Living Daily with Chronic Invisible Illness

Fibromyalgia and Deadlines

When you have deadlines to meet and you suffer from Fibromyalgia, that can make one’s week extremely difficult to get through.

I don’t know about you, but when I have a deadline it causes my adrenaline to kick in, allowing me to accomplish the task at hand, but the after effects can be debilitating.

My regular day includes home schooling my children, cooking meals and normal day to day chores. It’s my routine and one my body is used to.

However, when something gets added to that and stretches me to my max physically, it will throw me into a flare.

This past week was grueling because this past winter, my children have been working on their 5th CD. My job to see it get manufactured is creating the CD case, disc, and other behind the scenes stuff, as well as being there during the mixing process.

All of that takes countless hours of sitting or hovering over a computer screen, which wreaks havoc on my Fibro body.

Yes, I broke the process down into smaller doses over a two month time period, but the mixing is different.

When mixing I am at someone else’s studio and on their time clock and it doesn’t matter how I feel. If it is scheduled, I need to be there.

Memorial Weekend is upon us and that is my deadline.

Let me rephrase that. Before Memorial Weekend is when we need to have the CD completed and in our hot little hands. That process takes weeks. It begins before May 1. We are now well into the first week of May and I spent yesterday in the studio for the mixing. (That is behind schedule).

My adrenaline kept me going, but when it’s over, I crash hard.

Very hard.

Other people’s schedules are not conducive to a Fibro body, especially when you have to be there when they say to be.

I awoke this morning feeling the effects of my week (and month) and the 7+ hours I spent yesterday mixing the CD only added to my suffering. I can scarcely move, I feel bruised all over, stiff and jointy with that hazy head feeling I get when a migraine is lurking in the shadows.

I hate it when I wake up feeling like road kill being left for dead.

Can I rest today? Nope. Not a chance.

My husband has an important doctor’s appointment an hour+ away and I must go with him. He needs me today.

Deadlines, meetings, due dates, appointments…NOT Fibro friendly.

Life does not slow down. Sometimes we cannot slow down either. Today is one of those days.

I am happy when deadlines are behind me and I can try to rest…eventually.

Pain is a part of life. Fibro pain should not be. Fibro sufferers understand this.

It is what it is.

I’m moving sloth slow today.

Happy weekend…and very gentle hugs.

~The Fibro Momma of Ten

Living Daily with Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia Frustration

What is my biggest frustration?? Well, it would be choosing how to use what energy I have to complete the things that need to be done in a day. Especially when there are so many things that need to be done.  If I break these down to the bare necessities then I am faced with the challenge of the evening meal. Do I start dinner this morning? Do I put dinner off until this afternoon hoping that I can still make it or will it become a quick meal like sandwiches because my body quit on me before I was ready? Well, my husband deserves better than a sandwich for his Hard Day’s Work and therefore if I choose to start dinner in the morning then that means I cannot lesson plan. (I am a homeschooling mother and summer is my lesson plan time). I have to choose how my energy is better spent. I have to decide what to make for dinner.

Now, I have two whole chickens sitting in the refrigerator. I can season them up, toss them in a crock pot and walk away and then this afternoon make some rice and vegetables and call it good. However, baked chicken is not my husband’s favorite thing. Okay, so do I cook down the chickens all day and make a nice broth and thicken that and boil some pasta and make creamy chicken and noodles? That will work except that I will have to de-bone the chicken after it’s cooked and I don’t know how I’m going to be feeling when that time comes to de-bone it. So then I think maybe I’ll just make individual chicken pot pies! But then, the cloud befalls my mind when I think of all the work involved in that and will I feel like I’m able to do that this afternoon????

So now I’m back to the baked chicken as it will still put out a nice meal for my family and cause me the least effort and hope my husband will still smile while he eats it. This might sound like a random problem…or not even a problem at all,  but for those who suffer with Fibromyalgia you know exactly what it is that I’m dealing with. I have always been a planner.  I would plan a day to time, then a week at a time, a month at a time, and even a quarter of the year at a time.  I had short-term goals and I had long-term goals.  My family is large. I home-school.  I have to do these things. But now I am literally to the tentative daily plan and “hope”  that I can accomplish what I need to do in a given day.

Today I am coming off of the 4th of July holiday.  It is also storming.  Needless to say, I cancelled my PT appointment for this morning.  Both the holiday and the weather are an unfortunate factor for me in getting through a day.  So here I sit, writing this down.  My immediate goal is what to make for dinner and do I use my energy on that or the lesson plans that I’m supposed to be spending my day working on? The frustrations of Fibromyalgia,  there are no words.  Well, there are words… But we won’t use those here. Now, where did I say those chickens were???

Fibromyalgia Migraines

Fibro Migraines

Migraines are a drag. Fibro Migraines are worse because they engulf your whole being.

Time has a way of moving by too quickly, but when you have Fibromyalgia, it tends to go by slower, especially if you are having more pain than usual. When you get a Fibromyalgia migraine, you lose blocks of time out of your day.

Yesterday, the kiddos and I were getting the family room together for company that is coming in for our son’s High School Graduation this Saturday. Out of nowhere, I had a migraine come and completely knock me off my feet. You know the kind-that hazy feeling that suddenly engulfs your very core, settling into your joints-ALL your joints. Your neck and back begin screaming at you, your temples start to throb, light begins to hurt your eyes, your hands ache, you feel nauseous and you suddenly feel paralyzed with pain….All you want is to be horizontal….as fast as possible….Sound familiar? If it does, please know I can sympathize with you. Ibuprofen is my friend at these times and after 2+ hours with a covering over my eyes and (sometimes) one of my kiddos rubbing my temples until the meds kick in, I manage to doze off. Upon awakening, my body feels all stiff and I am like the tin-man desperately in need of an oil can! Those migraines literally make me feel like I lost part of my day- It’s like I forget a lot of what was going on before it hit.

These occur in my life several times a month. No pattern, no warning.
Today I will be leaving to go with my oldest daughter to help her pick out the bedding for her sweet baby who is due around Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to this!!! However, we have to drive about an hour to shop and being in a car that long is never fun for me.
I am taking it slower than usual this morning, not wanting to rock the “boat” and cause a setback.

The Lord is my strength on these busier days. One day at a time, right? Tomorrow I will feel it-as my journal has shown, but today I need to enjoy the time spent making memories. It is fun to watch my daughter getting so excited about the baby!!! So here is to today, whatever it may bring! Happy June and gentle hugs 🙂