Getting Back to Running

So I am at the end of 5 weeks out of a 12 week Couch to 5K running plan through www.active.com.  The first 4 weeks were pretty easy.  Walk a few minutes, run a few minutes, walk a few minutes, run a few minutes.  Then this week it was walk 5 mins, run 5 mins, for a total of 32 minutes.  Okay, no problem.  Day 2 training for this week was walk 5 mins, run 8 mins and repeat for a total of 31 minutes.  Again, okay...no problemmo.  Then BAM!  Day 3 training was walk 5 minutes, run 20 WHOLE FRIGGIN MINUTES WITHOUT STOPPING, then walk 5 mins for a total of 30 minutes.  The run itself was actually enjoyable.  The Fibromyalgia aftermath this morning however, IS NOT FUN!  Boo!  Can we just say pain sensory overload to the brain receptors?????  Usually I look ahead in the log book to see what the next days training is because I am excited to see what new challenge is coming.  My next run is in 2 days on Sunday...and I am not looking ahead this time.  I am praying that 2 days of rest will be long enough for my body to recover so I can run again on Sunday. 

I wish I could just spend all day relaxing at home, snuggled up in bed watching tv.  Instead we will be heading to Costco in a few minutes, then straight to our homeschool groups monthly Park Day (the kids get to decorate pumpkins..yay!), then to gymnastics lessons, then we are kid sitting a friends son for the evening and having a movie night at home.  At least I get to be out in the sun (always makes me feel better) and get to watch the movie "Battleship" again (my Uncle is in it as an extra..woohoo!).

On top of "normal life" we have added two exciting new adventures to our schedule.  First is a new blanket ministry that I have started with my friend called His Love Covers Me Blanket Ministries.  You can check us out at www.facebook.com\HisLoveCoversMeBlanketMinistries. Second is CUB SCOUTS!  We just signed Monkey up to be a Cub Scout Bear last night.  I can't wait for all the camp outs and fun activities...for him, I mean (hee hee!).  The hubby and I are just as excited as Monkey is to be in Cub Scouts :).

Paleo Diet and Health Update

I am soooo bad with keeping this blog updated.  But the good news is that means I have been busy all year...which means that I have been feeling better...which means that I have had the energy to do all the things that have kept me busy all year :).

This was a picture of me and Bean in July 2011 before I started the Paleo Diet.

This is a picture of me with my Sis in August 2012.  One year after going Paleo.  I dropped 26 lbs. just following the Paleo Diet.  My Fibromyalgia pain is about 90% controlled.  It only flares up when I cheat on my diet. or overdo it physically.  I haven't taken any narcotic painkillers in about 9 months.  I take non-narcotic Tramadol about 3 times a week still during flare ups. I went from a size 14/16 on the bottom to a size 10.  From a size Large to XL on top to a size Small.  I went from 175 lbs down to 149lbs.  Instead of having only 4 good days a month, I now only have 4 bad days a month.  I finally feel like I have my LIFE BACK!  I am active with my kids, instead of just being in their lives floating around and just getting through each day, I am actually enjoying each day, making plans for the future, and getting back in shape.

For the last 11 months, I didn't really work out other than just being active with my kids and playing with them.  But a month ago, I just felt STRONG.  I felt my body was ready to start being physical again.  So I made a plan through www.active.com to start run/walking again.  I am following their Couch to 5K running plan.  My goal is to run/walk the Girls On The Go 10K in March 2013 in San Diego.  http://www.girlsonthegorun.com/.  I have also started bike riding twice a week with my kids and lap swimming 1-2 times a week when I can squeeze it into the schedule.

