I don’t know about you, but when Thanksgiving is over my thoughts immediately turn to the Christmas Season!! The day after Thanksgiving I love turning my house from Pumpkins and Autumn Leaves to Nutcrackers and Reindeer!! Having Fibromyalgia means the transformation takes me a bit longer to achieve then it once did…but I still love to decorate for the holidays-pain or not! (no pain, now that would be a gift!!)
Christmas decorations now take me up to three days to make happen. (Which is not like I used to be at all!!) Once upon a time I used to spend my Thanksgiving evening taking down autumn and putting up (and even decorating) the tree that night. Before we moved three years ago, I even had one tree in five different rooms all decorated in themes! But this was before I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It is hard, sometimes, not to think back to those days…I was a go-getter! Sun-up to way after dark I was a very busy, busy bee! I was like the Energizer Bunny!
But, alas, those days are over! Now it takes me days to accomplish what I once did…or I don’t even attempt it! I have really had to alter my life and my persona. The latter is the most difficult! I think I fight with my former self more than I’d care to admit. Then, on the days when I am just too terribly hurting to even care, I feel guilty for not “pushing” myself. I try to tell myself that a day of rest is helping me…but I was never one to rest before the Fibro! Now, resting has become a part of my (daily…if I can) routine…on most days! (However, I still suffer from my old “push-push” mentality which causes me to crash big-time. It’s a vicious cycle.)
The migraines I suffer from now can knock me out for hours-and that is with many Ibuprofen. On those days I can’t even think clearly, and if I don’t catch it before it really kicks in, I find I don’t even care what’s going on, I just hit the pillow and block the lights! It is an awful thing to suffer from migraines and to my thinking, Fibro-migraines are the worst! But none are fun to live through.
So here I am, the weekend after Thanksgiving with visions of Sugar-plums dancing through my head…and my house is (almost) completely decorated (did I hear applause)…and I awoke with what appears to be the beginnings of a migraine…complete with intensely painful joints with pain that radiates and runs deep into my bones. UGH!
I think my Thanksgiving week has caught up with me. Perhaps I did not rest enough? Perhaps I over did the menu…again? Perhaps I still suffer from being haunted by my old self and I keep trying to fool myself into thinking I am not really sick. Perhaps my Will to do things makes me suffer more. I guess that is not a bad trait, but I do hate to hurt as badly as I do right now. And since I’ve been writing this, I am beginning to feel like this migraine is about to run away with me…I must go find the Ibuprofen…before it’s to late-
So, Happy Christmas decorating! May your home bring you pleasure this holiday season without too much pain!
