April 1st was a milestone around here. The day before, I had lowered my Tylenol dose and felt no pain whatsoever. So I did a ballsy thing and, starting on April 1st, I just quit taking Tylenol. I didn’t follow my directions to ween off of everything really slowly, but rather I just ditched all Tylenol. I took my antidepressant in the morning, and that was it.
And by the end of the day, my hands. Felt. Perfect.
Thank you, Lord!! 🙌
I will say, I did feel the change in meds in other ways. I felt a bit sick to my stomach, and I had a pretty mean headache by the end of the day. But it was SO worth it. To even just know that my hands were all caught up. As I’ve said a handful of times since this whole thing began, its very validating to know my pain needed this different kind of medication. I couldn’t wrap my head around using an antidepressant for something other than depression. I remember crying in that appointment, being SO discouraged, because I felt my mental health was stronger than it had been in years, and WHY NOW would I start taking a pill for it?! I felt my progress was discounted and like I had somehow failed. Like I thought I was doing well, but maybe I was wrong. Having it explained to me, about my pain centres, brought so much peace. And it feels amazing to have that validated. That I made the right choice!
Its been two weeks now that I’ve not taken any other pain medications, and I feel confident, and capable, and pain free! I have some work to do to regain some strength in my hands, wrists, and shoulders after not using them very much in the past few months. But that makes total sense, and I’m not afraid. I’m not exactly “muscly” to begin with, so getting back to where I was will just take getting back into real life! And being cooped up at home makes me really itch to make bread and buns! So maybe the kneading will get me even stronger than before!
Guys. My shoulder started hurting in August. My wrists started in October. It got out of control in November, and bordered on debilitating in December. Sought help in January, started Sertraline in February, and got my life back shortly thereafter!
Thank you, Lord, for informed doctors and medicine that works. For options, when we’ve exhausted everything else. For movement and energy and ability. For hard times and lessons learned. For all these things, I praise the Lord.
Praise God! Yay!
YES! We continue to!