always tired

[Roxie2007]

HI Zygala87,
As I understand it, the only way to 'keep' and protect the long poly-monecular chains that mimic the same long poly-monecular chains of the mucus lining in the bladder is to flash freeze dry the Aloe Vera...or you can drink the organic AloeVera gel from a good health food store but it will usually has a tiny amount of citric acid to preserve it. We buy my Freeze dried Aloe Vera online and we have gotten it at the local Whole Foods store. Roxie

[Zygala87]

Hello Roxie. What is freeze dried Aloe Vera? I buy Aloe Vera caplets at the health counter in the durg store but there is no mention of freeze dried on the bottle. I hope I am not using the wrong thing. Ziggy

[curlycue]

Ic

I have never tried it but I wish you the best of luck.

[Roxie2007]

I saw my dr. today about my arms and legs aching and he said he thinks it's definently from dealing with health problems (ic--which isn't bad right now, Barrett's Esophagus, Arthritis and constant yeast) pain and depression and possibly dealing with Fibromyalgia. So he's trying me on Cymbalta for a month to see if that helps. Has anyone been on Cymbalta? had any bad side effects from it?? I have my fingers crossed that this stuff helps....or at least takes the edge off things. Roxie

[jjt001]

I did not know before how exhausting chronic pain can be. At times when I was having a particularly bad flare (I had pretty ugly pain everyday, but some days it was pretty much unbearable) I would just collapse after I got some meds in me to take the edge off the pain. I mentioned it to a friend whose husband has chronic pain and she said she absolutely knew, from their experiences, that pain is exhausting for the body.

Now that my symptoms are under much better control with Elavil, I'm still sleepier (from the Elavil) but it's different -- I don't feel so drained and exhausted, and I can plan for being a little tired in the morning.

Good luck figuring this all out for you! It's frustrating that everything is trial and error for the individual, but it certainly seems to work that way.

[Katrina]

sweetz
Fatigue may be from a lot of different things...pain, multiple trips to the bathroom, the stress of this diagnosis....if it is lack of sleep are you on any antihistamine or medication like a anticonvulsant or antidepressant that could help you sleep and treat the IC symptoms?
I do agree on getting your thyroid checked ...I think almost IC patients should at some point just as a means of illimination of contributing factors...there are also a lot of other pretty common amoung IC patients such low iron that may contrute...I give a lot more at the link on fatigue. There are some treatments too
http://icandme.9.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=144 fatigue
http://icandme.9.forumer.com/index.p...=ST&f=19&t=217 newbie kit ideas to help you sleep

[mary124]

I think for myself, between pain, and getting up at all hours of the night, I really only get 2-3 hours of good sleep, then its up and down going to the bathroom, in between trips I really don't sleep at all. My pain management doctor put my on Zanaflex a few weeks ago, but that really didn't help. (It stopped a couple of trips to the bathroom, but thats all). Went to my family doctor yesterday, we discussed the possibility of having an over active bladder as well as IC, so he took me off the Zanaflex and put me on Vesicare. (I know some of you ladies have tried it, but any success with it. I need to sleep so that I can function. (I don't have a life -- on Saturdays all I do is sleep and pee!!) My doctor also gave me a referral to the Uro said maybe its time to have my hydro again, so I'm going to do that in a few weeks. (I don't know, if its not one thing, its another!!)

[SandyRN]

You should go to your doctor and have your thyroid levels checked soon. It could simply be the IC, because it does wear your body down, but it's best to be checked. The right dose of thyroid meds can help a lot if your levels are low.

Sandy

[hensleyi]

Interesting that you should bring this up because I was just thinking about this the other day. I am much more tired than I used to be before IC reared its ugly head. Now I am zapped by the work day so when I get home it is all I can do to get dinner together. I know that I used to have a lot more energy in the evenings. When I am flaring, I have weekends where I do not get off the couch. Basically, I feel like I could always sleep.

[meme]

I could always sleep! I think that it is a lot of strain on our bodies to fight these flares all the time.

[curlycue]

Sleep

I am exausted most of the time as well. I guess it comes with this illness.

[judyblue]

I remember being tired and depressed when the symptoms started. Constant pain, getting up several times a night and the restrictive diet all seemed to play into this.

What has helped? Treatment, and adjusting to the night wakenings. I have gotten much faster at getting back to sleep after a bathroom run. I'm not sure how, I think I just got use to it. And, I take Ativan once per week (Friday night so I can sleep it off on Saturday). It lets me get a big night sleep and it calms my bladder spasms. Talk to your doctor about the fatigue. It is a relief just to have a plan in place.

[sandramac]

Me too!
Hugs Sandra

[SrMaggie]

I'm tired at different times during the day. About 9:00 am I get really sleepy. Some days after lunch it's really bad. I can sit down after dinner and fall asleep, but then not sleep when I get in bed at 9:00pm - it is very frustrating. I don't like feeling tired all the time. It is tough especially if you have a two year old. They don't wait for anyone. They need you right away. Hang in there.
Maggie

[ICNDonna]

Pain can be horribly exhausting.


Donna