New Fibro Forum Video!

Hi, everyone!

I usually don't post three times in one day, but I couldn't figure out a way to put some text in with the video, "Faces Of Fibromyalgia 2010"  that I just posted before this post.  It just is beyond my limited Internet capabilities....LOL!  Anyway, this video is FANTASTIC!  You have to watch it.  Just go to my blog archive for today and you will see it listed by its name.  It was made by Sally, my co-host of the fibro support group on facebook called "Fibrowhat?" and "Fibrowhat? Forum" .  When you have a moment, please check out the video AND our support forums!  We welcome anyone that has fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or ANY of the "Invisible diseases" and their caregivers or loved ones to be part of our "family."  We offer compassion, understanding, support and if you just feel like "venting" we have a special area just for that on the forum.  Both groups are FREE and DO require registration (which doesn't take long at all!) as they are closed to the public.  We do this to limit spammers and our members can feel more comfortable talking about their medical history when they know it's not being blasted all over the Internet.

While I have you here, my rheumatology appointment went well.  My twitch was there, but only mildly.  My speech was a lot better, too.  My husband only had to help out a few times.  The doc wants me to drop the prednisone down by 2 1/2 mg per week with a goal being 5mg a day.  He said that it won't be that much of a "jolt" to my body.  I had some labs done to check my "inflammatory markers" and he gave me prescriptions for the prednisone, flexeril and trazadone.  It was a gorgeous ride to the doctor's office.  We had our windows down and sun roof open for most of the trip.  I love it when it's the 70's in Arizona.  Breezy and comfortable and I don't sweat at all.  Oh, and I also lost 12 pounds!  Woooo hooooo!!!!!  I bet most of it was water weight, but still.  12 pounds!!!  2 pounds over what my primary care doctor wanted me to strive to lose!!  When I learned that, my twitch seemed to get better.  So it is a mental thing with me.  When my body feels overly stressed, it comes out with this stupid twitch.  I just felt horrible when I gained the last time when I saw my primary doc and she was disappointed in me.  I was too.  Good thing we figured it out and the twitch has dramatically improved.  My crazy body!!

Alrighty, hope everything is good for your Monday and you feel healthy and ready to take on the challenges of the world......or, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself!!  Maybe just the challenges of YOUR life!!!

Gentle hugs,

The Faces of Fibromyalgia 2010

Familiar Feelings

Howdy, everyone!

As the title of this post reads, I definitely have "familiar feelings" today as this is the day I have to go to yet ANOTHER seminar about the Lap-band or Realize band procedure.  And they couldn't have picked a busier hospital than Good Sam in downtown Phoenix!  I'm worried about parking and how far I will have to walk to even get to the conference room.  I've had MAJOR problems with walking lately.  My right leg has just been incredibly painful with "pins and needles" in my foot, muscle spasms in my calf and thighs, and let's not forget that lovely "shooting" pain I get from my lower back.  This morning it took me about 15 minutes (and me having to stop and lean against the wall to work out severe cramps in my thigh) to walk down the short hall to the bathroom.  And then back into the bedroom so I could take my morning cocktail of medications.  Please work fast!!! 

Yesterday I went to the podiatrist and he gave me a clean bill of health - for just my left foot!  The pain I was having in the arch is completely gone. So either that lovely moon boot or the steroid shot I had a month ago has finally started to kick in.  But I haven't had pain there all week now.  Praise the Lord!!  Now if only the REST of me would get the picture and follow suit.  I'm really glad my foot really cleared up, because as of October 1st, my insurance will no longer be paying for podiatry care.  Our state's government is bankrupt (or close to it!) and that is how they see fit to fix it...take away even more health care benefits to the poor or the elderly.  Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it????!!!

I talked with my dad, who now lives in Michigan in his own apartment, on Monday and he sounded fantastic!  He has met a new friend online, her name is Gina and I spoke with her, too, on Monday. She set up a three way phone call.  Pretty neat....I would have absolutely NO idea of how to do such things. I'm glad my dad is happy.  It's been a long recovery process, and I didn't know how I'd feel seeing him with other women, but I know it's what Mom would have wanted for him.  And it isn't really so hard seeing him with someone else (or "hearing" him with someone else, for that matter!). She sounded very nice and sweet and perfect for my zany and crazy dad!!  LOL....couldn't help myself there for a moment.

