Living Daily with Chronic Invisible Illness

Another Day with Fibromyalgia

Today was another “normal” day with Fibromyalgia. What does that mean, “normal”? It means we live through the day doing what needs to be done, resting when we need to rest and muddling through the stormy sea of unending pain that seems to always be our constant companion.

Yes, today was another day with Fibromyalgia. It also was Saturday. I awoke in the usual way with stiff joints and painful feet, but when that groggy feeling over swept me after only an hour of being awake, I knew immediately that it meant I would be fighting of enemy of fatigue today.

Due to this, I set out to keep myself busy so I could try to have some productivity in my day before my body completely gave out on me. What did I do? Well, I decided to clean the windows in my kitchen, which lead to hosing off the screens, which lead to scrubbing the storm door with Clorox Gel Bleach spray and a scrub brush. (We have the type of storm door with a rough texture which causes all the dirt and grime to just cling to it. The gel cleaner works amazingly well with not much effort to achieve a bright white door!)

Needless to say, I had to pause continuously to keep the pain from over-taking me. For those of you who are following this blog, you know I like to clean. It just makes me feel good on the inside and the satisfaction of a job well done is quite therapeutic, at least for me. Also, having things neat and orderly actually helps with Fibro-fog! However, the down side is the way deep cleaning makes me feel physically. It is a terrible clash of the chemical makeup I have and my newfound health problems! Nonetheless, I pressed forward until I could go no further. Then I rested and began again.

Everyone who was at home today had their own chores to be done. My husband and two oldest sons were building onto our storage shed and were consumed with this project or I may have enlisted their help in the window washing mood I found myself in. Our oldest daughter was working on her AKC Dachshund business she runs on our property, posting new puppy pictures to her website. Another daughter was ironing her father’s work shirts for the week and the two youngest were playing with their dolls in a playhouse designed of sheets and a picnic table. I am blessed with a large family and wonderful husband! There are no words to describe how great they all are!

When I finally took a rest from the joint pain from the up and down window washing motion, my dachshund daughter had finished her updates and had made everyone lunch!!

(**smiles all around!!**)

The pain and fatigue were overwhelming on my body as I ate and I finally gave in to a nap. An hour later I had to pull myself up. I was still…so…tired…so…sore…so…groggy…so…hurting…and needing to keep moving because I did not want to sleep my day away.

I slowly walked through the kitchen and grabbed my pruning shears, asked my pie-baking daughter to come help me and headed to the overgrown flower bed where I proceeded to cut back all those Red Bud trees that seem to appear overnight where they don’t belong.

My hands and a pair of shears are not a good combination, but nevertheless, I began as my daughter raked them all into a pile and hauled them to a deep section of our wooded property.

Then, it began to rain. It was a light rain, but I could feel it deep in my joints. The pain consumed me but I was determined to finish before it came down harder. The pain won. My determination ended in one large swoop. I s-l-o-w-l-y walked back to the house and porch and lowered myself into my anti-gravity lounge chair I found at Sam’s Club two summers ago. The pain seemed to engulf my very being. My brain cried out that I did this to myself and I consciously know this. I do not like feeling like this, but honestly, life still needs to happen and things still need to be done and I would feel pain even sitting in a chair. I cannot complain because I chose to do these things today. I am working on my countenance (body language, facial expressions), too, trying to keep things smiley and positive!

Soon it was dinner time and we grilled burgers, I showered and settled into a quiet evening trying not to move too much…The rain continued. My head still felt groggy and my joints were still screaming at me. Were the clean windows and pruned flower beds worth all that I went through today? Well, this IS a blog about the day in the life of a Fibro Momma. Was this a typical day? Yes, it was. Because no matter what I choose to do, there is always a level of pain that goes with it. Some days I can barely lift the coffee pot to pour the water in to make the coffee. Some days I HAVE to rest most of the day. But I do try to do at least one thing each day to be productive, even if it is only reading aloud to my girls. And even THAT makes for a very…productive…day!

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