October 06, 2021

Wednesday Weigh-In : Week 19 (and hypomania)


Man, I'm exhausted. Today was a busy day!

This morning, I dropped Eli off at school and went straight to my mom's to help her with something. She bought a very large decal for her dining room wall (it's a quote or a bible verse--I forget what it says) and she wanted help applying it. Well, that was much harder than I thought it would be!

I had no problem mapping out where it would go and getting it centered, but because of the size of it, it was tough to peel the paper back slowly, making sure all the letters adhered to the wall without folding over on themselves. We started at around 7:15, and I had to leave for an appointment no later than 8:30--and we were only halfway done! So I'll have to go over there tomorrow to help finish it.

I left for my doctor's appointment for an annual physical. I have to get one every year for our health insurance. I keep looking for my test results online, but they aren't in my chart yet.

After that appointment, I went to the hospital to have x-rays done. My rheumatologist ordered x-rays of my cervical and lumbar spine. (I asked my primary care doctor if she could add in my thoracic spine, too, because that is the spot that's been painful for 20 years and I'm curious if anything has changed on those x-rays.)

I had kind of given up on my rheumatologist finding anything after she diagnosed fibromyalgia and I decided to cancel my next appointment (nothing we've done has helped the pain and all of the tests were negative). She had ordered the x-rays at our last appointment, though, so I figured it can't hurt to get them because my back has been bothering me SO badly.

For the past several months, it's been my right sacroiliac joint. I am at the point where I just can't take this anymore, but I don't know what else to do! I cannot, for the life of me, find a comfortable position to sit, lie down, stand, or walk. Sacroiliac joint pain can't usually be diagnosed with x-rays, so I don't have much hope for that. However, the x-ray could show a herniated disc or something that may mimic the same pain. (At least that's what I've read.) But my symptoms are textbook for sacroiliac joint pain on the right side.

Anyway, they took a lot of x-rays and I keep refreshing my online chart to see if the results are posted. Do any of you have experience with sacroiliac joint pain? Did you find a way to relieve it? I'm desperate!

Okay, enough complaining about that. It's just bogging down my mind today because it's hard to think of anything else when such a specific part of your body hurts.

I did really well with my eating this week, and thankfully, the scale showed it!


I was at 162.0, which is down 3.6 pounds from last week's 165.6. However, since I'd gained weight last week, I'm actually only down 1.2 pounds in the last two weeks. Still, I'm at a new low since I started losing weight in May--and getting closer to being back in the 150's! This brings my total to 35 pounds in 19 weeks. I'm happy with that :)

I didn't really do anything too different this week. I have the nagging suspicion that I am at the beginning of a hypomanic episode, so I've been trying to be aware and cautious of that. I haven't had a major hypomanic episode since 2017; my medication has really helped. I have an appointment with my psychiatrist soon, so I'll talk to him about what's going on. For now though, I am just trying to rein in my urges to start ALL the projects, make ALL the plans, spend ALL the money, stay up ALL night to clean ALL the house, etc.


The biggest problem with hypomania is the anxiety. My anxiety gets pretty bad when I'm hypomanic. Also, all of my senses are on overload, which is annoying (things sound louder, smell stronger, and my skin feels really sensitive to touch).

It's kind of weird, isn't it? I'm just glad that after being diagnosed with bipolar II and put on the correct medication, I recognize the symptoms of hypomania and that alone helps me to deal with it. I am able to think logically and reason with myself (most of the time).

Anyways! After my x-rays, I had to pick Eli up from school and go straight to his soccer game. It was really fun to watch today (a nail-biter) compared to yesterday's game (they played the second best team in the league yesterday and got mercied 11-0 before halftime). Today, the score was 2-1 at the end (we lost, but it was a good game).

Now, it's 8:00 PM and I need to eat some dinner--I'm starving! I think I'm going to make poached eggs on toast :)

15 comments:

  1. I have never tried this but I have friends who swear by acupuncture and needing. I have has cupping and that has been helping inflammation areas.

    A chiropractor could maybe help as well.

    Just some ideas.

    Hope you feel better and get some answers.

