It's raining and I'm in pain........
 

I know when it's raining my arthritis hurts.......but does rain cause Neuropathy/Myopathy to hurt also?
It's rained all day here in Houston and I'm in major pain tonight. My arms and shoulders and upper legs are aching......not my joints. I took another Lyrica this evening but it hasn't helped much. I'm sure tired of this pain! Roxie

Hi Roxie,
As far as weather affecting PN, i can only say about my case, i had mostly small nerve damage & some large nerve involvement going on by the emg, cold weather was a god send for me, but if it got over 25 degrees Cel', the burning would always get worse.
Didn't you have neuro appointment coming up ? didn't they give you any other meds to help you with the pain?

HI Brian,
I see my dr. a week from Monday. He's going to be out of town this coming week. I have been awake on and off all night. My arms and legs ache and kinda feel like they are buzzing.....but it's an intense ache too. It's very hot and humid here in Houston now, but we have the a/c on. so I don't know what's causing the pain....the cold a/c or the hot and humid weather...I just know my whole body aches.....nerve and muscle pain sure does sux!

Brian:

I have one question for you!!! If it get's over 25 degrees, and you start to burn, why then are you not living in Antarctica??? Or Iceland? Or Alaska??

There has to be some place where it's cold and you can live. Or is that completely out of the ball park!!!

My aunt lives upstate in Coxsackie NY. The snow is like 20 feet when it falls.

And forget about the temp. I have never visited her because I can't stand the cold. I have arthritis and scoliosis, so my body likes 95 degree weather!!

lol
Melody

Melody he means 25 Celcius which is 77 farenheit.

Now how stupid am I???? LOL

Thanks for the heads up. I'm hanging my head right now.

Melody

Hey It's ok Mel.......I had to re read what he wrote me too......I was thinking 25 degrees when I first read it myself! LOL We aren't used to the whole Celcius thing! lol Roxie

Roxie, I automatically think cold when i read its raining heavily, its our winter right now which i should have thought of, it is the opposite season over in the US.
Actually we were talking about this not so long ago, about the Barometer readings, It would be great if Bob tuned in here, because it was discussed that it didn't matter what the temperature was on the outside of your home, it still affected people with PN, even being inside your home, so the heat or humidity might explain your increased symptoms.
As your nerves are damaged and send confused signals through your nervous system.
I hope they settle down for you soon & your neuro can prescribe something else to help you more.
all the best,
Brian :)

Thanks Joe, for the explanation of degrees.
In Australia, we use to only have Fahrenheit readings, i don't know why but they decided to change it to Celcius, it took a long time to get use to Celcius
They also changed our measure as well, we use to measure in Miles, yards, feet, inches and that's how i was taught at school but they decided to muck things up there as well and change it all to metric measurements, i still use the old imperial measurements, i can't get use to metric[ i don't want to really ]:)
Not happy just buggering up those two and confusing the elder people more so but they also changed our currency as well, we use to only use Pounds, shillings and pence but they changed that to dollars and cents.
So there's my excuse for any muck ups :D :D

:D :D No need for that Melody, i do the same when i hear a farenheit reading :eek: anyone that can speak 5 languages is pretty smart in my book.
You know i have never seen snow in my life, in my state we have mountains covered with snow alright but i have or never had any desire to go to them, my body hates real cold places too.

Brian :)

Good Evening Brian!
It was 88 degrees here today and super humid, but rained on and off all day. I'm still having the nerve pain tonight. I increased my dose of Lyrica and then tonight took half of a Hydrocodone....it's taking the edge off the pain some. What medication is given to you for nerve pain? Lyrica sure doesn't seem to do much for me......but then again maybe I'd be in much worse pain with out it......ugh!!!! Roxie

I have never understood the metric system. And I don't know how long it has been in use in the USA. I still use, pounds, pints, quarts, inches, feet.

I don't know meters. Like when a person is so many meters tall. I only know I'm 5 feet 6 and one half inches tall. How many meters am I??? lol

And you had to change from pounds and pence to dollars and cents??

I can only imagine what would happen if they did that to us here.

