Doctors come and Doctors go

Today I gained a new doctor and lost another.  This morning I got a phone call from the neurology group that the doctor, who only 3 weeks ago, excitedly told me that she thought she could help me, that she did not believe I had fibromyalgia and she was confident she could make a difference for the better.  The phone call informed me that she was no longer with the neurology group and I needed to reschedule with the physician's assistant so I could be evaluated and assigned to a different doctor.  Caught off guard by this development, I rescheduled but later decided that I am going to call back and cancel as I was not impressed with the other 2 doctors in the group and I honestly think it's time to scale back on both doctors and medications.

Today was finally the day to visit the psychiatrist, an appointment I made about 6 months ago.  An appointment that was almost cancelled 2 weeks ago because the insurance company hasn't paid the doctor since January.  In January, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida sold their mental health portion to a company called New Directions who has been dragging their feet and making excuses on paying claims.  So the doctor's office called 2 weeks ago and wanted to either cancel my appointment or reschedule me for August, this was after already waiting 6 months!  All my doctors recommended that I see a psychiatrist, and honestly I wanted him to review my medications.  So after calling my husband Tony in tears, he spent the day on the phone and even spoke to one of the big guys and they assured us they'd pay.  As of today, they still haven't paid other claims but hopefully they will pay mine.  If not, they'll be getting an ear full from Tony again!

Anyway, the meeting with the psychiatrist didn't go the way I imagined.  There wasn't a whole lot of talking about my feelings.  He was shocked I was functioning at all based on all the medications I'm taking.  And furthermore, he said several of my medications were at such low doses that it was pretty much a waste to be taking them.  So the plan we came up with was to stop taking 3 medications right off the bat tonight, start weaning myself off another one slowly and replace them with another stronger medication used to treat chronic nerve, muscle and joint pain.  So he can pretty much manage all my medications except the pain meds.

And he's located a lot closer than my other doctors which is good, I'm getting tired of driving an hour and a half one way for appointments.  I guess I should go ahead and find other doctors close by.  I'll still go back to the ankle surgeon if and when that comes up again but I guess I'll wait another year before checking on it.  That's the problem with chronic pain in my ankle.  I constantly worry is it nerve pain or is there something wrong with the bone again?  I can't keep having MRIs every few months but I can't totally ignore it either.

So the conventional treatment saga continues...I know I can't continue taking all these medications long term so I need to get busy exploring alternative treatments and I need everybody's prayers.  I just want this pain nightmare to end!

Treatment Progress Report

Ok so obviously, conventional treatment is much easier and less painful than alternative treatment!  As much as I hate them, taking pills versus going to a yoga class or buying expensive supplements (that may or may not work) is much simpler.

So far I've taken 3 yoga classes, was supposed to be 4 but I didn't make it yesterday because I was in way too much pain especially my foot.  The pain started Friday when thunderstorms moved through the area and we had a 20 degree temperature drop.  It was a different type of pain in a different location on the bottom of my foot.  Usually the pain is sharp, burning, electric shock and/or like getting sand blasted (try walking on the beach on a super windy day!).  However this is a deep aching pain like when I get one of those muscle spasm cramp things that usually last 10-20 seconds and my toes curl on their own and all I can do is cry or scream till it's over!  Anyway I thought it would quit hurting when the storms moved out but it hasn't.

This week I finally (after waiting 6 months) get to go see a shrink at the recommendation of my internal medicine doctor, pain management doctor and neurologist.  I guess it's typical with chronic pain patients.  Not sure what to expect or how it's going to help but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Also this week, I am hoping to try a tai chi class.  I took a 6 week class at the recreation center when I lived in Ohio and it really did help relieve stress and I enjoyed the class.  It's been hard to find one around here but a couple of martial arts studios offer it once a week, one on Tuesday night toward Panama City and one on Saturday afternoon toward Destin.  Once tourist season begins in a month, heading toward Destin will take extra long so I'm going to try the one on 30A toward Panama City.

Yesterday I finally reordered vitamins and supplements from the Right 4 Your Type site.  I know I have felt worse since running out of them but between medical costs and me missing work due to doctor appointments or feeling bad, I haven't had the funding to purchase them.  Thanks to my husband for buying them for me.  And also ordered powdered vitamin C to try "The High Dose Oral Vitamin C Protocol for Cancer (and Nearly Every Other Ailment)" even though I don't have cancer, the guy who wrote the blog says it can help with lots of other illnesses.  It's a great blog, "Chris Beat Cancer: A Chemo-Free Survivor's Health Blog" Nutrition & Natural Cancer Therapies, No Chemo.  I found him from a Facebook page called "Hard core nutrition for the prevention of cancer" after they posted that Chris was on the Ricki Lake show.

So I'm slowing working up to alternative treatments.  I don't see acupuncture in my future since the majority of my pain feels like thousands of pin (or needle) pricks.  Just don't think I can mentally or physically handle it!  I need to work on meditation and relaxation since it's very hard for me to quiet my mind and not be worried or anxious.  And that also means working on deep breathing or breathing in general since I seem to hold my breath a lot when I get anxious or when the pain is bad, not sure why.

In the meantime, I have a ton of medications and despite them I'm still in pain and still having anxiety or panic attacks and muscle tightness.  One thing they do help with is insomnia and as a lifelong insomniac, that's a good thing!