I made an Executive Decision the other day, Monday to be exact. Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, I called my psychiatrist (my, doesn't that sound pretentious?) and told her -- told her, not asked -- that I wanted to change from Pristiq back to Cymbalta.
She tried not to gasp as she asked, "But didn't we decide that Cymbalta was causing you some urine retention?"
"Yes. But it looks like the Pristiq is, too. But I felt so much better taking Cymbalta. So what's the difference? I'll let my other doctors take care of any other problems that come up." There, I had said it. Of course, the conversation ran a bit longer than that, as we discussed the pros and cons of switching yet another med. Finally, she took a deep breath and said:
"Well, all right. I'm sending your prescription to your pharmacy right now."
I picked up the prescription that afternoon and I am feeling better already.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.....
<Lupus
Friday, May 21, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Fever Continues
If there's one thing I know about lupus, it's that it's ever challenging. Take this latest fever (PLEASE) and how I'm trying to determine what the heck is causing it.
After I looked online with my Lupies buddies, I am just about to think it's either a flare that's beginning (due to inflammation somewhere) or I do have an infection of some kind that hasn't surfaced as pain yet, such as a urinary tract, bladder or sinus infection.
And if that's the case, then I should be able to control it by taking aspirin, right? Nope. Not knocking it. And I really, really don't like antibiotics: the last time I took Macrobid was for 30 days, and I was as limp as a rag doll the whole time. As if full-blown lupus isn't enough to make a person tired, then a regimen of anti-biotics really complicates things.
But I do have an appointment with my PCP on Thursday, May 27th. She is knowledgeable about lupus; in fact, she's the only one of my doctors who, in 1988, sent me next door to a rheumatologist for the dx. I have told her she can never retire.
Maybe she'll have some answers for me. Or by that time, the fever will be gone. (Sure. I'm such an optimist.)
In the meantime, I'll do the best I can. Lupus is such a drag!
<Lupus
After I looked online with my Lupies buddies, I am just about to think it's either a flare that's beginning (due to inflammation somewhere) or I do have an infection of some kind that hasn't surfaced as pain yet, such as a urinary tract, bladder or sinus infection.
And if that's the case, then I should be able to control it by taking aspirin, right? Nope. Not knocking it. And I really, really don't like antibiotics: the last time I took Macrobid was for 30 days, and I was as limp as a rag doll the whole time. As if full-blown lupus isn't enough to make a person tired, then a regimen of anti-biotics really complicates things.
But I do have an appointment with my PCP on Thursday, May 27th. She is knowledgeable about lupus; in fact, she's the only one of my doctors who, in 1988, sent me next door to a rheumatologist for the dx. I have told her she can never retire.
Maybe she'll have some answers for me. Or by that time, the fever will be gone. (Sure. I'm such an optimist.)
In the meantime, I'll do the best I can. Lupus is such a drag!
<Lupus
Friday, May 7, 2010
Fever of Unknown Origin
The last couple of days have been yucky. That's a scientific term, you know. My own scientific term to describe when I'm feeling less than well, but not out and out sick.
I just got over a persistent urinary tract infection last month, after taking antibiotics for a solid month. The anti-biotics make me feel -- well, yucky --- too, so I was really not feeling up to par. Finally, finally, I began to feel better, and back to my old self again.
Then yesterday, I was getting a pedicure at my favorite salon. It was crowded, but I got right in and settled down with a book while the tech scrubbed, polished and massaged my tootsies. Ah, luxury.
I don't call this an indulgence, either, but a necessity. Besides having lupus, I was also gifted with Type 1 Diabetes, and that means I need to take care of my feet. Since I can't reach my toes any longer, I indulge myself at the local nail salon. Just my feet. I have yet to have a manicure there, believing I can do my fingernails myself. And I do.
