Category: chronic physical pain

painsomnia strikes yet again

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders

Painsomnia strikes yet again

I was up till 5 am again. I slept for about 3.5 hours, had something to eat, and then went back to sleep. I was knocked out as I didn’t hear my doorbell ring when my mother was looking for me. I had turned my phone off so I wouldn’t be disturbed. There were a few messages on my phone. My mother had left me a cryptic voicemail, with my uncle in the background.

I woke up with my shoulder hurting me. I was using it as a pillow and this time I think I did something because it is still hurting. I think I might have pinched a nerve. Just great. Hope it goes away.

Because I slept all day I didn’t make the muffins I want to make. Here is the recipe https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/morning-glory-muffins-recipe

I also want to make my burritos. The freezer bags I bought came in today. I hope I sleep “normal” hours so I can wake up midmorning and make these things. I think I am going to make the burritos first as I want bacon in them. I also plan on putting three cheeses in them. They are really easy to make though I am not an expert burrito roller, yet. I tend to overfill the first one and then the last few have enough so they roll okay. I still can’t believe I spent $17 on these bags. There are a set of three 35 count bags. I think each would cost $5.66 each, which I guess is okay. I am not sure what they would be in the supermarket. I tried looking at Peapod and they had the 15 count on sale for $2.89 or something like that so maybe I did get a deal.

Sox are playing an hour early. I’m listening to the game now. Sox have a 1-0 lead right now. My favorite centerfielder, Jackie Bradley Jr. just made a great catch. I love him. He is such a good outfielder!

My foot is starting to hurt a bit. I apparently bought a compression thing that I can use for my foot and ankle. I hope that it fits and works. There was just a regular and large size so I chose regular as a medium usually fits me. I don’t know if with the swelling that is still the case. The ace brace that I have has an opening at the heel that ends up digging into me and causes me so much pain that I have to take it off.

My mother made pork chops for dinner. I didn’t like them but ate them anyway. I really want a couple of boil eggs and toast. I might have them after the game. Maybe that will stop my after midnight eating. I seem to have to want something after 2 am to get to sleep. Usually because it has been more than 8 hours since I last ate.

hope this isn’t another painsomnia night

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders

Hope this isn’t another Painsomnia night

Red Sox game ended a little after 2200. We won 7-3. I was worried about the first baseman, Ramirez as he missed the bag on a play and caused a runner to be safe. But then he made a few good plays so I worried a little less. Last year he rarely played first base except in interleague games, which this was and when he did, he wasn’t great at it.

Soon after the game ended and I went to settle in for the night, my foot and ankle bone flared like it did last night, at around the same time. I just wrote a message to my psychiatrist saying I was sick of the pain and might need a urologist. I would see my PCP but he hasn’t really gained my trust in his care for me. I feel like he just wants to pawn me off with whatever issue I have but be in the loop so he knows what is going on. I really don’t feel comfortable talking to him about this. I might see a urologist at another hospital. I found one that is female. She isn’t interested in neurourology but does have an interest in bladder dysfunction so I think that is close. If I am not up all night, I will call sometime tomorrow to set up an appointment. Hopefully I won’t need a medical referral to see her.

I am really tired. I took a strong pain pill so I hope it eases my pain soon. I really want to sleep. I took my meds around 1900, but if I have a flare, that doesn’t guarantee I will be asleep by midnight. It makes me so angry when my pain spikes. I really wanted to punch the hell out of my pillow but felt silly doing it. I don’t know why. No one is in my room but I feel like the voices will judge me. They watch me all the time and criticize everything I do.

I am so annoyed with my laptop when it doesn’t do what I want to do. Sometimes I am amazed I have flung it out the window or against the wall. Stupid thing. I still don’t know why I picked a small hard drive and a low RAM. I know the money was an issue and the price seemed right but I figured I could upgrade. HA that turned out to be a joke. I still need to call Dell and have them tell me what are the components of this piece of shit. It doesn’t match the manual at all. I don’t want to buy a hard drive and have it be something else I can’t use. I still need to sell my RAM that I bought. I figure $50 will be better than nothing. It is just a pain to post something on Amazon. But once it is done, it usually sells quickly. Then I am scrambling to the post office to mail it out.

If I am not up all night and I don’t have too much back pain, I hope to make muffins tomorrow. I’ve been wanting to make these for a while but just haven’t had the time to do it. I hope they come out good and big. I hate when muffins come out small. I really don’t know what the trick is to have muffin tops. But then I am not a good baker.

yet another painsomnia night

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders

Yet another Painsomnia night

I didn’t go to sleep till 5 am this morning. I was up all night in pain. My damn foot and ankle were having a contest as to who was going to hurt me more. Around maybe 4 I decided to put on the ace brace and noticed my foot was really puffy looking, probably why it was hurting so bad. I then decided to have some crumpets because I was hungry. I then tried to sleep.

