What is Fibro Feelings?

I recently had to see a surgeon for an small procedure I needed that was unrelated to my fibromyalgia. I used the time I sat in the waiting room to continue researching my treatment options on my cell phone. I’ve found it’s a lot harder for me to do the amount of research on medical details that I’m used to doing now that I’ve got The Boisterous Boy. Of course, I had my medical notebook with me. In my original post about it I failed to mention that I keep a paper clip bundling a few of the pages. That paper clip is a good spot to keep copay receipts (to be filed away later) and provider business cards. It also helps to quickly turn past older appointment notes.

Earlier, when I’d checked in at the desk I had my mostly filled out paperwork, but knew that I still needed to complete the insurance section. I turned it in after doing so, but while waiting to go back to the doctor I realized that I’d forgotten to put the last two digits of the year of a past procedure I’d had. I looked back in my medical notebook to find the dates, went back up and filled it out. The receptionist then commented that I was very thorough. I found that interesting, considering that I felt much less thorough than in my pre-baby times.

Later, when meeting with the doctor’s nurse she gave me her business card. I immediately opened my medical notebook and stuck it under the paperclip with my receipt. She commented that I was, “…so organized.” With a laugh I told her, “When you have multiple chronic illnesses you have to be.” Of course that opened the door for me to mention that I’d had fibromyalgia since I was 18. The nurse replied by saying she was “so sorry.” I was trying to spread awareness, by showing you can have fibro when you’re young, so I was caught off guard by her response. If I wasn’t already half way down the hall I might have continued the conversation. I’m never looking for sympathy when talking with strangers about fibromyalgia, just hoping to make the world a more understanding and knowledgeable place.

Have you ever gotten condolences for having fibromyalgia that surprised you?

I wish you didn’t always have to fill out new paperwork at each doctor’s office.*

*Image Credit: from www.flickr.com by nerdcoregirl

For those who are sensitive to soy, I wanted to share some harder-to-find soy-free items that I’ve found and enjoyed since I put together Soy-free Foods – List I. Most of these are “sometimes foods,” but often times those are the hardest soy-free items to find. Please keep in mind that companies often change their ingredients, so double check the label before eating these items. I say this list is for people with sensitivities because some of these items are made on shared equipment that processes soy.

Bread: Rudi’s Organic Bakery Multigrain English Muffins with Flax, Trader Joe’s Hamburger Buns and Apple Cranberry Fiber Muffins
Brownies: Fancy Free Bakery’s Salted Caramel Brownies
Canned Tuna Fish: Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna, Wild Skipjack Light Tuna
Chips: Kettle Brand Potato Chips in Backyard Barbeque (plus other flavors), Lay’s Wavy in Roasted Garlic & Sea Salt, Trader Joe’s Baked Cheese Crunchies (like Cheetos)
Cookies: No-Bake Cookie Company Chocolate and Chocolate Mint (plus other flavors)
Crackers: Annie’s Cheddar Squares, Pretzel Crisps in Supreme, Trader Joe’s Multigrain Pita Bite Crackers and Organic Mini Peanut Butter Sandwhich Crackers
Donuts: Trader Joe’s Old Fashioned Donut Os
Drink Mixes (powdered): Trader Joe’s Fast Flavor Sticks in Iced Tea with Lemon and Pomegranate Cherry
Frozen Dinners: La Terra Fina Quiche in Quiche Lorraine and Spinach & Artichoke, Kashi Steam Meal in Chicken Fettuccine, Trader Joe’s Beef Stroganoff with Pappardelle Pasta, Pearl Onions and Mushrooms, Pizza Margherita with Mozzarella and Grana Cheese and Ricotta & Spinach Tortelloni with Red Pesto
Garlic Couscous: Casbah Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil CousCous
Hazelnut Spread: Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Blend
Ice cream: Steve’s Ice Cream in Southern Banana Pudding, BKLYN Blackout and Strawberry Ricotta (plus other flavors), Fruttare Fruit & Milk Bars in Strawberry & Milk and Banana & Milk, Three Twins Ice Cream Sandwiches in Sea Salted Caramel
Sauces: Classico Light Asiago Romano Alfredo Sauce, Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand Green Label Oyster Flavored Sauce
Soups: Stagg Steak House Chili No Beans, Pacific Foods in Organic Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup and Organic Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup
Wrap: Trader Joe’s Chicken Wrap with Pesto Vinaigrette

What are your favorite soy-free foods?

