I am hereby changing my chief complaint
Content Note: weight, weight gain, etc
At the pain clinic I go to, I fill out a form to track my pain management. One of the questions is about side effects of medications, and so far I've either listed "vertigo" or "weight gain." Which, okay the vertigo was debilitating for a whole month there and I agree with past me's assessment that it was my chief complaint. After the vertigo subsided, weight gain took its place on that line item on the survey.
But after last week's near meltdown and subsequent days and days of being asleep, I realize that fatigue is the thing making my life go to hell at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the gabapentin really is addressing almost all of my nerve pain (hello look at me typing here for example!) but the trade off is that I am too deeply exhausted to really do anything. Which. Okay, I guess if I'm too tired to do any of the activities that trigger my nerve pain, then I won't have the nerve pain. But that's not exactly what I signed up for.
Being fatigued means I don't do my PT exercises or hula, or any other physical activities, as much as I need to keep my body afloat. I weigh more today than I did two weeks ago but I feel SO much better because I just gone done with PT and hula. I am sweaty and content.
I am trying to back off on my gabapentin dose, going from 1200 to 800 mg a day. I'm also taking magnesium for muscle garbage, plus doing trigger point injections, acupuncture, deep tissue work (from my PT), and float tank sessions. It's day....three I think of cutting back and while the nerve pain has increased slightly, the benefit of being able to do my other pain work (and especially exercise) totally outweighs that.
I'll have to leave it at that right now because the pain in my hand is returning from typing these few paragraphs. That sucks, but this is wayyyyy more typing / writing than I've been able to do in like year, so it's still a huge victory.
At the pain clinic I go to, I fill out a form to track my pain management. One of the questions is about side effects of medications, and so far I've either listed "vertigo" or "weight gain." Which, okay the vertigo was debilitating for a whole month there and I agree with past me's assessment that it was my chief complaint. After the vertigo subsided, weight gain took its place on that line item on the survey.
But after last week's near meltdown and subsequent days and days of being asleep, I realize that fatigue is the thing making my life go to hell at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the gabapentin really is addressing almost all of my nerve pain (hello look at me typing here for example!) but the trade off is that I am too deeply exhausted to really do anything. Which. Okay, I guess if I'm too tired to do any of the activities that trigger my nerve pain, then I won't have the nerve pain. But that's not exactly what I signed up for.
Being fatigued means I don't do my PT exercises or hula, or any other physical activities, as much as I need to keep my body afloat. I weigh more today than I did two weeks ago but I feel SO much better because I just gone done with PT and hula. I am sweaty and content.
I am trying to back off on my gabapentin dose, going from 1200 to 800 mg a day. I'm also taking magnesium for muscle garbage, plus doing trigger point injections, acupuncture, deep tissue work (from my PT), and float tank sessions. It's day....three I think of cutting back and while the nerve pain has increased slightly, the benefit of being able to do my other pain work (and especially exercise) totally outweighs that.
I'll have to leave it at that right now because the pain in my hand is returning from typing these few paragraphs. That sucks, but this is wayyyyy more typing / writing than I've been able to do in like year, so it's still a huge victory.