This last week was one of the roughest that I have had in a while, and not because I had a flare, but rather because I reacted poorly to a treatment for it. This post will contain triggering topics related to depression and suicide, so you might want to skip this one if those topics bother you. Your browser does not support the audio element. Med Changes To talk about the week, let’s roll back to the week before. If you skipped my last post, the highlight was that my psychiatrist made a couple of adjustments to my meds, which included adding a new one. At first, the new change didn’t seem to do much. At the start of this week, I was feeling even more down than I was the week before, but I kept pushing on. It was strange to me because I wasn’t feeling my normal nerve pain that I get in a flare, but I was feeling my mood plummet. By Tuesday, I was back to not being able to sleep much at all. I was having constant nightmares during the night and kept waking up with my heart pounding. This caused me to go into a bit of a downward spiral as my lack of sleep built up. ...

This week was a rough week, but not because of the nerve pain. In fact, my nerve pain was actually not too bad this week, but I had really troubling issues with my mood. Being depressed is very frustrating because it makes it hard to take care of myself like I should, so it causes everything to compound and can really ruin my week. Your browser does not support the audio element. Starting off the week with low sleep Over the weekend, my wife and I both caught a little cold and I ended up having to take time off from work on Monday. It luckily didn’t cause a flare, but it did make it hard for me to sleep. Sleep is pretty important with whatever is going on for me and I can’t go long without a good night’s sleep without it making all of my issues worse. The strange part is that this time, it didn’t cause much in the way of nerve pain, but what I was instead hit with was almost as bad. ...

I thought this would be a good time to talk about something that has been helping me out a lot more than I expected. It is one of those things that I didn’t think was going to do much, but I decided to give it a try once my therapist recommended it to me, mainly because I am looking for anything that gives me relief from my issues. When she said it might help me reduce the frequency of my panic attacks, I was all for it. ...

This week was full of surprises, but not all of them were the fun kind. I started the week by waking up in a flare on Monday, but I ended the week with an appointment with a rheumatologist (finally!). As I am typing this, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed. I had thought that the flares wouldn’t be so bad since I moved to the new meds that seemed to make the pain almost non-existent. Turns out, even if the pain isn’t what it used to be, there are other symptoms that I should care about. ...

Time to talk about another possible diagnosis for me! This one came about in a rather unexpected way, and I am not sure if I really have it yet, but it seems like a good time to talk about it. I am thinking that it might be interesting for others to see how my views on ADHD change over time, especially if the diagnosis is correct. Your browser does not support the audio element. What is ADHD? First, let’s talk about what I know about ADHD so far. Most of my knowledge is really second-hand because my wife has it and I have seen her struggle with it. To me, it basically comes down to being able to focus. The trouble that I see as an outsider is that she either has too much focus or not enough focus. That is an oversimplification, but it is a good start. At its core, the too much focus is a problem when she wants to ignore people or noises, but she can’t stop herself from seeing, hearing, and feeling all of the external stimuli. She says it can be very overwhelming, and from my viewpoint, she will get so wrapped up in what is happening outside that she doesn’t pay attention to her own mind/body. On the opposite side, if not much is going on around her, she can’t force herself to do something. It is pretty common around our house to find projects and tasks that were started and not finished because they didn’t provide her with enough stimulus to keep focusing on them. ...

I finally got the test results back from the fine needle aspiration of my thyroid nodules! For whatever reason, the doctor that I am working with for my thyroid didn’t send me the results right away and waited until we had our next in-person appointment. I was getting pretty nervous because I figured that meant it was bad news. But thankfully, I was wrong! Your browser does not support the audio element. Let me backtrack a little bit. I had blood results something like six months ago that showed markers for Hashimoto’s disease. My primary care doctor decided to do an ultrasound of my thyroid to see if I had any physical signs because my hormone levels were fine. This should have been quick, but the company they used for the ultrasounds happened to get switched out at the same time. This caused a delay, and honestly, I didn’t push very hard because I was dealing with a lot of other problems at the time. My primary care doctor said that Hashimoto’s mainly just messed with your thyroid levels, and mine were fine, so there wasn’t much urgency to it. ...

I thought I would take a break from talking about my health issues to focus on one of the solutions that I was able to find that really helped me out. I have been using the Curable app for a few months now after a recommendation from my therapist. It is the kind of app that has a subscription, but I have found it extremely helpful and well worth it. Product Review Pros: Professional voice actorsHigh quality adviceBacked by researchEmergency Button Cons: Requires Subscription Score: 10/10 Your browser does not support the audio element. Features The Curable app is designed to help users understand and manage their chronic pain by providing narrated, science-backed, and insightful lessons and exercises. These activities are quick and accessible, typically taking less than 10 minutes to complete. The app offers a variety of lesson/exercise categories, including education, meditation, writing, and brain training, all of which can be selected in the roadmap mode. ...

I thought it might be a good idea to write a little bit about what my “flares” are since I tend to mention them a lot. Honestly, I was also putting this off a bit because it’s hard to write about them when I am in the middle of one. Since I am past the last one I just had, I figured now is as good a time as I am going to get to talk about it. ...

I thought it might be good to spend a little time talking about some of the lifestyle changes that I have made while trying to figure out ways to reduce the pain that I am dealing with. Over the last year, I have tried a few, and not all were successful. It could be that they just didn’t help with my specific type of neuropathy, so I am going to try documenting them all for reference. ...

Time for the obligatory first post! I am excited to be starting another blog, even though this will probably end up being the hardest one for me to write. My goal is to post weekly at first and see how that goes from there. For now, let me give you an overview of what is going on in my life so we are all caught up. Trigger Warning: This post discusses experiences with chronic pain, mental health struggles, and thoughts of self-harm. Please take care while reading and prioritize your well-being. If you need support, consider reaching out to a mental health professional or a trusted person in your life. ...