To Med or Not To Med?

For me, that's always the question....

When you are in pain all the time, struggle with depression, and generally overall feel awful much of the time, it's something that has the potential to weigh on you.

With how bad I feel I could pop pain pills every day and still struggle, not to mention have the side affects of the meds. So, I just don't take pain pills. Not unless I've exhausted my other options and I'm in screaming pain, anyway!

When it comes to other meds it depends on the medication and the situation. From the time my oldest son was two months old till my youngest son was 4 months in my belly, I took an antidepressant and another medication that helped my fibromyalgia pain by blocking some of the pain receptors (there's a fancy medical word for it that I don't remember). I was struggling and I would have had a more difficult time without them. For the time I took them they were what I needed.

After I stopped taking them I felt worse, but I didn't think I should continue on them while I was pregnant. After our son was born I waited till my son was completely on a bottle. I was looking forward to taking them again so that I was not in as much pain anymore! The first night I took it again I was barely functional as a person, let alone a mom that needed to be awake to hold and feed her baby. I just couldn't continue to take it if it made my body too tired to even hold my baby, let alone take care of him!

[Sadly, this was not all that uncommon anyway during this time. It's much better now. :)]

So, that's what I decided to do. I would still be in pain, but I wouldn't have the side effect from the drug that made me super sleepy and tired and I could still take care of my baby.

That's as things were as of April earlier this year.

Sometime around early to mid May I started taking birth control pills. I had taken some before and been fine with them. Well, this time it wasn't so fine! I felt awful. I had been feeling relatively ok before this. Tired, but still able to do some things. In pain but not terrible. But, now I was dragging even more. I could hardly do anything during the day and at night my body kept overheating so that I kept waking up and getting restless sleep. And every day I took a new pill my body got worse and worse.

It only took a week to get to this point. I finally called my doctor and he had me stop it right away. The birth control pills, at this time, were not what my body needed.

Even after stopping them I was completely exhausted. I did not just bounce back to where I was before. I had a lingering malaise that was even worse than my normal exhaustion and pain. It was a struggle to get back to feeling any kind of normal, combined with discovering supplemental products that helped a LOT. More on that next post!

So, here's my answer to the question of, "To med or not to med?"

Sometimes your body and the situation requires it. And sometimes it's the last thing your body needs. You need to figure out which one it is for you for the time you are in. Sometimes you need meds, sometimes you need vitamins, sometimes you need supplements, and sometimes you just have to go without anything for a while till your body goes back to equilibrium.

The problem is that you won't always know until you take it, or go off of it. Every body doesn't respond the same way. Some things will help a lot of people and some things only help a handful. It's the way our bodies are, but even more pronounced with those that have Fibro. Perhaps because there hasn't seemed to be one cause for everyone yet. It's one of those weird things about Fibro that makes this process a little worse.

Don't just pop a pill though. Seriously consider if it's the right kind of medication or supplement for you to take. After you take them or stop taking them, then you can decide if it's helping, you don't notice much difference, or it affects you badly. It's good to talk about this with your doctor too! :)