A few more months went by and the therapy became part of my routine - wake up, go to work, leave work, go to clinic, reach home, apply hot pack, have dinner and have restless sleep (thanks to fibromyalgia). This was all that I did for 4 months. To break the monotony, I decided to take a short vacation to lift my spirits. But as luck would have it, just a few days before the vacation, my pain increased manifold. I didn't know what else to do so I increased my therapy.
I still remember the day when I went to clinic in the morning as I couldn't wait for my evening sessions and after that instead of going to work, I came back home and broke down. At that time I was convinced that this ordeal of mine is not going to end, ever!
By this time Praveen (who had become a friend over this period) was moved to another centre and I was working with a young therapist who was still learning the technique. Poor guy gave me therapy even on his birthday as I was in so much pain but in his zeal to make me better, he inadvertently ended up causing more harm. He used too much pressure at the same points resulting in severe soreness and tenderness of the area in question.
I wasn't any better but I popped in some pain killers and went ahead with my beach vacation. After I came back, I met with the doctor as pain had not come down and he told me to lay off trigger point therapy and get some ultrasound and taping done. He also changed my medication from Pregabalin (the usual treatment of fibromyalgia) to Amitriptyline - who knew that I would respond better to a drug that costs one tenth of the latest and greatest Pregabalin!!!
With this new medication the tenderness and soreness across my body started to come down and I could take more physiotherapy. Due to my bad condition, the center head and a very senior therapist (Muniyandi) took over my case. While he also mostly provided trigger point therapy, he used much less pressure and mixed it up with gross myofascial release and muscle energy techniques. Soon I was feeling better and was hopeful of starting exercise in a few weeks. I had gained about 10 pounds but I knew that once I get back to my earlier schedule, I would lose these in no time.
As luck would have it, things took a turn for the worse. Another 4 months since the change of medication and therapist, while the pain had come down, I had started to feel very tired and fatigued- so much so that I would lie down at the back seat of my car while I was driven to work. (Due to severe pain I had stopped driving almost a year back). And suddenly I started gaining weight as well - that too at the rate of 6 pounds a month. By the time I found out the cause of the problem and began treatment for that, I was back in the obese zone.
This weight gain was a result of severe thyroid inactivity - my TSH levels were 160 (normal is less than 5.5.) We found anti thyroid antibodies in my blood, proof that my own immune system was killing it - for that matter had already killed it (hence the super crazy TSH levels). At this time I also tested positive for antibodies linked to fibromyalgia - establishing the fact that the two conditions were inter-related and that both were auto immune diseases.
Since it was almost a year since I had to give up exercise, I decided to get back to it slowly - same as I had done before at the weight of 200 pounds. I started walking again - increasing a bit every day. I also started GM diet...but I was too much in pain to stick to it. Then I started soy diet and then realized that soy doesn't help hypothyroid patients and gave it up. Lost a bit of weight each time I went on a diet and gained it all back and some more every time I gave up the diet.
6 months of this yo-yo dieting, comfort eating (and drinking) and minimal exercise due to pain, I gained another 10 pounds. Now I was totally miserable but didn't know how to get out of this vicious cycle. I had no willpower left to diet (managing day to day pain took care of that) and exercise at my increased weight was even more difficult. I was depressed, irritable and angry - at myself and everyone else around me. Unhappy, unwell and depressed, I continued to look for comfort in food and alcohol and gained some more weight and soon was pushing the limits of obese zone as well - at that time it felt that there is no end to this dark long weary painful tunnel that lay ahead of me!
I still remember the day when I went to clinic in the morning as I couldn't wait for my evening sessions and after that instead of going to work, I came back home and broke down. At that time I was convinced that this ordeal of mine is not going to end, ever!
By this time Praveen (who had become a friend over this period) was moved to another centre and I was working with a young therapist who was still learning the technique. Poor guy gave me therapy even on his birthday as I was in so much pain but in his zeal to make me better, he inadvertently ended up causing more harm. He used too much pressure at the same points resulting in severe soreness and tenderness of the area in question.
I wasn't any better but I popped in some pain killers and went ahead with my beach vacation. After I came back, I met with the doctor as pain had not come down and he told me to lay off trigger point therapy and get some ultrasound and taping done. He also changed my medication from Pregabalin (the usual treatment of fibromyalgia) to Amitriptyline - who knew that I would respond better to a drug that costs one tenth of the latest and greatest Pregabalin!!!
With this new medication the tenderness and soreness across my body started to come down and I could take more physiotherapy. Due to my bad condition, the center head and a very senior therapist (Muniyandi) took over my case. While he also mostly provided trigger point therapy, he used much less pressure and mixed it up with gross myofascial release and muscle energy techniques. Soon I was feeling better and was hopeful of starting exercise in a few weeks. I had gained about 10 pounds but I knew that once I get back to my earlier schedule, I would lose these in no time.
As luck would have it, things took a turn for the worse. Another 4 months since the change of medication and therapist, while the pain had come down, I had started to feel very tired and fatigued- so much so that I would lie down at the back seat of my car while I was driven to work. (Due to severe pain I had stopped driving almost a year back). And suddenly I started gaining weight as well - that too at the rate of 6 pounds a month. By the time I found out the cause of the problem and began treatment for that, I was back in the obese zone.
This weight gain was a result of severe thyroid inactivity - my TSH levels were 160 (normal is less than 5.5.) We found anti thyroid antibodies in my blood, proof that my own immune system was killing it - for that matter had already killed it (hence the super crazy TSH levels). At this time I also tested positive for antibodies linked to fibromyalgia - establishing the fact that the two conditions were inter-related and that both were auto immune diseases.
Since it was almost a year since I had to give up exercise, I decided to get back to it slowly - same as I had done before at the weight of 200 pounds. I started walking again - increasing a bit every day. I also started GM diet...but I was too much in pain to stick to it. Then I started soy diet and then realized that soy doesn't help hypothyroid patients and gave it up. Lost a bit of weight each time I went on a diet and gained it all back and some more every time I gave up the diet.
6 months of this yo-yo dieting, comfort eating (and drinking) and minimal exercise due to pain, I gained another 10 pounds. Now I was totally miserable but didn't know how to get out of this vicious cycle. I had no willpower left to diet (managing day to day pain took care of that) and exercise at my increased weight was even more difficult. I was depressed, irritable and angry - at myself and everyone else around me. Unhappy, unwell and depressed, I continued to look for comfort in food and alcohol and gained some more weight and soon was pushing the limits of obese zone as well - at that time it felt that there is no end to this dark long weary painful tunnel that lay ahead of me!
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