The Lyme Light

I woke up feeling rested this morning. My energy really improved a few days ago and has stayed that way. It's really nice to have enough energy in the mornings to make making coffee and breakfast possible, almost easy. Instead of this daunting task that has resulted in me making a little coffee station that I can reach from my bed. That way, I can just reach over and grab some coffee and a protein bar in the haze and pain and misery of the morning. Lately, though, mornings have not been miserable. I have been consistently waking up more rested and have noticeably more energy throughout the day.

The pain, however, is still here. I haven't taken Cedax in 2 days and today will be the 3rd day in a row without it. By tomorrow, or maybe Monday, I should feel a difference. If the pain and inflammation all over improves, then we'll know it's caused by Cedax. If it doesn't improve, then I will have to go in and see Dr. Reifsnyder for an evaluation. The pain is still all over, the same patches, same intensity. It does vary in intensity from day to day, but today it is no better than it's been on any day over the last 2 weeks. I've been managing it mostly by just avoiding the things that hurt like tight clothing, hugs, carrying my purse on my shoulder, putting my hands on my hips, etc. I've also been taking Aleve for the last several days and it definitely helps. 

Yesterday I had my monthly appointment with my pain specialist. I told her about this new pain and she said she's heard of other patients who start antibiotics and have a very similar reaction. She said it makes their skin hurt all over and usually only lasts a few weeks. I think she's right. I think Dr. Reifsnyder is right too, it's probably a reaction to that new antibiotic Cedax. The pain started about 4 or 5 days after I started Cedax. During my last appointment with her, we decided to decrease my extended-release Morphine because I hadn't been in all that much pain and didn't think I needed so much of it. That decision was also based on the assumption that it would probably be a while before I started treatment again. Then I got in to see Dr. Reifsnyder pretty quickly and started treatment right away. After that, the lower dose of Morphine wasn't enough. Then I ran out of instant-release Morphine for breakthrough pain. For the record, it's taken me 8 months to go through a bottle of 30 instant-release pain pills.

So, my pain specialist said she had no problem bringing my dose of extended-release Morphine up for now and wrote a new script for instant-release too. She said she wants to make me as comfortable as possible right now. She's said that before and has always followed through. She really has improved my quality of life and seems genuinely happy when she's able to make me comfortable. It also doesn't hurt that every time I see her she goes on about how pretty I am. I never get tired of that! Anyway, I'm glad I got a new script for instant-release pain pills because I was completely out and had to just hope I didn't need them in the meantime until my appointment yesterday. She also said that it would be ok to take them a little more often for a while until we get this pain and inflammation all over under control. All in all, it was a good appointment.