Two more arrows in the quiver

[cjsmith]

I've got nettle and bromelain now, too. Nettle is particularly nifty: it seems to work well with NSAIDs, giving a big multiplier to the drugs' effectiveness. Most excellent. Gimme.

My purse is bulging with all the things (pills, Blue Goo) I carry back and forth to work. Some things want to be 3x/day spaced out evenly, some want to be with meals, some I only need 1x/day.

MORNING: NSAID, nettle, bromelain, flaxseed oil, glucosamine/chondroitin, standard multivitamin: 16 pills.
LUNCH: nettle, bromelain, flaxseed oil: 8 pills.
MIDAFTERNOON: NSAID, 3 pills.
DINNER: nettle, bromelain, flaxseed oil: 8 pills.
NIGHT: NSAID, hormones: 4 pills.

Plus the Blue Goo 2-3x/day and the icing and the no sweets, of course.

This gets old.

Important Safety Tip: when taking sixteen pills right in a row, don't wash every one of 'em down with carbonated water. I feel like I just ate a rock. A big rock.

Comments

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

when taking sixteen pills right in a row, don't wash every one of 'em down with carbonated water.

I once tried taking my morning pills (about 16, 17, somewhere in there) with a diet Coke. It's bad when it fizzes back up your nose because you're trying to swallow a BIG pill :-)

Have you considered adding MSM to the mix, too?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's bad when it fizzes back up your nose because you're trying to swallow a BIG pill :-)

Definitely! And I've noticed glucosamine/chondroitin makes Coke fizz like nobody's business. Fizzy drinks are also kind of amusing when swallowing capsules that float, 'cause I turn my head down to get the pill toward the back and then bubbles go places. :-)

Have you considered adding MSM to the mix, too?

Y'know, I just bought a new thingy of glucosamine/chondroitin and it doesn't have MSM. I have always bought the ones without 'cause they're cheaper. Now I'm thinking I shoulda made the other choice, at least while I'm fighting inflammation.

I'm feeding myself so many things that fight inflammation that I'm actually getting impressed with my body's ability to overcome it all! (Sorta like my girl-woes -- I've got two things either one of which could stop all bleeding, but no.) My body Does What It Darn Well Pleases, apparently!

[layer.livejournal.com]

i used to take 50 pills per day. finally just couldn't take it any more and stopped. think it's probably time to try and find a happy medium between all and nothing.

the other bonus about carbonated water is that if you don't swallow them fast enough it desolves the outer coating...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Fifty? You're sturdier than I!

I would have more trouble adjusting to this regimen if I thought it would be for the rest of my life. I'm hoping it'll just be a few days... o'course I thought that a few days ago... ok, maybe a week or two. I hope.

That outer coating is nice to have.

[layer.livejournal.com]

yeah, i only managed to keep it up for about two years...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow. And here I'm getting tired of 39.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

Perhaps useful? There are pill bottles with alarms built in. For people who have to take their meds at *precisely* the right time....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Mine aren't so precise that I need an alarm, but that's a good thing for me to know in case that's exactly what I have to do next. :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

ooh! that tip on the nettle might be something for me to check out to get this hip pain under control. anti-inflammatories don't seem to to squat for me, so maybe this boost will...?

since adding supplements, it's hard for me to get all my pills down in one sitting. i start with the smallest and most essential and go from there. three days this week my multivitamin, glucosamine/chondroiten (huge freaking thing) and one other didn't get down til i got to work. and i'm horrible about taking my dinner meds.

i keep forgetting to take my blue goo and ice packs to work. i do have access to an ice machine and plastic bags, so i can make my own in a pinch, but i learned the hard way they can leak. :-/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Maybe... heck, throw anything anti-inflammatory at it that you can find, 'cause it might help. But maybe your pain isn't inflammatory??

I hear ya about the pills-in-a-pile. It's easier when I take them at work, because I can work my way through the morning pile while checking my e-mail and voice mail. And what's WITH the enormity of the glucosamine/chondroitin pills? I used to have "triple strength", which I swear I would have to be a practicing porn star to swallow comfortably. Thank goodness the ones I have now are smaller.

Can you leave an ice pack in a freezer at work? I'm doing that, and it sure is convenient. Carrying one more thing back and forth, UGH! :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

But maybe your pain isn't inflammatory??

Rheumatologist said the same thing. i don't have obvious joint inflammation, thus the suggestion that it's fibromyalgia. my hips, however, i don't know. bursitis is inflammation of the bursa, but it's not responding like they'd hoped to the usual treatments. xrays in 2003 showed the joints to be fine. what else is in there to be so cranky?

I used to have "triple strength", which I swear I would have to be a practicing porn star to swallow comfortably.

*splorts water on the monitor* oh, how true. mine are pretty big, but my super-sensitive gag reflex makes it much worse than it should (no porn star future for me!)

and i've got a mini-fridge not far from my desk, if only i could get the cold pack to the car.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

i don't have obvious joint inflammation, thus the suggestion that it's fibromyalgia.

Ah. What sort of treatments does THAT respond to? I know it never really goes away... so I guess I hope that's not what's going on.

what else is in there to be so cranky?

I hate to suggest the nerves themselves, but of course that's my own experience talking. My feet were nerve tumors, and my abdominal pain is nerve herniation. On the positive side, often there's something that can be *done* about problems with the nerves.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

the biggest thing with fibro seems to be sleep, as in i'm not getting it, and i desperately need it. so stuff to help provide restful sleep, mild daily exercise, and, um, i'm not sure what else. probably diet modification.

I hate to suggest the nerves themselves, but of course that's my own experience talking.

on my next PT visit, i want someone to explain to me WHAT this is, how it works, etc. the pattern of the pain, and what causes pain, perplexes me. i feel like i need to see what's going on in there to comprehend it. because if it's not the joint itself, but the bursa, how do my movements affect it, and what can we do to fix it? because this must get fixed, and soon.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

stuff to help provide restful sleep, mild daily exercise, and, um, i'm not sure what else. probably diet modification.

Good luck. Those all sound like gradual changes that once made will last a lifetime. That's a lot harder for me than drastic changes for a short time.

on my next PT visit, i want someone to explain to me WHAT this is, how it works, etc.

I, too, wish medical people of every stripe would explain more. It's almost as if they've never seen an intelligent, interested patient before. That *can't* be true.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

When I was going through my pre- and post-surgery times, I had to swallow tons of pills, on irritatingly varying schedules. I had to carry my "big bag" in which I'd put all my pills and (most important) my record-keeping chart (which I'd created in excel) to follow it all. My best help was relabelling an extra-large 7-day pill container with 7 different types of pills. That way I could easily grab what I needed for each dose. Even those 7-day/4x-a-day 28-pill containers wouldn't have helped, because my regimen kept changing.

Anyway -- hang in there. Piles of pills sux, but hopefully they'll pay off for you.

And more virtual *hugs* from afar.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

my record-keeping chart (which I'd created in excel)

I bet that chart was extremely valuable. It's surprising how much this LJ entry is already helping me, as a reference. I don't have to re-deduce the schedules every time I open a bottle.

I stole a plastic tray from a candy box and am putting piles in the little holes. Morning is a big pile, lunch and dinner are smaller ones, midafternoon is tiny, and I don't do a pile for night 'cause I'm back at home by then. (In some ways all this is made easier by me being at work seven days a week at the moment!)

Thanks for the virtual hugs! *hugsback*