On the Homeschool front...you all know that I homeschool our 2 kiddos, right?  We have Monkey (age 7 and starting second grade) and Bean (age 5 and starting Kindergarten).  Although both kids are ahead of their grade level in most subjects (just a little bragging here).  We have finished our 3rd official week of school.  We are using a Classical model curriculum called Tapestry of Grace Year 1.  I am more of an ecclectic type of teacher, so I have to modify this curriculum to fit our needs...but what homeschool teacher doesn't modify just about everything they use in the classroom?  I like it because it is a strong reading based curriculum that teaches Christian Bible History and secular/world history at the same time using lots of classical style books.  We also use Teaching Textbooks Math 3, Singapore Math 1A, A Reason for Spelling, Explode the Code, and Get Ready for the Code. 

Like I mentioned before, I am finally able to actually make plans for the future and not worry about  having to cancel at the last minute because of my Fibro pain...whoohoo!  So this school year, I decided to co-lead a class for our weekly co-op through CFS Poway.  www.cfspoway.org.  A year ago, I would not have been able to make this kind of committment. 

For my homeschool followers, I will do another post specifically on our homeschool life so as not to bore the folks who just want to follow my Fibro/Paleo journey.

Well, that's my well overdue health update.  Hope all of you are doing well.

I have been eating Paleo for about a week and a half now. My Fibro pain is almost gone and I feel very energetic! I have loved almost every new Paleo recipe I have tried. And the best part is that I can now tolerate onions, tomatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, and bell peppers. These veggies are all part of the Night Shade family of veggies and are known to cause inflammation in the body. I have stayed away from them for a few years now. Before Paleo, if I ate any of these veggies, 20 minutes later I would be curled up in bed with debilitating Fibro pain. I have eaten them all in the past week and a half and have had little to no reaction from them. I think that before my body was so inflammed from all the grains I was eating (mostly rice and beans since I have been gluten free for 4 years) that eating any of these veggies just sent my inflammation over the top.

I am having a little Fibro pain now, but that's because I drank half a Coke this afternoon that is chock full of High Fructose Corn Syrup (corn is a grain).

I know it's only been a short time, but I am fully on board with eating Paleo. I know I will have days where I struggle and will want to cheat and that's okay as long as I get back on the Paleo wagon right after.

I know that there are many women out there who are suffering from debilitating Fibromyalgia pain and other symptoms related to Fibro. I highly recommend that you try the Paleo Diet for 2 weeks and see the amazing results that I have experienced. Yes, I know I sound like an infomercial for the Paleo Diet...but it is working for me. The first time in over 4 years of struggling with this disease that I have found something that works for me.

And yes, I make my family eat all the Paleo meals. So far my hubby has liked everything. My kids have each liked most of it.

I have been opiate free since Day 1 of starting the Paleo Diet. I have had to take Tramadol a couple of times and Advil a couple of times, but that following a day that I cheated with either some candy or a Coke. NINE WHOLE DAYS without taking Vicodin...woohoo!

First Paleo Challenge

Tomorrow we are heading to a kids birthday party. I will be bringing my own food and enough to feed my family of 4. I hope that the host family and other attendees don't think I am being rude by bringing my own food. And I hope that I don't cheat on my diet. I also really don't want my kids to eat all the "junk" food that will be there. I have noticed great improvement in my son's behavior since going totally gluten free all week through the Paleo Diet. I think he will be okay not eating the food, but not eating a piece or two of birthday cake will be hard for him. My daughter has had food allergies all of her life, so not eating the food and cake at the party won't be an issue for her.

Pray for us!

Trying a New "Diet"

