Spinning out of Control

January 3, 2010 9:26 pm admin General Site Info, Medication, symptoms

Sometimes it really feels as though if you change the routine just a little bit things go spinning out of control. Side effects from one medicine, change the timing of something and everything falls to pieces. For a long time I’ve been getting an allergy shot every other week (every second Monday.) I get a bit of ear pressure and roaring for a couple days. I feel like I’ve run a marathon and am worn out for a few days, but the spinning usually doesn’t hit. Well… we had a big snowstorm and I missed my usual time and made it Wednesday instead. It (as expected) hit me harder than usual. I didn’t make it to full vertigo but had a day or two of dizziness (moderate to heavy). I consider the dizziness to be a stage below the vertigo and it hit New Years day. (No alcoholic drinking was going on either.)

But currently that little bit of dizziness is the least of my concerns.

Back in October I had something that I thought might be H1N1. It was upper respiratory and I missed about 4 days or so of work. Then about two weeks later I got what we know was H1N1. That stuck around a bit longer but was just as fun (!) Around that time I had started having some pains in my left hand. Almost like electric shock running out my fingers. But by November both hands were doing it and there were strange achy joints everywhere as well. I mentioned the sharp pains to the doctor at my visit in mid October and he screened for a couple things and said it should get better soon, it may be slow healing but it should be improving.

Well, it improved a slight bit, but it seemed everything was hurting by Thanksgiving. I had a rough week prior trying to get all my work done before Thanksgiving and didn’t get much sleep and chalked it up to fatigue, but by the time the Sunday after Thanksgiving came around I really didn’t feel like charging into work. So, I somewhat glided through the next couple weeks before Christmas putting off until January what I possibly could hoping things got better.

My joints ache. I’m not sure yet if it coincides with my allergy shots (or the Meniere’s symptoms that fluctuate after the shots.) Given that Meniere’s may be autoimmune and Rheumatoid arthritis is as well I’m suspecting there may be a link. Also my Aunt had Rheumatoid arthritis and I understand there is a potential family history connection for that.

I’ve been to a doctor again and he ordered a long list of blood tests including 2 rheumatoid related, thyroid, folate and b12 level tests. But as you can imagine it feels as though things are spinning out of control again. I had been taking B12 for a numb spot on my leg which I since discontinued after determining I started the last bottle of b12 around the time this all started. I’ve had to discontinue the benadryl which I had been taking to try to keep the ear pressure at bay. (I had been taking 50mg each night and 25 or 50mg during the day depending on symptoms.) This has been the first shot cycle for me to coast without that or my allegra. (Although when I’ve had a sudden sneezing fit I broke down and took a 25mg benadryl. That happened twice in the last couple weeks.)

I don’t know quite what to do as I await the results of testing. I’ve already been referred to a rheumatologist, but am told it may be 6-8 weeks before I hear something there.

In searching around the Meniere’s forums I see others asking about connection between RA and allergy shots (which I find interesting) and many other chats about correlation between RA symptoms and allergies acting up. It makes sense as traditionally allergies cause inflammation in the sinus passages why not elsewhere????

Don’t know what to think really, just tired of this persistent aching and sudden pains out of nowhere. It’s not that it hurts so much all the time it’s just that it’s so persistent, unrelenting aching. Sometimes it’s punctuated with a sharper pain in a random joint for what seems no good reason.

(sigh….) I don’t know what to hope for. I don’t know whether to hope they say that I likely have Rheumatoid arthritis or that they don’t see anything that would indicate a problem. Sometimes you just feel like you’re going over the edge and if there’s no tangible proof of something wrong well…. maybe I’m losing my mind. Could my mind be making up all this pain? Anyway, I should hear something as early as tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the time to try and dive back in to work. I’ve tried to get some things ready over the last few days because I punted an awful lot of stuff to January. It’s set to be some month trying to get it all done. I just wonder at what point I have to just quit pushing.

As it is though, we don’t make enough to keep all these doctors employed….. Now I’m going to be adding another one to my “staff”. (sigh).