Category: Suffering with Fibromyalgia

How do you get through a day with Fibromyalgia?

Well, for starters, you have to realize that one day can take on a hundred different pain issues depending on the choices you make.

For example, I usually feel run over by some form of transportation before my feet hit the floor! (How’s that for a “good morning”!!!) Once my brain kicks in, depending on what I remember, my adrenaline might lift me out of bed and out the door quicker. However, most mornings for me are slow to rise, and even painful just to sit up. I paddle around my morning routine in a snail-like sort of way.

Once I get going, many times just knowing what things need to get done keeps me motivated (dishes, laundry, etc.). If I over-do or do things I shouldn’t (like clean a bathroom or sweep a porch) I will collapse into a chair and feel the pains just ooze out of me. But, if I push myself and stop when I should have stopped earlier, I will have more pain to deal with when I finally sit down and worse, for up to several days afterward.

How about the roller-coaster day when you feel like you can do something, so you do it, and immediately your body retaliates! Down you go, perhaps fighting back tears from the pain. After you rest, you are up again, feeling like you can do something (again), only to find yourself curled up in a ball of pain wishing you had stayed down.

Maybe your hazy head of the morning suddenly sweeps you off your feet into an “out-of-left-field” full-blown Fibro migraine! (Uh-oh…down for the count! You awaken with nary a memory of anything prior to it.)

You see, a person who suffers from Fibromyalgia NEVER knows what a day will bring. Just sitting at the table too long can wreak havoc and change the course of one’s day.

The Fibro person looks at all that needs to be done or what they want to do and has to make a choice. “If I do this, then I’ll have to rest. If I do that, than it’ll wipe me out for days.” But your mind says- it needs to be done! Your mind also reminds you of the pain that will follow. It’s a vicious cycle.

Today I cleaned my laundry room. I mean, deep cleaned it. I also taught a daughter how to scrub a shower stall. Later I awoke on the couch barley remembering I laid down there in the first place and then, could not get up until someone came looking for me. (at my house someone is always looking for me! I’m a mom!!)

Today was a roller-coaster day. Pain-rest-pain-rest…currently my hips are throbbing and just getting up to pee sounds like a major task.

Alas, my motto is “It is what it is” and every time I try to do something that caused me problems before just confirms that I truly suffer from this dread condition.

You know, on the “better” pain days we might think it was a misdiagnosis…until we go shopping, cook a meal or clean. Then we are reminded that Oh, yes indeedy we have Fibromyalgia!!

One day at a time. One hour at a time. One moment at a time. Each choice can affect your tomorrow or the next day.

Happy Mother’s Day weekend!!

Two of my blessings are being able to be a wife and a momma. I am thankful and loved.

I hope you are, too.

God Bless-

the Fibro-Momma-of-ten

Well, our remodeled bathroom is almost finished and painted a beautiful deep grey with white cabinets, and, to complete the look, we hung my grandmother’s 80 something year old mirror over the vanity! It looks sharp!!  It’s a far cry from the 30 year old wallpaper, dilapidated cabinets and dated swirling pink countertop that came with the house when we bought it!

I woke up this morning feeling completely run over, but what’s new?

I tell you, the ups and downs of the Fibromyalgia body is as bad as the ups and downs of the spring weather in the Midwest. Maybe that’s coincidental? Weather does play a big part in this whole “living-with-fibro” thing.

Regardless, over this past weekend I had one of the worst Fibro flares I’ve had in a long time. Sunday night I couldn’t even move from the pain in my neck and back and could scarcely sleep at all.

By Monday night, I was able to move a bit and felt 80% better than the night before, albeit, stiff.

By Tuesday night I felt I was doing pretty well overall, at least for a person with Fibromyalgia! However, this morning I woke up and I fear it’s all starting again! Could it be that trip to the store yesterday that I had to go on to get provisions for the coming days? Why, I even had my daughter drive me thinking that would ward off a flare! I think that whether I drive or not it is definitely the getting in and out of vehicle that reeks the most havoc. I have decided that I am limited to no more than two places when I go somewhere.

Wait a minute? I only went to two places yesterday! Sigh…

How do you plan a day when your morning might be fine but then your afternoon pulls you under physically? Or if you wake up like your body has already run a race and you cannot move at all, how can you plan anything???

Fibromyalgia is the most ridiculously challenging and stupidest thing to deal with and yet, I do each and every day!

I could not sleep last night and sat up in my living room mentally moving furniture. I had this overwhelming desire to completely deep clean and revamp the room! It was pleasant to sit for a moment or two and completely vision all of this. Honestly, if it weren’t for the Fibro and knowing what would really happen to me if I actually did that, I would have!

However, when I woke up this morning, all of those thoughts had flown away and now I could care less about moving furniture. I am quite content with how my living room looks currently.

You have to watch all of that when you have Fibromyalgia. On a good day you have all of these thoughts of grandeur…you know, like cleaning this or cleaning that or rearranging rooms; cleaning out that closet that’s been needing it for months.

But deep in the back of our mind we know the pain we will be in if we attempt these things. And then when we’re in pain, it’s like we don’t care; the house could go up in flames and we’re just like la…la…la.

Well, I know I won’t be moving any furniture today, mentally or otherwise! My brain doesn’t seem to be working.  It feels very cloudy and muddled. This is where I tell myself that-

“This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!”

And I will be…

No matter what the day holds.

Blessings to you and gentle hugs!

~The Fibro Momma of Ten