How many ways can you define nausea?

April 5, 2012

I’m guessing it’s like morning sickness, but without the fetus.

I’m at that age, in my thirties, where many of my friends have been having children lately.  I’m close with many of them, which means I hear a lot about pregnancy symptoms and, later, child-rearing experiences.  A couple of them were telling me during their pregnancies about the morning sickness they were dealing with, which can last all day.  It sounded an awful lot like the nausea I get, but of course, for me there’s no pregnancy.  Which means it’s not going to end any time soon.

We all know how hard it can be to describe pain.  It’s hard to describe nausea, too.  The morning sickness comparison is probably accurate, but since I’ve never been pregnant, I just don’t know.  I need some other way to define it.  I was trying to explain to my doctor today how there’s the low-grade nausea I feel just about every single day.  Then there’s the worse nausea that makes me feel completely miserable.  And then there’s the level where I start thinking about dying.  Luckily that level never lasts for more than a few hours, but it’s pretty bad.  But how do I explain the actual feeling?

There’s no good answer right now.  There’s also no treatment that we’ve found.  But I’m working with a nutritionist and I’m hoping that, in time, we can lessen the nausea.  If we can’t do that, then I’d love to at least lessen some of my other GI symptoms so that I might be able to take some of the anti-nausea drugs.  Ah, that would be heavenly.  Oh wait, how should I define “heavenly”?

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If you can relate to this, please pass it along and share the camaraderie!  Thanks!

2 Comments | Educating, Frustration, Limitations, Pain, Rants, Symptoms | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Baby steps: learning to stand, walk, and sit at age 32

March 26, 2012

It’s a natural progression: babies learn to roll over, then to crawl, then to stand, then to walk.  Easy, right?  Apparently not.

A couple years ago I was in physical therapy, having knotted muscles worked on, when my physical therapist decided I was ready for the next step: learning to stand.  Now, I’d been standing for years.  Sure, I never crawled, but I did go through all of those other stages, and I knew how to stand.  Yeah, it was painful to stand for more than a minute or so, but it’s not like I didn’t know how to do it.  Well, apparently I didn’t.

It turns out I’d been standing wrong my entire life!  I was putting my weight on the wrong part of my feet and that was throwing everything off!  This was quite a shock.  So I started working on how to stand and walk.  And it turns out I needed to work on sitting too – I was sitting on the wrong part of my ass.  This sounds like a joke to some people, but I swear it’s the truth.  Some of you may even be dealing with the same problem.

Eventually I “graduated” enough that I could work on the exercises at home.  I made some progress, but then the fatigue hit me last year and I stopped doing my exercises altogether.  So now I’m back in PT, trying to regain what I’ve lost.  And today, we worked once again on how to stand properly.  It’s infuriating to have to think about how I’m standing!  Then she had me walk around the room, and I had to think about how to do that too!

I’m perfectly happy to do this, of course, if it works.  I just really hope it works!  And in the meantime, I feel like a one-year-old all over again.

Head up, chin down, belly in, hips even, weight on heel, and…. go!

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If you can relate to this, please pass it along and share the camaraderie!  Thanks!

2 Comments | Educating, Expectations, Frustration, Limitations, Medication, Milestones, Pain, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Springing past winter into summer

March 21, 2012

I don’t care what your views are on climate change, you have to admit that this has been a very odd winter in Boston.  In my entire life, I’ve never seen a winter like this, and people twice my age are saying the same thing.  We only had two snowfalls worth shoveling, and even those were measured in inches, not feet.  They even melted within a few days.

Wondering what a normal Boston winter is like?  I took this picture in January 2005.  Yeah, exactly.  And this winter?  This winter we hardly had any snow at all.  We saw clear pavement and grass almost the entire winter.  Other parts of Mass. got real snow, but not us.

Most people loved this.  To be honest, I enjoyed it too.  We still had some cold weather, but I don’t mind bundling up in my extra warm coat.  The great part was not having to worry about shoveling out my car or slipping on the ice – because there wasn’t any!  Woo hoo!  I loved not having to worry about my footing (at least, not any more than usual.)

And now I’m starting to pay the price.  When I was a kid in the 1980s, spring started in March.  I used to think I had imagined that, but then I came across an old home video dated March 1986 or so, and sure enough, we kids were outside playing in pants and t-shirts – and no coats.  But then in the ’90s we started getting snow through March and into April, and that became the new norm.  We hearty Bostonians grumpily adjusted to spring starting in April, or even in May.

