The Period Blues

General
1

Hello. As you can tell by the title, things are not well.
I am sorry I did not update recently, however I was on vacation. The last week of June I was sent to the ER by my cardiologist because my heart monitor said my heart rate was too high. Alas, I am now on 50 mg of atenolol. ANOTHER medication. Wee.
I assumed, this past week, that the stomach pains/nausea were a side effect of the medication. (upset stomach is a known side effect of atenolol). I guess I assumed wrong. Lo-and-behold I found myself faced with my period.
The problem here is that I should not be bleeding. I am on deproprovera and I have been since two years ago. I havent bled in MONTHS. Well, that is, until this morning. Besides the fact that I have PMDD and my periods are a thing from hell, they often can trigger something much, much worse - a flare.
Yes, the F word.
The dreaded, godawful F word.
This is why I have always remained vigilant about getting my shot at least a week early. If I follow that rule, usually I dont have as many issues with my lupus. There was one time where I forgot to get my shot. Sadly, (if you go back and read my posts from earlier this year) it caused me tremendous pain and I suffered a lot.
I already didnt feel good this week. I assumed it was from all the sun I had been getting at the beach. I was achey yesterday and my neck had been bothering me more than usual. I didnt pay it much attention since I thought it was probably from the crappy mattress and lack of pillows when I slept.
As I sit here now and type, I am having a lot of hindsight bias. I mean, the headaches, the nausea, the joint pain, the slight glimpse of a rash, the bad sore throat, the fevers, the stiffness, the tiredness - I should have seen it. The signs were there.
I guess I cant really blame myself too much. Luckily, I have three doctors appointments next week and I see my rheumatologist the week after. If things progress, I probably will ask to have the appointment bumped up.

I told my psychiatrist two weeks ago, "I am falling apart! Mentally, I am A-OK. Internally I am falling apart. "
I guess I keep falling apart after all. :(

wish me luck!

I wish you all the best of health,
Teenlupus101.

2

Good luck I think I would try and bump the appointment up.

3

At 45 I still have mine. It's sorta regular, but 2-3 days before I start I ache constantly and sweat at night so much I have to change my pj's at least once. I have one really bad day during and it ALWAYS brings on a flare. I have had 2 back surgeries for ruptured discs and because we don't always get enough iron or Vit D our bones aren't as strong as possible.

I would ask for a referral to a pain management doc as not only do they use meds, but they are also very good at finding non-med activities that can reduce pain.

Best of health,

DeAnne

4

My period used to make my lupus flare up too. Im really happy with my Mirena IUD - no more periods! Talk to your doctor about it.

5

I'm on Depo as well and be careful being on it more than 2 years (it can cause osteoporosis). Hang in there though its hard being a teenager with Lupus. I'm 19 and I've been dx'd since 08. Be careful spending long periods in the sun (like at a beach) and listen to your body. Sometimes it becomes easy to ignore it and try to pretend it doesn't exist and everythings fine, but doing that can make it worse. Find your normal and pay attention to when something is out of the ordinary. Also, although taking meds all the time sucks, but the point of them is so you don't feel as bad. If you don't feel a medication is doing all it should be, ask your doctor and maybe you can be taken off of it. I was on cymbalta and i had changed drs and found out i was on a higher dose than what should have been used for fibro. I didn't feel it was helping at all and so I came off it and it hasn't changed anything so it eliminated a medication i didn't need.

Work though it and know you have people who care and know how you feel. Feel better.