Post by yvonnemm on Dec 26, 2014 10:34:03 GMT -5
Below, is an email I sent my sister this morning. I sent it because I really would like her to pass it on to other people, where appropriate. She runs into a lot of people with medical issues. Then, I got to thinking that perhaps I may be able to pass it on to lots of women, too. Hence, this post. Not all medications react the same with all people, but it pays to be aware of the possible side effects, thereby enabling you to know what the heck is going on with yourself, and mitigate it in ways your doctor may not.
The only information necessary, for people who aren't my sister, to understand this story, is that in late August, I got sick. I got that virus all those kids had at the time – entero virus d whatever the heck it was. My partner was fairly sure I was going to die, my cough was so bad. To make her happy, I went to the doctor. He wanted to hospitalize me and put me on breathing machines and a host of other ridiculous “over reaction” (for me) types of things. I consented, only, to take the steroids he prescribed. I like him, and he had fairly convinced me that I may die in my sleep even with them, but certainly w/out them. So here is the email... (oh- p.s. I didn't die in my sleep;))
I would like to tell you the story of my back. I'd ask if you want to know, but, well, that would be silly wouldn't it? I'd have to wait for you to reply and by the time you did, I may not want to tell it anymore...all manner of difficulty that way, so I'm just not asking.
After many, many, weeks and months of pain, I have self diagnosed my problem...fibroids.
This back pain was never ever normal, not like any I've ever had. It started shooting down my leg in mid October.
I started popping ibuprofen then, because it was threshold intolerable. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Most of it seems to be concentrated in my right butt cheek. There is a muscle there that spasm-ed, non stop, from October until a day or two ago. It's that spasm that caused me to Not be able to walk more than about 50 or 100 feet, depending on the day, without excruciating pain. I couldn't stand either. I couldn't stand through the washing of 1 basket of eggs w/out such intense pain shooting down my leg, I almost rather would have cut if off. I stopped participating in doing the animal chores, because I could not walk from one house to another w/out nearly passing out from the pain.
I participated in egg collection last night, for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was also the first time I've been able to walk so far w/out having pain scream at me and make me want to puke. While it's getting better, as evidenced by the beginning of this paragraph - the incidental spasming still exists. It takes me a long time to stand up, and i have to do it exactly right or that muscle will spasm again, and it is acutely painful. Sometimes, it spasms now, when I'm not even moving- that acute, 'kill me please' kind of spasm. But, my mobility after standing up, and my ability to stand still for a period, have improved.
Now we factor in the fact that I've been bleeding for like 12 days. 10 of them a very consistent moderate flow. Now it is waning, but still there. My increased ability to stand and walk coincided with the waning of the blood flow. Fibroid tumors cover all the symptoms nicely where nothing else does. Now, the question is why, suddenly, do fibroids bother me?
Beginning Sept 4, I took steroids for a week. The second week of October, I started having pain shooting down my leg. 2 weeks after that, I had, what I believe to be, a passing kidney stone (nothing else feels like it). I missed my October period, then I had one in end November, and again 2 weeks later, and then 1 week later, it is that period that I'm still having.
Steroids can and do cause the development of kidney stones. Steroids can and do cause the rapid growth of fibroid tumors.
I can, through the research of others, relate every problem I have had for 3 months, directly back to my one doctors visit in 17 years.
The fibroids will starve themselves, or choke themselves off and die (which is probably what's happening now, it accounts for the extreme pain), or shrink up and disappear after menopause. In the interim, I will suffer through, because I am certainly NOT going to a doctor, if I do, my head will probably start to gangrene. Also, in the meantime, I am supporting the economy by constantly taking ibuprofen. I'm sure that will result in some bizarre side effect too, but right now that's preferable to how much worse it hurts without ibuprofen. It's hard for even me to imagine the intensity of pain w/out it, and I've experienced it.
Fibroids also explain why a very few (like 2), of the many chiropractic adjustments I've had, have offered any relief, and when they did, it lasted for about an hour. I had one day, last Friday, that I had a big pop, when I got up from a fireside stool. I had almost no pain that whole day, god it was nice. Sat morning, mid morning, it came screaming back. That was the longest pain free period I've had since October.
