A question for my fellow fibromites

Those of you who have been around for a while know that I’ve been symptomatic since I was 16 years old, but I was only diagnosed with fibromyalgia a little over a month ago. (I am 43 years old.) That means that for all these years I have been unmedicated. Even now, my meds include Celexa (antidepressant), Claritin (antihistamine to keep my urticaria under control), and Zantac (for GERD). I take ibuprofen when the headaches get bad. I do not take any medication for the joint or muscle pain. (Seriously. WTH, man?)

The first week I was on meds my joints felt pretty good. I don’t remember the last time they felt that good. I thought maybe it was a side effect of the Celexa, and I was so happy! But that wore off. I’m back where I was before in terms of pain, but I’m used to it. It sucks, and I hate it, but it is normal for me. What isn’t normal is the fatigue that’s been plaguing me for the last 10 days or so. (I don’t actually remember how long it’s been. I forget things like that. Also, I often sit here, poised to type something, but I have to wait until I can remember what the word is that I had in my mind a second ago. This pisses me off to no end because, while it may not be apparent, I actually had an excellent vocabulary once upon a time.)

What is normal for me is sleep deprivation. I usually either can’t sleep or I only sleep for 3-4 hours at a time. I might get a week or two of good, solid sleep, but that never lasts. Lately, though, I will sleep a full night, be awake for 2-3 hours (sometimes less), then feel overwhelmed by exhaustion and need to go back to sleep. I wake up a few hours later, and I spend the whole day yawning and fighting to keep my eyes open. I thought I was getting my energy back, but that seems to have been a fluke.

The question is: is this normal? The last time I went to the doc my blood pressure seemed particularly low (systolic pressure –top number– for me is usually between 114 and 117. It was 99.) That was after two weeks on Celexa, which I know can lower blood pressure. I’ve been on it just over a month now.

I don’t necessarily want to go off the Celexa. While I think it may be lowering my blood pressure and therefore affecting my ability to stay awake, I also haven’t thought much about how it would be better if I were dead and weighing the pros and cons of, say, getting hit by a bus versus contracting a terminal illness. So, it has that going for it.

I’m going in to see the doc next week. I guess I just wondered if this is something I can expect to deal with in an ongoing fashion. Also, what do you do to combat it? Lying down so much is not helping my joints or muscles.

Thanks,
AZG