Bodies Breaking Down?

[Haunted]

I am reading all the posts about "night sweats" , "fibromyalgia" and the ever famous "back pain NOS". I too am surviving on antiinflammitories as a snack to help me thru the day. I usually wake up 3 pounds lighter from sweating thru "the oldies" all night long, the creaking and snapping of cartlidge and bone as I unfurl my lumpy body from the tangle of damp sheets wakes the entire house.

My memory is shot, I have to make a "to do" list just to get dressed. My appetite is so poor I am actually considering those disgusting nutritional drinks we pour into peoples' G/J tubes!!! I have always been a mellow kinda gal but the other day I wanted to staple gun a gas station clerks thumbs to the counter for deliberately trying to "sass" me! Wow! Irritable isn't the word for it! Not to mention every muscle in my body, including a few I didn't know I had are spasming slabs of pain.

Yes I am perimen, I am on the patch to help with those symptoms ( HA!) and my idea of a good time is sleeping more than 2 hours at a stretch! Are we really falling apart ? Is it the work we do ? The things we don't do for ourselves that lead to these issues? How do the rest of you cope?

[bklynborn]

Last year at this time a woman weighing 250+ and 4 and a half feet tall decided to go down during a transfer. My back was tweaked did PT massage the whole nine yards and of course collected L&I.

Last month I had a fall at home (over the dog gate) landed on my left shoulder. Missed a week of work went for an ultrasound and to PT. NO L&I. US results tendonitis, bursitis, acute and chronic changes to the rotator cuff including calcifications..............I am 51, I don't sleep well because of pain and night sweats. I feel OLD! Found out from th PT that I don't have full range in my right arm either as the result of an old break.

Of course I believe some of this is work related. Nursing is getting tougher all the time. We just went through another matrix adjustment. Fewer nac with more patients and of course more patients for the nurses...............I am seriously thinking of getting a job outside of nursing so I can enjoy MY LIFE more.

Thanks for listening to my vent.

[noc_owl]

Yes, nursing is a very physically demanding job. I don't think I know of a nurse who doesn't have some type of back problems, and I have recently added to my list of bodily aches and pains "Plantar Fasciitis". Turns out more than a few nurses have that too, or some other type of foot trouble. In talking with co-workers we have all found that we also suffer from GERD. We figure it is stress related and also because most of us do eat NSAIDS like crazy. I have decided to go back to school asap because I don't know how long my body will hold up at the bedside, even though that is where I enjoy being for the most part.

Haunted, just an aside, have you had your thyroid checked? Sometimes thyroid disease can be the culprit of symptoms similar to yours, as well as perimenopause.

[Nightcrawler, BSN, RN]

I too have been popping NSAIDs like crazy for years and years

Last month routine lab work showed elevated live enzymes. Doc ordered hepatitis panels (negative), but I am sure that it is the NSAIDs.

I am now trying to cut my intake at least in half (as I creak and groan)

I may be ready for assisted living sooner than I had planned:rotfl:

[Morguein]

My body was telling me it needed some tender loving care (physically, mentally, and emotionally), so I decided to work weekend alternative to take better care of myself and to have a life beyond nursing. Its the best decision I've ever made. I love having 5 days off a week. I'm even thinking of going back to school. I love nursing, but it'll make you as sick as some of your patients if you don't give yourself the attention you need.

[Judee Smudee, ADN, RN]

Once in a while when I am feeling my age and one of my patients is moaning and groaning, I have to choak back a remark about the fact that the person is younger and healthier than I am.