While I was nearing nirvana, I began feeling a bit warm. The day was going to be in the 80s, so I figured the salon's a/c wasn't yet geared up for that temp. But I continued to feel warm even as I paid my bill and departed, flip-flops flipping and flopping out to my car.
Got home and checked the thermostat. It was set for warmer weather and running just fine. Okay, then, why do I feel so warm?
Heh. I also felt sleepy. Laid down on the couch and snoozed -- for about an hour. When I woke, I was even warmer.
So I took my temp. Normally, my temperature rarely gets above 97 degrees. So a "normal" temp of 98.6 is a fever for me. This time, my temperature read 99.7. A fever.
Okay. Time to hit the aspirin and get this temperature down. Don't know where it's coming from, but it's got to go.
Felt better, went to bed early, and got up this morning wondering if I had licked the fever.
Nope. And, my throat felt scratchy. And my ears hurt. Really hurt.
What the heck??? This is May, not December. I'm not supposed to have a sore throat and earaches in May! But have them, I do.
So I'm taking aspirin and taking it easy. We'll see how the next couple of days go. It's not always lupus, I realize. I can have a sore throat and earaches like any normal person, can't I?
We'll see. I'm getting the strange feeling that it might be swelling from a lupus flare that has hit my throat and ears.
Time will tell. In the meantime, it's a mean time.
<Lupus
I just got over a persistent urinary tract infection last month, after taking antibiotics for a solid month. The anti-biotics make me feel -- well, yucky --- too, so I was really not feeling up to par. Finally, finally, I began to feel better, and back to my old self again.
Then yesterday, I was getting a pedicure at my favorite salon. It was crowded, but I got right in and settled down with a book while the tech scrubbed, polished and massaged my tootsies. Ah, luxury.
I don't call this an indulgence, either, but a necessity. Besides having lupus, I was also gifted with Type 1 Diabetes, and that means I need to take care of my feet. Since I can't reach my toes any longer, I indulge myself at the local nail salon. Just my feet. I have yet to have a manicure there, believing I can do my fingernails myself. And I do.
While I was nearing nirvana, I began feeling a bit warm. The day was going to be in the 80s, so I figured the salon's a/c wasn't yet geared up for that temp. But I continued to feel warm even as I paid my bill and departed, flip-flops flipping and flopping out to my car.
Got home and checked the thermostat. It was set for warmer weather and running just fine. Okay, then, why do I feel so warm?
Heh. I also felt sleepy. Laid down on the couch and snoozed -- for about an hour. When I woke, I was even warmer.
So I took my temp. Normally, my temperature rarely gets above 97 degrees. So a "normal" temp of 98.6 is a fever for me. This time, my temperature read 99.7. A fever.
Okay. Time to hit the aspirin and get this temperature down. Don't know where it's coming from, but it's got to go.
Felt better, went to bed early, and got up this morning wondering if I had licked the fever.
Nope. And, my throat felt scratchy. And my ears hurt. Really hurt.
What the heck??? This is May, not December. I'm not supposed to have a sore throat and earaches in May! But have them, I do.
So I'm taking aspirin and taking it easy. We'll see how the next couple of days go. It's not always lupus, I realize. I can have a sore throat and earaches like any normal person, can't I?
We'll see. I'm getting the strange feeling that it might be swelling from a lupus flare that has hit my throat and ears.
Time will tell. In the meantime, it's a mean time.
<Lupus
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Another Name for Lupus.....
I have read another name for lupus....somewhere. I don't know whom to credit, or blame, or where I saw it for that matter, but here is another name for SLE and I can certainly relate to it: "Come and Go Weird-Itis."
That explains it for me today, at least. I wake up in a whole new world every day. Will I be able to get out of bed? Hmmmm. Yeah, today I did.
Will I be able to put on the coffee, go outside to get the morning paper, prepare a bit of breakfast? Yeah, today I did that.
Now, did I take my meds? Uh, huh. Can I get a shower and dress for the day, even if it is jeans and a t-shirt that has seen better days? Check.
