Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Pain is Back

I imagine I've shared on this blog before about my random aches and pains. But, I'm not sure what I've shared so I'll give you a little recap:

About 4.5 years ago I woke up on a camping trip one morning with an intense pain in my right shoulder. For the next year and a half it came and went with varying intensity and for random lengths of time. I'd have good days and bad days, good months and bad months. At it's worse it was tough for me to do such things as brush my hair or pick up the frying pan. Lifting a gallon of milk from the refrigerator always seemed to be tough too.

Anyway, part way through my pregnancy the pain in my shoulder went away but that same pain appeared in my lower back. Then it spread to my hips and my knees, most notably in my left knee. I've even felt it just briefly in my left wrist. It usually only affects an area or two of my body at a time and it's something I can typically work through.

Well, right now it's back, and it's back with a vengeance. For almost a week now I've been in pain and it just seems to be getting worse. My joints feel stiff and swollen and my legs and lower back are just in a lot of pain. I didn't drag myself out of bed until 11:00 this morning and I've been trying to move as little as possible since then. The kid's have been quite good today after a little talk with daddy today about mommy feeling icky and how they need to obey and be helpful today. Titus doesn't quite get that he needs to be gentle with me... but hey, he's trying!

So, for the last week I've been looking around at all of things I need to be packing and cleaning... wishing this pain would go away. I'm optimistic that it will go away soon, since it doesn't typically have any rhyme or reason to when it comes and goes. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and got a massage too, but it only seemed to have shifted the pain. I'll put the kids down for a nap shortly and try to get a little housework done (we have small group at our house tonight). Hopefully just getting up and around will maybe loosen me up a little? Or it could make it worse...

Such is life. I'm enjoying spending time with my kiddos watching them run and jump and play today. It's almost as good as joining them! They are currently jumping on my bed wrestling each other talking about silly things. I tell you what... these kids are cute! It's past 1, I should probably go make them lunch? Or maybe put clothes on Titus? Yep, that's what I'll do! Ciao!

2 comments:

beachbirdie said...

I'm sorry to know you are hurting. I will be praying for you all. (I do pray for you regularly as the Lord brings you to mind!)

I apologize in advance for being a butt-insky, but here goes anyway...don't want to scare you but have you ever had testing done for autoimmune conditions such as autoimmune thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sjogren's, etc. Might be helpful to have some antibodies tested for. Easiest and least expensive are the thyroid antibodies (anti-thyroglobulin antibodies aka "TgAb" and anti-thyroid peroxidase aka "anti-TPO". There is also the anti-nuclear antibodies (aka "ANA") but that's more expensive and they probably won't do it right off the bat...and you can have antibodies even if your thyroid tests are "normal".

When I was in the early stages of thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) I had a lot of hip/lower back pain that came and went, also shoulder pain (when it appeared, it was difficult even to reach up to wash my hair or lift the hair dryer to dry my hair!) and pain/swelling in my hand and finger joints. Not always all at the same time.

This stuff would randomly appear, then after a few weeks would go away. I thought I was getting arthritis.

Pregnancy can make it worse.

Hope you are not mad for me butting in...you can come and hit me if you want! (grin)

SaraJane Campbell said...

Miss Robyn, I am so sad that you are hurting but I am so impressed with the grace you handle it with. I pray daily that God will heal you and that until He does He uses it for His glory. You are an amazing woman of God and your family is an amazing family of God. I pray that I can be such an example as you are and that one day I will have a family like yours. I hope your move went well.

I love you dearly!