Good grief! I can't believe how long it has been since my last post, honestly, I am shocked!

Much has happened since I last blogged. Having recovered from a bout of gasto-enteritiis I returned to work in the early part of September, only to find that things weren't moving along in quite the manner I'd hoped they would. In short I was acutely aware of a series of symptoms which suggested that I was at the very least on the edge of a full scale fibro-flare-up...

Sleep. This is the number one requirement for good health. In fibro sufferers it is THE essential element of each 24 hour period that actually keeps us going. Disturbed or non-restorative sleep isn't worth a damn! Guess what I've been having recently. My meds seem to have gone on strike. It's not five minutes since I last took a med-cation, ie stopping my night-time medications for just long enough to build sleep back into my programme. Most fibro sufferers who use Amitriptylene find a med-cation useful, it helps to break the tolerance that gradually creeps into our nightly routine, resulting in disturbed or non-restorative sleep.

In my case I also use Lyrica. In combination with the Amitriptylene, this remarkable anti-epileptic results in two things, a)_an altered perception of pain and b) REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. The end product of this is that I dream. Probably, unless you're a fellow fibro sufferer or fibromite this won't mean a thing because everybody dreams, don't they? Actually, the answer to that question is no. In my case I can honestly assure you that my history of dreams in the last twenty or so years prior to Lyrica could be counted on my fingers and toes! On the rare occasion that I was aware of having dreamt, it was occasion to celebrate and to remark upon the rarity of the occasion. This was something which had always fascinated me. Like, how can a person not dream...

The answer, my dear, as I now know is that in order to dream one has to descend through several layers of sleep until they reach REM. Once having travelled through this stage a being is supposed to descend further into a deep, restorative sleep before they awaken feeling refreshed and ready go. Sadly in the majority of fibro sufferers this is not the case. REM is seldom achieved and deep resorative sleep is nothing but a mythological state reserved only for the likes the princesses featured in the brothers Grimm fairy tales.

Over the past couple of months I've been anything but a fairytale princess, rather a somewhat grim character. Having endured the wrath of the wicked step sisters I bravely soldiered on until one day, just like our heroine I leant forward and pricked my finger on a poisoned computer speaker and ended up more or less on the flat of my back doped up to the eyeballs for a week and more! And I slept. And slept. And slept some more...

Upon my return to the grey castle, ie work I embarked upon a daunting routine of rush, rush, rush. Caring for many sick patients, in circumstances far from ideal I all but wore myself out. And so just a week ago, I contracted a near fatal dose of influenza! Death by coughing, sneezing, wheezing and a runny nose is not my idea of fun, although I must say that I would happily turn the clock back and live through it over again, rather than face the consequences which followed...

Don't worry, it's really not that bad, honest! I've got no energy. When I stand, I can actually feel it flowing downwards towards my feet as though in a last ditch effort to escape my aching wreck of a body. Actually, I must be honest here, I'm quoting a friend of mine whom I spoke with yesterday at my youngest son's PTA meeting. A teacher at the college, she contracted Swine Flu some twelve months ago and now she faces each day as best she can, dragging herself and her handicapped daughter as far as she's able! She still hasn't made a return to work, nor will she for the foreseeable future - it's a tragic situation, one that I wouldn't wish on anybody. It's such a shame that we've so much in common these days, I can remember when we were both young, fit and healthy!

Anyway, I digress. My friend described how I feel at any given moment of the day. The flu has knocked me out, into a place I'd kind of forgotten about. It's eighteen months now, since I fought to escape that place and now I find myself right back in it. My family doctor has been great. She's afforded me the time that I need to recover from two consecutive viral infections, prescribed non-steroidal gel and given me great hope for the future in the form of a local anaesthetic patch! All of these things are great, but not one of them is helping my energy levels or are they?

My own experience of non-restorative sleep has been exhaustion and fatigue, in part associated with low grade diffuse pain. I've come to realise that remedial treatment of this lessons the fatigue.