I am finally feeling awake and it is 1:30 on Sunday. Got up around 9:00 took meds had a bowl of cereal (can’t tske them on an empty stomach) Tried to read the paper but couldn’t keep my eyes open. Aching joints, tingling fore arms and hands, aching legs and arms. Too tired to fight so I went back to bed. My shoulders and hips ache when I lay down. I can’t stay in one position for long. My lower back aches. I feel guilty being in bed there are things to be done.
Please tell me when should I fight it and when should I give in? How do I get to the point of accepting this crappy illness and find a way to manage it. I had to resign from teaching high school, the stress and long commute was too much. So now I am starting a new phase of my life. I am not old enough to retire. Financially I have to keep working. I have a part-time job working from home teaching biology and chemistry online that gives me some flexibility. But I want to be in charge of my life not fibromaylgia .
i am not sure i have the ansswer. however i can tell that when i get to tired to do anything i do sleep. we have so many nights were we dont sleep so when my body seems to need sleep thats what i do. i used to feel bad that i was sleeping when things needed to be done.
you kinda have to look at things like this: if getting up and doing what needs to be done or what others waant you to do will put up you in more pain than the answer needs to be no. trust me this is not easy. it took me a long time to think of my self 1st and other 2nd. i used to be the person u could call and i would drop everything and be there. i had to change that and i was not easy.
try to listen to your body. while it does seem at times that fibro is in control and not you that is not true. you do have the choice to fight back. but u have to think about what will happen if u do too much. the hardest thing with this disease is finding balence. you have to balence your needs with what you can do.
i hope that u will be able to stay awake when u want. it may be that u need to change your meds. so many meds can make you tired. good luck. many hugs
The afternoon has been much better. Hurts to sit too long hurts to get out of the chair but I have been getting up and doing a little of this and that. Balance is hard to imagine when I have no idea how I will feel from one minute to the next.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for your suggestions just trying to think things through. I have learned more in the last few days than I have in the last year. Guilt is a tough one for me. Although I hurt I have been thinking of myself as lazy over the last few years. I have always been a rough and ready kind of person. It will take a while fro me to learn to move more slowly and be gentle with myself.
And yet learning the things you mention in your last sentence are what will help to manage your fibro better. There is nothing that fibro likes more than a hard working person who pushes herself past the limit of pain and exhaustion. If you keep pushing yourself past the limit, you're guaranteed to end up a quivering ball of pain and exhaustion. It's not laziness to slow your pace, it's essential to your survival with fibro. It's what we all learn, sooner or later. Sometimes much later. Don't push yourself more; you want to retain some of your health. I can guarantee you that you'll have a meltdown if you try to outrun the fibro. It just isn't possible. That's why we all try to learn how to live with it. Not nice, not fun but essential.