Basically what I had been doing for my Fibro was no longer working. I switched to a gluten free diet almost 4 years ago. My pain decreased, but was still there. I switched to an egg and dairy free diet on top of my gf diet about a year ago. Pain decreased more but was still there. Avoided all veggies in the nightshade family. Pain decreased more but was still there. So after 4 years of enduring this crazy disease called Fibromyalgia, I am once again changing up my diet. My good friend J and I have been on a similar journey the last 4 years trying to figure out what is the cause of our crazy symptoms. We both shared similar issues. I have been working with my current Naturopath for about 3 years and feel that I have reached the end of my treatment with her. My syptoms are not getting better and when asked if there was anything else she could recommend that answer in a round about way was "no". So I knew I needed to move on. I immediately called J and asked her about her Naturopath and the treatments she was doing. At the same time, J put a bug in my ear about the GAPS Diet and Paleo Diet. A couple weeks later J invited a bunch of us gals over for a Paleo Dinner Party. She showed us how quick and easy it was to prepare a Paleo meal. We had meatloaf, appetizers, Rosemary water (so yummy!), Spaghetti Squash "spaghetti", Cauliflower "rice", bacon wrapped dates, and prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe. It was all soooooo yummy. And best of all, it was the first time ever that I was able to eat outside of my house and NOT have a painful reaction after. Then she gave a short but very informative presentation on the "Do's and Don'ts" of Paleo and what is the best and healthiest food choices. A lot of the info I already knew, but there were a bunch of things I didn't know. So I wrote down the names of the books that she had on hand and went home and downloaded what I could to my Nook. After reading "Everyday Paleo" and seeing all the yummy and easy to make recipes, I announced to my hubby that WE as a family would be giving the Paleo Diet a shot. Afterall, it couldn't hurt me anymore than I was already hurting. Right?

Surgery and Recovery

Boy it's been a long time since I have posted here. Time does fly when you are having fun (and not feeling sick or in pain). I pretty much spent the last month or so enjoying being with my kids, homeschooling, going to the beach, relaxing by the pool, swimming with my kids, going to birthday parties, and overall just enjoying being mostly pain free.

Other than the occasional Fibromyalgia flare up, the only pain I had was the nagging pain caused by my ovarian cysts. Over the last few months we have been closely monitoring them by ultrasound and I have been taking supplements to help shrink them. The largest one at almost 7cm ruptured and healed only to be replaced by another 6cm one a month later. That one was on my right ovary along with a smaller 2 cm one. On my left ovary there was a small 1 cm one. Two weeks ago I saw my OB and we decided it was best to remove my right ovary because the 6cm cyst was actually INSIDE my fallopian tube, or at least was left of it from my previous removal of my uterus in 2010. And it was started to cause me real uncomfortable pain and pressure. Laparascopic surgery was scheduled for Monday June 20th. While I was waiting to go into the OR, my OB and I decided at the very last minute to go ahead and also remove the left ovary. We both figured that because I already had a small cyst on the left side, I had a pretty high chance of having another surgery in a year or so to remove that one anyways, so best to get it all removed at the same time to avoid the risk of another surgery. So now all of my reproductive organs are gone. I have 4 new 1 inch sized incisions across my belly to add to the hip to hip scar and the three other 1 inch sized scars from my previous surgeries. And I get to wear a small 2 inch clear hormonal patch until I actually go into menopause. This was the first time (remember I have had 7 major abdominal surgeries before this) that I wasn't scared going into the surgery. I actually felt peaceful about it. I just kept meditating on the Doxology "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye Heavenly host, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost". As soon I started repeating these words from God, I truly felt a warm peace enter my heart and then the rest of my body. But I am still human so I did have some worries: 1) the care of my children and husband during my recovery 2) how my body would adjust to not having my ovaries to trigger hormone production and getting used to bio identical hormones and 3) having to take opiates for pain control after surgery and if I would go through withdrawals again when I stopped taking them. I knew I would have to take Hydromorphone through a pump into my IV while I stayed in the hospital. I also knew that I would be prescribed Percocet, my arch nemesis from my previous withdrawals, for at home pain control. I totally thought that because I was having a laparascopic surgery, I would have some pain for a couple of days and then be over it. That was how it was during my previous laparascopic surgeries. This one through me for a loop! Hardly any pain immediately after surgery. Day 2 I had to push the button for my IV pain meds about 8 times. Day 3 I was at home and ended up taking 5 Percocet to keep the pain at bay. Today was Day 4 and I finally feel like my post surgery pain is 95% gone. But like all my post surgery recoveries, as soon as my physical pain is gone the Fibromyalgia pain comes full force. So I took 1 Percocet this morning for post surgery pain, and then 2 percocet the rest of the day for Fibromyalgia pain. My plan for tomorrow is to not take any Percocet and just deal with whatever Fibro pain comes my way. I CANNOT get hooked on Percocet again! I will increase my natural pain supplements, try to walk a few minutes on the treadmill, sit out in the warm sun, and cry my eyes out if I have to...but I don't want to take anymore Percocet. So keep me in your prayers the next few days.

