Today I'm in a lot of pain. It woke me up at around 3am last night. This morning as I walk to the coffee pot, each step with my right foot shoots a sharp pain into the right side of my lower abdomen. I'm exhausted too.
About two months ago I called the local pharmacist to ask questions about a prescription pill I've been taking for a few years (about 7yrs actually). It's been an amazing medicine - called Seasonique - yet even so it's been my suspicion that its side effects might be attributing to my hypersomnia. But each doctor I mention it to has blown me off and said that the hypersomnia side effect would have shown up 7 years ago but not now.
Yet our bodies are ever changing and some thing that might have been fine 7 years ago might not be ideal for my body now. So I called the pharmacist since I've learned over the years that they 'know' medicine a bit better and doctors...well, not so much...and asked his thoughts. He said, "Well, it's probably not the cause, you've been taking it so long, but it does contain hormones so it's always a possibility."
And after two years of searching for answers THAT was enough for me. I decided to quit taking it and see what happened. I knew it could take about 2 months for it to work out of my system so I decided I'd check my progress at the end of November and go from there. The good news is I'm noticing my hypersomnia is getting better. Even though I still sleep about 9-10 hours at night, my daytime sleepiness is much less! woo-hoo!! Amen for progress.
The flip side? Now that I'm not taking the medicine that helps with my Endometriosis, (click the medical term to read about that) my pain is returning and getting worse as the weeks roll by. I don't look forward to having this pain again. Would I rather be a 'sleeping beauty' than be in tears and doubled over? Maybe. But I must say what a blessing it has been to live pain free for so many years! Now it's time for my yearly exam anyway so I'll call my other doctor and set an appointment to talk about what is next. It might be time for surgery.
That thought makes me sad because who knows what they will have to remove to get the endo but I read a scripture this morning in my Coffee & Cozy and am going to make it my focus today:
" ...but the cheerful heart has a continual feast." Prov. 15:15b
If I'm cheerful today it's because there is progress with my hypersomnia - it's going away! Also I've not been off the medicine long enough for the full pain of my endo to return yet, next I have a new step and direction to explore and so I am deciding to have a cheerful heart at this moment and feast even though everything's not 'perfect.'
Thanks for reading and going on this journey with me. I'll keep ya updated. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment