I don’t know how it happened. One minute I was dancing at the disco in hot pants living it up and the next I was a woman in her 50’s with arthritis. I must have dozed off or something. So here I am with an aching back and sometimes aching hips, knees and shoulders but on the inside I’m still a 20 something ready to take on the world.
My doctor prescribed Celebrex. Great, an old person medication I said to myself. But within no time every ache and pain I had was gone. I was back at the gym working out like an Olympic athlete. It was like a miracle. But miracles rarely happen so I wasn’t surprised when I broke out in itchy hives. It was maddening. My choice? Give up the Celebrex or scratch like a dog with the mange.
I tried other NSAID’s but none worked like Celebrex and they all gave me hives. After a month or so of trying to get used to the pain again – some of which I’d forgotten all about, I went back on the Celebrex. Sure I have to take Zyrtek to control the hives and I’m not too thrilled about that, but pain-free living is a wonderful thing so until they come up with something that doesn’t cause hives this is my plan.
I have to laugh when doctors tell me to take Tylenol and go to physical therapy because neither thing has any effect at all. Pain-killers work great but doctors would rather stick needles in their eyes than give those to anyone regularly. So I do what I have to in order to reduce the pain and if I die tomorrow I will have spent my last day doing all the physical activities I wanted to do.