That reminds me of yet another funny story. I was 26 years old and working on a telethon in NYC. I worked on the One to One Telethon with Geraldo Rivera and an arthritis telethon. It was while I was working on that one that I met a gorgeous guy who invited me out to dinner. I told him I could not go but he said "hey, you have to eat don't you". so who was I to resist this 6 feet 5 inch gorgeous guy from South Africa. He owned a game preserve and he was a doctor. I will never forget him.

So he says: "pick out a restaurant" and I chose Chinese food. So after we ate, we went up to the register to pay and he opens his wallet and he says to me "Melody, how do you know what you are paying?" and I said "what??" Now he had a wallet filled with money so I didn't understand what he was talking about. Then when he said: "But everything is green, the one dollar bill, the 5 dollar bill, the 10 dollar bill, the 20 dollar bill, everything is green, how do you know what you are paying?? " I never laughed so hard in all my life. I took a $20 bill out of his wallet, and said 'here" to the guy behind the register.

Then I asked my date "what do you use for money in South Africa"?? and he said "Oh, everything is a different color, the 10 dollars, the 20 dollars. All different colors. But everything here is GREEN!!! Most confusing"

After I stopped laughing, as he was taking me back to the telethon, he says to me in this most prestigious South African accent: "Melody, do you know what they have on the Teleeee here in your country??" "They have this smashing tv show called MAGILLA GORILLA". That's exactly what he said and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I went back to the telethon, and he went home to South Africa.

Ah!!! the memories!!

mel

Brian, I'm from Nebraska.....We have snow for 6 months out of the year...believe me, I've seen enough snow for the both of us! LOL I love living in Houston now....no snow, no scooping your sidewalks, no having to plug your car in so it'll stay warm and you can start it the next morning in the freezing cold weather! BURRR!!!!! I hope I never see snow again! Besides....it kills my arthritis! Roxie

Hi Roxie, i am pretty good these days mine they have healed a lot, but what worked well for me was Tramadol slow release- 200 mg x 2 a day, my doc used to give me another 100 mg of tramadol, so when it was real bad i was taking 300 mg x 2 per day, [every 12 hours] the limit in OZ and the US is suppose be 400 mg a day, but i suppose its still up to the doctor and also 25 mg Endep in the morning and 100 mg at night.
I was given the short active Tramadol at first but i found the slow release much more better than the others.
What i liked about Tramadol was it didn't give me any brain fog like some of the others like Neurotin, oxycontin etc.but we all react differantly to meds, what may help one person may not help another, its a trial and error sort of thing and sometimes some meds need time to work the best.
so good luck,
Brian :)

Mel, a mate of mine who has to know his metric measurements for his job told me its real easy, he said just think that 1 metre is equall to just on 40 inches, so that i understand, but the millimetres, centemetres are to confusing for me, so i am sticking to the inches , feet and yards, most places that sell wood have dual tapes anyway with metric and inches on the other side, its ok for the younger ones they were taught all that metric stuff at school, but not the ones around my age.
Great story at the restaurant, but our notes are differant colors as well. :D
all the best
Brian :)

Roxie, i have wondered how do people get their cars going in those snowy conditions, i suppose the water pipes in the cars would turn to ice over night too, it would really test out the batteries i suppose.

Brian, We actually have to bring the batteries inside on very cold nights! Putting a heater in the car keeps the water in the radiator warm so it doesn't freeze. It's hard working living in Nebraska.....and other cold areas.
I will ask my dr. about Tramadol slow release. I've been on the Lyrica for 6 weeks now and it just doesn't cover the pain. I ended up taking an extra Lyrica tonight along with half a Hydrocodone. It's helped some. I hope I can sleep tonight! Roxie

Gezz, really Roxie, that would be hard living, i suppose if your car starts up ok then you would have to contend with the icy roads as well which i know are not fun, wheel chains and all that gear.
If you do get Tramadol off your neuro, i hope it works well for you, i found it really helpful, the strength of it can make a big differance too.
all the best
Brian :)

Sometimes on the news they have a 'Pain Index'. I believe it has to do with barometric pressure. I get muddled up with it all, but I believe it has to do with low fronts moving in, and less to do with temperature. However, if you do have a condition such as Raynauds, temperature would apply as well. My geographical area always seem to have a significant pain index, lol...I can't find the 'right' place to live...and I am getting to old to move..again...and would likely end up in a third world country due to my budget. (I never figured out what a 'third world' country really meant, but I figure a place with 'cheap real estate' and social unrest, which would likely be bad for my 'nerves.)

