FMS Issues and Babies

I’m getting awfully girly lately. Must be all that in-love stuff. I painted my nails before having coffee this morning. I’m still not good at it, but I’ve been practicing.


Since we have talked a bit about having a baby, I checked on the three prescription medications I take. Effexor is safe, so no worries there. Unfortunately, the other two meds I take are listed as “class C.” That means their status is really pretty much unknown because they’re too new for there to be much data. There’s no evidence that they WILL cause problems, but there’s no assurance that they won’t.

I already cut down from taking one of those meds, Provigil, twice a day and just take it in the morning. Since I don’t take pain medications for fibromyalgia, the fatigue from the chronic pain can be pretty difficult. Provigil is an atypical stimulant that helps combat fatigue. I can handle just taking it once a day, and I figure I’ll try not taking it at all.

The other medication is Seroquel, which is in a new class of antipsychotics—no, I’m not psychotic. But in a really low dose (like 1/8 of the normal minimum effective dose for treating someone with schizophrenia), it also helps people with FM and some other conditions sleep more normally. I have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, and when I do sleep it isn’t restful. When I can’t rest, the FM pain gets much, much worse.

Standard sleeping pills don’t help—sure, I’ll go to sleep, but I still don’t really rest. It has something to do with not getting some important sleep stage—I never can remember which one it is. Taking enough pain meds would also put me out—but I still wouldn’t get rest. And because there’s way too much history of substance abuse on both sides of my family, I’m afraid to take either pain meds or sleeping pills on a regular basis.

I tried not taking the Seroquel last night. That didn’t work well. I didn’t get more than a catnap all night, so Sam ended up not getting much rest, either. And now I’m having trouble moving around, and we have an extremely busy day ahead of us. And a very busy weekend. Yes, it was a stupid time to try not taking the Seroquel. And I definitely had to take the Provigil this morning, and will probably have to take the second dose today, too. Grrrr.

So I guess I have to talk to the doctor about safer alternatives (and there isn’t one for Provigil, honestly) or give up on the idea of having another baby because I don’t want to gamble with a child’s health. Actually, I figure if we could find something that lets me sleep well, I could do without the Provigil.

Current Mood: 😡annoyed
Current Music: News on NPR
Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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