Can't believe it's been a month since my last post!

This month has been a busy one! DD's 4th birthday party, an out of town wedding, homeschooling, decluttering, field trips, and enjoying being mostly pain free. Then the cold, wet mornings hit this week and my Fibro pain is back. YUCK! Today I REALLY wished I had some narcotics to deal with the pain. But since I don't have any....I kept busy to keep my mind off the pain and took lots of my herbal anti inflammatory supplements and advil. I homeschooled my 6 yo son this morning, took both kids to storytime at Starbucks, then we hit a new indoor playplace for a couple hours. Then came home and cleaned up my room in preparation for the new cleaning lady coming on Wednesday. I need to declutter and put stuff away so she can get into each room to clean :(. Pain level was a constant 7/8 all day...DOUBLE YUCK! Today I decided to keep my son home from the charter school because I was in just too much pain and tired to drag my rear out of bed to get him to school at 8am and both kids were completely sacked out until almost 9am anyways. Tomorrow we have a 9am allergy retest appointment for my 4 yo DD and a firestation tour at 2pm for my son and his class. Somewhere I need to squeeze in picking up the kids rooms and decluttering the diningroom area...again so the cleaning lady can get in there to do some deep cleaning. To help me with keeping up with the house (dusting and deep cleaning) we are trying out a cleaning lady once a month. I can keep on top of the decluttering and putting stuff away and vacuuming (mostly), but dusting and wiping everything down leaves me sick with bad allergies for days afterwards...so the hubby said to hire someone...yay! Love my husband! So hopefully my house will be cleaner and less dusty from here on out.

Things I am looking forward to this week:
1- Firestation and Police Station tours...love all the hands on learning through homeschooling :). They are studying Community Helpers in history.
2- 3 days weekend for the hubby for Memorial Day Weekend....hopefully the weather will be nice so we can go to the beach!
3- having fun out in the pool with my kiddos.
4- having a clean house :).

Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl!

