health report for Thursday May 1, 2014

Fun and Games IIIe (Insomnia)
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
digitally altered Photographic composit from my own photos
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Health report for Thursday, May 1, 2014:  My fibromyalgia seems to be slowly improving, knock on wood, with ups and downs. Also my itching seems to be improving, knock on wood, generally, with ups and downs.  Yesterday, I walked to Rolandale and back again with a stop at the store, as you know, which was a long stop.  My fibro didn’t bother me much, although I was eager to sit down when we got home, but I was able to put away the groceries first.  However, after dinner, my let hip started hurting, and was getting gradually worse, and I was considering applying Voltaren, but decided to wait.  Then I developed asthma (relatively mild—but enough to disturb my sleep for a while), and I starting feeling itchy.  I had a restless night and have been up three times.  I am up now, of course.  I am all itchy.  At 4:08, I took some Benadryl, but it hasn’t helped yet, and now (5:20, it’s been well over an hour!).  One of the previous times when I got up, my fibro was pretty bad, but that has subsided some.  My neck has really been bothering me, too (arthritis).  A couple days ago, whichever day it was that I felt dizzy (I think the day before yesterday), I took some Niacin and again yesterday. I was not too suspicious of the Niacin, since I’d been taking without a problem (that I was aware of) for so long.  I was suspicious of the shallots for the fibro pain, but here is the thing--I got this whole complex of symptoms which I certainly can’t place at the feet of the shallots, since most of them I’ve had without any shallots!  I suppose the Niacin could be a problem. (?)  The shallots also could be a problem, because they are listed as a possible fibro trigger—there are many.  But would the small amount of shallots I had trigger all those symptoms?  That is, asthma, worsening arthritis, itching etc.?  Here’s the thing:  I can’t think of anything else I ate that’s different—I had a veggie omelet for breakfast with the same bran mix I’ve been having and rotten cabbage, plain dry toast and almonds with bran and cabbage for lunch and you know what I had for dinner.  (Spaghetti, salad, bran, cabbage.)  There was no grazing at VM.  I know K thinks that whatever is causing the problem may be unrelated to what I eat or consume (e.g., meds).  And it may well be, but I am suspicious of foods and meds because I know for a fact that dairy causes asthma and soy causes fibro in me, and I seem to be quite sensitive to many foods and am allergic to a number of meds.

Also, Dr. Ferarra was saying that my sudden bad rash was bilaterally symmetrical and thus internally generated and not caused by contact, but that doesn’t mean the original itching might not be caused or exacerbated by contact (detergents, etc.).  The original itching was not necessarily bilaterally symmetrical (hard to tell, since I couldn’t see I, usually) and the sudden bad rash (SBR) did not follow the same pattern as the original itching.  The SBR is fading and peeling, but it was bothering me in the night (itching).  My eyebrows and head and back and buttocks were also all itchy in the night.

If the cabbage is actually helping me, it is definitely not a protectorate against flare-ups at this point.

I do seem to be feeling, on the average, knock on wood, somewhat better than I had been except for my insomnia, which does not seem to be improving.

I had been thinking about not bothering to see that allergist, since I seemed to be gradually improving, but tonight (last night and this early morning), I do not feel improved.  I was hoping to avoid further trouble, annoyance and expense.  Once you start going to an allergist, it’s a long-term deal, most of the time.

Also, there are the almonds, which I’ve been eating a lot of.  I was worried at one point that nuts were causing a problem for me, but then I was eating them and my fibro was not worsening (but my insomnia was not improving, but it wasn’t visibly worsening either, since it was already bad.)  But they could be causing a problem.