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Posted 3/29/2009 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
So I am starting to get "sick" again... this seems to happen once a month, without fail. I start feeling like I've got the flu. You know, that deep body ache feeling, where your lungs feel strange too and I get a lot of chest pain when this happens. And it worsens the pain everywhere else, like it gets magnified 10 times or something. It usually only lasts for a few days, and lots of sleep tends to end it. But it's just so strange how it happens almost like clockwork, once a month, sometimes four weeks between episodes, sometimes five or six once. And it doesn't come around my period. I got off my period a few weeks ago. It's just such an odd thing, and I can't seem to pinpoint what triggers it.
Posted 3/31/2009 2:29 AM (GMT 0)
Yup. I had virus after virus this winter.

All I could do was rest and that is what you should do. Rest, get plenty of fluids, and eat lots of soup. It has been a rough wither for some of us so you are not alone in this.

So many people are contributing to these viral strains by using antibacterial products. We keep getting stronger mutations while weakening our immune systems.

Hang in there and pleas try to relax.

Donnaeil
Posted 3/31/2009 6:34 AM (GMT 0)

Rache, If it is a virus, I hope it doesn't last too long.  They are really getting stronger & it sounds like a lot of people are sick for long periods of time.  I know people who just keep getting it over & over. 

I do think I would start documenting these episodes & see if they have a pattern.  Write down everything that goes on during them & how long they last.  I would talk to your Doctor about it and having it written down will help if a dx is needed.  Fibro has a tendency to not stand alone & most of us have other issues we are dealing with, so just a heads up.  The more info you can give your Doctor the better.  I have learned not to rely on my memory because I usually forget half of what I was going to say, so I now go to my GP with a list & my calendar.

I hope you feel better soon, soft hugs, Denise

  

Posted 3/31/2009 1:28 PM (GMT 0)

Hi Rache- Yuk, every 4 weeks? Yes, mention this to your Dr. that your noticing a pattern. Maybe he/she can help with extra pain meds during that time? And you are resting it sounds like when it happens and that seems to help. My fibro is different everyday.

Hope your feeling better today-

GamJill

Posted 3/31/2009 2:35 PM (GMT 0)
Dear Rache 1020; Sounds like Costochondriasis to me. Inflamation in the lining of the rib cage, surronding the lungs. I get this. I can usually make it go within two weeks taking anti-inflamatories. However, I have to be careful there too, they are hard on stomach. Have to take with food, always. Also I increse my vitamin c's, d's, and b's. Take at suppertime, more time for proper absorbsion while you sleep. I bet you'll beat that nasty feeling. It could be flu, but the fact you can beat it back seems out of character for flu, an acute, not chronic condition. Good luck. Been around any small ones. Small ones in school or daycare are human incubators of everything going around. They recover in two or three days, tough little tikes, us old folks, the virus lingerrrrrrssssssss. Crossing my fingers for you.

Posted 3/31/2009 3:02 PM (GMT 0)

Hey Rache,

I agree with Tyno and Denise.. start documenting your symptoms, take extra care of yourself and pump up the vitamins.

I have a question, though.. Do you have any other symptoms like a cold or stomach problems?  You only mentioned the achy feeling.  If that's all your getting w/ no head cold or stomach distress it could just be a flare repeating over and over again. 

I know alot of folks that have gotten the "bug" this year seem to keep having relapses.  So you might want to bring this to the attention to your GP.

Sure do hope you're feeling better soon.  There's nothing worse than having something that just won't go away.

Hugs,

Posted 3/31/2009 4:01 PM (GMT 0)
hey Patti; Nothing worse than having something that won't go away huh, like Fibro, lol.
Posted 4/2/2009 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the responses guys, sorry for MY slow response, I did get sick for like three days. I don't think this is a virus. I've gone to the doctor three times now since last August when these occur every month. The first time, the doctor said he thought I had a kidney infection, based on my symptoms, and the fact that i was running a low grade fever (this does happen on occasion, though not every time). He ran a urinalysis that came back negative (no kidney problems). The second time I actually did get sick with strep throat after it continued for a few days. The third time, they actually tested me for infections/flu, and found nothing, other than my WBC was elevated -- around 13000 -- but my WBC is ALWAYS elevated, so it didn't prove anything.