Today my Baby Girl turns 4! I am so blessed to have been chosen by God to be her Mommy! As per our family tradition, I woke her up this morning singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She yawned and gave me a BIG smile and said "Yay! It's my birfffday!" We gave her our presents this morning. A HUGE Fisher Price Dollhouse complete with tons of little dolls, furniture, and accessories. Thank you Craigslist for saving me a bundle on this. I think I spent about $100 on all her gifts. I think the dollhouse itself would have been over $100 if I bought it brand new. I wasn't sure that she would really like it, but she has been playing with it all morning :). It's such a wonderful sound to hear her pretend play :). I love little girls giggly voices! Tonight she gets a little birthday cake and gets to open her package from my in-laws. Then in 2 weeks a party with all her friends at Pump It Up. Healthwise I have been feeling better everyday. Today is my first official day "Back to Normal" schedule. I dropped my son off at his charter school at 8am, came home and ran some laundry, walked/jogged on the treadmill for 30 minutes, played dollhouse with my daughter, ate breakfast, took my supplements, checked my emails, and am now blogging while I wait for the pool repair guy to fix our pool pump. In the last two weeks we have replaced our over the range microwave ($500), spent $350 for my Integrative Specialist appointments and all my supplements, and now the pool pump motor went out so out goes another $500. Thank goodness we got our tax refund last week! I can't complain though since we havent had to replace anything since we moved into this house 5 years ago. Both the pool pump and the microwave were 10 years old. I am still taking supplements to elevate my mood for minor depression (hello, with all I have gone through no wonder I get emotional), liver detox, greens drink (gotta get my fiber), Ceralin Forte to improve my mental brain neuron connectivity (I think we all need a little help in this area..lol!), Anti inflammatory, and now I have added back in Orthobiotic (a really good probiotic) and Omega 3 fish oil capsules. I swear I take a lot of capsules everyday! Let me count: 15 in the morning, 6 at lunch, 11 after dinner. BUT they help my body to heal and feel better so I guess I will have to suck it up (or rather suck them down) like a big girl. And it's not like I have to take them forever, just until my body can regulate and manage itself in a healthy manner. I also had an ultrasound done last week for my ovarian cyst. The one on the right side went from 6.8 cm down to 3.8 cm. But they found another one on my left side that is 2 cm in diameter. SO I will have another ultrasound done in 5 weeks to monitor them. In a couple of days I will also start taking an Iodine supplement to help heal the ovarian cysts. Things I am happy about today:
1) The Lakers won last night so are 3-1 in the first round of the playoff series against New Orleans. Yes we are Laker fans in this home!
2) It's my cute little girls 4th birthday today!
3) Taking my little girl to the GNI (Gluten Not Included) Bakery in Escondido for a birthday treat for lunch..yay!
4) Looking forward to taking my daughter to her friends M & T's birthday party at Build A Bear on Saturday.
5) I actually jogged a whole quarter of a lap on the treadmill today during my 30 minute workout. That's the farthest I have jogged in about 2 years! I have been walking between 1 and 2 miles about 5 days a week the last 2 weeks.
6) The sun is finally out! We had 2 weeks of overcast or rain all day. I am loving the sun and the warmth!

Have a good week everyone!

Day 17

Over the last week I have slowly been getting back to normal life. Which feels great! Tiresome, but great! I am about 90% back to normal. I have gotten on the treadmill to walk 4 of the last 7 days for at least 20 mins. Today I did 40 mins! It helped that I had a good book to read, James Patterson's "W". Finished reading that in less than a week. Then had to download "The Gift" onto my Nook so I can read what happens next in the series. The Nook is a great reading tool to have while on the treadmill. Instead of turning pages, I just press the screen to get to the next page. LOVE IT!

I am still having those weird brain tingly sensations throughout the day which still freak me out. But I haven't had a huge emotional outbreak in a few days so that's good. I have pretty good energy throughout the day, but still get tired around 5pm.

My fibromyalgia pain decided in the middle of last night to return :(. Not sure why...maybe the chicken broth I used in my soup? Maybe the return of cold, damp weather? I also got hit pretty bad with pain while we were at the beach on Sunday. It was sunny but windy and cold. We left after only an hour.

I am hoping this pain goes away soon. Today I am just pissed off at it and mentally ready to fight it. I was crying in bed this morning when WH left to drop of DD at preschool because of the pain. Then I just got plain pissed off at it. I was NOT going to let it ruin and take control over my whole day. I had things to do..mainly homeschool my son. So out of bed I went and put on my workout clothes. 40 minutes of walking and sweating on the treadmill. Take that Fibro pain! Now go the hell away! Unfortunately it's still lingering, but only a level 3 which is much better than the level 7 it was all night long!

Now off to Sports Authority to reward myself by buying a new Exercise Ball and some new workout clothes. Yay! I fit back into my size Medium workout clothes. Haven't even worn them in about 2 years. Between the 28 day cleanse I did in January and my opiate detox/getting back onto my mostly veggie diet, I have lost almost 10 lbs! Woohoo!

