So what does this do to a fibromyalgia patient, you ask? Well let me explain how I felt when I woke up yesterday.
Even with it rainy, yesterday, I actually had a good day. The antibiotics for the bronchitis worked and I'm starting to really feel better from that, and I've stepped up my multi-vitamin to 2 a day, to help boost my immune system. I even INSISTED on doing the running around yesterday! I had to run to WIC & the health department, then to the dollar store to pick up some things like shampoo, body wash, etc.
I then went to get diapers for Benjamin, came home and Matt had dinner made. I ate dinner, then headed back out to Rite Aid for milk (it's only $2.89 there!) and to Giant Eagle to get Ben's Pediasure. Now because it was almost 60 degrees yesterday, I didn't bother with a jacket...probably not a best idea on my part, but it felt so good out there!! I got caught in the rain around 9pm when exiting the grocery store. But it was still fairly warm, probably around low 50's.
Now fast-forward to this morning...I awoke and was extremely groggy, and had a difficult time waking up, which is very odd for me. I typically hear the alarm and am up in a second.
So as I'm sitting up, rubbing my eyes, trying to focus and as I start to put my legs over the side of the bed...it hits me. All throughout my shoulders, arms and legs...that heavy feeling you get in your muscles when you have the flu. That achey feeling, also. I woke Nathaniel up and got him going for school. I woke Matt up and told him that I was going to lay back down, once Nathaniel was on the school bus.
I headed back upstairs and climbed into bed and turned the electric blanket on high, hoping the heat would help my muscles.
I laid there for 20 minutes, feeling the fiery pain moving up my arms, feeling the tension and pressure of the pain in my shoulders before I got back up and took a pain pill (a non-narcotic that doesn't do much good). Then I rubbed my achey muscles down with icy-hot and went to sleep for a while. I still feel like hell, but I'm up, at least. Even my fingers hurt, and typing doesn't help. But sitting still, watching tv, hurts too, so I'd rather be on here, at least doing SOMETHING, rather than feeling like a lump on a log in my chair. The burning pain gets to me by the end of the day. I feel like I want to scream. But I know that won't help, so I keep silent, and don't say much about the pain to anyone, but my Mom, who also has fibro and very much understands what I'm going through.
I don't mean or intend for this to sound like a whiney entry. There are just so many people out there who don't know what fibromyalgia is, or how it affects people in their day-to-day lives. Hopefully this will help even 1 person understand what it's like, so that THEY can be more compassionate to a person in their life that may have it. It's definitely an "unseen disease", and because of the lack of outwardly signs of it, many people just think it's made up, or a mental condition. But I can assure you, it is neither of those things.
Well, it is time for me to mosey on to my comfy chair and put my feet up. I think I'll sit on the heating pad for a little while. It helps alleviate some of the pain, even if for a while.
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