Often times, we don't correlate a 'delayed' pain reaction to something we 'did' 48 hours prior, but the inflammation cycle in some people is quite delayed....I know mine is about 36 hours after exertion. If I over do, I can quite predictably end up in the ER, with severe migranous, totally upper body, and projectile vomitting...go figure. On the other hand, I have some pain that never, ever goes away, regardless of weather or activity.

See if you can find info on the pain index.

I wish we would get some of your rain. It seems to be going north over us to Canada...eventually it all goes downstream again, however that isn't helping my tomato plants now.

I am globally anhidrotic, and we are averaging 10 degrees higher than usual and in drought conditions, dominated by high pressure....and, I still hurt. Not to mention, we don't have our central air in yet....just a room air conditioner, which is proving a challenge...just put in yesterday, when I caved. Hubby warned me last fall, but NOOOOO, I wanted the new light fixtures instead.

Some things defy logic, and for me, the more I think about it...the worse it gets.

Be careful taking extra Lyrica. It isn't a prn drug for pain, unless doc says you can take extra....it could result in overdose or in rebound pain when it wears off. Talk to doc, there might be something else he/she can give you for breakthru pain.

Hope you feel better soon.

for cycleops....
 

Hi cycleops:

Try www.intellicast.com for pain index for this country. It is quite accurate for me.

Shirley H.

Brian:

When you replied to my story about the guy from South Africa, you inserted my post, right? When I read it, the part where I wrote "So he says: Pick out a restaurant", well that was changed to this:

"So he says: "pfarenheit."


Brian, how did the word pfarenheit get into that sentence? You couldn't have inserted it, because it's actually a word for word copy of my post, ...except the words "pfarenheit"

How the heck did this happen? Maybe something with the html coding?
Just curious..

Mel

Cyclelops:

Here's the definition of Third World Countries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

Melody

HI Cyclecops and Silver Swan,
I know when the barometer pressure is high I get severe headaches till the front blows through. Here in Texas the weather in the spring and fall is very unstable with sea breeze and sea squalls. You never know when they are going to pop up and how long they'll last. My Arthritis is also affected by the weather. It was worse though when I lived in Nebraska and had the very cold winters there. I think it's difficult to find a climate for all our ailments! Have a great Father's Day.......Roxie

Opps for to mention to Cyclopes.......
Thanks for the warning about Lyrica. I usually don't take extra pills beyond the dose the dr. prescibes.....but last night I was in so much pain.....nothing was helping. I finally took half of a Hydrocodone and that finally helped. Today I'm aching but not as bad as last night. Hopefully he won't get worse as the day wears on.....even tho it's raining outside, again! Roxie

It's quite astonishing how rain affects people differently. Yesterday, we had such a downfall, I immediately knew that Alan would be asleep on the bed, and in no pain whatsoever. It was time for him to get up, so I gingerly laid down next to him and he said "wow, my neuropathy is gone, is it raining??"

I replied "it rained so hard, it came through the bottom of the air conditioning, so I unplugged the unit, and wiped the floor"

See, when it's a hard rain like that, it cleans the air. Has something to do with ions. But Alan LOVES it!!! He said 'man, did I get a good sleep".

Oh, he now takes melatonin. Says it helps him sleep longer. The alprazolam gets him to sleep, the melatonin allows him to sleep longer and he gets up better rested.

Me??? I don't need the melatonin. I take my alprazolam and I drift off. Relaxes my whole body. Hey, a person has to sleep!!!!

mel

oh, roxie, I'm sending you an astounding recipe in the pm

I feel much better once it rains, it is beforehand that I feel crummy...I love falling asleep to the rain...I am the nature buff that sent my son serving in Iraq a few years ago, a thunderstorm CD, thinking it would soothe him to sleep at night and remind him of home...(didn't work-thunder sounds like mortar shells landing). He won't let me live it down.

If it is too hot, then I have that anhidrosis problem....and get heat exhaustion...

