If you follow me on Instagram (or any of the other social networks on the left), you might have already seen that we went on holiday the other week, down to my parents caravan in Lowestoft. Thankfully, the weather was hot, sunny and dry every day which is just what we needed after our very rainy trip to Dorset earlier this year! It was lovely to spend some proper time together and not worry about anything. My parents came down a few days after we got there to stay for the remainder of the week and it gave them some time with Hunter as well.

I'd been worried about my pain levels while away this time but, for the first time in a long time, I felt fantastic - all week!! I don't know whether it was just coincidence and I was just having a good week, or whether it was the heat, sunshine or being by the sea (maybe even a combination of everything!), but besides the odd twinges in the ovary area and my hip aching a little towards the end of the week, I felt normal and not fatigued in the slightest! Of course, it didn't last for long and I feel like I'm back to my normal again now we are home. But, I can't complain too much after my health giving me a much needed break for once!

In my last post, I mentioned about how my period had felt easier to handle due to the length of it. Well, last month my period started a day before it was due, however, it only lasted 6 days and although I was in the same amount of pain (agony!) it again made it much easier because of the length of it. This month, my period again started one day early but has, so far, been a bit odd! I was getting a lot of aches last week but I've not felt too bad whilst I've been on my actual period - probably because it's a bit all over the place. It was heavy for part of the day on Sunday and Monday, but apart from that it's just been like old blood and reasonably light - and the pain has been minimal because of it being so light. I don't know what's going on with it. I was hoping my body was getting in to some sort of pattern but, obviously not! I've also noticed that over the last few months, I've started getting hot flushes all the time again. I've not suffered with them for a few years now and the last time I got them was when we were going through IVF, but now they are back and I had forgotten how draining they can be! Seriously, if anyone has any tips on how to deal with them or if you've found anything to help ease them a little then please, let me know!

After my last period finished and my body had started calming down again from it, I discovered for the first time what it means to have a fibro 'flare'. Up until then I've had pretty constant low pain, sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's barely there, but never anything I couldn't handle and I could usually predict to some degree when my pain was going to worsen. Anyway, this one night, I was just getting cleared up after dinner and I started getting sharp pains down my left side and then it felt like it was creeping across my body. I took my Amitriptyline before bed and hoped that the pain would wear off while I slept. However, I was getting sharp little electrical like bolts of pain all over my body when I lay down and it just got worse and worse until I was in tears. I couldn't sleep and had to take some painkillers and then I eventually drifted off. I was pretty exhausted from it the next day and I was still getting sharp pains shooting down my body but it got easier and by the next day I felt absolutely fine again. Since then I've not had any pain really apart from when it came up to period time and my hands and legs have started aching but nothing major. It was odd and quite scary really because it was so unexpected. I'm hoping that this won't be a regular occurrence after my periods but we'll have to see what happens in a few days with that one.

I said above that my hip had been a little painful towards the end of our holiday. Well, I mentioned in a previous post that I had to go for a steroid injection for the trochanteric bursitis in my left hip, and that happened the day before we went on holiday. This pain has been ongoing for years and I've been given exercises from the physio as well as lots of different explanations for the pain. I mentioned it in passing to my Rheumatologist when I saw him earlier this year and after a quick examination he said it was trochanteric bursitis. Basically, around your joints you have little cushions and when one of those cushions goes it causes the bone to rub on bone and thus cause pain and inflammation. I had steroid injections when I was 29 weeks pregnant and they thought I had gone in to pre-term labour, so I knew it wasn't going to be the nicest thing in the world. Those were in my bum cheek though and I was pretty worried as this one was straight in to my joint. I expected to be taken in to a side room at the hospital and be given the injection by a nurse then shown out as quickly as I arrived, but instead, I was shown to a ward and had my own bed and cubicle and Danny and Hunter were able to stay with me which was nice (and definitely helped to ease my nerves since the nurses were cooing over Hunter!). The injection was given by a consultant and this time the steroids were mixed with an anaesthetic so I didn't really feel much besides pressure. Probably a good job because Danny said she was yanking the very large needle all over the place! My hip was a little sore immediately afterwards but I thought it was just from the injection and it would wear off. However, about 15 minutes later it started getting really painful and it just got worse. The pain spread all down my leg and it was making me feel really sick. Luckily though, I woke up the next day feeling fine. I was supposed to rest it for 24 hours (still moving around but nothing too strenuous) and then be sensible for the next 4-5 days and not do too much exercise but that went straight out the window when we got on holiday and did a 5 mile walk on the second day! Hey, I was making the most of having a few almost zero pain days! I can't say I've noticed a great deal of difference since the injection. The consultant did warn me that it might not help and it still aches in bed and if I've been sat/stood for too long. It's an odd one really because it's not constant pain so I've just become used to living with it. But I guess I'll just have to live with it a little bit longer!

My acne has been much better and if you follow me on Instagram then you might have seen me talking about it in the 'Stories' bit over the last few days. I'm in the middle of writing a post about what I've been doing to improve it so I won't say too much here but I'm hoping it continues to clear because it's really been getting me down again.

Oh, and I just wanted to touch on how I'm feeling anxiety wise at the moment since I was feeling riddled with it last time I posted. I don't know what was going on to effect it so much then but I've felt fine again since. Obviously, those issues that I spoke about are still underlying, but they are not the be all and end all right now. I know it was either my tablets or hormones making me feel that way but either way, hopefully it will all stay level again now.

Anyway, I'm hoping you are all well - or as well as can be! I've finally found my creative head and I've got quite a few posts planned now so keep checking this space!

S.

