Living with Fibromyalgia and RA as well

Hey Lene,

Thank you so much for the information, my fiance'

is the one with RA and he is getting medications from

his doctor, however the meds he is on can create other

problems for him so I am trying to get a business started online to make enough money to be able to pay for meds that won't harm him just to ease the pain

he goes through every day, plus something that might

cut down on the number of flare ups he has. This has

been his worst year in many years he told me a couple

of months ago. I am looking for natural remedies for

both of us. I found something a while ago that sounds

like what a lot of folks could use to get rid of the pain

for a day at a time, I'll have to look in my archives and find it again then I can let everyone know about it, the

main problem with it is that it costs around $ 60.00

for a one month supply for one of the meds I found.

Well it's been a long day for me because I got called in to work today and this has not been one of my better days as far as pain is concerned. I'm going to get some work done for my website and then I'm calling it a night. God Bless, Thanks Again

Wow,. I read a little too quickly there!  Thanks for the clarification - at least the information I gave you can still be used, with a bit of editing on your part as to whether it's useful for you or your fiance.

Hey Ellen,

Welcome to our new extended family, I'm new too,  so

far I am liking what I've found here. You and I have

something in common besides Fibro and RA being a

royal pain for us, my fiance's name is Gary too and

he is the one that suffers from RA, I suffer from it

only to the extent that it hurts me to not be able to

help him with his pain, Fibro is no fun that is for

sure but not as bad as what he goes through, at

least to me he seems to have more severe pain

than what I deal with, of course he has been dealing

with RA since he was very young, just didn't disable

him until the '80's when it put him in a wheel chair for two solid years, he somehow pulled himself out of that

but as he has gotten older and the past year has been

the worst since he was in the wheel chair. Ok I'll

have to come back later, it's time to get us some lunch.

God Bless and stay as positive as you are able, BethG

Hi Beth,

Thanks for your note!  I know FM can be very bad.  Hard to compare, everyone has something to deal with!  How did Gary work his way outof the wheelchair, that's exciting!  I'm sure grit and a lot of hard work were part of it.  We have to be our own coaches, only somtimes we need to hear it from someone else and know that they care, even if they can't help!   When I unload on my Gary (sometimes i just can't talk about much else, because I'm trying to decide which med I need most, cant do all at once), sometimes I finally get a grip because I can see how much I'm dragging him down and that's the last thing I want to do!  I try to remember that he can't possibly know exactly what to say or how to respond, and that it's my responsibility to support him in the ways that I can.  Like, even, just appreciating everything he does (not just what he says) because that's A LOT!

I'm in the middle of lunch too...been playing a lot of hookey at the office this morning, but it's been kind of slow and I REALLY needed to communicate with y'all!

Ellen

Hey Ellen, What kind of work do you do? I work part time at a nursing home, plus I'm trying to get a website working on the internet, I sell gift and home decor items and some novelty items like Nascar,Harley Davidson, mugs and coaster sets, and a lot more. I'm no techy so this isn't easy especially when I have to put in the pictures and type in a description for each item, I've got a catalog with over 3200 items. Well that's it for now. God Bless, Beth

Hi - just typed a long reply, hit some button, and it disappeared... don't know if you got anything or not!   Darn...

Will have to get back to you later.  Thanks so much!

Short reply: I work as a secretary at St. Lawrence University, for the chemistry & Physics departments.  Great people, but sometimes gets boring & routine.  However, on my bad days, boring and routine is probably a lot safer than teaching music which is what I trained for, but didn't have the energy to carry out (long before I knew I had RA!)

Best wishes, will write more later -

Ellen

Hey Ellen,

Sorry I didn't get back to you before this, I've been trying to get my website running the way I wanted it to, and it is about to drive me nuts, but I finally got my Add To Cart buttons right so people can actually buy the things they want. I just posted a comment to Donna and told her a little about it too, I guess all ya'll can read all the comments on my page, at least I hope so, anyway like I told her, at this point I really don't have a job anymore because they gave the hours I was working to the full time

people, I've been there over two years and I think I missed only one or two days at

most, plus whenever they called me ( even though I might feel like crap ) I went to

work and did my job the best I could ( of course I took more time than anyone else to do it ) my fiance' keeps telling me I should try to get a job at the local market so at

least I'll have some kind of paycheck coming in, because his check won't cover all the bills, he doesn't realize how bad I feel most days because he is in so much pain all

the time that i try not to show it too much, he knows I'm in pain and that I'm tired

all the time but he thinks I'm tired because I'm usually up at night until at least

