My back pain still isn't too bad since having the epidural last Thursday (a week ago), but I've been taking 50 mg. tramadol at lunch, and I think it's affecting my fibromyalgia. The thing, is that pain isn't the only thing that affects fibromyalgia; for example, if I caught the flu (even without achiness that sometimes accompanies the flu) it could still affect the fibromyalgia. So I'm beginning to think that maybe things like my legs and g.i. system being affected by the stenosis is affecting the fibromyalgia, and those symptoms continue even if the back pain is taken care of or otherwise absent. Maybe that's why I'm getting a bit of the fibrofog and some elevated fibromyalgia pain too. So I'm going to have to augment my Lyrica dose, which is what I have an emergency 25 mg prescription for - to use in the event of a fibromyalgia flare. And I always tell my doctors if I've had to increase my dose, especially if it's more than once. Usually I have my fibromyalgia pretty well under control, although it does take work and money (vitamins aren't covered by insurance and aren't even tax-deductible in the U.S.).
Anyone who has a chronic condition like fibromyalgia can relate to going through this process to try to figure out what's going on with one's symptoms.
So now my options, vis a vis medications look like this:
1. If my back is hurting more than it should (either bad enough by itself to affect my functionality or bad enough to affect my fibromyalgia - these aren't the same thing, because for me the fibromyalgia-affecting threshold us usually lower than the pain-tolerance threshold - then I would take tramadol. This means that if I didn't have fibromyalgia I might not take tramadol for back pain as quickly as I do because of the risk of the back pain affecting fibromyalgia.
2. If my back pain isn't minimal but my fibromyalgia is acting up, I may need to take Lyrica instead of tramadol because something other than the back pain might be causing the fibromyalgia flare. My null hypothesis (that inclement weather was causing my fibrofog) was not supported by my informal
The thing is, regarding fibromyalgia and my back pain, the tramadol only indirectly helps my fibromyalgia, but if the back pain isn't the main cause of the fibromyalgia flare, than taking tramadol might not be very affective in getting my fibromyalgia under control, because tramadol doesn't directly help my fibromyalgia pain (although I understand it does help many people with fibromyalgia). But if the back pain seems to be the cause of my fibromyalgia flare, then it might be more affective to take the tramadol to help the fibromyalgia by decreasing the back pain that is causing the fibromyalgia flare.
It's trial and error as to how exactly these things work as it's a bit different for everyone with fibromyalgia, but this is my current theory regarding my own health situation. That is, I'm reneging on the weather theory. My null hypothesis (that inclement weather was the cause of my fibro flare) was informally proven wrong.
***
I'm waiting with baited breath to hear from the general contractor. I left a voicemail message for him.
Meanwhile, yesterday I looked online at kitchen cabinet features, and today I tried to decide other things I could cut out that I wanted to do, such as replacing some of my current furniture. So I think I've sort of decided that I should focus, besides the things the general contractor would be doing, on the kitchen and living/dining room. My bedroom furniture could suffice and I do have a desk and file cabinets to be more or less functional in the second bedroom. I have a couch, and matching end table/coffee table, but I really should switch to leather overstuffed furniture as it's better than cloth for dust mite allergies (although I'm otherwise rather ambivalent about leather). I also have a dining room table and chairs, but I'd need a small dinette for the eat-in kitchen. I could also pass up getting things for the balcony if I have to. I also probably am more-or-less okay regarding lamps, although I was wanting to get a floor lamp for the living room.
So if the contractor's figures were pushing what I could do, at least I'd only have to get living room seating and a dinette set, as far as furniture is concerned, although I also want to get some pictures (mostly paintings) framed, which I'll still do. So I might be able to do that on $2500 if I do a good job of bargain shopping.
***
There are other things I could say, but I think that's enough for now.