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  2. Have you tried chiropractic, massage therapy, or physical therapy for your pain? I wonder if any of those would help. I struggle with lower back pain and find that yoga/stretching on a regular basis… esp when exercising… helps dramatically. Also, core work. I hope you get relief soon!

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  3. I have a colleague who says dry needling and physical therapy really helped her lower back pain. The dry needling sounds crazy but she swears it was worth it.

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  4. Wish you felt better, but you sure look good! And your nails are always pretty! I might have something like you describe as far as the spending. I recently started decorating the cabin with statues. I must have over 60 of them, and my husband is getting annoyed. So I keep picking up more work to pay for them, and that annoys him. He doesn't know about the Homco eagle I just won the bid on ebay. Yikes all hell might break lose her in Marquette,

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  5. Your rheumatologist ruled out psoriatic arthritis, correct? Do you have any spots that might be psoriasis? It's a tough one to diagnose with blood work, from what I know, but your symptoms sound SO much like my sisters. Hers was primarily in her back, though she would have flares where the pain would jump around a bit. It is always more painful in the morning. They ended up putting her on a biologic (injection) and it has made a huge difference for her pain level.

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  6. I had low back pain early this year. It ended up being our mattress causing the pain (which made me mad I didn't think of that sooner but that's a different story lol) but in the meantime before our new mattress got delivered, I did yoga and core work and it helped immensely. I didn't do it long each day, maybe a half hour max. Not sure if this would help as it sounds like you have a much different pain but I thought I would mention it! I'm hoping you get some answers from your x-rays!

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  7. Oh yes to the sacroiliac pain. Have you tried Egoscue Method e-cises? The book, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion by Pete Egoscue is probably available at your library, but there are also youtube videos. Static back press saves me when I'm in pain. I can do it on the floor or in bed with pillows piled up. Also air bench and gravity drop. I do gravity drop on the stairs. It works as long as there is a handrail. And good luck with the psychiatrist and manic episode. I can so relate. I love that you talk so openly about it.

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  8. Hey girl - I just went through a lot of the same thing with the SI joint pain! After xrays and an eventual MRI which just showed degenerative arthritis and inflammation. I then got a cortisone shot in the SI joint and that plus a lot of physical therapy and it FINALLY feels better. Highly recommend if your doc is up for it.

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  9. A chiropractor helped me with SI joint pain. I had to go multiple times, but it made a huge difference

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  10. Katie--

    My mom had horrible sacro-iliac pain. It was awful. She could barely walk and couldn't sleep. Her orthopedist referred her to a pain clinic. She received a nerve block shot directly into the joint and it did the trick! She felt SO much better immediately. The pain clinic doctor said she may need to come in once a year for another shot. This, combined with physical therapy, truly changed her life.

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  11. Have you tried yoga? I don't do it regularly, but I gotta say that every time I start having pain in my back, I do it for a while and it's just a day or two before I start feeling better. I do Yoga with Adriene on YouTube.

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  12. I bought a Si belt (back brace) on Amazon and it helped me. It just uses Velcro to wrap around your hips/lower back. I only wear it when the symptoms are bothering me.

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  13. You should keep the rheumatologist appointment. Many diseases that a rheumatologist treats are hard to diagnose, and there are a variety of treatments to try. Make sure to tell your rheumatologist everything you’ve told us, and hopefully it will prompt her to think of a different diagnosis, treatment, or life style change that might help more than your current meds.

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  14. I have had SI joint issues since my early 20s -- I am 48 now. The belt did not help me at all. The things that make it worse are any motion that allows me to use only one leg at a time and gives the SI joint a chance to move. The biggest improvement I found after MANY years was ballet -- something about all those plie moves and static contractions made a big difference. If I dare use one foot to push a box out of the way or move furniture -- forget it! There are things I've tried over the years that have helped also -- floating the SI joint (look it up if you are curious), putting my legs up at 90 degrees on a chair and letting my SI joint realign with gravity over 30 minutes or so, or seeing a REALLY good chiropractor that truly knows what they are doing. Good luck! I have dealt with daily pain for 28 years -- it's no fun. Staying active and dancing a lot definitely helps me.

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