Jen's Health Journeys

  I am still struggling a lot right now. I have turned 49 since my last post, my job is still the same, toxic and demanding, and I am in another bad flare-up. The stress I have been under since the last post has caused another flare-up. That is the nature of chronic illness; stress triggers flare-ups a lot, and you may very well spend more time flaring up than not. My boss is on my back about overtime again, even though I can't control the overtime as it is coming from my coworkers continuing to be late for work. Instead of enforcing the rules and doing what's needed to get them to stop being late my boss would rather deduct hours from my schedule to compensate for all the overtime the hotel is incurring right now and she would also rather not address the other issue, chronic understaffing and hire people because that's harder and she would then start having more hours to account for and more people to keep from having overtime and she doesn't want to do that. This is c...

  First, I just want to apologize for my long absence. My health was not great, and my job was busy and demanding. I started walking with a walker, and the hotel where I work became incredibly understaffed. I was so busy and tired that I wasn't able to post. I have been fighting to be able to use my accommodations under the ADA at work, such as sitting down to work and taking regular breaks. Even now, they don't want me to sit on my walker, it's the rollator type with a seat and wheels, and I have a doctor's note stating I can use it as needed at work as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. I have had to open another EEOC claim against them; this is the second one I have had to do. I returned to physical therapy, as the first time it helped me a lot and I was able to walk much better and get off of my crutches. They want one of my goals to be to stop needing my walker so much, but that's not a goal I said I wanted with my PT. The nature of my conditions is such...

  I am suffering from my chronic illnesses a lot right now. Work continues to be a huge stressor, taking a huge toll on my health. It is so busy at work now I don't even get a chance to take breaks most of the time. I leave work in horrible pain and it hangs around for the entire time I am not scheduled to work. Then I am still hurting some when it is time to return to work. The pain hardly ever stops anymore just lingers around in varying levels of severity. That's pretty much the definition of fibromyalgia pain, I guess. My job is terrible for my fibromyalgia with their assistance on standing your entire shift and not sitting down or taking a break so that customers never have to wait and the hotel never has to look bad or something. They really believe my having a chair at the front desk makes them look bad, when really what looks bad is me walking like an extra from The Walking Dead, leaning over the desk, near tears from my pain, and doing my job very slowly because I am h...

My life has not gotten easier since my last blog, on July 24, 2023, I fell at work at the hotel, while trying to pick up my crutch from the floor, my chair tipped over and I somehow landed on the floor with one crutch in front of me, one under me and my chair on top of me. I am having even more pain and struggles now. My fibromyalgia has flared up badly since I fell and the plantar fasciitis doesn't seem to have improved at all. I have missed 3 more days of work at the hotel and at least 2 more days at the condos, not including the Thursdays they just randomly deleted from my schedule and gave to someone else. I am struggling so much with money right now because of this I am so stressed out. I am trying to figure out assistance I can get and it is SO hard, it really feels like nobody wants to help me. I was making too much for SSI lately so I have to wait till I make less to get that, something's wrong with my information for Social Security, I am trying to get my food stamps a...

  I am trying to deal with a lot of side effects from my pain meds for fibromyalgia and it's quite a struggle right now. The Celebrex causes quite a bit of constipation, it's pretty uncomfortable and even painful at this point. When I go to the rheumatologist I need to bring this up with them. I can fix it because I can take stool softeners and/or laxatives if needed. I can also have a big cup of coffee, like 16oz or more and that also helps loosen it up. I think it is also affecting my appetite because not being able to go makes me feel full. The Lamictal can also cause appetite issues and it affects my sleep so I struggle taking it, I can't figure out if I should take it in the morning or at night. I'm beginning to think that taking it at bedtime when I also take my muscle relaxer is the best idea. Another issue is that my Advair Diskus causes chest pain/tightness, coughing, wheezing, and basically aggravated asthma symptoms although not always to an asthma attack lev...

  This week I want to talk about chronic illnesses and the effects anxiety-filled, stressful, and even traumatic experiences, and hormonal changes have on them. My experience with them was a couple of weeks ago, I had a bad, stressful, and even traumatic time with my boyfriend and some bad habits he has had and friends he indulged in them with making him be mia from me that week. He wasn't coming home, answering calls or texts, or calling/texting me, worrying me sick. I was so anxious, panic-stricken, scared, worried, hurt, frustrated, and angry that I could barely function. I wasn't taking very good care of myself at all, barely eating, not sleeping, missing my medications and it caused all of my chronic illnesses to flare up badly. I was in so much pain from my asthma, migraines, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and fibromyalgia that it was just miserable. I was nauseated from the migraines and IBS that just getting through each day was a struggle. I had an appointment with my pulmo...