Then in winter, there isn't enough light...and I don't feel my feet, so I freeze them....

From ALOHA to OOFDA...I can not win.

I prefer tornadoes to hurricanes...The basement suits me fine and I would not leave my home for a shelter that would not accomodate my best friends, my huge dogs...who willingly follow me to the basement in tornado warnings, and breathe hard down my neck.

...however we haven't had any warnings this year...really odd for us. And tornadoes are much worse now, then way back then I fear.

I got to see one, once...in the sky, a skinny little one, white against a dark sky...I was supposed to be in the basement, but I am nosey, and that got the best of me....packed the 4 kids downstairs and they cried as 'pet goat' was not in the little barn...not that it mattered if a tornado hit...'Pet goat' would have been in Michigan or Ontario with his little barn.

I am crazy, but not crazy enough to go out and get 'pet goat' and bring him into the basement with lightning and hail pellets around...goats don't like it inside the house. I don't like goats in the house, and I am not that brave, altho I probably muttered a prayer or two to spare my goat.

'Pet goat' did fine...went in his little barn by himself..probably the small hail prompted him to take shelter....funnel cloud took the shortest route down the freeway about a mile north...sun came out, chased away the rain, and itsy bitsy spider (we have those) went up the spout again...and life went on as usual for the rest of the day.

I didn't hurt bad back then, so didn't think much about barometric pressure.

I will spend out my days here in this climate....I could not deal with the 'wild life' that some members casually describe as 'bats' that sound more like rapterousoaruses to me...
nor with furry spiders the size of your hand that like to share your bed,
large exoskeletal creatures that sting and hide in your shoes....
or anything that gets caught in my hair...
give me ticks..blood thirsty things that they are...they pop nicely when you stomp on them, however, they are a biohazzard I suppose. Those I find, actually go down the toilet...very effective and humane.

It is all about balance....give some, take some...good days....bad days. Tolerance or endurance, either one.

Cyclelops:

You stomp on ticks???

That's all I would have to do!!! go outside and find a bug under my shoe. I'd go bananas. I could never live in a tropical place.

I always wanted to go and live in Tahiti. Then I would think "what kind of bugs are in Tahiti?"

Give me Alaska!! no bugs.

lol
Melody

Mel, i have no idea how that got changed, actually i did see that "pfarenheit " myself after i replied as i glanced over the whole lot and wondered what the heck is that was doing there :confused:

HI Cyclopes,
When I saw your post about your Pet Goat.....it brought back many memories of our pet goat "William"....otherwise known as "Bill E. Goat" LOL He had such a personality and we loved him dearly. He was a brown Nubian with the long ears that hung along side of his face. We had him for 5 yrs and then he got sick. My son and I dragged him into the backseat of my old stationwagon. My son pushed his rear and I pulled on his horns and finally got him in the car! Then I drove him 20 miles to the Vet. He said he had some upper respiratory thing and said goats won't eat if they can't smell......so we had to force feed him a concotion of several things. So since it was mid winter in Nebraska with knee deep snow and below zero temps.....we kept him in our kitchen and I sat on the floor all night with Billy and force fed him. He died that next morning, in my lap. It was SO sad! Billy was a Goat among Goats. Sorry.........I guess I'm feeling sad tonight because of this pain and when I saw the goat story it just bought that out in me. Roxie

Oh my Roxie, our 'pet goat' was Cupid. He was born on Valentine's Day. He too, had a ride in the car....When we moved years ago, our last trip was done late on a Saturday nite, (bar time) and we attempted to 'hobble' him, thinking he would not sit in the car, and the ride would be made easier if he just laid down...he would have none of that....we learned, that if we just opened the hatchback, he WOULD sit in there. He sat there, and the expressions of the people that passed us on the freeway were, indeed, priceless. I could see there mouths say, "It's a goat".

We had Cupid for 7 years, and one morning, my husband came in and said,"Cupid woke up dead!" We were heart broken...Cupid, too, was a black Nubian goat, with a wonderful personality.

Cupid was buried with honors on our property.

Speaking of sad, the kitty born on that same property 17 years ago, is quite sick. She has been with us all this time, and unless the vet decides to treat this infection, we will have to have her put to sleep. She has a bone cancer in her sinus, and we have bought her some time, with treating bone infections with antibiotic, but this time, I am thinking it may not be enough.

