Flare up

[PenelopeClearwater]

After a lovely birthday weekend, I’m having a terrible flare up… things are just such a struggle, I just want to sleep.

[LordGodAlmighty]

Yesterday I felt like my old self, walked my dog for three miles (usually I can manage between a mile or two. Still felt great later during the day.Oh dear, today is not good. I wish I could remember that when I feel good I'm not the old me. Seems there's a price to pay for a few hours of happiness.

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to LordGodAlmighty]

Yep! Not sure I’ll get used to the payback element of it 😂

[LordGodAlmighty in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

Old dogs and new tricks with me. Hope you get more success x

[Whatawonderfullife in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

Yep me too, I tend to think it’ll be ok, I feel much better but no, pay back is usually two or so days. Getting up in the morning is then hell. I hope you enjoyed your birthday🎉

[Hazel_Angelstar Administrator FMA UK Staff]

Happy birthday, but sorry to hear that you are struggling so much now xxx

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to Hazel_Angelstar]

Thank you! I know it’s the price to pay, but sometimes justifying it to people gets so tiring, too “you were fine yesterday!” 🙄😅

[JayCeon in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

The "other way" round is how I now can only do it, like the other day...: The party I went to started at 6:30 and I managed to stay till 9, with 3 longer breaks lying down outside alone, away from the crowd. Due to high CoV danger (still not recovered from 2 jabs) I never take off my mask, so went outside to eat my veggies, stood aside for quick drinks under the mask. A friend greeted me with "Oh, you look really well, your eyes etc." I just burst out laughing. She realized herself in the course of the 2 hours... And another friend saw me off with: "I hope you get better soon" - again a great laugh. I explained her - not for the first time - 'this is my new normal, every day, and it doesn't get better the days after an event, it gets worse'. (My - understanding - wife actually thought she realized that and meant it that way, but she actually thought it was a bad day.)

The laughing about people saying this has become easy. What I'm still working on is keeping some bitterness out of it and just joyously laughing...

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to JayCeon]

Yes! Trying to keep the bitterness out is hard. I try to remember that I didn’t know about this condition until I was diagnosed, so I try to think of it from that viewpoint, but I also know that I would have looked into it and believed what the person was telling me - so few people seem to do that 😅

Last week, my friend said she hoped I’d come out of this bad patch soon… I didn’t even bother explaining again that this isn’t a bad patch, this is just normal - she wouldn’t have seen me if I was in a bad flare up.

I keep saying it, but it’s the feeling of being heard and understood that I love so much about this group 💙

[JayCeon in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

Yep, I remember long before getting fibro that I listened closely to someone with a strange condition like MCS, multiple chemical sensitivity, and another whom I did a bit of research for and suggested she had CFS or praps FM, and then she was diagnosed as CFS. Nobody saw anything, no one else understood, but I did. That's also why I did know very roughly what fibro was.... So I get what you mean - why can't everyone be like that?!

I do continue explaining, but often just short and sharp.... - had two more situations recently.

[Arymretep]

Glad you enjoyed your birthday, that’s fibro for you up and down 👎

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to Arymretep]

Thank you 🥳 still working out how to ride the highs and lows… I’ll get there! 💙

[KimiJay]

Happy belated birthday.... I think you may reap some benefit... eventually! Hope so! Three miles is quite a lot to go for suddenly but it sounds like you enjoyed it. Meanwhile, my 'What Doctors don't tell you' Magazine recommends only 7000 steps a day for everybody as being all we need to keep heart healthy. It stacks up quite quickly on my fitbit. - I do what a very old guy in our village used to do which is have several very short routes. He used to do all of them at once but I may go a couple of hundred yards on one of them and then come back, get a drink and sit for a bit unless I'm being frenetic. It is weird though isn't it that we can't get away with something we did so easily once. I think it's the cortisol thing again. I've been trying schisandra to lower the cortisol and there has been some result. Try googling schisandra and cortisol and see what you think. It's an adaptogen.

