Tuesday 16 April 2024
A boring home life
Saturday 13 April 2024
Russian roulette
I hear so much about having a rest or nana nap when it gets really bad, but any Fibromite will tell you that you often wake up worse than before and your muscles feel like it's early morning again.
It's a game of Russian roulette to take a gamble of feeling better after a nana nap. Waking up can go either way.
Are you willing to gamble reliving morning muscle pain again? Lotsa luck!
Saturday 30 March 2024
It's a double whammy!
I am flat out resting today, trying to cope with the pain of a flare of fibromyalgia and polymyalgia rheumatica.
Honestly, it's hard enough coping with fibromyalgia flares, let alone PMR as well. And to make it more difficult it's Easter and there are no doctors available, and it doesn't seem to be urgent enough for ER.
Usually PMR fizzles out after about 5 years, but I have had it on and off for 20, often at first mistaken for fibromyalgia.
My doctor told me that often it leaves the sufferer with neck and shoulder arthritis, but rarely, it can last a lifetime. Lucky me.
The treatment for PMR is prednisolone but I am wondering if I should take it without my doctor's permission. I have to remember that it elevates my sugars and they have already gotten higher without it.
After a miserable night's sleep, I took a Tramadol which has helped a little. I took paracetamol as a baseline.. I will most likely have a nana nap soon.
The fibromyalgia is making my knees and back ache and where that lies off, my neck and shoulders and jaw with pounding headache take over thanks to the polymyaglia...
All in all, I am a mess and tired of feeling like this... PMR and fibro are bad enough separately, but this is the worst of all- a double whammy!
Friday 16 February 2024
The power of a nana nap
Saturday 10 February 2024
Xena's still upset with me!
For those of you who follow my sister blog, Morning Cuppas With Glenys, you may recall that recently I had to rescue a sparrow from our little white cat, Xena's mouth.
Although it's been 2 weeks since that rescue, my relationship with her has gone south! She ignores me. When she lays on the floor in front of me, she keeps her back to me and if she walks past me on my computer desk, she presents her bottom to me as she passes me to drink from her drinking fountain on my desk.
I can't work out why she's so upset and why her grudge has continued for so long. She is well fed so the bird affair must have been for sheer pleasure of the hunt. And although the hunt was successful, she didn't get to enjoy the fruit of it...
Maybe she was trying to please me by bringing this poor bird home like the time she brought home a dead mouse and laid it on my back doorstep.. perhaps my rejection has hurt her feline feelings...
With a very nasty fibromyalgia flare and extreme fatigue, I have been having frequent nana naps and she does still come into bed with me...
But the feeling of companionship is lacking now and I want it back. But how does one say sorry to a cat?
I fear that our relationship is permanently damaged and I am fully expecting her to put out her tongue at me to air her feelings..
I am checking her little claws as she sometimes accidentally scratches me in the night when she's curled up beside me.
Come to think of it, maybe it's not accidental- maybe she's still fuming... I will never know. What I do know though, is that Xena's still upset with me!
Monday 23 October 2023
Ordinary is good!
Saturday 15 July 2023
Just living is a physical ordeal.
Wednesday 28 June 2023
It's not about how fast we spin our wheel
Whether you have the flu or a cold or suffer like I do from fibromyalgia, you will have days where your body forces you to rest simply because you can't do anything else.
But that doesn't mean that resting will make it better. Nor does it guarantee that you will gather more spoons to use when you rise up from your sickbed.
When you are chronically ill, you don't get better and rest definitely doesn't leave you feeling refreshed and full of energy.
The most rest can do for us is give us a temporary respite from forcing ourselves way beyond our comfort zone to serve our family.
Needing to rest can make those who don't understand chronic illness to make us become the victim of nasty retorts stating that we are lazy and putting it on in order to take to our bed.
Being that fibromyalgia is one of many invisible illnesses, we are often maligned as malingers and the angst that this creates can cause us to become depressed as well as angry.
We didn't ask to be sick and most of us in fact push ourselves way beyond our comfort zone to prove to ourselves and others that we are not lazy.
I think as fibromyalgia is often a prolonged illness that we would do well to take thoughts of others directed at us to be taken into the captivity of Christ Who doesn't condemn us but Who loves us at all times.