Then I sit down at my computer.....Heh. My body has been cooperating so far today, but my mind has gone AWOL. What do I need to accomplish today? Or, better yet, what am I ABLE to accomplish today? Okay, I'll check my emails and see if I have an editing project. Nope. Try to write something in Facebook, then. Sigh. Nothing comes to my muddy mind. Yesterday, I wrote a lot. Today, nothing seems to surface from the sludge I call my brain.
I need to do some promotion work on at least one of my books. What is today? Tuesday? Okay, find the sheet that lists where you can promote on Tuesdays. Then do the form email for that day for that site. Whew. That took about an hour. Now I feel guilty that I should have been writing more on my novel-in-progress.
My mind then tells me to quit being so hard on myself. I'm having a Lupie day.
Oh, speaking of Lupies....I go back to my emails and there are a bunch of messages from my Lupie friends.
I read them and reply. Then I feel better. At least I feel like I have done something constructive today.
And the sad part of all this is: I may have to go through the whole thing again tomorrow. Yep. Lupus is definitely known as Come -And Go Weird-Itis. At least for me today.
<Lupus
That explains it for me today, at least. I wake up in a whole new world every day. Will I be able to get out of bed? Hmmmm. Yeah, today I did.
Will I be able to put on the coffee, go outside to get the morning paper, prepare a bit of breakfast? Yeah, today I did that.
Now, did I take my meds? Uh, huh. Can I get a shower and dress for the day, even if it is jeans and a t-shirt that has seen better days? Check.
Then I sit down at my computer.....Heh. My body has been cooperating so far today, but my mind has gone AWOL. What do I need to accomplish today? Or, better yet, what am I ABLE to accomplish today? Okay, I'll check my emails and see if I have an editing project. Nope. Try to write something in Facebook, then. Sigh. Nothing comes to my muddy mind. Yesterday, I wrote a lot. Today, nothing seems to surface from the sludge I call my brain.
I need to do some promotion work on at least one of my books. What is today? Tuesday? Okay, find the sheet that lists where you can promote on Tuesdays. Then do the form email for that day for that site. Whew. That took about an hour. Now I feel guilty that I should have been writing more on my novel-in-progress.
My mind then tells me to quit being so hard on myself. I'm having a Lupie day.
Oh, speaking of Lupies....I go back to my emails and there are a bunch of messages from my Lupie friends.
I read them and reply. Then I feel better. At least I feel like I have done something constructive today.
And the sad part of all this is: I may have to go through the whole thing again tomorrow. Yep. Lupus is definitely known as Come -And Go Weird-Itis. At least for me today.
<Lupus
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Learning Something New Every Day....
I learn more from my fellow Lupies than I ever could from my doctors. I read a post this morning from a fellow Lupie who said Lupus can also affect the autonomic system. That is, your breathing, heart rate, temperature, etc.
Huh. So that's why I sometimes have problems with my body temp. It's always waaaay below "normal" so if I have my temp taken by a doctor's assistant, and she declares I don't have a fever, I always ask: "What does it say?" She'll say, "98.6." And then I say, "Well, with me, that's a fever."
My regular PCP and her office staff are accustomed to me making remarks like that. Because they're true, and they know me very well after all these years. I don't go into her office just on a whim; it has to be something that I can't handle at home, on my own, with OTC meds.
Like the fever I had about a month ago. It turned out to be a UTI of biblical proportions, IMO. I couldn't get rid of it. Three rounds of Cipro later, I am sent to a urologist. He prescribes Macrobid for 30 days, and that does the trick.
There is nothing "normal" about a Lupie.
Just ask one.
<Lupus
Huh. So that's why I sometimes have problems with my body temp. It's always waaaay below "normal" so if I have my temp taken by a doctor's assistant, and she declares I don't have a fever, I always ask: "What does it say?" She'll say, "98.6." And then I say, "Well, with me, that's a fever."