Today, March 21, it was 80 degrees.  I knew there was a problem within a minute of getting out of bed.  It took me a minute to figure it out.  It was early, so the temp wasn’t too high yet.  And then I realized: the dew point.  I went online and, sure enough, the dew point was 58!  That’s  too high!  At 58 I’m generally already having flares of pain, fatigue, and GI issues.  At 60 I turn on the a/c and avoid leaving the house.  But the a/c isn’t in the window yet, it’s still in the basement, because it’s fucking March!  It’s still winter!

Needless to say, this wasn’t my best day.  It wasn’t the worst, though.  I quickly closed all of my windows this morning and pulled down the shades, and the apartment actually stayed fairly cool.  Too bad that won’t work through the summer.  And I used a/c in the car.  And I drank a lot of water.  Hello Spring.

Mother Nature threw us all for a loop and there’s nothing we can do about it.  I’m glad that in a couple more days the temps will drop 20 degrees.  Everyone else has been going on and on about how fabulous the weather was today, and they couldn’t understand why I didn’t agree.  I guess you’d have to be in a body like mine to understand that.  Personally, I’m looking forward to fall already, to those beautifully crisp autumn days.  Until then, I’m grateful for air conditioners and fans!

 

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If you can relate to this, please pass it along and share the camaraderie!  Thanks!

Leave a Comment » | Expectations, Frustration, Isolation, Limitations, Pain, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Some chronic illness benefits of sex

March 19, 2012

Please excuse my absence.  First I was busy feeling sick, then I was busy having sex.  Guess which was better?

Sex is a very controversial topic in some parts of our culture.  At the moment, some politicians are saying that women should only have sex for purposes of procreation.  They say that women who use birth control are sluts and that women who have abortions are murderers.  Since I plan to never have children, I suppose that means that according to them I should not have sex until after menopause.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, pick up just about any American newspaper.  The stories are hard to miss.

Luckily I don’t believe in any of that.  I’m a fan of sex, and I use birth control.  If that bothers you, you should stop reading now.

I have heard, read, and been told that sex can help many of my symptoms.*  More than that, I’ve experienced it.  A few years back I
was seeing someone, and I would sometimes call him up, tell him I felt lousy, and say I wanted to come over for sex.  It was fantastic.  And it worked.  Sex is a great form of exercise.  Muscles are used in ways that we might not normally use them.  It’s a great cardio workout.  It’s a stress reliever.  It can lead to better sleep.  And who doesn’t love a rush of endorphins?*

Now, this doesn’t work for everyone.  And of course there are limitations.  We must be careful of STDs and pregnancy (or just STDs, if you’re having same sex sex, one partner is a woman past menopause, you’re having oral sex, you’re having anal sex, at least one partner is infertile, etc.)  It’s always important to be with someone you trust, but I think that’s the case even more so when health issues are involved.  If pain is a problem, then it’s important to not exacerbate the pain.  And of course it’s crucial to listen to our bodies and to stop or make adjustments if necessary so that we don’t injure ourselves or cause other problems.

Sex is a rarity for me these days.  I do not enter into sexual relationships casually, and so I sometimes go for many months without sex.  In fact, it had been so long that I had forgotten just how helpful sex can be for me.  Of course there are the obvious reasons why I enjoy sex.  It’s just that there are also additional benefits.  For me, the timing was especially fortuitous since I was having a bad flare last week.  In fact, I didn’t think I would feel well enough to have sex.  Thankfully, I just barely felt up to it, and my partner understands my health conditions well and was willing to stop at any point, do most of the work, and be careful of my painful joints.  Having a partner like that makes all the difference.

Now I’m well rested (I slept great after each time!), less depressed, and in less pain.  I can feel that I got a great workout.  And as an additional benefit, I feel great about my body.  (Personally, I always feel especially sexy after sex.)

I’m not about to go off my meds or give up my new diet, but it’s great to know that I have the option of a fun additional treatment: SEX!

*I am not a doctor or a medical professional.  I am writing about my own experiences and about those of people I know or have read about.  If you think that this may help you, please seek advice from a medical professional.

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If you can relate to this, please pass it along!  Thanks!

Leave a Comment » | Educating, Expectations, Medication, Pain, Raves, Relationships: Family & Friends & Dating & Sex, Symptoms | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

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