Medical Conditions

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I was previously, but I really was intending to whenever I got the chance.

I was "taking a break" when I fell down the last few steps of my staircase one morning and landed flat on my ass and hit my arms on the edge in a feeble, natural instinct attempt to brace myself for the fall, more on the right side - the (more) messed up, lop-sided side, but both sides of the parts around my spine/tailbone are giving me a hard time. It's a strange coincidence that I had made a post about that not too long ago as well, so you would know exactly what I'm talking about. My hip is not only higher, but pushed inwards. I forgot to mention that it protrudes, as you might imagine it probably would. It's not very pleasant at times with most jeans and/or a belt.

Contrary to the phenomenon described in the previous post, where my symptoms disappear the moment I seek medical attention, it didn't happen this time. Unfortunately, not only did I have to endure the ache for the days before my visit yesterday, but I had to have very bizarre panic attack right before it. I've had it before a couple times, but we never thought much of it. You know how sometimes you might watch a bad downloaded movie where the audio doesn't match the video? Well, it's kind of like that - except with sight. I couldn't tell if the world was moving faster or slower than my movement and sight, but it felt like it was spinning. I was clumsy, forgetful, and racing around or felt like I was. I felt light-headed and my head started to ache a bit. It moved into an anxiety attack and my eyes began to feel bleary, as if I had cried a lot or it was late at night and I was just tired, but my sight soon became blurry. Blurriness changed into minor double-vision, as if I had rubbed my eyes, so I did it anyways and blinked a few times to see if it would clear up. It only made it worse; I was getting more worried, my heart began race and I felt shaky. Just when I thought it was improving, the double-vision became triple-vision and when I'm describing all of this, I swear I am not exaggerating. This has happened before, but I think it gets progressively worse each time. Triple-vision in the sense that it wouldn't be safe for me to climb stairs or hold something properly. The ability to read and write had vanished a long time ago, but I had a hard time putting cash into an envelope. When my uncle arrived, I had to walk between two parked cars in my garage and that made me dizzy.

Of course, by the time I got to my GP's office, I thought it was gone for good, as usual. It actually started to come back and my arm was visibly shaking on the arm rest while I was talking to her. It didn't get much worse though. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the left side of my head was feeling numb, as was everything else on the left side. I believe it's getting worse in the extremities - my hand, foot and ear. I don't know if my scalp and ear of the left side have always been numb or whether it started recently. I had mentioned this, as well as the panic attack, when I first experienced it, but there wasn't really anything she could do about it for me. This time was different, especially with the lower back that is stubbornly aching, despite the Celebrex and Oxycontin that I took one time - actually, I don't know why but I've never really felt any effect from Oxycontin, but I think Celebrex is losing its potency on my aches. I was blaming my medications for everything, because that was what I was studying and taking notes on the night before, so those side effects were the first things that came to mind.

While nobody else I know believes it's possible for someone of my age, let alone anyone at all, to have fibromyalgia, it is a condition that exists and I meet the criteria. She asked me several questions about whether something felt abnormal and unfortunately most of them did. Despite all of this, she still wants me to do physiotherapy because the pain and stiffness will only get worse if I don't. There's a possibility that I may have fractured something else or shifted it, so I had to get an x-ray done today, as well as a blood test for everything on the checklist for my other symptoms. She recommends that I take Glucosamine with Chondroitin and a multi-vitamin. We have huge stocks of Glucosamine, because my dad needs it for his joints, and he was told not to take his multi-vitamins anymore as he doesn't actually need the supplement, so I get to have both without making an additional purchase. The multi-vitamins are Centrum - for those of ages 50+. There's nothing wrong with taking them as they just have higher dosages of certain vitamins and minerals, which I would benefit from - except it pretty much makes my body officially 50+, too. My dad takes Glucosamine as do people of his age. Tell me again that I don't have any chance of having fibromyalgia? I don't think I've really gotten a diagnosis aside from fibromyalgia, but I suppose I should settle for rheumatoid arthritis, which is what Celebrex is supposed to treat. Maybe I should switch to Mobicox like my mom, she's not quite 50+ but she's getting there. I don't think I'll discuss the illness much further, but I just wanted to point out that I can check off all the symptoms...except literally being 50+.

I have a headache now, just like my GP had asked, but they've been present fairly consistently for a while now. I don't take notice of it, but I know it's there, along with all the other aches and pains that come and go whenever they please. The headache is pretty bad today, instead of the usual dull ache, and extends down my neck and I've had it for a good portion of the day, which is why I mention it. My eyes are tired, but it's nothing like what I had described above. Just fatigue.

In conclusion, this is why I haven't been online very much or long enough to post or feel motivated to. It hurts more when I sit, especially on a stiff chair. It was horrible when I had to lie on the cold x-ray table today while I had a number of sets done from several angles for different areas. I haven't done that before, but now I know it's worse than anything else. I've been feeling a lot of pain throughout the duration of writing these posts which took me a long time to work on. I apologize for spelling and grammar mistakes and I hope you can make sense of what I am trying to convey. I thought I was going to feel better as the weather clears up, but it improved for maybe one day and I'm pretty sure it's worse than before now, especially with my slip.

Update: I think I've lost my iPod. Great.