I would like to introduce myself..

Hello Friends,

I am a previous peacetime U.S. Army veteran who has disabilities. My full moons ago I left the Army and went to work for a local coal fired power generation plant. In only 15 years, I was the mechanical maintenance supervisor which they call the “Chief Mechanic”.
On December 24th, 2009, I began to get a headache. I thought I was dying, because I had never had a headache. My wife has had migraines since the age of six and she knew what to do for them. After over 16 hours of vomiting, my wife called the Anthem 24-hour nurse hotline. The nurse asks a few questions and told my wife to call an ambulance. My wife said no need because we only live 4 miles from our closest hospital. I told her that it should go away so let’s stay home. Just a few moments later the nurse called back and ask again if she had called an ambulance. My wife told her that if we were to go that she would be driving me and to a hospital close to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Less than an hour later, we were at the hospital within 15 minutes a spinal tap had been completed. It was cloudy, so I was admitted and the fluids were tested further. I had viral meningitis.

My first reaction was, WOW where did I get this. I was thinking to myself, “Am I going to die?”, “What about my children?”. At the time of my illness, we had four foster children along with our five birth kids.
Also, up until my illness, I had to take 80mg Diovan, 1000mg Metformin 2Xdaily, and a 1mg Requip x daily. Now I take 10-12 pills morning and 22 pills at night.

I was diagnosed about 3 years ago with Fibromyalgia and it has progressively gotten much worse. I take 90 mg of Oxy CR and 90 mg of Oxy IR for my pain. 2 months ago I was taking 8-12 mg daily of Requip for my RLS, recently I was switched to Mirapex.

I try to be a good person but I would not wish Fibro on an enemy. I have so much to live for but then again there are days that I wish it was over.

This forum has really helped my so far and I hope that my 2 cents are worthwhile.

Also for what it is worth, we adopted a young foster son and made him our sixth child. With our older children we are truly blessed with 4 grandsons and we found out today that a granddaughter will be here in February.

Thank you all and God Bless

The Pen Turner

Hello Sherrine,
I have 3-5 actual migraines per week. I think that my pain medications have mask the pain considerably. I have put a request to be taken off of both types of Oxy. I do have lyme disease & rocky mountain spotted fever but tested negative on Lupus. My wife thinks that there is lab test (spinal fluid) to determine Fibro now, is that true? I take Baclofen as a muscle relaxer and rotate between Tylenol, Advil, Aleve during my morning and evening meds. My PCP told me that my aching fingers, hands, feet & toes are in no way related to fibromyalgia. LOL. I research my ailments almost daily and it led me to this group. I have hundreds of pages saved on my PC about fibro, etc.

Thank you fro replying to my email.

In the good book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 it states that there is a time for everything......mine is to live for my Children & Grand-Children

Sherrine,
I was given Doxycycline for the Lyme disease. As we were discussing earlier, I believe that my FM has not progressed to the highest pain level yet. It has just been covered up with all the pain pills that I take. I had to wean off the Oxycodone CR & IR before they would switch me to something else (Fentynal Patches). My mind & body have become so used to the pain meds that 18 months ago, I got my right thumb into a table saw blade and did a good just on adding an extra thumb to my right hand. I cut it down the middle and the end bone is rounded like the saw blade. The part that really concerns me, is the way that my wrist, hands, fingers and the balls of my feet ache so bad. There are days that I can barely write or walk at all. To me this is scary and can make a grown man cry. What if I cannot be there for my kids & grandkids? I just want some relief.