Health Update

If you know us, or if you’ve been following this blog for a while you know of Husband’s struggles with his hands and joints over the last year plus. 

He’s been to doctor after doctor, various specialists and has had more tests run than either of us care to think about.  He has been told he possibly has this, and he possibly has that; and has tried and been unsuccessful at more treatment plans than we care to think about.

Every day is a struggle.  For him, and for us as a family; as we never know what type of pain he’ll be in each day.   Some days are better than others; as it is to be expected and we try and go with the flow.  If we have projects that require a significant amount of physical labor from him; we plan in advance to try to make the days lead up and following as “light” on him as possible.

Husband hates this.  This journey has taken its toll on him emotionally as well.  Some days he feels he’s not the father and partner he could or should be because of his illness.  But we try and re-assure him that he’s doing all he can and taking care of himself so he’s here for us in the long run is important. 

He often has sleepless nights, which seem to compound everything.  This is one of symptoms of his condition. 

Recently we were told he has Fibromyalgia.  The joint pains, the back pains, the sleepless nights and the depression are all part of it. 

But he isn’t receiving any medical treatment for it right now.  At his last doctor visit the doctors played a game of “pass the buck” in regards to his care.  Then when his primary realized he was in the wrong and asked him to come back first thing in the morning to go over treatment, we had to decline.  You see Husband often can’t drive because of this condition being untreated; and I couldn’t take more time off of work suddenly to take him.  I feel guilty about this, but it is what it is and now we’re nearing the date of his next appointment, in which care and management will be reviewed. 

In the meantime we’ve been reading up and studying Fibromyalgia.  We understand getting this condition under control is going to take a life style change, but it’s one of lower stress that we embrace. 

While we are not happy that this has happened to Husband, we accept its part of our life; and we’ve developed routines and plans in dealing with this.  We are happy to be moving forward and look forward to embracing the day he is able to go into remission, but are prepared for a future of flair-ups.

We ask our family and friends to patience, strength and understanding as we deal with this challenge in our own way.  Not visiting with you, or being able to make plans, or assist you in moving, lifting, cleaning etc; has nothing to do with you and it is not for a lack of want. You know how Husband is; he wants to be there for everyone and to help anyone he can in any way that he can.  If we could we would be out there more, doing more things with our friends and family; but right now we need to take care of us; and this means spending more time in our home taking care of each other.