Okay, so it isn't really fun, but i liked the "f"s (what's that called? Alliteration maybe? School was a looong time ago...)
When i started wondering a couple of years ago if the aches and pains and dizzyness and extreme fatigue and foggy head were symptoms of something besides being over 50, i went where i always go when learning something new: into the obsession-land of reading, reading, reading. Web searches for this combination of symptoms brought up a number of possibilities, fibromyalgia among them. My doctor, bless her, saw my history of depression and put on her Doctorly Face of Compassion and said, "Often when the issues in our lives are resolved, a person will start to feel better." Okay, and maybe if i didn't always feel like i'd been hit by a bus i'd be less depressed. Just a thought.
Bloodwork showed i didn't have some of the other (scarier) things i was worried about, and the fibromyalgia tender points proved on examination to be, well, tender. Go figure. Unpleasant news, but at least there was a (not terminal) name to go with the face of my symptoms.
i guess what i've been trying to learn since is that i may as well stop arguing and instead try to make friends with this stranger, this interruption of my "real" life. i have some thoughts on what caused it to drop by for an extended visit, but i can't change that. So i'm trying to be the good hostess and learn what i can do to make its stay more comfortable. That's an easier job on some days than others.
2 comments:
hello neighbor, It's excellent that you are blogging. I am delighted to read!
I've been thinking about the other day when we all went grocery shopping together. I'm wondering about how you felt about me asking to help you with the big heavy items.
The reason I wonder is that, as a person with fibromyalgia (I only know how to spell that because it's your title), I feel like you'd want to do many things yourself (everything you can possibly do, I imagine). And me asking to help you makes your "interruption" 1. more public, and 2. more aware of your pain to you.
Here's my question then, would you rather someone ask to help you, knowing you have fibromyalgia, or would you rather do it yourself and ask for the help when you feel you need it?
I also wonder how other peoples with fibromyalgia, or other "interruptions" with similar symptoms like chronic fatige syndrome, feel about this.
Hmmm??
Hmmm...
i guess that for me personally, if someone feels the freedom to offer help, i feel i can answer for that day's soreness level. Sometimes it's no biggy for me to carry stuff, since (like you so astutely pointed out) i do want to keep doing as much as i can--BUT, if i'm already tired/sore, it's nice to know i can count on you to check on that! ;-)
(Oh--and do you recognize the beautiful rose photo? That's from my new rosebush in the back--i almost feel like a real gardener!)
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