Better Days Ahead

I have been waiting and waiting to be able to finally share some good news. And now the moment is finally here.

I can finally give an update on the new medicine that I am going to start.

As a recap, I have many complications from covid- so many that it becomes difficult to list. I did my best to list out my symptoms in a previous post.

However, the most debilitating two issues are my brain fog and my fatigue.

I have attempted to deal with my fatigue in various ways. First off, even though I have fatigue, I also have sleep disturbances. It was theorized that maybe the sleep disturbances were increasing my fatigue. So, I studied my sleep pattern and made adjustments.

I also studied and started a practice called pacing to help me manage my fatigue by helping me understand the limits of my energy and learning to take short rest breaks instead going and going until I crash. I talked about pacing more in-depth in a previous post.

I also started taking Vitamin D to fight my covid-related Vitamin D deficiency since Vitamin D deficiency can also cause fatigue.

I quickly ran into difficulties with all of these techniques. I discovered that no matter how much sleep I got at night, I still woke up tired.

I also haven’t managed to find a pacing schedule that works for me. I take extended periodic rest breaks throughout the day. But, I still run out of steam before the end of the day and feel the effects for days afterward.

Lately, I have reverted to a pattern that I had before. I don’t really get up and move until somewhere around 10am and then I usually have to take at least a 2 hour nap after being awake for a couple of hours.

I experimented with varying forms of caffeine and found that it didn’t help. For the most part, I feel just as tired as I am without caffeine. On one occasion, I tried taking half a caffeine pill instead and ended up feeling sick.

Caffeine is also a dodgy issue because it can interfere with proper sleep. So, many days, I don’t even bother.

I honestly felt like I hadn’t made much progress at all. But, I recently realised that I have made some small gains throughout all of this.

Previously, I had been suffering from post exertional malaise, meaning that when I tried to be active and pushed myself too far, I would get incredibly sick. That has been a less of a problem lately.

I also have noticed that I am able to be active for slightly longer stints of time. This has allowed me to do some pretty important things lately. I’ve been able to clean and do upkeep around my home. I even made some much-needed and much-delayed improvements to my home office.

I’m still struggling in many ways with cooking and grooming. But, I am inching forward and I am proud of that.

In December, I met with my neurologist and explained my continuing difficulties with fatigue. She prescribed a stimulant medication used to treat sleep disorders. But, the pill didn’t get approved by my health insurance and by January, it was still pending.

So, earlier this month, I had a follow-up appointment with my primary care physician. She came up with an alternative plan to put me on medications to treat other symptoms that I was dealing with but that also contained stimulants. I talked about this plan in depth in a previous post.

Those pills got approved by my health insurance much faster and I was able to pick them up. But, I was hesitant to start on the pills without having my neurologist’s okay.

I contacted my neurologist and asked her opinion. But, I didn’t hear back. In the meantime, I believed that my deadline for the end of my medical leave with my job was drawing close.

I had believed that I was suppose to return on the 12th. I discovered after consulting with my job that I was actually scheduled to return on the 19th (just another instance of brain fog striking again).

So, after waiting for a while, I decided to do my own research on the medicine and then, if I felt comfortable, I would start the pill. No sooner did I make this decision than my neurologist reached back out. She wanted me to try her pill first.

At this point, the pill has been pending for over a month. But, as of yesterday, the pill is finally approved and I will be picking it up today. If this pill works, it may provide me with enough energy to combat my fatigue.

In terms of my job, it’s been agreed that I’m going to take a couple more weeks and then check back in. That will allow me some time to see if this medicine is going to work.

And here’s the even bigger news: after fighting and fighting with my disability insurance for months on end, they finally relented. They approved my claim and I received my first payment today!

For those of the of you who had been following along, You may remember that I was barely scraping by. I have been fighting with my disability insurance for months on end as I mentioned in previous posts here and here. I only had enough to cover me through this month.

I didn’t worry too much because I felt in my soul that the lord would provide me with what I needed. And I was right.

Needless to say, I feel good today. I feel hopeful. But most importantly, my faith has been affirmed today.

#treatment #positivity #sleepdisorders #insomnia #faith #pacing #spirituality #disability #religion #disabilityinsurance #chronicfatigue