Last night was awful. I was up all night, slept maybe two hours between 8 and 10am. Lots of back pain, hot and cold, etc.
Today saw Dr. Bodkin. Taking 5mg/day of Prednisone for two more days, then no more! Hooray!
Mom suggested the doctor test me for POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Basically seeing if my blood pressure and pulse increase significantly between lying down, sitting, and standing. And...drum roll please...POSITIVE!! I'm orthostatic! We don't know if that means much yet. POTS specifically is determined by a more involved table tilt test. Will get that administered through my GP sometime soon.
Anywho, she gave me a muscle relaxant which should also help me sleep. And a prescription for Cymbalta (barf) which I think we'll wait on. She had a patient like me a while ago who took some herbal/natural supplement and felt great, so I'm going to try that first. Cymbalta has like 100 side-effects, and I've been down that path before. No fun.
Really bad migraines today. Probably read way too much yesterday. Need to lie down now.
I just want to clarify something. When people ask how I'm doing, and I say "I'm hanging in there" or "I'm doing okay today" or "Just taking it a day at a time"...this means that I probably feel like crap. "I'm decent" means "I'm still alive, and I'm doing all I can to get my mind off the pain."
I realize my manner of speech can be confusing, but *please* understand: I'm not better. If I have a good couple hours every few days, that's really huge. I'm not better yet. Just...agh. Understand.
orthostatically yours,
emma
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Emma,
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how good it felt to get some type of positive test result. How weird is that to say?! But at least it's a start, right? Your mom is the best at research! Who'd ever even heard of POTS?
The muscle relaxant should definitely help you, but you are right to hold off on Cymbalta until you try other things. No sense in clouding your symptoms with possible side effects, right? I wonder why she picked Cymbalta. Both my sister and husband did not have good results with that one. Have your tried Zoloft? They both have had really good results with that one. I know everyone is different, but they both said it was the only one that allowed them to still feel like themselves. Just a thought...
Linda
Emma, good to hear that there's a diagnosis on the table. I certainly hope that they can get to the bottom of this and soon! (Well, soon-ish, since it's already been a while!) Blessings, Kary
ReplyDeleteTotally midwestern of you to use "I'm decent." for "I feel like absolute crap."
ReplyDeletePersonally, I use "(I'm doing) alright." for the same thing.
orthostatic, eh? Well, let's see where this leads.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, isn't it dumb how people fail to communicate with each other? Thus, "I'm decent" means "I'm alive" etc.. Almost everyone does this.