In the last week I have also gotten 2 1 1/2 hr massages and been to my chiropractor twice. Massage is really good for helping your body to release toxins and other yucky stuff that creates inflammation in your body. If you can afford it, you should definitely get a good massage once every other month. And the chiropractor helps by keeping your spine in alignment, which keeps your muscles and organs aligned in the right place thus helping them to work more efficiently. It also helps to relieve tension and stress in key areas like the neck and shoulders and lower back. And we all know tension and stress directly affects our Fibromyalgia pain. Thankfully WH's job offers insurance for chiropractic and acupunture care.

Things I am looking forward to doing this week:
1- finishing "The Gift" and reading what happens
2- taking my DD shopping for goody bag items for her upcoming birthday party
3- going grocery shopping with my best friend (we do our weekly grocery shopping together...mommy time + grocery shopping= fun times). Haven't felt up to grocery shopping in almost a month.
4- Easter celebrations at church on Saturday and get together with friends on Sunday for our annual Easter picnic.

What fun and positive things are you looking forward to doing this week? Let's keep focusing on the positive things to help get us through the pain. Would love to hear how my blogger friends are doing.

Sandra

Driving again...finally!

So it's been over 2 weeks since I drove with either of my kids in the van. I just didn't feel safe driving them around given my condition. In fact, in the last 2 weeks I have driven only twice. Both times just 3 blocks up the street to my chiropractors office. I felt strong enough to drive my 6yo son to my optometrist to pick up my new glasses and to stop at Target on the way home. Woohoo! Focused on something fun and positive..getting goody bag treats for my daughters upcoming 4th birthday party. And my son even cooperated (popcorn and an icee helped with this...lol!). An hour and a half later we are home and I am pooped, but at least I did it. I drove and got us home safely and got out of the house. Each day I am getting stronger and healthier. I still feel a bit disoriented and like have a fog covering my brain and still get the brain tingles every so often, but it is getting better. Emotionally I am feeling healthier too. Yesterday I did great until I crashed around 3pm emotionally. But after crying for an hour I was able to put on my Big Girl Panties and get up and focus on folding laundry while deep breathing. I figured if I was going to cry and be emotional, I may as well get some laundry done. So this morning I washed a few more loads of laundry in preparation for my late afternoon melt down :). More good news! I just ordered my daughters birthday cake. Since we both have several good allergies (hers being wheat and nuts), it is very difficult to find something simple like a birthday cake. It makes me sad when we go to her friends birthday parties and she is always left out when it comes to birthday cakes and cupcakes. So it is well worth the $70 for an allergy friendly 6 inch birthday cake that she can eat on her birthday that actually tastes yummy. It is $54 for the cake itself and $15 for delivery. The bakery is in Los Angeles and we live near San Diego, so having it delivered is totally worth it for us. If you are interested..check out Baby Cakes in either NYC or Los Angeles at www.babycakesnyc.com. They also have two cookbooks where they share some of their yummy recipes. They make by far THE best gluten free and allergy friendly birthday cake and FROSTING that my family has ever tasted! Now only if they would open up a location in San Diego :). We are getting a Vanilla/Lemon cake with yellow frosting..can't wait to try it! Off to walk on the treadmill and read my new James Patterson book.

Day 11

It's 12:27 pm and so far I am feeling much better than yesterday. Went to my chiropractor today to help relieve some back and neck pain. Then came home and felt like taking a nap but instead made myself get on the treadmill and walk. My goal was to walk for 10 minutes. I ended up walking for 25 minutes! Woohoo! The other day I went to see my Integrative Specialist. I was an emotional mess. She said I should try Lexapro for my anxiety and depression for a few weeks to elevate my mood. I tried it the other night and within an hour threw up my dinner. I was nauseated all of yesterday from it. No more Lexapro for me. I usually don't like taking meds and try to find natural ways to go about things, but I was so desperate to find something, anything that would help me feel better that I was willing to try it. WH didn't want me to try it and suggested that he take the next 2 weeks off from work so I could just let my body heal naturally and find some good supplements to help me out. Like I said I was desperate for help and thinking about suffering like I was for even one more day seemed like pure torture for me. But now after dealing with the nausea and vomiting from Lexapro, I am set again to go the natural route. It will be a longer journey back to health and feeling better, but I just gotta do it. Another positive thing I did today was read 4 chapters of my new James Patterson book. I LOVE reading and haven't even picked up a book or touched my Nook Color in about a month because I was feeling so miserable from the Percocet and Fibro pain and then the withdrawals. I also read a book to my little 4 yo. I haven't engaged in doing any activities with my kids for almost 2 weeks now. So reading her a little book felt great! Now since I have a little energy, I am going to get some laundry done! One day at a time, and count all the little positive things you do...they all add up!

