Third time's a charm, supposedly....

San, I'm happy to see you losing weight and getting some nice new clothes and at a great deal. I miss having nice charity shops. I bought most of my clothes there when I lived in Seattle. Being in a rural and much poorer area the charity shops have little to offer me and there are very few of them with slow inventory change. It's a shame.

In regards to your back pain I have a bulging disc impinging on my sciatic nerve and Lyrica (preglabin) has helped tremendously with the nerve pain. It does nothing for the dull pain, but at least the eletric shock of pain is mostly gone.
 
Thanks Quercus :)

It's nice to get decent clothes at all, even better when they're cheap. I know what you mean though, we are in a very lucky position to get as much stuff as we get, and the quality that we get. There are other shops in other areas that aren't anywhere near as lucky, and who change stock maybe once a week, if even that. We change/restock about every 2 - 3 days.

I will definitely look into that. Doctors here are very slow to try anything new or different from what they usually do, which is prescribing codeine or Diclofenac, neither of which really helps. And if I could find something that helps with the sharp, flaring pain, or the electric shock of pain as you (very fittingly) called it, then I might at least be able to sleep through a night on occasion, which would be nice. I'll have a look into it, and see if it is available over here, or if we have something similar. Thanks!!
 
Great job on losing, even if it's slow! It's great when clothes don't fit because they're too big! Keep it up!!!

Oh and I found an easy way to add some calories is having some sort of shake. I just bought Vega One (vegan nutritional shake) has 15 g of protein per scoop, plus a ton of other good stuff! It's a bit expensive, but it's a lot cheaper than Shakeology that I was thinking about. I just mix it with water and done!

Also, sometimes I'll eat just a scoop of almond butter.... could put it on celery, but it's faster just to eat a spoon of it. LOL
 
Yeah, I've been buying some cheap versions of Slim Fast here - they've got 200+ calories, and (supposedly) have quite a few vitamins and whatnot in them. Taste horrible though! *lol* And I love almond butter - which is why I find it difficult to just have one scoop....:eek:

In other news - night 3 with next to no sleep. Spent most of the night either sitting on the side of the bed or walking slowly along the corridor. Pain in my right leg is killing me. No idea where it comes from, what it's caused by, just know that it hurts. Barely made it down the stairs this morning, and now I'm scared to eat or drink, because that means having to go back up to the bathroom. Just want it to go away.
 
Oh geeze!! You poor thing, always in pain! I hope the pain in your leg goes away soon. Will some ibuprofen or something help your leg??
 
You should see a doctor for the pain in your leg. It could be anything from clots to your back causing it?
Hoping its nothing serious but it's better to be safe than sorry and get it checked out.
 
Thanks Risty and Nostalgic!

My leg's better today - not sure if temporarily because I gave in and took a mix of codeine and diclofenac last night, simply because I needed a few hours of sleep. I did sleep, and as said, the leg feels better, hopefully it'll stay that way.

I really don't know where the pain is coming from. A friend told me to look into a condition called 'Fibromyalgia' - a chronic pain condition. Despite the fact that I learned about it during my time studying to be a nurse, the thought just never occurred to me. I looked it up, and the list of symptoms was like a list of every single thing that I'm struggling with. Stuff that seemingly has nothing to do with each other - like the fact that I have been having trouble regulating my body temperature. I'm either too hot or too cold, can never find a comfortable, happy medium. I had my hormones tested, my doc was thinking I was going into early menopause, but everything looked okay, and it was one of those things that I just had to put up with. Having trouble regulating and maintaining a constant body temperature is a symptom of Fibromyalgia.
I also have bowel trouble. Was told it's IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), then told it was stomach ulcers, even had surgery, but nothing is helping - I'm still either constipated or have the runs, and NOTHING seems to help. Turns out, bowel trouble is also a symptom of Fibromyalgia.
The list goes on and on, and for some reason, when I looked at it, and saw stuff that I have been struggling with for ages, I felt like crying - going to the doctor and always being told that there is nothing wrong, while I'm in pain, or otherwise unwell, being made to feel as if I'm a hypochondriac who just comes up with random crap, isn't exactly nice, and seeing that there might really be a reason for all of this, and that I'm not just crazy, was a relief. I made an appointment with my GP next week, and I have a sneaking suspicion that she will not want any part of it. I'm not even going to argue with her if that's the case - there is a pain clinic in Manchester that has a special Fibrmyalgia department, and I want her to refer me there. If those people check me out and tell me I don't have it, well, then I guess I am really crazy, but we'll just see about that.

