How Chronic Illnesses Can Make Life Worse

It’s such a relief to have my blog back up, even if I did have to make some changes. It’s still Chronically Content, though, and it’s still my challenge to be content in everything in my life. It’s so hard!

When life gets extremely hard, it’s so much harder to deal with the brain fog. My pain levels have certainly increased after I had to give up Ibuprofen. I don’t have any way to get rid of the pain. My inflammation is high, because of the swollen wrists and ankle.

I don’t think that I’m in a flare. Because one of my children has marital problems, I am the type of mom that takes all their pain, anger, and sadness. Because I’m carrying all these emotions, I haven’t been able to sleep.

I’m trying hard to try to get more sleep, because I know that lack of sleep is hurting everything. It makes the following worse: brain fog, chance of flares, chance of catching a cold, and more. I also notice that when I write on the blog or send a text, I make tons of errors. I type a lot of gibberish, which is funny, but could cause problems.

The moments when I feel fully awake have brought me to some different thoughts. I feel that I’m totally sick of taking all these drugs! They all help me just a little bit. I was told that if each pill gives me a small bit of pain relief, then they will add up when taken together. This is just not true for me.

What I think really happens is that, with each new drug I get a ton more side effects. The side effects of all of them combined is horrible. I have very little short-term memory, I can’t stop gaining weight, my vision keeps deteriorating, my eyes are still dry, I still have joint pain and swelling, myoclonus isn’t better, I still have terrible pain from the spine, etc…

Some things really do help…..asthma inhaler does stop my gasping for air at the end of a sentence. I’m very thankful for that.

Even though I have many things to consider, I will be thinking about the possibility of less drugs. I will definitely talk to my doctor about these ideas. I also want to talk to him about the new drug Contrave. This is weight loss drug that contains two drugs that I’m already on. The dosages are actually less than my drugs. Reading about that, I’ve seen that the specific doses are necessary to get the weight loss benefit.

These random thoughts may be a little disconnected. That’s where my mental health is right now. There are many pressures, including that one of my adult child’s family will be here for the week of Thanksgiving. I’m over-the-moon excited, but our new home is still not completely put together. Hubby and I are working hard to get things ready.

I should say that Hubby is doing almost everything. Even though he is too old and tired to do this, he’s going to continue working. We have numerous things that have to be assembled: two large bookcases, a filing cabinet, and 4 deck chairs. He even has to bring me loads of laundry to fold, hang the pictures, and pouring my coffee (when the pot is full).

My wrists are hurting and have become weak. They just can’t allow me to hold anything heavy. The appointment on the 18th will help me discover the date of my upcoming wrist fusion surgery. I dread that, but really need to have it done.

Thank you for following me during this update. I’m excited to see the improvements for myself, making it easier to bring you content that is helpful. Let me know what you would like to see more of here. God bless.

@2025, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical expert. This post contains my experiences and opinions and is not meant to be taken for medical advice. If you have a medical concern, please contact your personal physician.