2 or 3 AM on my computer, he doesn't know that I'm only up so late because it

takes me so long to do things, I usually take a two hour nap either in the afternoon or early evening when I can just to give me a little energy and so I can think a little more clearly, plus to give my eyes a rest. I'm trying to get my business working so I can

make the money we need, and at 50 years old it really isn't easy learning all the

new stuff I need to get a list of customers and get people to go to my website and buy. I'm not great with technical stuff to start with but I can't afford to hire someone to do it for me so I have to learn to do it myself, and that is one thing that takes a

lot of time, because there is so much reading to do and videos to watch. The worst

part for me is that he doesn't believe that I'll ever make it work enough to earn a living. It gets really depressing and some days I feel like just giving up on it, and then

I get to thinking that I cannot give up, I will not quit, for once in my life I am going

to finish what I have started, I will somehow, someway make this business work and

not just for earning enough to just get by, I will figure out how to get a lot of people

coming to my site and buying the items they want to give as gifts and the items they

want to add beauty to their homes or to give to those they care about to make them

smile every time they look at what they got from my website or my catalog. Sorry I

do tend to run on about my business, but I really can't seem to help it, I've got over 3200 items in my catalog and they are all really neat things. Once I start making

enough profit to have some left over after the bills are paid then I am going to start

putting money aside for a new house that I can put my favorite items from the catalog in. The house we live in is too small to fit some of the things I want, one day I want to build a new home for us that is handicap accessible so we can both do the things we want to do without having to ask someone else for help. Okay I'm going to stop

writing now. It is 2:12 AM here and time to get some rest, Ive got laudry to do in the

morning. I hope I haven't bored you silly, thanks for reading this. Have a Great Day Beth

Hi Beth,

I'm kind of overwhelmed right now, cannot respond too long (darn, just hit that delete button accidentally again!

Did you think of doing web work from home for others, as well as for yourself?  If you can do web design, that is an option, and you wouldn't have to be on your feet...

I believe there's also something called VESID (connected with social services) that provides educational funding for people with disabilities... maybe could retrain for some appropriate occupation.  Working at a local market or anything being on your feet does not sound great to me!  (I simply couldn't do it myself...)

I wish you well.  I'm enjoying Tai Chi myself very much, helps keep me calm and focused, will start on Qigong next.  I gave up eBay for Lent and felt good about that - we really don't need to buy much, but when I get bored, I  browse .... and have gotten some wonderful bargains, like Sag Harbor 100% wool pants.  That's the kind of practical stuff I like (you understand I live in the Frozen North!)

Well, I hope things get better for you - and that your family understands and continues to support what you are doing.

Best wishes,...

Hey Donna,

Thanks for the information, unfortunately I don't have any health coverage, nor do I

have any money for meds. The worst part for me is that I haven't been able to go to a doctor for many years for those two reasons, I am afraid that it is going to be a while before I can find a way, I'm getting ready to apply for Social Security or SSI or whatever I can get because at this point I can no longer do my job in the time allowed so the nursing home I was working at has given the few hours I was working to their

full time people and put me on what they call PRN status ( which means if someone

calls out and they can't get someone else to fill in then they call me ) this basically

means I no longer have a job, I haven't worked since March 10th. Since my fiance' is on a fixed income due to his RA and Gout that means that there is even less money to work with and if my website doesn't start making any money really soon I'm going to lose the high speed internet that I need for business, plus other bills won't get paid

so there is nothing I can do about my fibro right now, and aside from that we don't have a doctor here in town and my car barely gets me to and from where I was working, and my fiance's isn't in much better shape with barely enough money for gas to get him to the doctor once a month. I will look into the places you wrote about

though and see if they can help somehow.

Thanks again for writing to me. Beth

Beth, I just called Janseen about the cost for pain patches and you can go to the pharmacy each month with a script from your doctor and get each month supply for FREE!! I was shocked to find out that they are FREE!! I am blessed with a doctor that I see every 4 months and I am able to get scripts as I need them. Maybe you could find a doctor similar. It would be worth your weight in gold!! I will continue to pray for you.......

Hey Donna,

Thank you so much for the information, As of today I am starting the process of getting some help so I can go to the doctor, I'm still not sure how I'll get there

but I'll take one step at a time and eventually things will come together. At this

point I don't have a choice, I need to find a way to at least lessen the pain so I

can focus on the things I need to do to make a decent living. I hope you are having

a good day. God Bless Beth