My regular PCP and her office staff are accustomed to me making remarks like that. Because they're true, and they know me very well after all these years. I don't go into her office just on a whim; it has to be something that I can't handle at home, on my own, with OTC meds.
Like the fever I had about a month ago. It turned out to be a UTI of biblical proportions, IMO. I couldn't get rid of it. Three rounds of Cipro later, I am sent to a urologist. He prescribes Macrobid for 30 days, and that does the trick.
There is nothing "normal" about a Lupie.
Just ask one.
<Lupus
Friday, April 9, 2010
Typos and Eyes....
I just noticed on my last post that I made a big boo-boo. "They Eyes Have It" Should have been THE Eyes Have It. So much for the double vision thing.
I have been back to the eye doctor, for a follow up of my last visit, when I had told him about the double vision.
Since the last visit, I had been online with my lupus support group that is soooo terrific, giving me information and insights into this disease so much better than any "learned physician" ever could. I'm not dissing my doctors, or any doctors, mind you, but they haven't actually lived with this beast that has no "normal" progression or symptoms.
And on the subject of my double vision, complaining that my PCP, my rheumy, and the eye doctor (I say "eye doctor" because I always have trouble spelling ophthalmologist)couldn't figure out why I was experiencing this, one of the members of the support group suggested maybe it had to do with Sjogren's Syndrome. HUH?
Of course, that's correct. I don't know if I had told my eye doctor about the Sjogren's or not, but yesterday, when he asked if I had had any more problems with the double vision, I very brightly said, "Oh, I think it might have something to do with my Sjogren's. I don't know if you have that listed on my chart or not, but it's pretty common for Sjogren's patients."
He kind of turned a bit pale, turned to my chart and then said, "Well, it just might be." No comment on whether it was in my chart or not; I'm sure he wanted to save face if he had, indeed, missed it.
So he checked my eyes, after they had been dilated, of course, and during the exam he stated my eyes "aren't too dry" and I resisted the impulse to tell him, "You're not looking at the world thru my eyes." He then asked me if I used my eye drops four times a day (they're OTC) and I said, "No, usually just twice." So he's telling me to use them 4 times a day now. Huh. But they're not that bad....LOL. Rest of the exam is positive. No diabetic retinopathy and the cataracts aren't ripe enough to talk about surgery yet.
Drove home, wearing those dumb dark glasses that really don't cut out the light coming in from the sides of the glasses, pulled the blinds shut, laid down and closed my eyes for about an hour. A total waste of time, since I couldn't watch t.v. read or get on the computer.
And I'm thinking, just like the preparation done before a colonoscopy, "There ought to be a better way to check your eyes," don'tcha agree?
Thus endeth my complaint for the day.
<Lupus
I have been back to the eye doctor, for a follow up of my last visit, when I had told him about the double vision.
Since the last visit, I had been online with my lupus support group that is soooo terrific, giving me information and insights into this disease so much better than any "learned physician" ever could. I'm not dissing my doctors, or any doctors, mind you, but they haven't actually lived with this beast that has no "normal" progression or symptoms.
And on the subject of my double vision, complaining that my PCP, my rheumy, and the eye doctor (I say "eye doctor" because I always have trouble spelling ophthalmologist)couldn't figure out why I was experiencing this, one of the members of the support group suggested maybe it had to do with Sjogren's Syndrome. HUH?
Of course, that's correct. I don't know if I had told my eye doctor about the Sjogren's or not, but yesterday, when he asked if I had had any more problems with the double vision, I very brightly said, "Oh, I think it might have something to do with my Sjogren's. I don't know if you have that listed on my chart or not, but it's pretty common for Sjogren's patients."
He kind of turned a bit pale, turned to my chart and then said, "Well, it just might be." No comment on whether it was in my chart or not; I'm sure he wanted to save face if he had, indeed, missed it.
