Friday, December 07, 2012

The Treatment Plan

It's hard to know where to begin.
I saw the new doctor a few weeks ago. I drove up to Kfar Saba to see him - Yaakov joined as navigator and, you know, husband.
He said I need to make the following changes:
1. No salicylates - specifically, nothing applied to the skin that has salicylates - this affects everything from body soap to deodorant to which creams I can apply to my kids.
2. A very low-carb diet. For the first month, I'm supposed to teach my body to live without sugar as its energy source. Apparently, it's a big problem both for thyroid sufferers and for fibromyalgia sufferers.
3. Adding both Vitamin D and Iron to my list of daily supplements.
4. Taking Hydrocortisone for the next month to help with 'adrenal fatigue.'
5. Adding Guafenesin twice a day.

I've been on the Guafenesin for two days now, and I'm not feeling a big difference, but that's ok.

The thing to note now is where I'm having trouble:

  • I'm experiencing pain everywhere. Even typing and mousing hurts after a minute or two. 
  • I'm tired during the day, and jumpy at night. I have insomnia, but I can't seem to do anything with the energy I have at night. If left alone, I'll sleep very well from about 6am to 3pm. The rest of the time, it's hard for me to sleep at all.
  • It's hard for me to concentrate. 
  • Restless legs - it's hard for me to sit still and not move my legs - this also seems to be different at different times of the day.
  • Sudden chills/sweats. It seems to happen mostly when I've been standing for a while - it's better when I'm sitting, lying down, or even walking, but if I'm just standing, I'll often break into a sweat and feel lightheaded. It feels completely awful. I can feel the blood draining from my face, and sometimes I wish I'd just pass out so that maybe someone would notice that I'm having a problem. 
There's a lot more to tell, but my typing ability is limited, as is my time...

Shabbat Shalom to all
LGG

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leah, I just stumbled upon your blog and was so excited (wrong word) to find another English speaker dealing with Fibromyalgia in Israel. I haven't even come close to locating a doctor that might be able to understand my issues and help me out. Maybe you have some recommendations?

Pesky Settler said...

Do you think having Yaakov go with you helps him understand your illness?

Leah Goodman said...

helps some.