Sunday 24 December 2023
It is what it is!
Sunday 3 September 2023
Making hygiene fibro friendly
I have been ill with fibromyalgia for about twenty years now. In that time, lots of things have changed, and one of them is my personal hygiene routine.
One would think that taking a bath or a shower would be an easy thing to accomplish, but if you suffer from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, back problems or angina problems like I do, you would realise that it consumes a lot of your spoons. So I had to do a bit of rethinking of my daily routines. I've discovered that one of the places that takes a lot of my spoons is the bathroom.
Because bathing and drying and dressing exhaust me, I varied my time in taking a bath depending on how well I feel. If I have enough energy, I would bathe in the morning, if not I would take a shower before bed as Chris is home and he helps me get dried and into my nightie. (When you are chronically ill, you quickly get over being humbled by needing assistance- you are grateful for any help available.)
I have found that if I take a bath or shower in the morning I am left with no energy for the rest of the day. If I take my shower at night, I have just enough energy afterwards to get myself to bed, which works out much better.
Hot baths or showers leave me too exhausted and give me angina pain, so I take showers with only warm or tepid water. While I would prefer to shower every day, showering is best done every other day for me to avoid flare-ups of pain, fatigue and soreness. I have decided on some new course of action to make time in my bathroom more fibro-friendly.
One of the first things I changed was how I take a shower, or rather, the position in which I shower: sitting. Here I find those telephone type showers are useful. When I get out of the shower, I sit down to dry off.
I can no longer blow dry my hair so by necessity my hairstyle has been wash and air dry for years now. Time in front of the sink brushing my teeth or washing my face has been modified by resting one foot on a stool while standing. Because of spinal problems and being a short person, I have a glass in my bathroom which I fill with water and use for rinsing and cleaning my toothbrush without straining to reach the tap.
I no longer wear makeup, the standing in front of the mirror and the use of my hands in holding the various tools of the task, is now limited to special occasions only; it is too painful a task to do on a daily basis. Also, my face is so sensitive that it breaks out in red welts at the slightest pressure... which includes smearing on foundation. This is called dermagraphia.
The bottom line is taking a shower is a real workout now. In addition to modifying how I take a shower, I am going to follow these 3 rules: I will only take a shower at night, I will only take warm water showers and I will only take a shower every other day. With the employment of a good deodorant after each shower and a fresh change of underwear each night and morning, I have found that I don't offend anyone and remain feminine and dainty.
Life with chronic illness is complicated, but at least I manage to stay clean while living it!
So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12
Saturday 15 July 2023
Just living is a physical ordeal.
Friday 23 June 2023
I need him awake and aware
Wednesday 19 April 2023
The spirit is willing
Monday 21 November 2022
It still is what it is!
Wednesday 3 August 2022
I can hardly wait!
Monday 2 May 2022
"It is what it is!"
Tuesday 29 March 2022
Lovely stuff
Friday 25 March 2022
The only nice thing about it
Saturday 5 March 2022
When you got no spoons everyone has to help!
No, I knew from 20 years experience that my respite from pain would be short-lived and it was. But because of planning for it, it hasn't seen me in a total mess, overwhelmed with meals and mess.
I had my handmaiden, aka dishwasher and I kept up with the dishes. I did a load of washing a day and I dried it in the dryer. But my greatest life saver was my frozen dinners I have in the freezer. They saved the day.
In all honesty, though I haven't kept the house running smoothly all by myself. I have had to enlist Chris to help me with stacking and unstacking the dishwasher and I asked him to put his own clean clothes away as soon as they came out of the dryer.
He has been really good actually- a blessing really. He also encourages me to take a nana nap, and feeling so fatigued and sore, I am so glad. We all need a hand when we are feeling so wretched and when you got no spoons everyone has to help!
Tuesday 14 December 2021
Resting my tired twinkle
Tuesday 30 November 2021
But then again, maybe not!
Fibromyalgia has taken a back seat and I am enjoying having some spoons. It's been so long that it is a surreal feeling.
I have been washing our bedding after the winter months and will be packing away our doonas. We both don't sleep very well and so we prefer minkie blankets. They are light and easy to throw off if we get too warm, yet warm enough to preclude the need for the heavier doonas for a drop in temperature.
It's such a joy to open the windows throughout the house too. We are fresh air freaks. There's nothing like the smell of the early morning.
