Saturday, April 16, 2011

Blast from the Past...I'm in the mood for a bit of Heaven!

I love this polish, it totally helps cheer me up! I
need a backup of it!!
Have you ever had one of those days when you're just moody as heck for no real reason¹, and every time someone speaks to you, you either want to scream at them or curl up and cry? Yea, me too, only mine seems to be one of those weeks. Very frustrating!

I'm taking a new medication for my fibro, and unfortunately it's got a list of side effects that's pretty unnerving: simple ones like blurred vision, dry mouth, weight gain, and drowsiness; and more upsetting ones like back and forth eye movements, chest pain, fainting, loss of coordination, memory loss, speech changes, twitching, and worst of all- "new or worsening mental or mood changes (eg, depression, agitation, anxiety, panic attacks, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, irritability, hostility, exaggerated feeling of well-being, restlessness, inability to sit still)."²

Now, normally I wouldn't be too concerned about this. There's just one little thing... I took another drug that's very similar to this one and ended up having extremely bad "mood changes." I won't go into it, but let's just say the doctor got me off of it really quickly after we explained what happened. Knowing that, my doctor and I discussed whether I should even try this drug, and we're in the process of slowly building up to a theraputic dosage of this drug. Right now, I'm taking the dose they'd give an unwell 80 year old woman. My doctor said that I won't notice positive results yet, but hopefully if I do react badly, it won't be nearly as bad as before.

Unfortunately (it seems I'm saying that a lot in this entry... ah well...) my doctor left the clinic two months ago. My last visit was with the nurse practitioner (whom I absolutely adore), and Monday I'll get to meet my new doctor. I'm a bit anxious about this, bu I'm optimistic, and if it doesn't go well, I still have options. I'm just afraid I won't be taking this medicine any longer, and I really was hoping it would work well for me.

That's a heck of a long introduction to explain why I'm in the mood for happy things!! However, between overdoing it on our little vacation the last couple of weekends and this new medicine, I'm one grumpy camper. I'm working very hard not to snap at the people around me and not to be a total pain in the butt. To help with this, I'm finding myself doing little things to cheer myself up.

For example, I am writing this blog wearing my pink penguin pajamas, with the absolutely adorable patch on the shirt that has a sweet little penguin dressed in a lime green scarf and hat and absolutely covered in green microglitter! The glitter doesn't even come off, it's mixed into a clearcoat, so it's not scratchy or anything! I love these PJs more than I should, probably, considering I'm a thirty-something mom!

Also, I've been experimenting with nail colors. I've been a bad blogger and not taken photos, but you'll have to forgive me. With the fibro acting up, I've had a hard time carrying the camera, much less dealing with Photoshop. You'll have to make do with photos from the archive and vivid descriptions, sorry!

Two days ago I painted my nails again. I was in the mood to experiment, so I started with Sally Hansen Salon Reddy to Mingle. It's a sheerish red with a very slight shimmer that's really intense, and slightly on the warm side. Absolutely gorgeous, and one coat did all I needed. I decided I wanted to warm it up even more, so I added a coat of Sinful Colors Let's Meet, a sheer shimmery yellow that I absolutely adore. Between the two, my nails were a very nice slightly streaky orange that I really liked. I wanted to up the sparkle factor, though, so I added a coat of Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Grapefruit Glimmer.

The final result was a gorgeous reddish-orange with super sparkle. I don't think I could have gotten any more sparkle without adding glitter! I liked the way the color was built up of sheer colors, because it wasn't that flat opaque look you sometimes get. There's nothing wrong with that, but this was interesting, and you should know by now how much I like interesting!!

Today has been a busy day, and I managed to twist my knee while I was out and about. I'm icing it now, and I decided I wanted a bit more ... more. So, I dug deep into the polish vault and dug out one of my all-time favorites- Ruby, by Heaven Nail Lacquer. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff Nail Coor in Red Forever Creme. This polish is super-old, I don't even remember when I bought it! However, it's still a fantastic polish, and one coat is all I need. I topped that with two coats of Ruby, and oh my goodness, does this sparkle. This is definitely doing the trick, although I've got all sorts of other ideas now for glitter polishes.

And of course, I topped them off both times with Seche Vite. I'm starting to twitch, because I'm almost out! Looks like I really need to get those Etsy listings up! C'mon brain, you can do it!!

So, that's my day, and my nails for the next few days. Let's hope my mood improves, so I don't have to tell my new doctor on Monday that this medicine is making me do all sorts of awful things. Cross your fingers for me, ok?


¹ I don't even get PMS anymore, so I can't blame that!
² Side effects copied from http://www.drugs.com
³ This was well before my polish obsession, back when I didn't know how to properly clean up my nails, or how to use cuticle remover. And I wondered why I had trouble keeping my polish on!
Trying new medication sucks. I don't recommend it.
See my disclosure statement for more information.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, are you trying Savalla? I have FMS too (for the past 12 years) and just read about Savalla yesterday. No thank you. It reminds me of Effexor and I had some SERIOUSLY bad side effects with that. I'm sticking with Neurontin and tramadol. Lyrica is too expensive (and not that different from Neurontin) and Cymbalta and I didn't get along either. I do hope whatever it is you're trying works for you. It's such a terrible condition and the treatment is so trial and error that it can be ridiculously frustrating and depressing. Good luck. Keep me posted!

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  2. Ginger- no, I'm trying Neurontin this time. Lyrica made me absolutely homicidal/suicidal (at the same time), and Savella was just about as bad. Cymbalta does wonders for me (both mood/anxiety and fibro pain) but it's not enough. I haven't tried Effexor, but so far the Neurontin is starting to do just like Lyrica & Savella. I was hopeful, but... it's just not worth messing with everyone's lives, you know? My family have to live with me while I'm yoyoing like this, happy/angry/sobbing/screaming/laughing/sobbing... it's a roller coaster, and I'd like to get off, thank you!

    Are you able to work? I've had fibro for probably 15 years or more, but it got really bad in 2002. I haven't been able to work since, and it absolutely eats me up! Then again, there's not a whole lot I can do about it, so I may as well just deal, you know?

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  3. Aw girl, I've been thinking about you! (((hugs))) :(

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  4. You poor thing! Hopefully you'll get better soon.
    Love the red nails, great choice!

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  5. I keep trying to answer you, Laynie, but blogger keeps eating my comments. I'd love to talk to you about the "joys" of having Fibromyalgia. You can reach me at my livejournal acct if you have one!
    Ginger

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