I didn’t sleep, maybe 4 hours. Then I was a hungry maniac. I had more crumpets, waffles and then some chips with dip. I had two glasses of mango orange juice and a cup of tea. I was hoping the tea would keep me up but nope. I went up to my room and slept for a few more hours. I woke up because I had to pee really bad. I went to the bathroom and it was like I could not stop peeing, at all. It just kept flowing. After like 10 minutes, it stopped. I went again about a half hour later. My bladder hurts so bad from the strain. I have no idea what is going on. I have no idea if my pain meds or the baclofen I have been taking is affecting my bladder or it is just my nerves going berserk. Either way I need to see a urologist but I am so scared of the testing involved. Urodynamic testing is not fun. They use a catheter and fill and empty your bladder. Then they fill it again and you need to void in front of a nurse. Last time they filled me up and I could not pee for the life of me. It was an hour or two before I was finally able to void. I was on serious pain meds at the time so they couldn’t tell if it was neurogenic bladder or retention caused by opiates. I am scared this is what is going to happen again, which is why I have been avoiding having this test done. Not to mention that I have a trauma history and it freaks me out. I had a uro that I was seeing at another hospital, but every time I set up the appointment, he got called away to an emergency. After the third time, I didn’t reschedule.

My back was doing somewhat better, until I sat down on my bed with the bunched up blankets under my butt cheek. That flared me up again. I just took some ibuprofen. Any kind of muscle thing and I am hurting for a while. I hate it. I have to be so careful the next few weeks.

My sister has been calling me a nanny because I take care of my niece while she is out. I think it’s so funny. She wants me to check on her and make sure she does her homework. I just made a cup of tea and wanted to listen to the game. Guess I will be going to watch it on her big screen TV. Being a nanny has some perks!

I hope I can sleep tonight. I really don’t want another night of horrid no sleep. I know last night was because I took my night meds late and I was sitting for more than three hours with my family. Actually, sitting more than three hours anywhere will cause me to have a flare at night. There is nothing I can do about it. Just happens.

Easter Sunday 2018

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders, suicide

Easter Sunday 2018

I woke up to my fricken med alarm around 645 this morning. It scared me out of my sleep and all I wanted to do was throw my phone against the wall. I shut the thing off and dutifully took my meds. My back was so bad. It hurt more than my CRPS pain in my ankle/foot. I had to use the bathroom and it hurt to move. I decided to cancel therapy for tomorrow as I wasn’t sure how my back was going to be. I was sure that just walking to the office would not be a good idea. When I came back to my room, I texted my therapist. I then got my heating pad and adjusted it a few times to get the heat where it hurt, which was mostly around my hip. I had used a tennis ball to try and massage it but the pain was so intense. I know I need to do it a few more times to get the knots out. I am lucky it is just muscle pain or it could be a lot worse.

I fell back to sleep. My sister was having Easter dinner at 2. I think I woke up a little after 1. My pain was a little better but my ankle was throbbing. I heard my mother make her way downstairs so thought the food must be ready. I followed her after gobbling a few chocolate chip cookies for an appetizer. My brother in law’s family wasn’t there yet. The time my sister told her to be there and the time my brother in law said was off by an hour. I have no idea why he said 3 pm as we never have dinner that late. That caused a little argument. Just what I wanted to hear, fighting on Easter.

The in laws arrived about a half hour later, which was good because I wanted to eat. Everything was good and peaceful. I saw my nephew and his sister, who I haven’t seen since Christmas. They don’t come over much or call. I might get a text from them every so often. I still can’t believe my nephew is going to be 24 this year. Seems like only yesterday I was holding him in my arms and playing catch with him. This caused him to puke on me for at least his first two years. I never learned. I was just happy to play with him. He often was like Dino the dinosaur in Fred Flintstone. I would come home from work and he’d promptly attack me with hugs. Later it was just to grab my baseball hat so I could chase him.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening down my sister’s. My back was surprisingly cooperating and so was my foot/ankle, though it was still throbbing. It hurt to go from a seated position to a standing. My aunt came over around 6. She saw a stray cat and wanted to take it home as it was malnourished. It had been living for some time on my sister’s porch for at least a month. I guess she told my cousin and he talked her out of it. Now my brother in law will be calling some cat shelter for it. That really pissed me off as the cat would have had a good home with my aunt.

I was late in taking my meds because I was downstairs. I hope I am not up all night. I did have a cup of caffeinated tea. For some reason, having tea late can either not affect me or will. I am tired so hopefully I will sleep.

I read twitter before writing this blog. There was a tweet that someone wrote that got my attention. It was about chronic pain and people being forced off their pain meds because their doctors are no longer prescribing it for them anymore. One tweet read that they were planning their suicide. I felt that person’s pain because my thoughts are the same. I am also planning. I don’t know if I will go through with it, even though I have given myself a date and some time to actually plan it. Not saying that it will happen the way I do plan it but the thought is there. Now that the CDC is admitting it falsified its data for their proposed guidelines, hopefully that will make doctors treat patients the way they should be treated. I don’t have hope that I will ever be treated for my pain because I have a psychiatric illness. I think that is why my PCP and pain docs are staying away from me like a 10 foot pole. I can’t prove it but it makes sense. I think that is why my PCP is in constant contact with my psychiatrist, which is kind of leading me not to trust my psychiatrist as much. I know what I tell her is confidential and all but my paranoia gets the better of me. I don’t know if she tells him how suicidal I have become. I have no idea what she writes in her notes about me because he reads them, even though he is not supposed to. I am too scared to request my records from her. It would be easier if I had access to them when I was hospital employee, but now I need to fill out a release like every one else. Plus I am not so sure reading them will benefit me in anyway.