Sunshine, Suffolk and a pain free week away


If you follow me on Instagram (or any of the other social networks on the left), you might have already seen that we went on holiday the other week, down to my parents caravan in Lowestoft. Thankfully, the weather was hot, sunny and dry every day which is just what we needed after our very rainy trip to Dorset earlier this year! It was lovely to spend some proper time together and not worry about anything. My parents came down a few days after we got there to stay for the remainder of the week and it gave them some time with Hunter as well.

I'd been worried about my pain levels while away this time but, for the first time in a long time, I felt fantastic - all week!! I don't know whether it was just coincidence and I was just having a good week, or whether it was the heat, sunshine or being by the sea (maybe even a combination of everything!), but besides the odd twinges in the ovary area and my hip aching a little towards the end of the week, I felt normal and not fatigued in the slightest! Of course, it didn't last for long and I feel like I'm back to my normal again now we are home. But, I can't complain too much after my health giving me a much needed break for once!

In my last post, I mentioned about how my period had felt easier to handle due to the length of it. Well, last month my period started a day before it was due, however, it only lasted 6 days and although I was in the same amount of pain (agony!) it again made it much easier because of the length of it. This month, my period again started one day early but has, so far, been a bit odd! I was getting a lot of aches last week but I've not felt too bad whilst I've been on my actual period - probably because it's a bit all over the place. It was heavy for part of the day on Sunday and Monday, but apart from that it's just been like old blood and reasonably light - and the pain has been minimal because of it being so light. I don't know what's going on with it. I was hoping my body was getting in to some sort of pattern but, obviously not! I've also noticed that over the last few months, I've started getting hot flushes all the time again. I've not suffered with them for a few years now and the last time I got them was when we were going through IVF, but now they are back and I had forgotten how draining they can be! Seriously, if anyone has any tips on how to deal with them or if you've found anything to help ease them a little then please, let me know!

After my last period finished and my body had started calming down again from it, I discovered for the first time what it means to have a fibro 'flare'. Up until then I've had pretty constant low pain, sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's barely there, but never anything I couldn't handle and I could usually predict to some degree when my pain was going to worsen. Anyway, this one night, I was just getting cleared up after dinner and I started getting sharp pains down my left side and then it felt like it was creeping across my body. I took my Amitriptyline before bed and hoped that the pain would wear off while I slept. However, I was getting sharp little electrical like bolts of pain all over my body when I lay down and it just got worse and worse until I was in tears. I couldn't sleep and had to take some painkillers and then I eventually drifted off. I was pretty exhausted from it the next day and I was still getting sharp pains shooting down my body but it got easier and by the next day I felt absolutely fine again. Since then I've not had any pain really apart from when it came up to period time and my hands and legs have started aching but nothing major. It was odd and quite scary really because it was so unexpected. I'm hoping that this won't be a regular occurrence after my periods but we'll have to see what happens in a few days with that one.

I said above that my hip had been a little painful towards the end of our holiday. Well, I mentioned in a previous post that I had to go for a steroid injection for the trochanteric bursitis in my left hip, and that happened the day before we went on holiday. This pain has been ongoing for years and I've been given exercises from the physio as well as lots of different explanations for the pain. I mentioned it in passing to my Rheumatologist when I saw him earlier this year and after a quick examination he said it was trochanteric bursitis. Basically, around your joints you have little cushions and when one of those cushions goes it causes the bone to rub on bone and thus cause pain and inflammation. I had steroid injections when I was 29 weeks pregnant and they thought I had gone in to pre-term labour, so I knew it wasn't going to be the nicest thing in the world. Those were in my bum cheek though and I was pretty worried as this one was straight in to my joint. I expected to be taken in to a side room at the hospital and be given the injection by a nurse then shown out as quickly as I arrived, but instead, I was shown to a ward and had my own bed and cubicle and Danny and Hunter were able to stay with me which was nice (and definitely helped to ease my nerves since the nurses were cooing over Hunter!). The injection was given by a consultant and this time the steroids were mixed with an anaesthetic so I didn't really feel much besides pressure. Probably a good job because Danny said she was yanking the very large needle all over the place! My hip was a little sore immediately afterwards but I thought it was just from the injection and it would wear off. However, about 15 minutes later it started getting really painful and it just got worse. The pain spread all down my leg and it was making me feel really sick. Luckily though, I woke up the next day feeling fine. I was supposed to rest it for 24 hours (still moving around but nothing too strenuous) and then be sensible for the next 4-5 days and not do too much exercise but that went straight out the window when we got on holiday and did a 5 mile walk on the second day! Hey, I was making the most of having a few almost zero pain days! I can't say I've noticed a great deal of difference since the injection. The consultant did warn me that it might not help and it still aches in bed and if I've been sat/stood for too long. It's an odd one really because it's not constant pain so I've just become used to living with it. But I guess I'll just have to live with it a little bit longer!

My acne has been much better and if you follow me on Instagram then you might have seen me talking about it in the 'Stories' bit over the last few days. I'm in the middle of writing a post about what I've been doing to improve it so I won't say too much here but I'm hoping it continues to clear because it's really been getting me down again.

Oh, and I just wanted to touch on how I'm feeling anxiety wise at the moment since I was feeling riddled with it last time I posted. I don't know what was going on to effect it so much then but I've felt fine again since. Obviously, those issues that I spoke about are still underlying, but they are not the be all and end all right now. I know it was either my tablets or hormones making me feel that way but either way, hopefully it will all stay level again now.

Anyway, I'm hoping you are all well - or as well as can be! I've finally found my creative head and I've got quite a few posts planned now so keep checking this space!

S.
17:43:00