Explain to Me

Quick background...I have Ehlers-danlos.  It is a collagen disorder that causes massive joint issues.  The ligaments do not repair themselves.  Most people do things everyday using their extremities with no problem...ligaments are stretched and get repaired on a daily basis.  Me, I use the ligaments and they never repair and if they do, it is at an extremely slow rate.  I spent years pulling and stretching them while I was in the service and now I am paying the price.  I have to be extremely careful how I move my body.  I have dislocate my shoulder just picking up my kids.  Now it is so bad, that I dislocated it today just picking up bags of groceries to bring into the house.  My muscles are what really keep my body together. I take some sort of pain medication daily (mostly at night) to combat the pain. I have talked to all of my doctors and we have decided that because I will always have pain and it will get worse as life goes, we are trying all of the low dose non-narcotic drugs first.  Having said all of that.......

I went to see a new primary care doctor about 6 weeks ago.  We discussed my pain meds.  I was taking tramadol, which was not working very well.  It kinda working on the pain, but the side effects were miserable.  I was having massive hot flashes and insomnia.  I was putting up with the side effects to have some pain relief.  The doctor changed my pain med, hoping we could have some relief without the side effects.  Mind you, I had to explain my condition to the doc.  She had never even heard of it.  She recommended that I stop taking tramadol and start taking baclofen.  Well....I decided I would try it, even though I was leery about it.  Baclofen is a muscle relaxer.  Does it make sense to any of you for me to take a muscle relaxer when my muscles are what keep my body together?  Like I said, I thought I would try it.  I was taking it just at night when I was having a hard day.  I did alright then.  It actually helped a bit, kinda made sense for my body to relax while I was sleeping.

Today, however, I changed that routine.  I went to Walmart and picked up a present for the kids from my brother.  It was really heavy and awkward.  I came home and decided to take one of those muscle relaxers to help with the pain in my shoulder.  I laid down and tried to nap.  I did alright until I tried to roll over.  Out popped my shoulder again, then my hip and knee.  Pain sucks.  It makes total sense that this would happen.  If muscles are what are keeping me together....it would make sense that if you relax the muscles, the joints will not stay in place properly.  Duh...my fault for saying I would try these.  I already know that I have to take charge of my medical status.  Why did I let her tell me to do this?

I think I shall consult with my family pharmacist (Amy) to see what she might recommend.  I know that it will be a bit of trial and error, but I will not let them give me another muscle relaxer.

I am thankful to God everyday just to be alive and spend time with my fabulous family.

I took one of those