endometriosis story how many of you knew what it was??? How many other conditions are out there that get no attention so there are no new treatments there are no cures so people just need to suffer and deal with it. I am done venting and again I understand the need to support breast cancer just wish every cancer and condition received as much love from the masses.

Update

So...
That prescription with all of the lovely side effects that I last posted about, well my neurologist decided that I needed to be taking more so I now take 600mg 3x/day and it basically has me sleeping and in such a fog all day I don't know if I prefer that over the pain? Why can't they just put me on something to ease the pain to a manageable level without the extreme drowsiness???  You would think I would feel great with all the sleep but nope I feel so tired all the time. I fell asleep on the way to Moline to watch our cousin Kristi and Drake's crew team it took Chris a good 20 minutes to wake me, that's just crazy!!

On a different note Chris and I have started counseling to deal with all of the issues that have arisen mostly due to my health conditions. So far so good, we both like the therapist. I chose a male thinking that would make Chris feel more comfortable and well I have a male Gynecologist so you can assume it does not bother me either way. He is basically teaching us to communicate better and to remember our opinions are just preferences we cannot make the other person do anything or demand that they do as we say. So instead of "you need to" it is now " I would like it if you..." it just comes off a lot better. He has also assigned us homework we are both to read Dr. David Burns book Feeling Good  so far it is not awfully dry and pretty informative about cognitive behaviors. I would recommend to anyone who just wants to think about a new outlook. Chris and I spent about a week and a half together without a single disagreement which I think for any couple is a great accomplishment. I do believe however that I need to see the therapist for one on one sessions thanks to insurance policies. So our insurance BCBS does not cover couples counseling so they had to mark Chris as the patient and with they marked down for him they will cover "family sessions." I think we can all agree that I need a little more attention on myself as well as part of the couple sessions. So that is my assignment for myself this week try to get myself going for individual sessions now that I feel comfortable with the therapist.

Interesting Article from the Fibromyalgia Network

Out with the new in with the old

Weird heading, I know you are like hey Amy you have that backwards. Ha ha not this time! So a week ago today I went and saw the neurologist that my GP recommended for me. He is switching me meds one at a time. He wants to have me wean off of the Lyrica first and go on a "tried & true" drug that is most commonly prescribed as an anti - convulsant. Also going from a 75mg 2/day dose to a 300mg 2/day dose it is supposed to help everything that is going on with my body as well as try to keep my nasty migraines at bay. So I am being a good prescription taker and reading all the information that comes with a new drug and I am reading and it is just blowing my mind!! " Call a health care provider if you encounter any of these symptoms and they worry you:

1. Thoughts about suicide or dying
2. attempts to commit suicide
3. new or worse depression
4. new or worse anxiety
5. feeling agitated or restless
6. panic attacks
7. insomnia
8. new or worse irritability
9. acting aggressive, being angry, or violent
10. acting on dangerous impulses
11. an extreme increase in activity and talking
12. other unusual changes in behavior or mood

The Most Common Side Effects

1. dizziness
2. lack of coordination
3. viral infection
4. feeling drowsy
5. feeling tired
6. fever
7. jerky movements
8. difficulty with speaking
9. amnesia
10. tremor
11. difficulty with coordination
12. double vision
13. unusual eye movements

Correct me if I am wrong but I am trying to get rid of these side effects since there are also symptoms of FMS. Chris came to this appointment with me and as a good paramedic asked about side effects between new drug Gabapentin and old new drug lyrica and was told that Gabapentin is one that they are allowed to prescribe to the elderly well no offense some of the side effects they are already experiencing depending on their age so are they a good sample group??

Where to begin?