Okay, rant over. I had to skip gym yesterday, and will have to today. At work tomorrow, which is always a workout in itself, so hopefully by Friday, I should be back to normal. I've got a feeling it's going to be a bad week, weight loss wise. :/
 
Be strong and don't leave your GPs office until you get that referral letter.
Doctors like this annoy me, I have a friend who sufferd from belly aches for years and finally decided it was in her head like the doctors kept telling her. Wasn't until she went to get her eggs counted due to not falling pregnant that she found out she had endometriosis. Lucky it was not a severe case but could have been later on.
Small op, fell pregnant and no more belly aches!
My mums had similar issues with GPs also.

Get that referral. I would advice changing GPs also but a lot of them are the same.
 
Definitely won't go anywhere till I have that referral. I've had it with being told that there's 'nothing wrong', and I have to sleep in the front room because I can't manage to get up the stairs. The thing is, I have a very, very high pain threshold, probably due to experiencing a lot of it - I spent two days walking around on a broken ankle before seeing the doctor, for example. I dislocated a shoulder and popped it back myself, never saw a doc about it - so if I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs crying because I simply can't make it up there, that means something. But the doc says there's 'nothing wrong'. Yeah, right. Grrrrrr.

I can definitely feel your friend's pain - it's so annoying and frustrating to be told that you're just 'imagining' it, and every test comes back perfectly fine, and you get those looks that basically say 'you're either crazy or a hypochondriac' - I wish we could sue doctors that say shit like that when it turns out that there actually IS something wrong, and they were just too stupid and/or arrogant to look further into it!!

Changing GPs won't help to be honest. Out of the ones I had so far, she's actually one of the better ones, believe it or not. One of the big regrets I have about coming to the UK - the medical system is absolutely abysmal, and the quality of medical care is so far below the standard I am used to that it's frightening. Especially since I'm a specialist nurse myself, and I could actually be working independently in a doctor's office - so I can even more easily spot all the stuff that's simply wrong. Yikes!

Anyyyyway - in other news, I'm finally under 300 lbs. 298.7 lbs this morning. Yay me. <sarcasm> Guess I'll have to change my ticker now.
 
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Wow you do have a high pain threshold.
Where were you before the uk? NZ is the same. France is really good for health care.
It is horrible when they don't look into things. I remember my teenage depression and mum took me in. They diagnosed me a manic depressive, she got a second opinion, this doctor did blood tests and I had glangler fever, overly low iron and amino acids. Once I got that sorted I was not so depressed because I was healthier.
Stick to your guns and be tough with her about what you want.

Yay on getting into the 200s! That's great!
 
Well done on getting into the 200s... You are doing brilliantly!

Sorry about the pain. Pushing for the Fibromyalgia investigations (by experts) sounds like an excellent idea. I have heard about how incredibly painful that is so it could well be the answer for you.
 
Yeah, so if I complain, it's not because I like to do so. Hell, I would love one day, just one, where nothing hurts at all. I haven't had one of those for the better part of...I don't know, about 20 years I'd say.

I'm originally from Germany, and at the time, the medical system was brilliant there. Both as a patient and as somebody who worked in it. If I had a toothache, I would go to the next dentist and would be seen within an hour or so. If I needed an appointment, I would get one within a couple of days. Over here, it took me almost a year to even find a dentist that would accept patients. You could choose any doctor, anywhere you wanted. No restrictions. You could go directly to specialists, didn't have to see a GP to refer you - so in this case for example, I would just call the pain clinic and make an appointment without having to go through the crap with my GP. Also, I had ONE GP. Somebody who knew me, who knew my name, my history, and who could remember what they had done weeks and months ago without having to check the computer (or the files). Over here, you're lucky to see the same doc twice in a row. They come and go, and then you have locums (even though I call them locusts, because they are a bloody plague) - temporary doctors who just pop up in practices when they don't have enough people, who are usually foreign, and who are really not interested in much of anything other than to get you back out of there. And just to clarify - I have nothing whatsoever against foreign people. Heck, I'm foreign myself, not British. But if I go into a doctor's office and my doctor turns out to speak such poor English that I cannot for the life of me figure out what they say, then something's wrong. Even more alarming if they don't understand what I am telling them either. And my spoken English is very clear, I've been told that over and over again. I am usually asked if I am Canadian or American, so I am reasonably sure that it's not me. So, something's messed up there.

I seem to have a tendency to rant....hmmm......anyway, I hear you about the depression thing. They are sooooo quick to label people as depressed here, it's not even funny. Never look deeper into it, as if they can't be bothered with it. :(

Omega - Thanks :) And I know that getting the proper diagnosis is not going to change much in regards to the pain - there is no cure, and treatment can be very hit and miss. But getting rid of that 'hypochondriac' label, and knowing that there really is something wrong, and that there is a reason for all the stuff that I'm struggling with will hopefully take a little bit of stress out of the whole thing, help a little bit with the psychological aspect of it. And apparently stress can make the symptoms flare up as well - so it might help to just, basically, have the reassurance from somebody that no, I'm not crazy, and it's not all in my head.
 
