Can I have a moan about my week !? Worst week ever !

[moanabout]

Ah I don’t even know where to begin.

I was made redundant in the summer and recently got a new job. Start date - this Monday. 2 weeks of training 9-6 in office.

we just had half term, kids absolutely fine.. for months they haven’t been ill.

last week on Thursday I started having a pretty bad migraine and felt very ill. I am a migraine sufferer. On Friday I woke up and it was still there and bad. Thankfully my migraine meds helped. Then on Friday night I started getting a stomach ache and some stomach issues that kept me awake all night. I had maybe two hours of sleep and after that sleep, I woke up with the most horrendous migraine.

my son also had a fever. I tried everything I could to treat said migraine but it just didn’t shift. Stomach self resolved after a few hours, but I was left with the migraine. Saturday night I go to bed with the migraine, I wake up Sunday with the migraine, after not really sleeping again. I take a bunch of painkillers, nothing. I struggle for most of Sunday with it and the towards the evening, it finally lifts.

pretty much as soon as it lifts, my stomach / rib area starts to feel funny. Like achey, pulling. The pain moves around. Sometimes at the front, sometimes at the back, sometimes more at the top of my rib cage, sometimes at the bottom. Sometimes across, other times localised in one spot. I try to relax, put a heat pad on and it helps sometimes. I suffer on for hours and eventually at 12 am I fall asleep. I wake up half an hour or so later and the pain is intense. Localised do my back, in one spot- but then moves to my chest. Enough is enough, off to an and e I drive.

I am in there a few hours, many tests later- all blood work perfect, ecg good, xray good. Maybe a bit of stomach irritation because of the meds or some reflux. Or a thing called MS hug, because I have MS, which is pretty quiet usually and I don’t have any problems usually. Well, any problems I do have, like migraines aren’t related to MS, says my neurologist.

I get to sleep at around 5 and wake up at 6:30. I am about to text my new manager that I can’t come in. But I can’t bring myself to. How does that look ? To miss the first day ? I decide to brave it and get my kids ready for school and send them off. I make my way to the office and get on with the day.

my ribs are still hurting a lot on Monday but I get through it. Come home, bed etc and guess who’s up at 2 am with a string fever of 39 - my DD5 years old. So I’m awake with her.

thankfully my mother in law takes her on Tuesdays and looks after her. Tonight she’s woken me up again at 3 am, 39.4 fever. I gave her medicine and then she kept me awake for an hour. She’s finally asleep and I’m absolutely wired. I need to get up for work in very little sleep again. I’m also struggling to sleep at night. I’m just so wired.

what are the chances of so many things going wrong within a few days of needing to start a new job ??

oh and on top of it I am left with this residual empty / gnawing feeling in my stomach at the moment which is setting off my anxiety that something is wrong with me. It’s just great ! Why can’t I just get some rest ! Not sure how I’m going to get through the day !

thanks for reading. Just needed to talk !

Oh mate. That is a rubbish run.

The most annoying thing is how wired I am ! I am struggling to fall asleep at night and keep waking up. Even if I could have just fallen asleep at 9 last night and then my DD woke me up at 3- fine, but I can’t for some reason. Or now, why am I not sleeping. She fell asleep half an hour ago. Argh. It will pass.

That is a dreadful week! I'm so sorry!

Ha ha thank you. You do have to laugh about it. I wonder when I’m going to stop feeling so wired and awake. That would help ! I’m running on adrenaline

Could some of it be down to the stress/anxiety of starting a new job? Once you get into the cycle of stress/anxiety/not sleeping it get harder and harder to get out of I think, especially when kids are adding to the not sleeping! Hopefully you'll all be feeling better soon.

Sorry I put YABU.
This is very temporary, it’s not an horrendous ongoing terrible situation that won’t change.
Face it head on and be brave. You will be ok. Good luck 💐

YANBU.

Oo that sounds hard! Amazing that you’ve been going in, well done.

I’ve got MS. PwMS can have more headaches / migraines - maybe a new neurologist.. It’s complicated..

Eg. In 2012, a study was published about migraine in MS. It pooled the results of eight previous studies and found that migraine was twice as common in people with MS than in the general population.

https://mstrust.org.uk/news/research/headaches-ms

What a start to a new job, rubbish! But, to use a cliche, this will pass! Hopefully you can all just chill at the weekend and recoup.

I’m sorry, it’s shit luck. Power through hour by hour, day to day until you can get to Friday.

Call on as much support as you have available. Do you have a partner? I do hope the children’s father is stepping up to take the bulk on for the next two weeks.

That is really rubbish. You're doing amazingly though. Just keep going, one foot in front of the other.

Possibly try headspace app or yoga for sleep to try and reset at night?

You mention your mother in law, does this mean you have a husband? If so, why has he not been the one dealing with a sick child in the night when you have a migraine and are starting a new job?

Ps. Once thing that helped my MS headaches was drinking more water. About 1-2l a day.

You poor soul. You have had a rubbish time of it lately. Am sure it'll improve if you can keep hanging on .

Get propranolol for that wired feeling from your GP. Totally non addictive and use it when you need it. Which probably won't be often anyway.

I’ve convinced myself I have stomach cancer. I have health anxiety of course..

i will get some proponanol, I’ve had it before. It does help !

Bit rubbish op. We’ve all been there re the illness with kids…you could also be a bit nervous and that’s upsetting your tummy? I would turn up on the first day, even if my leg was falling off, like you. Hopefully you’ll settle and these things will dissipate. Good luck in your new role, and well done for getting back into work ☺️

Thanks fellows MSers for the advice on headaches. Do any of you guys suffer from the hug ? I am really starting to think that I’m suffering from that too.

Yes. 🤷‍♀️