There is the story of my "back". I am happy to know I haven't broken anything and happy that I got a pain free, normal life, reminder last Friday. I would like another. I miss doing the animals. I was going to help this morning but that spasm kept happening, with almost every step I took, so maybe tonight.
Since you're in menopause, you don't have to worry about fibroids anymore, but if you know someone who does...Tell them NOT to take steroids!
The only information necessary, for people who aren't my sister, to understand this story, is that in late August, I got sick. I got that virus all those kids had at the time – entero virus d whatever the heck it was. My partner was fairly sure I was going to die, my cough was so bad. To make her happy, I went to the doctor. He wanted to hospitalize me and put me on breathing machines and a host of other ridiculous “over reaction” (for me) types of things. I consented, only, to take the steroids he prescribed. I like him, and he had fairly convinced me that I may die in my sleep even with them, but certainly w/out them. So here is the email... (oh- p.s. I didn't die in my sleep;))
I would like to tell you the story of my back. I'd ask if you want to know, but, well, that would be silly wouldn't it? I'd have to wait for you to reply and by the time you did, I may not want to tell it anymore...all manner of difficulty that way, so I'm just not asking.
After many, many, weeks and months of pain, I have self diagnosed my problem...fibroids.
This back pain was never ever normal, not like any I've ever had. It started shooting down my leg in mid October.
I started popping ibuprofen then, because it was threshold intolerable. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Most of it seems to be concentrated in my right butt cheek. There is a muscle there that spasm-ed, non stop, from October until a day or two ago. It's that spasm that caused me to Not be able to walk more than about 50 or 100 feet, depending on the day, without excruciating pain. I couldn't stand either. I couldn't stand through the washing of 1 basket of eggs w/out such intense pain shooting down my leg, I almost rather would have cut if off. I stopped participating in doing the animal chores, because I could not walk from one house to another w/out nearly passing out from the pain.
I participated in egg collection last night, for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was also the first time I've been able to walk so far w/out having pain scream at me and make me want to puke. While it's getting better, as evidenced by the beginning of this paragraph - the incidental spasming still exists. It takes me a long time to stand up, and i have to do it exactly right or that muscle will spasm again, and it is acutely painful. Sometimes, it spasms now, when I'm not even moving- that acute, 'kill me please' kind of spasm. But, my mobility after standing up, and my ability to stand still for a period, have improved.
Now we factor in the fact that I've been bleeding for like 12 days. 10 of them a very consistent moderate flow. Now it is waning, but still there. My increased ability to stand and walk coincided with the waning of the blood flow. Fibroid tumors cover all the symptoms nicely where nothing else does. Now, the question is why, suddenly, do fibroids bother me?
Beginning Sept 4, I took steroids for a week. The second week of October, I started having pain shooting down my leg. 2 weeks after that, I had, what I believe to be, a passing kidney stone (nothing else feels like it). I missed my October period, then I had one in end November, and again 2 weeks later, and then 1 week later, it is that period that I'm still having.
Steroids can and do cause the development of kidney stones. Steroids can and do cause the rapid growth of fibroid tumors.
I can, through the research of others, relate every problem I have had for 3 months, directly back to my one doctors visit in 17 years.
The fibroids will starve themselves, or choke themselves off and die (which is probably what's happening now, it accounts for the extreme pain), or shrink up and disappear after menopause. In the interim, I will suffer through, because I am certainly NOT going to a doctor, if I do, my head will probably start to gangrene. Also, in the meantime, I am supporting the economy by constantly taking ibuprofen. I'm sure that will result in some bizarre side effect too, but right now that's preferable to how much worse it hurts without ibuprofen. It's hard for even me to imagine the intensity of pain w/out it, and I've experienced it.
Fibroids also explain why a very few (like 2), of the many chiropractic adjustments I've had, have offered any relief, and when they did, it lasted for about an hour. I had one day, last Friday, that I had a big pop, when I got up from a fireside stool. I had almost no pain that whole day, god it was nice. Sat morning, mid morning, it came screaming back. That was the longest pain free period I've had since October.
There is the story of my "back". I am happy to know I haven't broken anything and happy that I got a pain free, normal life, reminder last Friday. I would like another. I miss doing the animals. I was going to help this morning but that spasm kept happening, with almost every step I took, so maybe tonight.
Since you're in menopause, you don't have to worry about fibroids anymore, but if you know someone who does...Tell them NOT to take steroids!