The Daily Hailey

I had a doctors appointment yesterday that I want to tell you about. I haven’t talked a whole lot about my pain recently, partly because I wanted to see what would happen with some new decisions we’ve made. Also, I haven’t talked about it as much because there has been improvement! And my pain isn’t at the top of my list of concerns currently 🙂 I’m still actively working on it, taking my pain meds on a fairly strict schedule, and still not pushing myself in ways I shouldn’t. I’ll catch you up.

About a month ago, I saw my doctor for my pain. At that point, I was on full doses of Naproxen, every day, plus something to help me sleep, as that is my primary healing time. I had weened off of Tylenol at that point, and was feeling comfortable in my day-to-day on the medications I was taking, assuming I took them on time. That being said, my nighttime medication is not to be used long term at all. I was feeling eager to get off of it, so one evening, I decided to half my pill and see what happened. I’m on SUCH a low dose, as it was. Of course, I split the pill poorly and succeeded more so in clipping maybe a third of it off. I took the bigger piece and went to bed. 

And I hurt for FOUR DAYS after that! I was pretty discouraged. I had HARDLY changed anything, and had SUCH a crappy setback. This happened pretty close to that doctors appointment I had a month ago, and I lamented to Dr. Guselle how frustrated I was. 

If you remember the last time I posted about an appointment, I said how she had spoken to me about going on an antidepressant, and how I was nervous of that route. NOT because I think antidepressants are bad or wrong or anything of the sort. I just personally do not suffer from depression, and didn’t understand how that was supposed to help me besides maybe taking some of the worry out of my situation. However, Dr. Guselle explained to me further at that last appointment that the pain centres in my brain are now hyper sensitive, and they’re overreacting. That made a LOT of sense. My brain panicked when I took even a teeny bit of my pill out, and I paid dearly for that. So, that being said, I agreed to start an antidepressant in hopes that it will eventually cover for all of my Naproxen, Tylenol, sleeping pill, and my need for a stomach protector, by relaxing the parts of my brain that are overreacting.

I’m not going to go into full big details on what or how much on the internet, but I’m HAPPY to talk to anyone about it who is interested 🙂 Message me, if you wish! I’m not embarrassed!

I began the medication the day of that appointment, about a month ago. For the next week and a half, I was nauseous, very groggy, and hot flashy. It subsided right as I was supposed to go up in my dose, but thankfully, the symptoms didn’t flare up again. All that remains is a relaxedness that is somewhat restful, but makes me feel the tiniest big lethargic sometimes. I can easily blow past it if I have things to do, or some kind of stimulation. I still have drive and motivation. But if I have nothing pressing to do, I can just sit. Like, longer than I used to. Just sit. Its different, but its not bad. I can tell the medication is starting to do its thing. 

I’ve been on my antidepressant for a month now. Its apparently not expected to be working at capacity for six to eight weeks, so I suppose we’ll still see whats to come. What I can tell you is that my pain is so much less. I don’t know if I can credit the meds or healing or both, but I’m moving forward! Last Saturday was the first day in MONTHS I had NO PAIN!!! NONE! It went on like that for FOUR DAYS!!! At that point, I felt confident enough to start bringing some medications down, and while I can notice a difference in my hands on the days following the days I lower doses, I recover, and my body seems to give in and say “Ok, those meds should cover it actually, never mind, you’re good with this,” and the pain pulls back. 

Since starting my antidepressant, I am down to only two Naproxen from the six I had been taking. I plan to be done with Naproxen very soon. Still taking the protector, as long as I’m on Naproxen. I’m still taking Tylenol, and likely will be for a while. My sleeping pill is the next to go, and I’m admittedly nervous about how my body and brain will react. The sooner I’m off that one, the better, and going off of it before my antidepressant is caught up is a bit risky. But I want to be done. And if my body can forgive me when I go down in other medications, then hopefully it can forgive this one, too. I’ll just go slow. 

All of this being said, it’s VERY vulnerable to talk about medication on the internet, so please be gentle. Nothing works for everyone, and whats right for someone else isn’t right for everyone. And thats ok! Its so personal to everyone individually. 

To wrap up, if you’re the praying type, please pray for success going off of this nighttime medication, and eventually all of them. I’m SO thankful for my options and that we’ve found a way for me to do my life without pain, and I’ll also be SO thankful to be rid of them!!