So he checked my eyes, after they had been dilated, of course, and during the exam he stated my eyes "aren't too dry" and I resisted the impulse to tell him, "You're not looking at the world thru my eyes." He then asked me if I used my eye drops four times a day (they're OTC) and I said, "No, usually just twice." So he's telling me to use them 4 times a day now. Huh. But they're not that bad....LOL. Rest of the exam is positive. No diabetic retinopathy and the cataracts aren't ripe enough to talk about surgery yet.
Drove home, wearing those dumb dark glasses that really don't cut out the light coming in from the sides of the glasses, pulled the blinds shut, laid down and closed my eyes for about an hour. A total waste of time, since I couldn't watch t.v. read or get on the computer.
And I'm thinking, just like the preparation done before a colonoscopy, "There ought to be a better way to check your eyes," don'tcha agree?
Thus endeth my complaint for the day.
<Lupus
Friday, April 2, 2010
They Eyes Have It
I began having some double vision recently. Nothing to worry about, I told myself, since I spend a lot of time at the computer screen, staring and forgetting to blink. That will put anybody's eyes at risk for something even more worrisome than double vision.
Oh, it didn't last long, either. Another reason I tended to brush it off. A momentary, transient feeling that my eyes were not focusing properly, and that I was indeed seeing double of everything. I tested my blood sugar, since I'm diabetic, and I wasn't having a low blood sugar drop, something that can get me in real trouble, especially when I'm driving. (Remind me to tell you sometime about the time I was going home from the dentist at 4PM and ended up 50 miles from home at 6PM not knowing where I was and how I got there.)
Anyway, I mentioned it to my doctor during my most recent visit. She frowned and suggested I see my ophthalmologist. So I made an appt. No reason I should be having double vision, he said. Hmmm. Rheumatologist had also recommended I see the eye doctor. He wasn't too sure what was going on with that, but said my tests looked good.
So I'm reading the posts from my good buddies at a lupus support online site, and I mention my double vision. And sure enough, here comes the answer.....Sjogrens Disease can also cause double vision.
Makes sense. I have Sjogren's, too: dry mouth, dry eyes, so that could cause my eyes to act up in that manner. I went to the Sjogren's website, and sure enough, there it was.
Funny how it takes one lone, non-medical person to grasp the situation and respond with the correct answer, when the very same situation had stumped three learned medical professionals.
Sometimes I wish every doctor could experience one day in the life of a lupus patient. On a bad day. Then maybe they'd "get it." Nothing quite like experience, I say.
<Lupus
Oh, it didn't last long, either. Another reason I tended to brush it off. A momentary, transient feeling that my eyes were not focusing properly, and that I was indeed seeing double of everything. I tested my blood sugar, since I'm diabetic, and I wasn't having a low blood sugar drop, something that can get me in real trouble, especially when I'm driving. (Remind me to tell you sometime about the time I was going home from the dentist at 4PM and ended up 50 miles from home at 6PM not knowing where I was and how I got there.)
Anyway, I mentioned it to my doctor during my most recent visit. She frowned and suggested I see my ophthalmologist. So I made an appt. No reason I should be having double vision, he said. Hmmm. Rheumatologist had also recommended I see the eye doctor. He wasn't too sure what was going on with that, but said my tests looked good.
So I'm reading the posts from my good buddies at a lupus support online site, and I mention my double vision. And sure enough, here comes the answer.....Sjogrens Disease can also cause double vision.
Makes sense. I have Sjogren's, too: dry mouth, dry eyes, so that could cause my eyes to act up in that manner. I went to the Sjogren's website, and sure enough, there it was.
Funny how it takes one lone, non-medical person to grasp the situation and respond with the correct answer, when the very same situation had stumped three learned medical professionals.
Sometimes I wish every doctor could experience one day in the life of a lupus patient. On a bad day. Then maybe they'd "get it." Nothing quite like experience, I say.
<Lupus
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