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to KimiJay]

Thanks Kimi - I’ll have a look into the schisandra and cortisol! I’m trying to keep positive through it all - can be a slog sometimes. I hope you’re feeling well 🥰

[KimiJay in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

Thanks PC. I'm feeling twitchy as my right arm and shoulder are rather sore but it's fairly bearable. Dry eyes too but that did not detract from the pleasure of going to one of the Local Art Weeks shows yesterday where locals from a wide-ish area get to display their work. It was down by a Mill about a mile and a half away where three parishes merge and two attractive and rippling streams join up and it's all surrounded by green and leafy woods. There was fabulous metal sculpture - large and small, jewellery, wood carving, glassware, paintings etc and the local catering inside their yurt had one piece of gluten free lemon polenta cake which I had sitting in the sun and talking to people I actually knew. In the barn which had been cleared of the cows - and cleaned - there was a nest high up above the door with a lot of twittering going on. It was as good as going on holiday and a really rather magical afternoon. My son is going to drive me to another venue close by today where there is another exhib by an artist who teaches around the area and sells a lot of tractors - on canvas. - Hope you're maybe managing to do the odd little bit for your etsy shop while you are in recovery but I know it's not always easy to even pick things up. Stagger on! x 🌺

[Hobbylobby2]

I’m afraid it ‘goes with the territory’. Let’s hope it won’t last too long. Sometimes you have to enjoy yourself and just accept the consequences 🥰. Sending gentle hugs

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to Hobbylobby2]

💙

[Yassytina FMA UK Volunteer]

Glad to hear you had a lovely birthday weekend, the payback side can follow for sure, go with it and rest , and hopefully in a few days you start to pick up xx

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to Yassytina]

💙

[caico]

I know how you feel - having a bad one myself and its my birthday on Monday - yay! I was doing really well unti I had covid about 6 weeks ago - since then it has really messed things up Take care

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to caico]

Sending hugs and birthday wishes! 🥳

[caico in reply to PenelopeClearwater]

I sincerely hope you had a great birthday

[Latics1989-90 in reply to caico]

I hope you feel better soon and that you manage to have a lovely birthday.xxxx🥰❤️

[caico in reply to Latics1989-90]

Thank you - so kind of you. Take care

[Latics1989-90 in reply to caico]

You are very welcome. You take care too xxxx❤️❤️

[Elaine200756]

Hi Penelope, so sorry to hear you are having a flare up. Best thing, to listen to what your body needs in terms of rest. Hope it gets easier soon 🕊️

[Captaincat]

Had a colonoscopy last Tuesday and all I want to do is sleep as well. Legs feel heavy and weak and brain fog is awful, just want to stay in bed. Don’t know if it’s fibromyalgia or the after effects of colonoscopy, either way I feel rubbish, wish I felt well. ❤️

[Latics1989-90 in reply to Captaincat]

Hi

Hope you feel better soon. Please let us know how your colonoscopy went xxxx 🥰❤️

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to Captaincat]

Oh crikey! I hope you’re doing ok x

[Latics1989-90]

Hi

A belated happy birthday Penelope. You sound like you had a good day!! I'm sorry you aren't good today, it goes with the territory afraid..I do hope you feel better soon. xxxx ❤️🥰

[wingsofadove]

I have just had my 90th birthday, which was a wonderful day too. But like you I am now struggling and I am so so weary of these flares. I was referred for a sygmoscopy procedure just over a week ago to check a lump found in my colon by a GP. The consultant found only severe diverticulitis, which had already been found years ago. The stress from that procedure was horrific. I had been told they would do an all body CT scan which certainly at my age and state of health would have been less stressful, as the resulting pain was horrific. I am feeling so very very fed up but you have to plod on. I am so sorry you are going through a bad flare up and fully understand how you feel. Anyone who has not experienced fybro has not a clue about what we go through and how much we have to grit our teeth and carry on. My love and blessings to you. X

[PenelopeClearwater in reply to wingsofadove]

I’m glad you had a wonderful birthday - happy birthday to you 🥰

Sorry you’re going through so much, it really is such a drag and so difficult to explain to people how hard it all is. That’s why I like to come here and vent - I know I’ll be properly heard and understood.

Sending gentle hugs and birthday wishes to you 💙