She has a companion dog, a lab of 14, who is also weak and feeble....I just put a call into the vet today to see what she thinks is best....I don't think I can go thru 2 separately, and would so prefer them to go together. I am facing this by the end of Fall anyway, as our dog is not going thru another brutal winter.

We moved away from that property where Cupid is buried, 13 years ago, and have recently moved back to the area, so we can drive by and still imagine Cupid standing in our former back yard. I can still imagine my now grown children as little ones, scampering around, as well. We are glad to have returned to our kitty's ancestral home too, as we knew she didn't have a lot of time left, and we wanted her to make it 'home'. She has. We have.

I woke up at 4am, with my right leg totally spasmed. I have had problems with my sacrum and it has progressed down the leg....in the mean time there have been 3 changes of primary docs over the years all blowing off this problem to some extent..altho my new one wants to run another spine MRI and I think she will include this sacrum, when she gets the message...neither of the first two doing much regarding this problem. Today, I called my primary, and got a voice mail that they are out of the office and to leave a message, but it cuts out and never gets to the beep....

I can't call my neuro over this, even tho it might be a neuro problem...I asked hubby to palpate it, and he says it feels like my sacrum is almost two inches winder on that side and sticking up more....he said it feels very different than the other side...

I am just going to lay in bed, exactly like a horizontal flamingo, and help myself to whatever meds I feel I can handle....I will attempt to call my primary again later to see if we can get an MRI set up. The meds should be helping, but they are not doing much.

I was supposed to go help to get ready for our Solstice Festival, but given my most comfortable position is the horizontal flamingo, and that I am awaiting a dreaded call from my vet...I will just call this day a wash-tomorrow as well, most likely.

My vet will likely be far more responsive and understanding than the people docs...Vets are not in HMOs or PPOs...they are like the doctor's of olden days, when they had their own practice and cared for their patients...

I need a vet to take care of me!

I am glad my cat and dog, will get such good care, even to the end of their lives, sensitive care for them and for us....

We have sad days in our lives, and that is part of the cycle of life...Both of these pets had wonderful long lives, and fortunately most of the family was here yesterday to visit with them and cuddle them, so if the decision is to let them go, then we all said our goodbyes, will finish the grieving we have already started, and move on, as our pets would have us do if they could tell us that in words. Pets are not people, but sometimes they come darn close, at least in our hearts.

So if you don't hear from me much over the next few days, pardon my seclusion...I will either be stuck in my flamingo position or doing a bit of grieving. I don't want to burden any one on here with anything any more sad...we all have our tough times, and reminding folks of tough times past is just not what most of us need.

I will be back on, when I regain my sense of humor.

HI Cyclopes,
I'm SO sorry about your pets being so ill.....it's SO hard when they get to the end of their lives.....and having to let them go. I'm sure they will "rest in peace" with the care of your loving Vets. I so love the idea of letting them go together. That's how it should be since they lived together all these years.
I had to smile about your Goat ride story. On the way to the Vet. the day we took our sick goat in, Billy had his head sticking out the car window.....he was loving that! We were on a 4 lane road and a guy going the other direction saw Billy....and continued to look (I'm sure trying to believe his eyes! LOL) and he drove off the road! LOL My son was 10 and he laughed and laughed. The guy was ok, just bewildered! LOL
Pets are such an important part of our lives.
When I met Mike he had a brindle Boxer named Nico. She was such a beautiful dog and I grew to love her too. She passed away in our kitchen 2 Christmas's ago and we miss her SO much. She too was buried with honors at our old house......which isn't far from here so we drive by there some times, just for memories.... We want another dog or two but can't get one right now since we take care of Mike's grandfather. He's very unsteady on his feet so we worry a puppy would cause him to trip and fall.
I do hope you get to feeling better! Laying in a flamingo position does not sound like a fun thing to do for very long! I hope your doctor gets on the ball and gets the MRI of the sacrum so you will know exactly what's going on there. It sounds very painful! I'm sure you will be missed at the Solstice celebration but I think staying in bed is the best call for that. Please post what you find out from your dr.s and how you are doing. Take care! Roxie