I am going to make up my favourite cookie recipe today. And I think I will bake some sultana muffins for Chris. He loves them.
In stark contrast to flare days, I have already had my shower and gotten dressed. I need to take our bloods and give Chris his insulin injection. I think I will serve him some soldiers for breakfast this morning.
I have pork chops thawing for dinner tonight. I may do an egg salad to go with them. It's salad weather here at the moment.
As I must pace myself so as not to bring on another flare, I think in between tasks I will go out in the back garden and sit on the garden swing. My friends the birds are so tame that they actually come down to eat almost from my hand. It's so relaxing!
I have a lot of things I want to do today, but nothing compares to sitting in the swing in the sun watching the birds. So maybe I will get all those things done, but then again, maybe not!
Tuesday 16 November 2021
Searching for some spoons
So Chris wasn't feeling well, so we didn't get out yesterday. I ordered $30 worth of groceries through Woolworths online. We have to pick them up at 1pm. It's so handy to shop like that. After that I need to get some prescriptions made up and go to the Post Office.
Tuesday 19 October 2021
I need him awake and aware
Tuesday 12 October 2021
Tyrannical spoons
Saturday 4 September 2021
Sacrificial home keeping's sorted
Today I managed to finish washing the dishes- I have been doing them in short bursts as I can't stand long.
I managed to take a shower this morning and I had to rest a bit after it. But it was good! The water relieved some of my muscle pain from my fibromyalgia.
I rang my friendly housecleaner and offered her some extra money if she would regularly change both our beds each fortnight. Even though due to illness, we have separate rooms now, the beds still need changing fortnightly. I can no longer do it. She's agreed to do that, so that's a load off my mind.
We had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, but Chris didn't feel well enough to drive and I can't, so we changed to a phone consult. I got some scripts for pain relief and discussed Chris' diabetes woes. I will be giving him 34 units twice a day from today instead of the 32. Plus there's a new injection for once a week we must start tomorrow.
I will be sitting outside for a bit today as the weather is supposed to be nice. It will seem better now that the sacrificial home keeping has been sorted!
Wednesday 1 September 2021
Life is good in spite of setbacks
I am trying to keep up with my home making duties. I have to do some dishes and clean my kitchen.. My knees are paining me so much today, that I won't be able to do much more.
Fibromyalgia is back again and spoons are scarce. I am also psyching myself up to take a shower. Lucky we have a shower chair now. Funny how you don't think twice about it until chronic illness comes a'callin!
With the brain fog, I get side tracked often too. Now I ask Siri to remind me to change the loads of washing over from washer to dryer. I need to find an app to tell me I have left stuff out that should go in the fridge or that I have nuked a night time snack and find it in the microwave in the morning hahaha
I am planning on using my slow cookers a lot today. I will be slow cooking the pork chops in a sweet curry sauce with the rice. I will be making some Jewish Penicillin in another slow cooker and I will make a chow mein in the other slow cooker for tomorrow.
After that, I plan to feed the birds and watch them eat... sitting out on the porch under the apple blossoms on the neighbour's tree... it's the first day of Spring here in Australia. Life is good in spite of setbacks..
Monday 23 August 2021
Living on a wing and a prayer
Tuesday 17 August 2021
Wheelchair bound
So, the MRI results are in. I have a meniscus tear, fabella, torn posterior crucius ligament, bursitis and osteo arthritis behind the patella. It needs surgery as it does not repair itself.
I am to see an orthopaedic surgeon and meanwhile I must rest the knee and use pain killers.
We have bought a shower chair and a wheelchair. I have had Chris push me on the seat of my walker, but it is a big strain on his heart and I worry about him.
It is difficult to focus enough to write at the moment and I spend a lot of time on the couch aka the beach, or in bed with my electric blanket.
I am just able to stand enough to wash some dishes, cook a meal and stack the washer and dryer. Chris helps sometimes and has been my legs.
I am making use of the slow cooker a lot, cooking the meals as I am able to stand.
As with all new health issues, I am trying to come to terms with this "new normal" and the constant struggles with fibromyalgia are now "normal" and this new challenge is calling for all my ability to accept my new lot in chronic illness.
I am disheartened that both my knees have now given way (I have a torn meniscus in my other knee), and am trying to feel grateful that I could afford a wheelchair. Thank goodness for afterpay.
However romantic a picture I can find really doesn't cut it for me as I struggle to accept that I am now wheelchair bound.