Yes, I've already been looking into some of that - not in great depth, but getting the general info. I read quite a bit about raw food being beneficial - no matter if in terms of fruit, nuts or vegetables. I will definitely start trying around with foods, leave one thing out and see if it makes any difference. It can't hurt, can it? And if I happen to find something that makes a bigger impact, that would be even better. I already know that chocolate has a negative effect on me - gives me horrible heartburn and stomach aches. Another of those things that the doc said was just 'one of those things' - but it might be connected. Needless to say, I'm not happy that it's chocolate of all things! *lol*

Seriously though, I will definitely look further into that and give it a try, no matter what the diagnosis turns out to be. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?
 
I was certainly put off chocolate cake a few years ago when someone made a rich chocolate cake for Rod's birthday and it made me feel so ill that I couldnt even eat yoghurt for days without getting incredible pain... I wondered whether it was my gallstones playing me up (I know that I have gallstones because they were identified in an ultrasound examination that I had back in 2008)... The GP reckoned that it was irritable bowel and put me on mebeverine to have before eating for a while... That worked a treat - but it was enough to put me off posh chocolate cake...

If you can identify any other foods that cause you problems it is well worth avoiding them... you are right to go ahead with that as an idea irrespective of diagnosis... I have heard of too many people having to fight with doctors before medical diagnoses got confirmed... I will always remember the struggle that AmyRB had to get her thyroid problem all diagnosed and getting proper treatment... She had to read all sorts of medical books on the subject as she had a non-standard problem so the test results were not an obvious positive for thyroid issues... I am still in touch with her elsewhere... she is still doing fine - but never really had a chance before she got proper treatment...
 
Hello, probably I'm a bit late, but i just wanted to say: Congratulations for going under 300 lbs! :biggrinjester:

I'm sorry about the pain. I wish i could help, but i lack the knowledge on the subject to say something even remotely useful.

Good luck and have a good day. :)
 
Thanks all, and well...there is a somewhat surprising development.

I have to retract some of the statements about my GP. I had my appointment on Wednesday, went in, told her straight away that I want her to look into the whole Fibromyalgia thing. We had a somewhat long conversation (I was in there for over 30 minutes, which is a lot), and the summary is that she asked my why I thought that I had this condition, and I told her that there are so many of the symptoms that apply to me that it doesn't really look like coincidence. She went through a list with me of common symptoms, and asked me about every single one, and then pulled up my patient file to compare. She asked me about some stuff that I had never mentioned to her, and I told her straight out that I didn't feel that there was any point, because every time I come to see her, or other doctors, with something, I always get told that everything's okay, and it's just 'one of those things'. She went rather quiet at that, then said that she never intended for me to feel as if she didn't take me seriously, or thought that I was imagining/inventing/otherwise 'faking' things.

After a while she conceded that there were indeed a lot of pointers towards Fybromyalgia, but that it was very difficult to make absolutely certain. Also, she would have to make totally sure that we checked for any other reasons for all the different things that have been giving me trouble over the years. So she said she would go back through my patient file in detail, and make sure that there's really nothing else. She also gave me a referral for the MSPC (Manchester and Salford Pain Clinic) WITHOUT me even mentioning it. That did impress me immensely, and I felt like maybe I had been a little too quick to think that she would not want any part of it. Ah well, I'm not perfect, and I can admit that I was wrong. So I was wrong!

For now, I have the referral (but appointments can take several months), and she started me with Amitriptyline, which is apparently successful for some FM patients. She said that FM is very much a thing of trial and error, and what helps one person might be completely useless for others. I read that as well, and I am quite happy to try whatever has worked for people, and see if any of it works for me. Regular painkillers, from ibuprofen up to morphine injections, haven't helped at all - which greatly baffled the A&E (or ER) doctor when I went there because I couldn't move my neck at all. Apparently, the pain from FM is very rarely affected by 'traditional' painkillers - so believe me, I'll try different stuff. Gladly.

I also got an appointment with a nutritionist/dietician, who is trained in specialised diets for various illnesses and conditions - FM being one of them. It's a 2-hour, one on one session, where we can stick our heads together and come up with something that works for my tastebuds, and might help keep symptoms at bay.

That's it so far. All in all, not anywhere near as bad as I thought. Of course it doesn't mean that everything is just brilliant all of a sudden, but at least there are options now. Things I can try. And places I can go, online and in real life, and maybe meet some other people who are in a similar situation.

Last but not least, my GP told me to cut down on my workouts. I told her that wouldn't happen. If it means that I'm going to be in pain afterwards, then so be it. I'm not doing murder workouts or anything like that, I walk and I swim, that's it. And I feel that despite the pain, it's helping me, so that is something that I will do 'against doctor's orders'. ;)
 
I'm so pleased that the appointment went as well as that. With luck the new painkillers will help and the appointments will come through soon.
 
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