 I have been having issues with my body lately. I found my very first grey hair, then I had my 47th birthday a few days ago and I was very edgy and my typical "monthly" issues were not so typical. I started early, it looked different than it has before, I've been hot and tired and anxious more than I have in a while and I just didn't feel like myself. My fibromyalgia pain has been through the roof the past 2 weeks, typical of my premenstrual dysphoric disorder symptoms, however, it's more than it has been in the past. I am beginning to think I may have hit perimenopause and this is the end of the reproductive cycle stuff. I also had a false ending with my cycle and I haven't done that in years since a high-stress point in my life when I was also on birth control that WAS NOT doing its job. I am really sad if this is perimenopause because I still want kids. It feels like running out of time. I AM running out of time. I am just having such a hard time with ...

  I have been struggling recently with my bipolar, ADHD, IBS, migraines, and fibromyalgia. My IBS keeps getting flared up into constipation and it is painful and makes me often feel nauseated and full even if I didn't eat yet. The fibro and migraines are just flaring up so much and giving me so much pain. The bipolar is in a mixed manic state right now which is miserable. I am struggling horribly to focus and remember things and the ADHD is not helping one bit, nor does the fibro fog. I find myself often walking into a room to get something and then saying "Now, what did I come in here for?" Or I will be at work and open the drawer for something and not remember what I wanted out of it, and I am always forgetting what I did with my phone. I am making a lot of mistakes at work right now and having a hard time working because of these problems. I have to keep my training notebook at the front desk with me so that I don't forget things at the hotel, as well as I always h...

  I saw my rheumatologist on Friday and he gave me a new medication to try for my fibromyalgia. I started it yesterday and it seems to work pretty well. It is called Celebrex (celecoxib) and it is originally advertised as an arthritis medication, from the NSAID family of medications, but its a lot different than the other NSAIDS I have used, it works a bit differently. It seems to be a pretty big improvement over the meloxicam I was just taking. It doesn't make me drowsy so I can take it during the day at work if I need to, it really seems to be working for me so far. It has minimal side effects for me so far and I am glad about that. It already helps at work, I am not in nearly as much pain nearly as quickly at work with this med so far. I am definitely telling the rheumatologist that I think this one's a keeper. It also works well with my muscle relaxer so that I am able to keep the pain at a much more manageable level for much more of my days and nights. I'm pretty exci...

  So I have been working my 2 jobs for a couple weeks now and its going better than I expected. The only issues I have had is standing up has been far more painful to my feet than it has ever been in the past, like there's been 3 times as much pain as there should be from standing up for a shift at work. I discovered that this was because of the insoles in my shoes. I have custom orthotic insoles for my shoes from my chiropractor and they are great, but if I don't get the insoles out of my shoes that came in the shoes, its like having twice as much insole in the shoe, and the shoes I currently wear are Sketchers with the memory foam insoles which I didn't completely remove from my shoe when I put my custom insoles in. My heels and arches were killing me from having twice as much support under them as they needed.  I also worked with my rheumatologist to figure out why there was SO much pain in my feet all the time and why it lasts so long. We changed my medication so that I...

  I just got another job at a hotel front desk and I am trying to manage the fibro and working 2 jobs. It is hard going from having 3 days off from my first job to suddenly having the other job on those days. I am schedule for both of my jobs on Saturday and I am worried about how I will handle it. I have a really great boss at both my jobs, so I am able to make accommodations for the fibro at work. The job I have for my first job is the front desk of some condominiums, and I sit down for it. I have to get the packages when they are delivered for the condo owners and give them to them when they come to pick them up but nothing else is really hard there. The second job is hotel front desk and I will need to stand, however my boss there has told me that I am able to go into the office behind the front desk and sit down for 5 or so minutes when needed if I am hurting or something so that is very helpful and if I am ready for my lunch break soon I can just let someone know, hey I will ...

Today I saw my chiropractor after overdoing it on housework yesterday. My back, knees, hips and shoulders were excruciating after I did laundry yesterday, nothing much was helping until I finally took my muscle relaxer and went to bed, and even the muscle relaxer didn't help that much. I came this morning to my chiropractor, which is conveniently located inside my workplace, and after she adjusted me I finally got some real relief from the pain. I am discovering more and more that chiropractic care helps my fibromyalgia and injured back so much more than a lot of other remedies. I already discovered that yoga is also helpful, though I am struggling to make time for it with work and everything else I have going on. I also find that I am sometimes so fatigued that I cannot do much yoga or anything else. It makes my life very difficult dealing with so much pain and fatigue the way I do with my fibromyalgia, it makes it feel like I will not be able to do the things I need to do when ...

I am feeling pretty good today. I did yoga this morning and it was hard because I am not used to it and I'm not very flexible for some of the exercises yet. Even with those things, I felt so great after I finished the yoga workout video. I am pretty surprised that I felt so good after with the difficulty of the yoga itself. It really made me feel a lot better and I can see that it is really going to be quite helpful for my fibromyalgia symptoms, even the fibro fog. After the session this morning I already felt the fibro fog decrease a lot. I am pretty happy and I can see why my Rheumatologist, Dr. Kushi, prescribed it as a treatment for my fibromyalgia. I just need to make sure I do it regularly and not let it go the way walking and biking have done. I have to make sure I do it regularly and not deny myself something that feels so much better because I am feeling whatever kind of way or something. I saw my primary care doctor this afternoon and it was a good appointment, I was a...