AND, I've saved the best news for last.  MY GRANDMA IS COMING TO SEE ME IN DECEMBER!!  My grandma (on my mom's side) who moved to Texas shortly before we started our move out there too, decided that two years is too long of a time for us to see each other.  I agree!  And the last time I saw her, I was in shock and grief over mom's recent death. If it hadn't been for her there with me (as she came from College Station to San Antonio in record time when she heard how bad mom was and that she wouldn't make it for long), I don't think I would have made it.  I love my grandma soooo much and have missed her equally so, that I'm thrilled that my in-laws have warmly welcomed her to stay in their home and my aunt and uncle (grandma's son with whom she lives with now) already bought her ticket.  When I saw my grandma's name on the ticketless travel receipt in the email, it just tickled me so!  OK, so I'm a little giddy....LOL!!!  She will be arriving Dec. 8th and staying until after Christmas on Dec. 28th.  Three solid, whole weeks!!!

Nothing much else to report. Please pray that I can get to the conference room tonight for that bariatric seminar and please pray I can have the procedure.  My husband called up my insurance and verified again they cover this procedure and they said yes, as long as it is for medical purposes and NOT cosmetic.  No prob there...all they gotta do is look at my charts and they'll see all my medical problems that could very possibly be corrected by having this procedure.  And hopefully this place is the RIGHT place this time!!

I'll be sure to post again tomorrow and let you know how it went. You all have a wonderful day....may it be without too much pain!!  We can only hope.


God bless you all,
Until next post,
Missy

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
As many of you know, I have a support group on Facebook that used to be called the same name as my blog.  Well, I met a new friend, Sally, and she set up a beautiful forum based on my support group.  She worked day and night on it and didn't find the error until the forum was complete. And that was, she left the MY out of the title.  But that's not the important news, just a tid-bit.  :0)  The notice is please accept our sincere apologies about how Facebook kept sending out duplicate messages this past week. We have been in contact with FB, but have not received any response.  So I completely understand if you wish to not be part of the FB support group....but please DO come over to our forum. There are NO problems like that over there.  We've love to see you all that signed up in the FB group and we would love to meet new people, too.  So click on the purple butterflies at the top of this page.  See ya there!!

Hopes Dashed

Howdy, friends!

I am sooooo disappointed!  You all know that today was the day I went for the  initial appointment for the Lap-band system/program.  I was so terribly excited to get started on hopefully, turning my life around and starting anew. The whole family was excited!  We (me, my husband and mother-in-law) headed out this morning at 8am as my appointment was at 9am.  We had no problems with getting there, as we used our handy-dandy Garmin GPS.  I just love Garmin, they are easy to use, the voices easy to understand and it has never steered us wrong.  It takes away the "nervous element" of driving because if you don't know where you are going, that IS nerve wracking!  My husband will rarely stop at gas stations to ask for directions, so we wander around, yelling at each other, because we can't find where we are going.  And those fold-up maps are for the birds! The print is so small, you need a magnifier glass to see it.  Anyway, that was my lil' sales pitch of the day.  I LOVE Garmin GPS and Amazon....so if you need a GPS, why not check out the link to the left of your screen. Amazon has a wide variety there to pick from.

Okay, on with my story.  We get to the place and park. I waddle into the building because my back and right leg are killing me this morning.  Morning is NOT my best time.  I'm stiff as a board and feel like hell.  This morning was no exception, except I was excited to start my new life.  We get to the right office and check in and I start filling out the paperwork.  Before I could finish, we were called back to the exam room.  The financial lady came in first and introduced herself.  She had a piece of paper in her hand. She sat down and started to explain the program and what it would cost. Then, she drops the bombshell that they DON'T ACCEPT AHCCCS, MY INSURANCE!  I couldn't believe it!  My insurance was the one that referred me to them in the first place!!  We told the lady that, and she couldn't believe it.  There was absolutely NO way that I could afford this program without insurance.  The total price was $11,000!!