He understands and doesn't condemn us. We have to take His Word that He loves us as we are.
We need to learn to switch off from those who condemn and criticise us for taking frequent breaks and nana naps. We know we are doing the best we can and our worth is not about how fast we spin our wheel.
Monday 16 January 2023
More than just a place to sleep
Saturday 10 December 2022
Failing fast
My body is failing me and the fatigue is not only sapping my strength but my mental faculties. It is hard to formulate a sentence these days.
I have been to the doctor. My blood pressure meds have been increased (200/86) and that in itself makes me tired.
These days it takes me all my time to look after Chris and my home. Forget socialising.
I am on the strongest oral antibiotics, taking 9 a day. They have brought the boil on my spine to a head. I am waiting for it to pop itself, rather than try to squeeze it. Though I think I would die from the pain if we tried to do that. The boil is quite large.
I pace myself to try to eke out my meagre spoons but I find I just have to have a nana nap in the day to have enough spoons to cook dinner.
I am praying that I feel better for Christmas as we are having family here for lunch Christmas Day. Most certainly I will have to be stronger than what I am now. My body is failing fast.
Wednesday 5 October 2022
Here a little.
Monday 12 September 2022
Of rosy cheeks and apple roses
Saturday 3 September 2022
Between my nana naps!
Today is Saturday morning here. I have had a busy week with doctors appointments and physio for my daughter who is doing really well.
My son had a possible cancer in his bowels, but the first test was a false alarm and to be honest, it made me anxious. I didn't realise how anxious until he was cleared.
This son was born with a forceps injury to his eye- it looks normal but he has very little sight in it. He has developed a pterygium or sun damage in his good eye and has surgery next Friday to remove the growth because it is growing across his eye and may interfere with his vision. I will be glad when it's done and his eye has recovered.
All this has given me the Mother of all Flares. My fibromyalgia is killing me at the moment and I am taking frequent naps to cope with it. I have a few housework chores to do and some folding up of clean washing. I will do it- in between my nana naps!
Saturday 20 August 2022
A big part of my life
It's 11.30 Saturday morning here and already we have been to have blood tests, come back and had breakfast and I have done a load of washing, folded clothes and stacked the dishwasher.
They weren't able to get blood from me today so I have to come back Monday. This in spite of drinking water beforehand.
Chris is sleeping and I am thinking of having a nana nap as I have no spoons left. So tonight I will be cooking pork chops with mashed potato and salad. I may serve a fruit salad for dessert.
The fibromyalgia is flaring and I am aching all over. I haven't recovered from the move yet. In spite of knowing I could/should do some more around the house, I know that I need to rest or tomorrow will be a repeat of today. Pacing and resting are now a big part of my life since fibro.
Saturday 18 June 2022
It's a pain in the neck
Wednesday 25 May 2022
We just have to embrace it
Our fiver got to South Australia to its new owner and they rang us to tell us how pleased they were with it. So that's good.
We are taking our GMC Sierra to the mechanic for a good overhaul Monday and then we will decide what we will do with it. Over here they are seen as a luxury ute and we think a young buck would love it. That's what we are hoping.
My twin and son and granddaughter continue to recover from Covid but are still very much under the weather with it.
I am convinced that our prayers have helped keep my twin. She's so many serious health issues such as lupus and I was afraid for her.
I have done a load of washing, cleaned my kitchen and am about to make some lunch. I have a flare of fibromyalgia again and my spoons are nearly all gone. I will be taking a nana nap soon.
With an imminent move, I am not looking forward to the energy output, however I am looking forward to being nearer family.
I will miss the birds and our feral cat who is gradually becoming less timid as we feed him. We have named him Teddy Bear as his face is surrounded by bushy fur and he is gingery brown and looks like a teddy.
But I know in life that one rarely gets everything one wants and so we have weighed up staying or moving. We have decided that we want to be closer to family, particularly our daughter who has had leukaemia.
With a bird bath/feeder and garden swing to take with us, we will continue to feed the birds as we watch from the swing in the garden.
It's true what they say: nothing is sure except death and taxes. Life is full of change. We just have to embrace it.