When you just cannot cope.

[Archives1]

As many of you know I have been dealing with a lot of energy issues. yesterday was going to be my big food shopping day for the next week but my body decided that it was not going to happen. Ended up getting just five things before heading home. Stopped and got a burger at McD's ate once I got home, then napped for two hours. Last night I sleep another 15 hours.

That is how my body has been doing for the last few months. Some days I have no energy and just want to seep. Other days I get a lot of energy in short bursts but still feel a bit off. Even after sleeping 15 hours I still feel like I could go to bed right now and sleep.

I am just not coping well with the level of tired I am all the time. I said in another post that a lot of my housework is needing to be done and I just got to get to it this week but I got to get some energy in me.

 

[Archives1]

Please bring this factor of sleep and fatigue to your doctors ever one of them. Its symptomatic of the effort your body is making to cope.
You aren't lazy nor just depressed. Its not your fault.

 

[Archives1]

@may941

I end up just talking to my Physical therapist about it. Don't get to see other doctors often enough. It sucks. I don't really get depressed often. I took a lot of psychology classes in college so I am aware of all the signs but it does still happen. I just cannot shake the tired feeling I keep getting.

It's more likely fatigue than just the tiredness though so, yeah I bring it up. My PT sees it because she knows how much work my muscles have to do just to keep me upright. That is why I sit on my couch or in my office chair as they both have good arm rest so lean on.

 

[Archives1]

ThatFLGuy - If your body says sleep, do it. All those little communities of cells in your body are working together to keep you going and feeling good. Sometimes they just need for you to be quiet and let them do their work. Sleep is very healing. BTW How's your diet and your liquid intake?

 

[Archives1]

@ritanofsinger

Diet is okay and liquid intake is kind of up and down. Some nights I wake up after having stupid dreams feeling dehydrated. I will drink a bunch of water and go back to sleep. My Urologist wanted me to give up drinking anything 3-4 hours before bed but the issue is that all the drugs I am on make me dehydrate easily. I average about 3 liters of water a day, plus the stuff I have to drink due to medications.


The only person that is hearing me when I tell them something and trying to do something about it is my Physical therapist.

At Physical therapy this week I am going to ask about a few things and one is going to be what she thinks about trying some other test. From there I will be trying to get sooner appointments.

 

[Archives1]

Can you look into getting other doctors, bychance? I would agree with you they don't seem to be very helpful. I know sometimes switching doctors can make a huge difference in care *It shouldn't, but some doctors are terrible*.

 

[Archives1]

I agree ICGamer. When I was a distributor in the Amway business, a motivational speaker and very successful distributor himself told us that doctors are in medical practice. Unlike the industrial trades where a person does a lengthy apprenticeship and becomes a Journeyman and possibly a Master, doctors are in a medical science field where new things keep cropping up and new ways of treating those things are involved. They keep practicing, that's the way they get the experience to be a good doctor. Hopefully doctors will keep studying. When I asked a new opthamalogist one time what book she was currently reading, she said, "When I got out of school I vowed to never open another book!" So she thought that she'd learned everything there was to learn? Some medical schools are better than others too so I check out the certificates on my doctors' office walls.I also like to know if they've done ANY research at any time on injuries or illnesses. I figure I'm employing them - it's kind of a job interview!

 

[Archives1]

@ThatFLGuy
Like you, I take lots of meds and suffer from their side effects. I also have lots of doctors. But. unlike you, I have to struggle to sleep, which makes me feel tired or sleepy.

Doctors are required to take "continuing education classes". They can't know it all, so I try to help by constantly searching the Web looking for what might be helpful for my problems. I use what I find to help my providers to consider things "outside their box".

Recently, I have been looking into the side effects of "statin drugs" (for high cholesterol). They are notorious for causing fatigue, muscle damage & pain, liver damage, kidney damage. I have been taking them since about 1995. I found that there are 2 groups of statin drugs (good & bad). My drug is in the list of "bad" drugs. (You would think my cardiologist would have changed my prescription by now, but NOT!) I mentioned it to my primary care physician first and he said he knew about it and had been switching patients to the one I am on now: Crestor/rosuvastatin. I then talked to my cardiologist, and he agreed. (But neither had brought it up on their own?)

2 years ago I was diagnosed with osteoporosis (weak bones). My primary doctor immediately suggested "Prolia", and said he would check to see if my insurance would cover it. I replied with appreciation, but told him not to write the prescription until I had time to investigate it. It's a good thing that did, because I have full mouth dental implants. All osteoporosis meds have a high risk of causing jaw bone death (necrosis of the jaw). Besides my research, I asked all my dental and other doctors and nurses what they knew about these drugs. I also went to an endocrinologist. After 2 months I told my doctor that I was going to take my chances and NOT take any meds for the osteoporosis.

I said all this to suggest that, if you haven't already done so, investigate all your meds to see if there are any that are suspect to you, and then bring the articles to your doctors. (Be sure to include the source of the articles too.)

May God bless you!

 

[Archives1]

@ICGamer

The answer to changing doctors is kind of a yes but no answer for me.


For social security, Yes, But for my Disability insurance, No.

My Disability insurance wants continuing care and has been okay with how often I see my doctors. The issue with getting a new doctor is that I will not know until I switch how often I can see them.

Social security only wants to see that I am getting care for what is going on, they don't care who is doing it.

It is so bad that my disability insurance knows some of my doctors by name because of the hoops that we have had to jump through to get information from them.

I would love to change Gastroenterology doctors but don't know that it is going to help me get seen more often.

I am going to talk to my Physical therapist this week about that though.

 

[Archives1]

FLGuy - My insurance plan offers an advocate to help me through these hurdles. The advocate is like a sub-contractor for the insurance. Sometimes an advocate doesn't carry through however and it makes me wonder if they are paid like piece-work or commission or something. It's all so damned confusing!

 

[Archives1]

@ritanofsinger

I have an advocate. Mine is Genex services, They are doing all my stuff for social security for me. I even have a disability lawyer through them so that helps.

 

[Archives1]

MezaJarjarBinks - Not all doctors are required to take continuing education classes. Some states require certain specialists to do so like so many hours of classes over no more than a three year period. Each state seems to be different in their requirements for updating a license.

 

[Archives1]

@ritanofsinger
Okay, if you say so.

 

[Archives1]

@ThatFLGuy Sorry to hear that you're still being put through the wringer.

I can relate, I've got awful chronic fatigue issues due to Long Covid. My only advice is that what's worked for me is finding my sweet spot in terms of activity - too little or too much will have a negative effect. A regular sleep pattern's also helped me (although I'm very ill-disciplined when it comes to this!). Managing it's hard, I need to nap pretty much every day no matter how much sleep I get at night.

Re the dehydration, I'd always wake up feeling awfully dehydrated and then I started taking electrolyte tablets that dissolve in water. I drink one with breakfast and one as my final drink in the evening and I've been feeling much better hydration wise.

 

[Archives1]

I recently went to a practice that refers to itself as Functional Medicine for a whole body approach. They did an extensive blood test (which I had to pay out of pocket). Then I met with a Nurse Practitioner who went over the results AND with a Nutritionist. I am currently taking 5 vitamin supplements and a new RX, plus following a restricted diet for three months - no wheat, no eggs and no dairy. We will start adding them back in one at a time to see if my symptoms return. In about two weeks I started having more energy. At about a month in many of my other problems start improving. Maybe it is something you might try?