Daily Log #10 (Finding a Balance)

There isn't that much to write about today except that I tried to rest up as much as possible while watching the Olympics.

I reduced my dosage of Requip back to 2mg last night and I've gone back to taking 20mg of Oxycontin 3x/day. On average, if I don't do much during the day, I take Norco 10/325mg 3x/day as well. If we go somewhere or I doing anything around the house I have to take much more.

I don't feel as agitated nor do I have the twitching that I had a few days ago so I'm confident that the medication was the majority of the problem I had this week with side effects. I still have the pain and electricity shooting down my legs, but at least I don't have to deal with side effects like I was.

I was more stiff today than usual, but a rain storm came in and that usually means that my general pain levels go up. Living in southern California has the advantages of not getting cold or rainy that often so it's a little easier on a person with chronic pain than it would be if I lived in a cold and wet climate. I received a text message from a friend with chronic pain who lives in Utah and she said her pain goes way up with the bad weather.


Even though I've corrected my medications I still have the fatigue level that I had before. The fatigue has been getting worse for a while now. It used to be localized to my legs, but in the past few months I notice it in my arms as well. Pain from my back problems is always limited to the areas from my lower pelvis and back down through my legs and when that is at it's worst I can take Norco and the pain will subside within a half hour. The problem with the fatigue is that no amount of pain pills seem to have any affect. So in some ways the fatigue is more painful and bothersome than the pain caused by my bad back. Sometimes I wonder if prolonged usage of narcotics for pain can actually cause problems like Fibromyalgia.

Tomorrow I've got an appointment with my Primary Care Doctor and I'm going to ask about that.

I hope that sometime in the future this blog will have enough followers that the comment section will be full of similar experiences by other chronic pain sufferers. Taking one person's word for things doesn't carry the weight that 10, 100, or a 1000 will have.