Updates

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've just been busy. Here are some updates.

All is the same, basically, on the celiac front. I went to a restaurant called BD's last week that I have visited before many times and love, and I am so glad I can continue eating there now. I highly recommend it to anyone, including celiacs, because it's a delicious Mongolian Barbecue meal, and they have an allergy zone so you don't have to be worried about cross contamination! They have rice noodles, and list which sauces are GF. It's so great :D

For my birthday meal on Saturday, I chose a local Brazilian steakhouse. I've never been to this particular one before, but it has good reviews online. And I contacted them to make sure the seasonings on the meat are GF, which they are. So it'll be a nice meal that I can eat, and I love going to Brazilian steakhouses because I went to Brazil in 2004 and that was the kind of meals I ate there, so it reminds me very much of being in Brazil.

So far the plans for Thanksgiving are going good. We're celebrating at my aunt's house, and the way she's cooking the turkey is fine for me. I'm also bringing pumpkin pie which we're making homemade and GF, and we're picking up GF rolls for me too. So there should be enough I can have for a meal :)

I saw my pain management doctor last week, and she thinks it's good that the first nerve block worked for 5 hours, so I'm having another one tomorrow morning, and hopefully this one will last longer. She also doubled my dose of gabapentin (from 300 mg 2x a day to 400 mg 3x a day) and I haven't had any problems with side effects from that, which is good. The increased dose might actually even be helping my pain a little bit! It's hard to tell right now if it's the meds working or I'm just on a stretch of good days. I guess time will tell.

I'm going to start looking into meeting with my university's disability office. I keep missing or being late to my first class since I can only park in the closest lot due to the pain, and that lot is so packed that you have to keep circling around waiting for people to leave, and hoping you're in the right place at the right time to get a spot.

I really need to wear gloves any time I go out now that the weather's colder, I think. My hands are super sensitive to the cold. I had mild frostbite in my fingers and toes a couple years ago, and I think that could increase my risk of the RSD spreading to them?? I don't know, I'm definitely no expert. But I want to take as many precautions as I can.

Oh and I told my doctor about my left foot that keeps getting hot, many times a day. She took note of it, and said it's a symptom. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn't mean spreading to my foot.

Amitriptyline

I think I sleep better the nights I don't take Amitriptyline. Weird? I'm almost sure of it, though. I didn't take it last night because I remembered too late and the doctor said not to take it much past 8pm because I'll be groggy the next day. And I slept better last night than I have in a week, the last time I didn't take it (because my little cousins were sleeping over). If it's not really doing anything do I need to be taking it?

My nerve block is fast approaching. I'm not really nervous about it though. I mean, I'm a little freaked out about having a giant needle injected into my spine, but I'm not nervous. I think that's a good sign :)

It sucks that whenever I push my knees more than the bare minimum (for example extra walking) I have to pay the price and then a whole lot more. I've often had the internal struggle that I assume so many with every type of chronic pain have. The struggle that, do I do what I want to and attempt to have a more normal life and not let this thing beat me? Or do I give up on fun things and stay resting in order to not experience any extra pain? It does suck that I can make a decision one day to go to the mall, go through having pain and needing to take breaks, but still make it through, only to have terrible pain that night and the next several days. Everything's give and take. No one knows how many little decisions you have to make each day with big impacts. Do I take the stairs up to class or do I go out of my way to take the elevator?

I would say, though, that there's never one right or wrong decision. You can't let the disease take all the fun out of your life, but you can't live with that much of an extreme amount of pain either. Ah the ambiguity of it all... :/

Sick

Well I spent the long weekend with my 3 little cousins that I love very very much. Two of them are sick, though, and I seem to have gotten it from them. I guess that's what happens when you let a hacking child cuddle with you ;) My fever is climbing, and I feel like crap all over. I actually was nodding off all through class today and I never do that. And I'm supposed to do my babysitting job tomorrow. Uh oh.

I have seen some discussion saying that having celiac disease weakens your immune system overall. I have always had a very weak immune system, catching things from others easily and then taking twice as long to recover as everyone else. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if this is true?

The Gabapentin actually seems to be helping a little bit! And before I got sick, the medicine was also helping me sleep through the night, which was wonderful. Although my limbs, always around late morning and starting after I increased the Gabapentin, feel all weird like their going to collapse and that they're propelling me forward when I walk. It's no really big deal, just weird. But I'm thinking it's probably a common side effect? At least it's not causing my leg to balloon up like the Lyrica did so I'll take it!

This entry isn't great and I apologize, but I can't think straight with the fever. I kept missing the streets to turn on when driving. *whoops*