Hi!

[Guest guest]

Hi! I'm new!

I have mixed connective tissue disease. While I've not been on as

serious meds as a lot of you (prednisone, plaquenil, amitriptyline

(spelling), lexapro, topamax, neurontin, tizanidine ...... [have I

thought of all of them??]), I've been living with my condition since

1990 and gone through lots of ups and downs, denials, and I

constantly push the envelope.

I'll be 58 this year -- I do take hormones (I'm pretty sure there'd

be a homocidal tendency to me if I didn't ... and I need my job! ;-).

But right now all I'm taking is lexapro (I think more for stress of

90-something year old Mom having lived with me), but it does help

with the occasional fibro stuff, plaquenil, and prednisone with

needed. I also take tizanidine occasionally (not recommended very

day) - which is a muscle relaxer.

When I was under SO MUCH STRESS because of Mom, that's when I forayed

into the topamax/neurontin phase. Once the decision was made to put

Mom in a nursing home (she was bedridden at the house for 10 months

before ... hardest decision I ever made, but ultimately the right one

for her and for me), it was amazing how my need for those drugs for

fibro, etc., simply went away ... also for xanax.

I've become pretty relentlessly severe now when it comes to inviting

stress into my life.

I'm also taking some pharmaceutical-grade vitamins and joint support

herbs I get from my chiropractor. The difference in quality and how

I feel on them was really noticable to me.

I'm also beginning to study, again, the whole nutrition aspect of it

all -- since these good supplements seems to have an impact. Once I

started on them, my occasional restless leg syndrome stopped.

Regarding insomnia: the tizanidine helps with that, as does night-

time excedrin. However, and maybe it's because I'm menopausal, but

I've just come to expect I'll have 2 or 3 nights per week when my

sleep just isn't going to be so good! So I try not to use those

various sleep aids every night, otherwise they'll lose their

effectiveness and I'd just have to take more. Gosh -- it seems I

take so much doggone stuff as it is, you know??

Any way - I drink lots of water, too -- keep a little decanter by my

bed ... yes, I know ... it does tend to make one get up and head to

the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I like to keep the

kidneys flushed.

Of course, none of our situations are exactly the same ... but just

remember, sometimes you really can be taking too many drugs. You may

be locked into doing too much like I was doing. Don't be afraid to

ask for help!

Bless everyone!

Dede