Health Update

Thought I’d do a health update – I don’t think I’ve done one since I got home from the hospital in February. Better get this down now, when still I remember everything what’s been going on since February…

1. Migraine situation

Pretty good. No huge change in anything even though I had to ditch all  my old medication and start a new one for prevention and no real attack medication now at all due to not being able to use the old ones, triptans not working on me & other limitation due to the liver. I got medication for nausea that I can use and weirdly seems to help some with the migraine attack itself too half the times. Migraine hasn’t become chronic *knock on wood!* and I still get a migraine 1-2 a week like before, but now I actually have to suffer all through it the 24hrs or 1,5 days – however long it’ll last. But so far, that’s about the only change 🙂 I’m currently being treated by the neuro & migraine specialists of my local university hospital (which is the most advanced here) and not general practitioners which is good.

2. Crohn’s Disease

The hospital docs suspected that one of my Crohn’s Disease meds was maybe responsible for the liver problems, or one of my migraine meds – luckily it seems it wasn’t the Crohn’s one because like they said, if it had been, there’d be not many options left to treat the Crohn’s if I had had to stop taking it. I’ve been using it now under their close supervision for 3+ months and the liver has had no problems *knock on wood* When I got home from the hospital, the symptoms were pretty much gone thanks to the IV bag of strong cortisone I got there. In the last two months though, the diarrhea has started to come back a little since April and have had to take Imodium (one of two old meds I’m allowed to continue) again but not every day yet, thank goodness. But it’s slowly getting worse. Also, since about March, I’ve started to have some joint pains. Apparently these are part and parcel of Crohn’s, and I actually may have had these before the hospital but Triptyl just masked them by raising my pain threshold. It’s not bad or anything – more like uncomfortable. Not feeling the need to take anything for it as it is now.

3. New problem: Insomnia

From early March I’ve been suffering from insomnia. Haven’t had normal sleep since then, and what sleep I do get, lasts 2,5 – 3 hours without waking regularly and then not being able get back to sleep until the next night (close to 24 hours later) – or alternately, if I manage make myself stay in bed, I get about 3-5 hours of sleep but wake up every 20-30 minutes during that sleep period. This with the help of melatonin; before melatonin I wasn’t able to sleep for 4 days :/ But basically, I’m tired all the time and not the kind of wired tired that I could do something like wallpapers or even read to pass the time. Sometimes it takes all I got to just lay in bed, I’m so tired and feeling like 5 more seconds and I’m sound asleep. But more than 9 times out of 10? I never am. It’s bad enough that I’ve had to start evaluating every time whether I can drive or not 🙁

Could be this insomnia has to do with my hypothyroidism (also been losing a lot of hair the past few months), or it could also be from having to stop all those medications so abruptly back in February. I’ve looked at them and more than few had insomnia among the possible withdrawal symptoms. Been waiting for the insomnia to go away on its own but it’s not. Talked to my neuro about it last week, and to start to figure it out, I need to make an appointment with my GP who can run “basic” tests to rule things out and then if necessary, get the Neuro clinic at the university hospital to consult. Now I just have to find the energy to make the call – already tried to book an appointment online but earliest was in September. So gonna have to try and wrangle an emergency one, and that can be difficult.

4. Hemoglobin & Periods

Has stayed good even though I haven’t been taking the oral iron supplements for about 1,5 years now (forbidden because may worsen Crohn’s Disease symptoms) 😀 Periods have stayed normal since March despite my fears after having to give up the  meds that make them regular as well as lessen the bleeding. I’ll keep monitoring the situation so I can take action at first bad signs – don’t want them be like they were before those meds.

Summary

I feel I’d be doing pretty good if not for the insomnia. Insomnia frustrates me – all those hours wasted when I desperately need to sleep but I’m unable. If I have to be awake, why can’t I be alive enough to do something like icons/wallpapers or read to pass the hours?