Spoons & Stitches

Greetings everyone! Sorry I missed last week's update. It's been a crazy couple of weeks in my volunteer organizations. If you've been following my blog, you know that this year I have chosen a goal of managing my fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and orthostatic tachycardia syndrome myself as naturally as possible . I have worked with doctors in the past for all three of these condition. However, the first two have not improved and in fact have been getting worse. I continue to work with my cardiologist on the last one. So this week's update is a bit more of the same--things getting better when I remember to take the Q-Fuse full spectrum hemp oil . I realized this week, though, that I haven't been including my brain fog progress. How's that for irony? Now if you have fibormyalgia, chances are you know the term "fibro fog" all too well. I ended up leaving my last paying job because my brain fog was so bad that I could not do the work. Caffein

So, if you've been following the saga, you know that this is part of my multi-year experiment to get my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue under control. I left work in 2016 due my complete disability to do my job. Symptoms that landed me in trouble: Extreme fatigue and exhaustion, brain fog and cognitive dysfunction, widespread pain, migraine, chronic knee pain, sleep disorder. I have tried a series of prescriptions from my doctors, including Cymbalta, amitriptyline, fluoxetine, gabapentin, cyclobenzaprine. None of these have worked for my pain, exhaustion, or sleep disorders. I have since decided to approach my health from a more natural viewpoint.  Image copyright  Rainer Vandalismus . Used under cc license .  I have tried  herbs for migraines  with considerable success. I have also tried  bromelain and other natural remedies for chronic pain  with less success. Now I've decided to try hemp oil. This post continues the updates during my third week of this experiment. Th

This is my weekly update on the new therapy for my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.  I decided in December that it was time to try something new, so I am working with a hemp-based, zero THC therapy to address my pain and energy loss. This is my second week taking the therapy as two half doses taken in the morning and afternoon. Monday : Took 2 half doses, both before lunch. During the morning I did my usual thing--sit around playing games on my tablet until after lunch. After lunch I left the house and visited someone in the hospital. While it's a big hospital with lots of walking, I did not feel fatigued during or after the visit. There's no need for us to go into all the yelling I did trying to figure out where to park. 😇😆 The only noteworthy thing is how draining that kind of stress usually is for me physically. I spent the rest of my afternoon getting paperwork done and had a meeting that went until 8pm. At the end of the meeting I was still awake and not dragging,

So, if you've been following the saga, you know that this is part of my multi-year experiment to get my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue under control. I left work in 2016 due my complete disability to do my job. Symptoms that landed me in trouble: Extreme fatigue and exhaustion, brain fog and cognitive dysfunction, widespread pain, migraine, chronic knee pain, sleep disorder. I have tried a series of prescriptions from my doctors, including Cymbalta, amitriptyline, fluoxetine, gabapentin, cyclobenzaprine. None of these have worked for my pain, exhaustion, or sleep disorders. I have since decided to approach my health from a more natural viewpoint.  Photo  by  Chris H , used according to  license . I have tried herbs for migraines with considerable success. I have also tried bromelain and other natural remedies for chronic pain . Now I've decided to try hemp oil. Hemp oil is all the rage right now for treating many autoimmune diseases, particularly the invisibile illne

Hello Spoonies! It's time once again to run the updates on the most recent pain management experiments and decide what's happening next. Since last time, I have continued to use regular feverfew and magnesium to prevent migraines. The good news is that my migraines have actually decreased  down to no more than one per month! This is my long-term therapy now and I intend to continue it indefinitely. Since the last post I have also invested in high-quality running shoes that adjust for my wide gait. These have definitely helped my knees, however the chronic knee pain has continued. To add to the fun, my family moved this year into a two-story house. The multiple trips up and down the stairs each day have not been kind to my knees. Since the bromelain experiment did not pan out, I have tried a few other things. The first thing I tried was topical analgesic creams. First was the Voltaren gel (prescription) that my doctor prescribed. While this is okay, it does not help very

So this time last year I posted about using various herbs and foods to prevent migraines . As a quick recap, I turned to herbs because my migraines do not respond well to any of the traditional migraine treatments. I have tried the triptans, such as Imitrex and the like, and they do not consistently help. The side-effects from Maxalt were overwhelming and Relpax is just too expensive.  Feverfew was quite helpful in cutting down on my migraines and I mentioned this to my neurology specialist at my next appointment. What he told me was that it was a great way to start, but that he would actually recommend Butterbur for even better prevention. I did some research and it sounds quite promising! In fact, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has found that it helps with migraine prevention and hay fever treatment! Unfortunately, all of my sources also state that those who are sensitive to ragweed are not good candidates to use it, so that counts me out. If