I've calculated my age to be...

approximately 71.

The average age of menopause is 51 years, and they say fibromyalgia adds twenty years to the body...

:)

First Lupron shot was yesterday. It was a bit strange -- normally there's that whole dance in the doctor's office: they hand you the gown, then close the curtain (and the door) behind them, let you change, drape a sheet over the "private" parts, and come back in once you're all gussied up. I always have to laugh at it, because I certainly have no qualms about seeing my own genitals. I understand the reasoning behind it, most certainly, but it still feels a bit silly to me (when I'm visiting a doctor I trust, anyway...)

This time, my husband and I walked back to the room, the nurse closed the door and instructed me to lower my pants and lean against the examining table with one leg relaxed. I waited a moment to see if she'd leave -- no, she stood there preparing the injection. I looked at my husband. He certainly had no answers (I don't think this is an experience he's at all familiar with). So I obliged.

The shot was nothing. Bloodwork hurts worse than that. I hardly even noticed the needle.

But I didn't expect it to kick in quite so quickly. Symptoms are supposed to worsen for the first few weeks, and boy did they ever -- I got out of bed before 8:30 this morning, unable to fall back asleep for the pain. Lower back, lower abdomen. None of the medication is really helping it at all. (It's rare, on a day when I have nowhere to be, for me to get up before maybe 10AM. I purposefully sleep as much as I possibly can, in an attempt to make up for the fact that my sleep is only fractionally as effective as a "normal" person's.)

At least I know I don't have to work today, so I can take things at the pace I need to.