I just was completely floored. I started to cry, I couldn't hold it back in any longer.  Why does this stuff always happen to ME?  The lady was very nice, she got me some water and said that she was calling one of the surgeons to come and talk with me. I didn't want that, as I didn't want to hear about a procedure I couldn't have.  That was just pure torture.  But then she said that she would fax all the information to another office that she thought took AHCCCS.  The doctor came in and said that he knew of some surgeons out of a hospital-based clinic that could help me.  So he took my information (name, phone, address) and said that they would call me to set up an appointment.  We then left the office, our heads hung, our hearts broken.  What a let down!  Now I have to go through another waiting period! It just sucks!

So that was how my appointment went.  I wanted so badly to report a different story...like when my surgery was going to be.  Now I've got to go through everything again and wait for an appointment, wait for them to call me.  I'm so depressed!  Why does this crap always happen to me???

Okay, on to more cheerful stuff.  The new Fibro Forum is going extremely well.  Last time I checked the membership list, we were at 119 members and counting.  I hope that everyone that belonged to my fibro group on Facebook will join the forum, too.  It's really cool and fun.  I've met a lot of neat folks over there.  And all the forums cover such a wide variety of topics, it will make your head swim!  So please join....it's free and easy to do.  But if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

That pretty much is it for this post.  I think it's enough!  Oh....I've also got some new blog award winners to announce and on the brand new page set up JUST for the winners!!  So head on over to the winner's page and check out some excellent blogs.  :0)

I hope you all have a blessed day!
Until next post,
Missy

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BRAND NEW FIBRO FORUM!!

Howdy, friends and family!
I hope everyone is having a good Sunday.  I can actually say that today is one of my rare "good days." So I'm takin' it for everything it's got!!!!  I'm still having pain (I will ALWAYS have pain, I think) and at my doctor appointment, she raised my morphine long-acting to 100mg every 12 hours, which is finally now starting to kick in so I don't need as much as the break-through medicine, Lortab.  I know that in most people, those doses would choke a horse. But my pain in my lower back just eats it up the second it hits my system.  To look at me, you wouldn't see me slurring my words or acting goofy, and I'm definitely NOT "high", I take the meds purely for pain relief.  Yet I always am nervous to turn in my prescriptions because I think the pharmacist must think, "Geez, this lady is a junkie."  It's horrible to have to think like that, but that is how society is today.  Just a shame.  The people who really need the medication have to go through hell and high water, whereas the "junkies" have no problems at all.  I better not get started on this subject....I have too strong opinions about it!!!!

OK, here's the big news of the day:  I met a fabulous new friend named Sally on Facebook and she offered to help me with my support group - to give it a boost or a "face lift," shall we say.  She set up a beautiful forum for people with fibro and other invisible diseases to go to and write posts about anything: how you are feeling, medications, vent about something that is bothering you, ANYTHING!  And not only that, she included educational items like "what is fibromyalgia" and symptoms, medications, ect.  The color scheme is, of course, purple as that is fibro's "color."  We are still using that beautiful butterfly of Eileen McKarthy-Keddy (thanks again, Eileen!) as our forum's "logo." Both she and Sally did an absolutely fantastic job of helping me out with this huge project. I am so fortunate to have so many fantastic people in my life - both on AND off line.  I am so excited to see you guys over there. So if you are joined in at my support group, PLEASE go over to the forum and register.  The forum is CLOSED to the public, but anyone can join after being "screened" by the webmasters, which are Sally and myself.
You can get there by clicking on this post's title, our forum logo button on the top left side-bar (which will always remain there) or down below.

OK, folks, I hope this weekend was good for you and you are not in flare-up. I hate those!  And if you are, you are not alone.  Gentle hugs and prayers for all who read this blog. I love you all!  :0)  OK...you can go to the forum by clicking here:

TAKE ME TO THE NEWLY RENOVATED FIBROWHAT FORUM!!!!

God bless,
Until next post,
Missy

PS....I've added yet another brilliant blog to the awards page.  Check it out!

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