After being unemployed for over a year without any prospects in sight, I decided to go to cosmetology school and get my license. Why cosmetology school at 54 years old? I had actually decided to go to cosmetology school when I was in my early twenties. I was living in Killeen, Texas at the time and again I was unemployed. I had found a woman to babysit my daughter, who was three years old. I dropped her off at the babysitter's house and headed to the beauty school. I had just walked in, was standing at the front desk when my name was paged. I couldn't imagine who could be calling me. I answered the phone and it was my babysitter. She had realized that she wasn't a morning person, and she didn't want to babysit. She asked me to come and get my baby! I was devastated!
I tried again when I was in my thirties and had moved back to NY. Now my daughter was seven. I lived in the same building with my in-laws and I lived with my aunt. I thought I had plenty of people to help me out. I got my financial aid and and set up my schedule. I would be going to school in the evening from 5-9 pm five days a week and all day on Saturday from 9-4pm. I would drop my daughter off at my inlaws, as normal and in the evening my aunt would pick her up from their house when she got home from work. The first day of class, I was about to jump out of my skin from excitement. My aunt came upstairs to my job and I immediately noticed the look on her face. I didn't like it. She told me that she didn't want the responsibility of having to come home straight after work every day. "This isn't a good time for you to go so school," she said. I could not believe this was happening to me again!
Fast forward to 54 years old - I was not able to find a job after a year , so I went to school. Not only did I go but I did very well in school. I graduated after nine months, took my state boards and got licensed a couple of months after graduating. My first job was at a hair salon in the mall. I went to school with the goal of opening my own hair salon.When I was fired from this job, I immediately began to look for a space and into purchasing salon equipment.
I opened Zuri Hair Studio in April 2012. I had begun to notice an aching feeling in my feet, ankles, legs, hips and lower back. However, I thought it was due to standing up long hours. Then it became very difficult to hold my arms up to do blow drying, roller sets, etc. In between clients I had to sit down and rest. I felt exhausted all of the time. I finally went to the doctor and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was prescribed an anti-depressant. When I got to the drugstore I asked to see the patient advisory, as I normally do. I didn't like the side effects and also wondered why I was prescribed an anti-depressant. I didn't get the prescription filled. I went home and called my doctor. I wanted to talk to him first.
He told me that anti-depressants were normally prescribed for this illness. He didn't convince me that there was nothing else. I asked him to prescribe me something for just the pain. Unfortunately, I had some kind of allergic reaction to the medication and had to go to the ER. They prescribed me a different medication. A couple of days after taking it, I began to feel jittery, confused, my head hurt and I did not like the feeling. I decided to just take an over-the-counter pain pill. It wasn't strong enough to relieve my pain for long. In a couple of hours I was hurting again. In November the salon was closed. Since then, I have been struggling with issues of not being employed, not having an income and all of this stress has caused my pain to be increased. I decided to start monitoring what I was eating and to eliminate things from my diet that caused my pain to intensify.
Processed meats were eliminated. Instead I began to purchase a broiled chicken, cut it up and make chicken salad when I wanted a sandwich that had meat on it. I also increased my intake of fresh vegetables. Kale was added to my diet because it was said to have curative properties for pain. I have not noticed any relief from eating kale yet. I have tried some stretching exercises and they do help. What has been an excellent help also is taking a shower at night. It has helped with the soreness in my joints.
There are so many aspects of this illness. I started having severe migraines, not knowing it was one of the symptoms of fibro. I also began to have severe pains in my bladder. I would get up to go to the bathroom four or more times during the night. I went to the ER for the pain. I thought I had a bladder infection. I was prescribed a antibiotic. But, it wasn't an infection. They had no idea what it was and just prescribed me a pain pill. A couple of weeks later, I went to the doctor and they ordered a internal sonogram. Everything looked normal, so it was part of fibro. The doctor suggested I drink plenty of water during the day and ease off consuming water after seven in the evening. That helped with the getting up frequently, but the pain is still there.
I was once a very active person. I am so confined to the house now that it is sad for me. There were so many things I liked to do and now I am limited in what I can do. When I have a good day, I have a tendency to overdo it because I want to get things done that I like. But then the next couple of days I am in the bed. I hope and pray that someone will find a medication that will truly help with the pain, sleeplessness and anxiety caused by fibromyalgia. Not just a medication, but a healthy one that will not have a zillion side effects much more dangerous than the illness itself.
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