Friday, July 31, 2009

My energy drain on fibromyalgia.

The fatigue of fibromyalgia is like an old battery.

When the day begins, my battery is already half expended. No amount of caffeinated beverage is going to get that bad boy back to fully charged.

Fascinating to me are the things in my day that drain it. Take yesterday, for example. The evening before i'd had a massage. aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. Yesterday morning i woke up and was an hour into my morning when i realized "HEY! i don't hurt!" Usually my first waking thought is "go get a pill for pain." And i didn't need one. How richly bizarre.

So i went on my way--a doctor's appointment, copy some papers and drop them off for a different doctor, refill a prescription, go get my eyebrows done (a necessity, trust me.) A little lunch, maybe a quick wander through a furniture consignment store. i really should stop at Target and pick up some cleaning supplies...

However, i've hit my wall. i'm fully in pain again. Plus these 3 hours of driving/thinking/doing have spent the battery. i must lay down now, and if i go to Target i will end up laying in the aisle.

Each and every thing done in a day causes a drain, not unlike any other person on the planet. The bugger of it all is that the battery started out the day half used. i have to keep a watchful eye on the battery gauge for that danger zone flag. Again, like the oversensitive screaming girl in your face pain, the battery gauge is oh so oversensitive. What?? Didn't stop shopping at the first signs of fatigue? Energy shortage for 3 days! What?? Had a great day out of the house? Down for a week!

It's a baffling, mystifying, annoying thing, this off-brand, previously-owned battery of the person with fibromyalgia. It never fully recharges. Some things may be found to help--given the nature of fibromyalgia, each person with it has their own unique stack of problems. For some, finding their food allergies and avoiding those helps. For others with more will-power than i, exercising is great. i want to use my half expended battery on the fun things! If only i could see exercise as fun.

i'd be glad to abuse some Ritalyn if it would help, but my doctors think i'm kidding when i suggest it.

6 comments:

Betina said...

Your comment today MADE MY DAY. Thanks.

I hope you feel better.

julia said...

Thanks and i'm glad. :-)

Connie said...

We saw Julia & Julie yesterday. It was a scream. Of course everything Meryl Streep
is in is great, but that's just my opinion.
Good story and a few good cooking hints, too.
They had the air conditioner on mega-high and I had my usual sweater with me. I started shivering and I couldn't stop. This went on for 2 hours and I was ready to scream or leave.
Later we went and had a bite to eat and came right home and hit the couch. As I got warmer, I got more tired and on and on. Two hours later I couldn't move anything I hurt so much.
I think in shivering I tightened my muscles so much that it just wore me out. It's not just being cold it's like being encased in huge block of ice and even your insides are screaming.
Just writing all this so anyone who reads it will know that none of us is alike with this monster. It does, though, dictate your whole life. For that I really get more than beyond anger.

julia said...

i want to see that movie too!
Did you mention to anybody that it was freezing in there? i suppose the other patrons would prefer the "leave" to the "scream." ;-) But it is weird how things can affect your body that you wouldn't normally think of as painful. Damn oversensitive screaming girl nerves.

Julie Coney said...

i so didn't know this was here.. i am adding you to my dashboard... you are a sneaky one...
would we be considered Julia and Julie??? LOL...

luv you mom... :)

Gerardoavery cristian said...

The authors of this particular study concluded that in fibromyalgia those parts of the brain which are designed to suppress pain were malfunctioning fatigue syndrome