My cat eater- Rascal beware

My life has been turned upside down lately. Where to start first? I guess I will just go in the order that it happened. I went for a second opinion on what to do about the severe pelvic pain that I have all month long, normally with endometriosis it is really bad around the time of your period and ovulation. I went to see a doctor that is apart of Loyola's new pelvic pain center. After speaking with a nurse for 20 minutes and then her student for another 20 minutes the doctor came in and did a quarter of an exam (thrilled I cannot handle more than that without having to be scraped off the ceiling). She determined that on top of the endometriosis and ovarian cysts and then the fibromyalgia pain ladies get ready to cringe. . . My vaginal muscles are in a constant charlie horse spasm. Lovely I know so she wrote my vagina a script for lyrica and physical therapy that there is a 3 month wait to get into. I have been on the Lyrica and Cymbalta combined for about a month now I will say that it has helped some, I know longer have the daily feeling of needles being jammed in a very delicate area. Now this doctor is on the other extreme from Dr. number one she wants to put an IUD that lasts for 10 years inside of my cervix, due to Loyola (Trinity) being a catholic hospital she needs to get approval for any type of birth control first. (So here is where I will start jumping around) As one would imagine all of this can be quite stressful on any relationship. Chris & I have now been married for 3 years and can honestly say we never would have imagined our life to be where it is now. It has been very stressful me not being able to work, or get out of bed some days. The medical bills piling up on top of all of our other expenses. There have been many blow ups due to all of the stress and just the uneasiness of how (if) we can do this. I never expected to be in so much pain that I just don't know what to do to handle it. One day I decided enough was enough and started packing. I packed up all of my clothes, shoes, toiletries and moved back in with my parents. He packed up his things and has moved into his mothers basement along with his sister's 3 cats. There is no way we could go on paying $1,500 a month for the home we were renting. We could not just move into one home due to our dogs. Gunner is in Berwyn with me b/c he was an appetite that would include all 5 cats at his mom's house. My mother is not so thrilled with Gunner just because he is not like Honey-doo and runs and may have torn up the backyard a little (a lot). Bruiser on the other hand is more fearful of cats that anything so he is with Chris at his mom's house and is oh so happy to have his hiding space back (the bathtub). We have been trying to see each other as much as possible but that is hard with his promotion he works in Elgin 5-7 days a week. Like this week Mon-Fri he is in the office but Saturday and Sunday he will be in gilberts for the muddy buddy race. So if you are going and hurt yourself feel free to ask for Chris. I have taken over Ryan's old bedroom and thanks to Aunt Tracy & Uncle T have Patrick Kane staring at me all night long, thanks guys!! These past 2 weeks have been very rough that is how long this period has lasted so far again ladies feel free to cringe. Plus my sleep has been a little erratic leading to FMS flare ups which my parents do not quite seem to understand yet. The other day my dad was trying to tell me that I don't know what pain is, I could not hold my tongue I snapped back maybe you need to look up my conditions before you say that I do not know what pain is!!! I was reading an article about how to explain FMS to people and their analogy is the best I have heard so far. Think back to the last time you had a bad flu and how drained you felt and how every ounce of your body ached now add a sunburn on top of that to get the skin sensitivity. That is how I have felt for the past two weeks on top of the endometriosis pain and on top of a ruptured cyst. I am very lucky that Gunner has taken so well to Ryan because it has been a blessing that he follows him in and out and will listen to Ryan almost as well as he listens to me. It just gives me one less thing to worry about. Other than Ryan confusing him when he calls him duck or crocodile. I apologize for the rambles and the jumps all over, I am sure you teachers are having a field day with my grammar and lack of seperation. I just decided to free flow and keep typing what comes to mind sorry if it drives you crazy.

New Treatments

So I have been taking the Cymbalta for the fibromyalgia for a few days now and have already started to notice a difference. I am no longer walking around like an old frail lady. There is still an annoying pain in my hips, shoulders and neck but it is down to a 4 which is at least manageable. My gynecological specialist called me in to review everything and where we were. We also figured out that the endometriosis is no longer just causing my pelvic area pain but I also have intestinal endometriosis. It is as a big of a pain as it sounds. He was not really listening to me saying that now is not the time for me to get pregnant. All he said about that was he believes that is the only way to truly to relief from the endometriosis oh and he believes it will make me happier! Really, I really like him as a doctor but him and his wife are both doctors so I do not think that he ever thinks that it is stressful for other families to afford to have a child. Eventually he saw I was not happy with his response and he said he was sending me to a different doctor who runs a physical therapy center he wanted me to get a pelvic floor massage. Do not ask I still do not know exactly what it is I went for my appointment yesterday and received no such massage in the hour and a half I was there. There was a consultation with the doctor who happens to be a chiropractor he looked me over said I was a muscular mess and all that pressure is not good for the endo or FM. Then I saw the physical therapist for another evaluation and they taught me some stretches to help loosen up my muscles so when they start in on specific exercises there is no additional inflammation which is my enemy for the conditions I am struggling with. I also had my first adjustment go figure my pelvis was out of alignment and turned it was an interesting experience. It is hard to say how I am feeling after that because this will be my worst week this month so no matter what I do I am in constant pain. They want me going in 2-3x a week I do not know how conceivable that is but I will at least be doing the homework that they gave me. I will keep this updated on how well these work.

Decision Made

I am awaiting the phone call to hear my prescription is ready to be picked up. Treating the fibromyalgia it is which means back on all of my medications to try to keep everything at bay. Until we get everything back on track we cannot even fathom adding a child. So please cross your fingers that once I am feeling better and am able to work again everything will fall into place and be just as it needs to be. Lets hope this time next week I am pain free!! Some more good news we are holding off on the cardiologist appointment until we see how my body takes the fibromyalgia medication. We have decided to go with Cymbalta which has half the life of Lyrica just in case God had other plans for us. It will not take long to ween me off of cymbalta as it would Lyrica. I am also right now scheduled for monthly B12 injections. I love them nothing has been able to give me that boost of energy like it. Now time to call my favorite doctor and let him know my decision, he will not be happy but we have to do what is right for us. Then he needs to refill my pain killers with what is quickly approaching and I do not have to suffer without anymore. I will keep you updated on how I am feeling with the addition of the new medication.