Sunday, May 08, 2005

Aches, Pains, Trials & Tribulations aka TMI For Family Members

I’ve finally finished reading All In My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache by Paula Kamen—it’s been a fascinating journey.  In one sense. I’m grateful that I don’t have her headache pain behind her eye; in another, I’m sad that my aches and pains add up to a probably more difficult to diagnose problem.  It’s nice to read that I’m not alone in having headaches almost every single day.  I also have wrist/hand pain every day and lower back pain every day.  Paula Kamen has been able to try almost all of the medications that would had my insurance company cancelling my policy, so it’s interesting to read about all her, ultimately, unsuccessful treatments.  I have tried Phrenilin, which is Acetaminophen, Butalbital, Caffeine and Codeine.  So far, that’s the only medication that has never failed to get rid of a headache for me.  None of the migraine meds work at all - it’s like I’m taking placebos or something because I feel absolutely no different.    Little things work in small ways sometimes - wearing a Seattle Seahawks visor, where the pressure over my forehead helps a bit.  Trigger Point therapy - sometimes works.  Advil/Aleve only work on the most mild of headaches.  Caffeinne helps sometimes too, especially since I cut caffeine out of my daily life, so now I can use it as medication.  Ice packs also help marginally.  So far though, the only sure cure for me has been Phrenilin, which I haven’t had in a couple of years, since my doctor’s office went bankrupt and I have crappy insurance.

Another more serious problem (and seriously, family members, if you’re reading here, you might want to stop) with my back and bladder.  I’m assuming they’re related.  I’ve had back problems since a car accident in 1991.  My bladder problem started way after, about five years ago with a really bad bladder infection, my first UTI ever.  Bad, but weird.  I was working at Williams-Sonoma at the time (a job I actually liked, go figure) and I got the weirdest infection.  It wasn’t the slightest bit painful, but I had to pee ALL THE TIME.  I was in training classes and I once counted the number of times I had to leave class for the bathroom—it was in the sixties.  I just couldn’t sit for any period of time.  Hey, but even with all the distractions and spending most of my day in the bathroom, I passed my classes with flying colors.  Still, I was having problems, so I went to a urologist for an exam.  He looked and didn’t see anything wrong with me physically, but gave me that horrible orange stuff (most women will know what I’m talking about), but this time with a barbituate added.  The drug actually worked!  Yay!  The only problem, I couldn’t drive or really function while on the drug.  I actually had to quit my job because of it.  I didn’t even get to use my Williams-Sonoma/Pottery Barn employee discount before I left.  Truly, truly sad.

Flashforward years—I’m still have the non-bladder infection bladder problem.  It’s weird stuff - I’m fine if I’m laying down.  I’m tortured with the urge to pee when I’m sitting.  It doesn’t make going places very fun for me.  Also, a weird addition to this is that it gets a lot worse right after I take a shower.  I can’t sit normally for an hour or two after that.  Has anyone else had this weird back/bladder problem?

Speaking of my back problem, in and of itself - last year I tried to pull some weeds in the back yard and almost immediately got shooting pains in my butt.  Like right dead center, on each side.  It’s some form of sciatica, but it doesn’t travel up and down, but just straight and shockingly in.  I couldn’t even lift our 14lb dog.  I’m afraid to do any sort of physical labor for fear of getting that pain back, which took maybe six months to go away.  The back pain never really completely goes away.  I generally wake up with and go to bed with it.  I’m still thinking that my back and bladder problems are somehow related.  I HATE HATE HATE that I can’t sit anywhere for any length of time.  Everywhere I go, I have to be on the lookout for a bathroom.  It’s stressful.

Okay, my last complaint, I think - all of those tender points for diagnosing fibromyalgia.  I have them.  I have them all and then some.  I don’t know what’s happened to my body in the last ten years or so, but all it seems capable of is weird pains and the bladder urge problems.  It sucks.  I’m too young for this.  I’m not even sure what kind of doctor to see.  The urologist said everything inside was fine.  I was at a gyn after that and he didn’t find any problems.  I had a chiropractor work on my sciatica (which HURT) and it got better, but the bladder problem still remained.  So, if you don’t see me somewhere…I didn’t make it because my Aztek doesn’t have a bathroom.

Oh no, I lied.  I have another complaint.  My finger and toenails have become really strange.  The toenails are thick (not grossly discolored) and my fingernails are flat, but with wavyish ends if you look at the nails straight on.

What the heck is wrong with me?  Oh, and my memory sucks too.  Sometimes I can’t remember what Leigh-Ann tells me thirty minutes ago.  Am I not paying attention or is my brain not functioning properly either?

But I really need to get this bladder/back problem fixed.  I don’t understand why my hot shower worsens my bladder.  Or why sitting is torture, yet standing is complete relief.  It’s all giving me one of those headaches I get constantly.  But after reading the book, I know that I’m not the only one.  I’ve had headaches since I was a kid, as well as some sort of carpal tunnel, even before I ever saw my first computer.  I didn’t know what it was though.  It was just this pain/weakness I got in my hands every once in a while.  It didn’t become constant until I worked for an online travel company.

Anyway, I need advice.  If you find this entry through a search engine, please speak up.  If you even know someone who knows someone who has the back/bladder issue, let me know.  I can’t continue to live like this, only going a few miles away from home.  Someday I’d like to be able to travel.

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1. Could it be irritable bladder syndrome?  http://www.umt.edu/CHC/healthlibrary/hlirritablebladder.htm

   Or interstitial-cystitis?
   http://health.allrefer.com/health/interstitial-cystitis-ic-info.html

   Good luck!

   Tammy

   Tammy  on  05/20  at  07:37 AM

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