I cannot believe it’s been more than a year since my last post. Wow. All I can say is that it has been an amazing year, it wasn’t all good, but despite the horrible parts, this last year contained some of the best moments of my life so far. I got married to an absolutely amazing man in November and I can say without any doubt that it was the happiest day of my entire life.
He was there to help me through my last medical disaster and without his love and support, I would not be able to announce that I am 100% free of the fibromyalgia meds!
It took several months, but I took my last prescription drug, (for the fibro, at least), in February of this year. What a relief that was! I wish I could say that I feel 100% better without all of the drugs, but the reality is, I feel much the same. The main difference is that I no longer rely on a prescription to get me through the day. I still have the pain, fatigue and insomnia that are the hallmarks of fibro, but I’ve found that they are easier to manage without the “help” of prescription drugs. I have discovered that 5-10mg of melatonin right before bed is just as effective at getting me to sleep as 2mg of Xanax and 100mg of Seroquel, (combined!), ever were. No, I don’t always stay asleep, but the prescriptions couldn’t deliver that either. The only thing the prescriptions could ever be relied on to do was to make sure I was a groggy disaster in the morning, whether or not I got any sleep. In order to even wake up, I had to start my day with 40mg of Adderall and 150mg of Wellbutrin.
The drugs themselves have changed significantly over the years, but for the last decade or so, the basic formula has remained the same: drugs to help me sleep and more drugs to help me shake off the effects of the sleeping pills. I started tapering off of them in November, (with the guidance of my pain management team, please don’t try this on your own!!), and I am so happy to be able to say that I am done with them all.
The downside is that the side effects of weaning off the drugs left me a bit of a mess. I fell out of my workout routine all together and have put quite a few pounds back on. I have not regained all of the weight I lost over the last few years, but it’s close. Yes, I got off the meds back in February and it has taken me this long to realize I need to get my butt back in gear. The important thing is that I’m ready now. I could list off the myriad of excuses I had for not being as active as I had been, but I won’t. They no longer matter.
Today, the Plan, V2 goes into effect. I’m back!
Right now, my main goal is to get back into an exercise routine. I am not going to focus on losing weight, I just want to get back up to my peak level of activity. For the moment, that means walking, (lots and lots of walking), but I plan to start doing the Couch to 5k training routine in a week or two and get back to racing again by the end of the year. As before, I have to take things slowly, especially now that I don’t have any medications to fall back on if I trigger a flare up. However, this time around, I have the benefit of already knowing that I can do it. Shamrock 2017, here I come!!
Fighting Fibro with Fire 