Feeling Better and Better

Three Generations (that's me in the middle, feeling not-so-bad!)

Today I actually vacuumed my entire apartment (which is pretty tiny) and did some dusting!  When I finished, I was tired but not abnormally so.  I can't remember the last time I was able to do this.  

I had planned to begin taking Savella last week but I've put it off since I'm feeling so much better on just the Amitriptyline.  I wish I'd tried this a long time ago.  To anyone out there suffering with ME/CFS and/ or Fibromyalgia, give Amitriptyline a try!  It's one of the older tricyclic antidepressants (pre-Prozac) but I've read elsewhere that it was effective, so I guess I'm not the only one.

My parents have been visiting from NJ for the last month.  My mom kept happily commenting on how much better I seemed from when they first arrived (they flew back yesterday).  "You could hardly keep your eyes open" she commented on the phone today regarding the horrible state I was in. 

Could this really be it?  Have I found my holy grail?  I'm still very cautiously optimistic.  After all, I know it could be just a phase.  But in the meantime, I've been very slowly beginning to exercise again which is something I have missed greatly.  Before Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS took most of my life away, I exercised daily and was in pretty good physical condition.  I cannot say the same now I'm afraid.

On a less positive and completely different note, today I attended our small town's annual "Health Fair".  I don't have health insurance and they offer a wide variety of medical tests for very low rates.  For example, I had a bone density test, echo cardiogram and a thyroid/ kidney ultrasound for a grand total of $110!  Those tests would have cost way over a thousand at my doctor's office.  Everything came back within normal ranges except the bone density test.  The result was -2 which I discovered today is indicative of osteopenia.  Being that I just turned 39, this was a bit alarming, although it does run in my family.  My mother (who is 69 - sorry mom) has normal bone density but I once overheard a doctor describe my grandmother's bones as "chalk-like".  From what the technician told me today, bone density can be repaired by consuming more calcium but of course I'll be heading to the world wide web to check it out thoroughly.  I am so thankful though that my heart is in good condition!  I sometimes worry because when I'm not feeling well, one of the symptoms I experience is shortness of breath and the feeling that my heart has "skipped a beat" and it can be scary.