Day 8

This morning was terrible! I was an emotional wreck! Crying, nauseated, and more crying. BUT I did do three things successfully today. 1- went with the family for a short hike up a moderate hill. Felt like Sh** the whole time and felt light headed on the walk down from the exercise, but I made it! 2- cut my WH's hair this afternoon. The boys in our house get basic buzz cuts every few weeks from the $25 hair cutting kit I bought from Target a couple years ago after my son kept cutting his own hair and I kept having to pay out $20 to the barber to fix it. Mommy said "Forget this. Why am I paying someone else to buzz off all his hair when I can do it myself at home." 3- Flushed all my left over Vicodin, Percocet, Tylenol with Codeine, and Ambien down the toilet. I have been taking Ambien the last week to help me sleep at night during my withdrawals from the opiates. But WH is very good at tracking all my symptoms and he asked me this morning if I had any idea why I was much more emotional during the morning hours and felt better in the afternoons. So when my head cleared out a bit about an hour, I googled Ambien side effects and read through countless personal stories of people who were addicted to Ambien. Holy Cow! Like I need my body to become addicted to another drug! And many of the people said that Ambien made them depressed and very emotional...hello..ding ding ding! That's me! Hopefully this is what was causing most of my depressive states over the last week. And hopefully I will be able to sleep well in a few days using the all natural supplements that I have that encourage natural serotonin levels and my depressive states will stop and my emotions will return to normal. I kept wondering why it was taking me soooooo long to go through the opiate withdrawals. WH did some research for me the other night and said that from what he read, most people going throug opiate withdrawals start to feel better within 7-14 days. I figured that since I wasn't on them much for a long time, my withdrawal symptoms wouldn't last so long. And I kept wondering why I was getting so depressed and panicky. So, down the toilet it all went. Kind of empowering to finally do something productive. Also very scary to know that I don't have any backup in case my Fibro pain flares up so much that I can't walk. But like I have told many of my friends, "sometimes you just have to jump". You can research and pray about things until you are blue in the face (I am a total believer in Faith, God and Jesus Christ), but even God says that you must also ACT. Which in some cases that means you have to jump in faith even when it's scary. So I am JUMPING! Please keep praying for me and my family.

