Friday Tidbits: My Three Daily Shots

Needles: I thoroughly hate them - I have a true phobia. I think that the Guy Upstairs has a very funny sense of humor because I need three shots daily. Or, perhaps, I lived a very strange sort of existence in a former life and my punishment is having to get so many shots in this lifetime.

People seem to be curious about medications our fellow sick ones take and I'm private about some things, yet share others.  A lot also has to do with how much I think others might want to hear, preferring not to bore people to death.  But it's Friday, I'm feeling cruddy with all that's going on, still with the nausea, recovering somewhat with the swelling and bloating, pain, you-know-the-drill, much of it still where I was last week.  I've had a few other problems that are getting to me but I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether anyone would want to hear about it or not.  Other things are driving me nuts: I'm trying to hold out and see if there is any rhyme or reason - hint: rashes and hives amongst other annoyances.

Hubs is out of town for a long weekend, I'm forced to give myself my own shots and so I finally decided I'd "go there" - that is, tell you about the three shots I dread so much that everyone but in the family but myself knows how to administer.  I should say that I'm so bad about needles that back in the day when the only way to get over a migraine - besides waiting it out - was a shot, my 13-years old daughter came to her dad and said, "it's about time you teach me how to give mom her migraine shot. You're not always around to do it, you know."  Or words to that effect.  That summer, bossy daughter and I were going to fly to Oxford and she wanted to make sure I was covered.  Have I mentioned lately that the girl's got guts?

Luckily, needles are not the only way to go in order to treat migraines any longer.  Those little pills are such a convenience!  I'm so bad that I prefer going through life with migraines than have a shot - or the occasional DHE-45 IV given over an extended period of time in the ER with hit-and-miss results.  See how ancient I am? It's as if I lived in the age before antibiotics were invented!  Not quite, but almost.

But the Guy Upstairs still has His joke with me on a daily basis with:

• Vitamin B-12  Yes, I could go with the pill form, even the sublingual form, but that didn't work for me.  Despite getting B-12 the way the rest of us get it, back in 1997 my test results showed that suddenly I was extremely deficient in B-12.  In fact, I was low despite the IV nutritionals I was getting weekly at the holistic clinic I went to over two hours away by car, each week for a year.  The funny thing - not haha but strange - is that it takes two years for your body to make up the deficiency. Therefore, though the tests may come back with your level of B-12 - registering in normal amounts - and though the blood tests may reassure you, guess what!  Your cellular level of B-12 may still be low.  I now get a daily shot of B-12 and do get tested periodically to make sure that my levels are in the normal range, not too high, not too low.

• Pitocin   I'm sure many out there with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFS/ME), fibromyalgia and many other autoimmune illnesses have problems with vision changing day-to-day and even hour-to-hour.  But it's not a vision problem, per se.  Instead, it's the brain not able to interpret what the eyes see.  This makes sense to me (my case, that is) because of two factors. On my worst days, my vision is kaput. I can't get anything to focus right.  On my better days, my vision is not annoying, although unlike Goldilocks, it's never just right. 

Which leads me into a smooth transition. The second reason I get a daily pitocin shot is because "some" believe that it may be a pituitary problem. It's a bit much to go into today, so I'll address this in a future posting, soon.  It's a truly amazing thing that we've discovered, so it perhaps deserves its own post!  (Am I getting good at ya'll anticipating a post?  I'm tryin'!)

• HGH (Human Growth Hormone)  I think I've gone on and on about this, more than most ever want to hear.  These  HGH posts are found here (weight gain),  here (impact on fibromyalgia) and here (hormonal impact/levels).  But as I've mentioned once before, my rheumy is really worried that the HGH deficiencies he's seeing in his practice are almost epidemic.  (I'm adding the "almost," and underplaying his concern and alarm.)

 

And off we go into another weekend!  As always, I hope everyone's doing their very best, only better!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend.  Ciao and paka! 


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