Thanks for the ideas, I am going back through my schedule at work since August of last year to see every time I was out sick with this, because I always miss work when this happens. Then I will write them all down and take them to my rheumy later this month,and let him know the symptoms. I did look up Costochondriasis and that does sound very similar to the way I feel when this happens, however it doesnt really include sharp pain, just a feeling of heavy pressure in my chest, and that pain radiates into my upper back and spreads to my lower back to make all of it hurt, and the pressure oftentimes also gets into my low back making me have to lean forward when I walk.

I do think it's probably a flare of some sort happening over and over again, because I just don't think that with as many times as it has happened that it could just be a virus happening over and over -- since it's been happening since August, at least I know how to get rid of it -- sleep. Sleep for a long time, like 12-14 hours, then another 10 hours at least the next day, and then I wake up and I am fine. Maybe its just a form of exhaustion and the fibro gets excaberated from the exhaustion and I just need to sleep awhile. I know that with working full time, after five days in a row, I am pretty exhausted at the end of the week, and the more weeks this happens, the closer it gets to happening. I have been trying to change my schedule at work to get to the point where I have a day off in the middle of the week and just work 10 hour shifts. I am hoping that will fix the problem.

Posted 4/3/2009 12:12 PM (GMT 0)
I am sorry for your troubles. I read your last post. I fell out of my chair. If I understood you right, you are working 10 hour shifts, five days a week. I have Fibro. I am assuming you do also. I cannot wrap my mind around how you can work that hard, with Fibro, and wonder if your symptoms are maybe your body's way of telling you to slow down. I am trying to fathom how you have been holding up, at all. When I think about working again, now don't get me wrong, I had worked like that with Fibro, at a younger age. However, ultimately it brought me to my knees, big time.

Posted 4/4/2009 12:27 PM (GMT 0)

Oh no no, not five days a week. I currently work 40 hours a week, 8 hour days, five days a week. I have to be here at 6 am and leave at 2:30 pm. Needless to say I take a nap a lot when I get home and am completely exhausted at the end of a five day work week. This is why I was thinking of changing my schedule to work 10 hour days, four days a week, with an extra day off during the week to sleep in. I'm a helpdesk technician (tech support) so I just sit in front of a computer all day -- no physical activity. I really wish I could go back to working part time, but with the economy like it is, my fiance was laid off in December and hasn't been able to find work yet. So I have to work full time to keep us afloat.

That means I take four tramadol a day, two flexeril at night with two trazodone. My rheumy says I can take as many as eight tramadol a day, but more than four makes me really nauseated. Which I am sure it should, given that it isn't a good drug to be taking so much, but right now I just don't have any alternatives. I try yoga and pilates to keep my muscles stretched out, and I go to a gym called curves as much as possible.  I was at least making it twice a week but I haven't made it at all in the last three weeks. 

I know I will get to a point where I can't work full time, but I'm only 27 and want to work as long as I can. I'm also still trying to finish my bachelor's degree, and this darn fibro keeps delaying that. I know my body wants to slow down... trust me I know. That's why I am hoping this new schedule will get my body the rest it needs...

Thanks for your concern, though. :-)

Posted 4/4/2009 1:03 PM (GMT 0)
Thank goodness. i am looking forward to taking some courses online, just have to convince disability it's a worthy cause. Then i was hoping to find a way to do something online, to generate some extra income. i will starve and freeze to death after paying my rent come September. The rates here, are really low. Who can eat, buy gas, pat telephone and internet on 200.00 a month?. Disability pays rent plus $200.00 (plus drugs, dentist, travel to medical appts.), which is why I stay in it, rather than going for CPP, Federal disability.

Posted 4/4/2009 1:27 PM (GMT 0)
That is what I do -- I work through a local community college to take "distance learning" (online) courses through a university they are allied with, so I never have to set foot in a classroom. The degree I am working toward is Web development -- something that I hope to be able to do from home in the future when I probably won't be able to work full time anymore.

Have you looked into federal pell grants? Pell grants are money you don't have to pay back, if you go to school.
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