Our Fibromyalgia Blog Book

Don't Take Even Your Simplest Abilities For Granted

         Believe it or not, I'm finally back. This time has been too long in coming. Notice the title of this entry: Don't Take Even Your Simplest Abilities For Granted" A number of times since my last entry here, I've found this out first hand. On top of increased frequency and stronger Fibromyalgia pains, now also in additional locations, add the fact that I've had a couple of muscles in my right shouilder and arm get out of position and require physical therapy to get proper motion back without some really sharp pain.

         My wife's Fibro has gotten worse as well, so we've both adopted one line we both use to encourage the other at those times when either the frequency, location, or intensity of our Fibro pains really seem to be getting hard to deal with. Whenever one of us makes a fiirm statement about the pains that also has a hint of frustration in it, the other will say, calmly, "It's hell gettin' old, ain't it?", intentionally butchering the language to sound a bit more like our grandparents' generation. That's usually enough to bring a smile and start getting things back to normal.

         Then, there's the fact that our bodies burn energy fighting the pains. With a slightly increasing frequency, I'm now having some weekend days where not much gets done. I wake up about 10 AM. Not much pain when I first get out of bed, but by the time I shave, shower and get dressed, my back, my right leg, and occasionally other one or two places will be killing me. I take the oldest of our two cats outside for a walk, for up to 30 minutes, depending on the weather, and that seals my fate for the next two hours or so. Once I bring her back in the house, I have to lay down and stretch out my body and stop using those muscles a while to have any chance of stopping the pain for a while. And since my body has burned energy fighting that pain, I usually fall asleep for an hour or two.

         Repeat that scenario plugging different activities in place of the cat walk, and you pretty much have what happens on some of my Saturdays.
         Weekday evenings can end up the same way after I get home from work. It often depends on how much I was on my feet each day at the office. Some days not even the 45-minute drive home is enough time to calm the pains down, especially if my back is one of them.

         I'm hoping that more things will get done once I retire and can put those activities in place of going to work. Problem is, right now I can't afford to retire. So, I'm caught a bit between a rock and a hard place, as they say. Obviously I will see how things change as time passes. I'll try to do a better job of keeping all of you posted.
         Just remember this subject line, and don't take even the simplest abilities for granted. Any day you get out of bed one or more of them may decide not to cooperate.