Tired

I mentioned before about talking about symptoms. Well, today it seems that I need to talk about being sleepy. Last night I got about 5 hours sleep. That is an occasional thing as I usually try to get around 7 hours of sleep.

I feel so exhausted today and it's terrible!To make matters worse, today is one of my "long days" I had to be in at 5am and will probably work to 4pm. I pray for strength for this.

Anyway, back to the tiredness. Every feel like you were up all night for the past 3 nights partying and then were hit by a truck? You'd feel achy and so tired. That's what it feels like right now. I'lll go through times of From feeling tired to exhausted. FMAware.org's website has a good definition of tired as:

In today's world many people complain of fatigue; however, the fatigue of FM is much more than being tired. It is an all-encompassing exhaustion that interferes with even the simplest daily activities. It feels like every drop of energy has been drained from the body, which at times can leave the patient with a limited ability to function both mentally and physically.

I can barely stay awake and am waiting until lunch time so I can go take a nap in the car.

I would like to stop being tired all the time.

Bowling?!?! - What was I thinking?

It's been a few days, so I wanted to write about what's been happening. This past week, two of our kids have had chorus rehearsals and have had performances this past Thursday and Friday.

The long days during the week have been pretty rough, but yesterday, I took a few of the kids bowling. Well, needless to say, we had a great time! The kids beat me.

Today, though (actually, it started last night) I am hurting and am taking Lortab to try to help deal with the pain.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help with the tiredness.

Well, I guess that' s all for now.

Fibro Fog

Now that I have the first post behind me on my fibrolog, I've decided to tackle some of the symptoms that I feel on a one-on-one basis to better detail them and hopefully help someone else who is suffering.

The topic of this post is one of the most alarming to me personally. It's one of "cognative disfunction". That's the term that I've given it to describe my thought processes at times.

As I've said, my cognative dysfunction is among the most troublesome to me. This is because, although I've never completed college but I've prided myself on being faily intelligent. As a teenager, my IQ was tested and said to be 168. I've received an academic scholarship to college, been tested to perform in excess of my current developmental level, been on the college "Brain Bowl" team, received a 99 score on the ASVAB, 96 for police academy, etc. and found myself conversant on a number of topics and issues, but things change.

I can't remember the first time that I noticed my cognative difficulties, but it was somewhere around the beginning of 2006.

My "episodes" would manifest as either a spacey, cloudy or numb feeling in my head that would make feel like my brain was on vacation. These times would occur daily, sometimes several times a day. In retrospect, I remember as a young teenager that I would have "staring episodes." I read in the school library that these were called "petite mals" and were somewhat normal.

My current dysfunctional episodes cause me to lose track of conversations and tasks. I would routinely forget peoples names, and procedures for doing tasks related to my job. I've often said, "Sorry, my train of thought just derailed." There are times where I have to reread or rethink things over and over again to process them.

I also forget things like conversations and whether or not I've taken my medicine. While speaking with someone, I will "fade out" in the middle of a conversation. I usually "fade back in" a few seconds or minutes later. Sometimes, it's noticeable to the person that I'm talking with, especially if I can't remember what we were talking about; oftimes it's not, which is good.

Either way, it is extremely disheartening and somewhat embarrasing when it happens.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to My Fibro Site! I've started this blog to chronicle the "adventures" that I have regarding fibromyalgia.

The name of the site comes from an article that I read that mentioned the number of people that suffer from this condition/syndrom/disease.


Although this blog was started in 2007, I have merged entries from a previous journal that I was keeping in 2003 that detailed my initial onset of symptoms and my wife's desire for me to seek medical attention.

A New Doctor, Part I

September 22, 2003

Ok, so I've slacked of a little and didn't write in the journal, but then again, nothing really happened. I've been taking prednizone for a week (just about) with no relief in sight.

This morning, I called the doctor's office to tell them about my status. The nurse that I spoke to was amazed. She said, "What?!? The prednizone doesn't work for you?!?!" She then said that she'd have to talk to the doctor and get back with me.

Well, it's been about an hour and the nurse called me back, saying that the doctor wants to refer me to a Rheumatologist and that she'll call me back when she gets me an appointment.

The Day After

September 17, 2003

Well I started the prednizone last night right after dinner. Man, what a rough night I had. I had some major aches and pains in my back, legs, ankles, arms and shoulders. I doubt it was from the medicine, though, because I had just started taking it and figured that it would take longer to kick in.

Well, day 1 down. My doctor want me to take it for 7 days to see what happens. I'm sitting here and can feel the pulsing pain in my knees, ankles and arms. Geez....

Round 2

September 16, 2003

The doctor's office called my house at noon today to let me know that my test results came back. My wife called me and I called them back. The blood work turned up normal. The nurse(?) then said that she would talk to the doctor to see what he wanted to try next.

She called back and said that the doctor wanted me to take prednizone for a week.

The most commonly encountered side effects are:

• Sodium retention
• Increased appetite
• Increased fat deposits
• Increased acid in your stomach
• Increased sweating, especially at night
• Increased hair growth
• Acne on the face, back, and chest
• Bone and muscle problems
• Growth problems in children
• Eye problems
• Increased sugar in the blood
• Increased sensitivity to the sun
• Delayed wound healing
• Decreased ability to fight infection
• Thrush (Candida) growth in the mouth