Some of my soy-free finds*

You may also be interested in reading:
Tips & Tools for Eating out with Food Sensitivities
Elimination Diets
Fibro Feelings – Elimination Diet

What is Fibro Feelings?

“Well that sucks…good luck!” Not exactly the text message you want to receive from your dentist, but it’s the one I got. Although I wasn’t having any pain, my dentist decided that two of my teeth’s fillings needed to have crowns made instead. From the start of the appointment, things were not looking up. The local anesthetic, septocaine, was not working well. I was needing a lot of it to originally get numb and it wore off quickly. This resulted in more needle sticks, more time sitting at the dentist and I ended up feeling buzzed. I tried to write thank you notes while waiting for more of the medicine to kick in and kept making mistakes because I couldn’t think clearly. I’ve never had that type of reaction to a local anesthetic, but then again, I’ve never needed so a large quantity. Luckily I wasn’t driving home. The dentist thinks something with my pregnancy may have changed things.

As the medicine was wearing off and the pain was setting in I raided the freezer for ice cream – the only thing I could imagine trying to eat. By one hour after the appointment the entire side of my mouth, top and bottom was throbbing in pain, but also that area and my jaw were constantly hurting and I still felt buzzed from the medicine. My relatives said that I seemed to be in more pain than they’d ever had with a crown. I figured I’d let it go a day or two since my jaw is usually very sore and painful even after fillings because of my fibromyalgia.

What followed was nearly a month of horrible jaw and mouth pain in that same area. I also had extreme pain from hot and cold sensitivity. At first the dentist thought I might have a sinus infection (I had a few of those other symptoms too), so I did a round of antibiotics. That didn’t help much. I’d gone back to the dentist to make sure the crowns were fitting well and that there wasn’t any protruding dental glue. All seemed fine so they said I might need a root canal. A week later I saw an endodontist who confirmed that I needed root canals. Unfortunately, they were closed for a week and booked another week, so it was three more weeks until I could get the root canals. I ended up taking OTC and prescription strength pain killers (I stopped breast feeding) over that time frame and my teeth were barely hurting by the time of my first root canal appointment. Even my fibromyalgia was feeling better since I’d be taking more pain killers =)

I was very nervous to get my root canals, especially after the issues I had with the medicine during my fillings. My Twitter friends recommended that I use a bite block, which I did. The endodontist used a computerized shot system, which left an ulcer in the roof of my mouth(he said that rarely happens) during the first one. The root canals themselves weren’t too bad and my teeth did feel better afterward. My post-procedure jaw pain was actually less than I typically feel from fillings. I dealt with their local anesthetic much better and only needed extra medicine one of the times. I’m so relieved to have that done with!

Have you ever reacted badly to a local anesthetic?

The endodontist even left me in charge of the suction while reading an Arthritis Today magazine and waiting for my blood to clot.

I recently realized that having fibromyalgia has made The Helpful Hubby and I better communicators. The years of practice we’ve had working around the difficulties of communicating with fibromyalgia have helped us to understand each others needs, even when we can’t use words. This became apparent to me lately because now that we have a baby there are times when we need to keep our voices down or aren’t able to speak to keep from waking or disturbing The Boisterous Boy. In those situations we’ll often use hand or head gestures or whisper to communicate something we need the other person to do.

Most of my practice with this type of communication comes from dealing with fibro fog. There were times that fibro fog prevented me from thinking of a word so I pointed at things instead. That or I’d play word charades, trying to get The Helpful Hubby to figure out the word I was trying to recall and say. (Read my post about it) There were also times where my senses were overwhelmed and I couldn’t think of or communicate cohesive thoughts very well. This also happens when I am taking pain killers. (Read my post about it)

You may be wondering how me having a hard time communicating could have made me understand The Helpful Hubby any better. Well, through us communicating like this he has unintentionally learned my style of communication. So, now when he’s trying to tell me something using gestures or just a few words he naturally does it in ways he knows I’ll more easily understand.

This observation may not seem like much, but I like to celebrate any of the ways I realize that fibromyalgia has enriched my life. It’s so easy to notice the things fibromyalgia makes more difficult, so it’s joyous when I have moments like these that I stumble upon.

Have you ever noticed that your fibromyalgia has improved how you communicate with someone?

Solutions can even be portrayed non-verbally*

*Image Credit: from www.flickr.com by ▓▒░ TORLEY ░▒▓