One Day At A Time

Normally people use their first post to introduce themselves, but I will get to that later. For now, I will give you this...my name is Sandra, I am a Mom of 2 wonderful kiddos, I have an awesome hubby, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 3 years ago, and am now on Day 6 of detoxing from Opiate use to deal with the Fibro pain. I know many Fibromyalgia patients use opiates (primarily Vicodin or Percocet) to deal with the constant and daily pain along with a variety of other meds to try to get a hold on this crazy chronic pain disease. I don't know about the rest of you, but I always feel like I am at least 2 steps behind in catching up to controlling my pain. Over the last 3+ years I have radically changed my diet, taken all sorts of holistic supplements and herbs, changed my activity level backwards and forwards, and when I finally feel like things are "normal" again, my Fibro takes me for a HUGE downward spiral leaving me totally physically and mentally drained. Then it's back to the drawing board again to see what can be changed or eliminated and what triggered the massive pain this time. And each time, it's a totally new trigger. SO FRICKING FRUSTRATING! And that's an understatement! The latest issue is that the Vicodin that normally worked for my pain for last 3 years has become pretty ineffective. I used to take 1-2 pills at night about 3 times a week for severe pain. The rest of the time I could bear it through the day as I didn't want to take them while caring for my 6 and 4 year old munchkins because it made me loopy. Then about 3 weeks ago, I would get really nauseated whenever I took a Vicodin. So I tried some Percocet that I had in my medicine cabinet left over from one of my 8 surgeries. The first week it was 1 pill a day. The second week it increased to me needing 2 pills a day to control my pain. The third week it dramatically increased to 2 pills 2 to 3 times a day just to function! Then I met with my Integrative Specialist (a trained MD also trained in Holistic Medicine) because things were soooooo bad. She ran some tests and it came back that my liver enzymes were slightly elevated so she told me to get off the Percocet. That was last Friday. Saturday morning I got up at 1am in severe pain. I am not a wuss when it comes to pain and I can say this ranked about 3rd in my severest of pains ever. The first was my bowel obstruction 7 days after I delivered my daughter by c-section (I totally thought I was going to die that time cuz I was in so much pain). They gave me 5 cc's of Morphine every 10 minutes in the hospital and after 5 minutes I was screaming uncontrollably in pain that's how bad it was. The second was the severe cramping/hemorraging pain I was in for about a week when I was miscarrying our first son at 14 weeks gestation. My WF (Wonderful Hubby) said "We are going to the ER". So to the ER we went. They gave me a shot of Dilaudid that took the edge off and some Zofran for my nausea and sent me home with a prescription for Tramadol (non-narcotic and non-acetaminophen pain med), Zofran for nausea, and Percocet (just in case the Tramadol didn't work for me). They also explained what the narcotics detox will look like...it didn't sound like a fun weekend for me :(. Saturday was the last time I took any form of narcotics. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were kind of a blur. Good thing WF was able to stay home and take care of the kiddos while I wasted the days away in bed in pain. The Tramadol helped, but after a few days I noticed I felt very weird while taking it. Increased heartbeat and my brain felt like someone was taking a needle and poking me from the inside of my brain. I stopped taking Tramadol on Wednesday. The symptoms went away to make way for a new one.... Thursday I spent all day in a bad depression and uncontrollable crying. WF was at work and I had my 6 yo home with me. The good news is that I had very little pain, except low back pain from my recent muscle pull about 6months ago. Probably from all my lying around, slouching, and couch laying the last week. But man, I could feel my body craving for the Percocet! It was all I could do to NOT take one! In my brain I felt like a total junkie and it scared me. Thankfully when I was totally at my breaking point, WH came home from work and talked me down from the ledge so to speak. Also forgot to mention that all week my WF has been making me eat a vegetarian diet because in January we did a 28 day mostly veggie diet with the first week being all veggie and nothing else. For that entire week I had very little pain and didn't have to take any pain meds. So all week it's been veggies and a serving or two of meat or fish, all home cooked. Well, okay, yesterday in my moment of weakness I somehow drove my 6yo down the street to Carls Jr and got a small coke, a chicken salad and 2 plain hamburger patties (so still somewhat healthy, right?). It's also been over a week since I have had any caffeine in my system, not that I am a big caffeine addict or anything. I maybe drink a total of 1 full 16 oz bottle of Coke a week and have an Icee Coke from Burger King once a week (man, those are my faves especially on a hot day..actually on any day). So my brain LOVED having that little bit of caffeine in it! That's what helped me get through the rest of the day until I caffeine crashed at 4pm and started with the uncontrollable crying again. Guess my brain was using that little bit of caffeine to replace the opiates. Last night was pretty rough for me. My body was craving the Percocet again. I spent another 1 hr or so crying uncontrollably. WH sat with me and rubbed my back the whole time. I was trying not to take a sleeping pill (been taking them all week so I could sleep). But at 1230am, I took one. It's now 1050am on Friday morning. Hopefully today will be better. Sandra