Purpose:

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my illness and progress. If someone else can benefit in any way from my rambling, even better.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Light At the End of the Tunnel?


Today is the third day of a cycle that has included burning arthritis-like pain in all of my joints and intense headaches and migraines regardless of how much water/rest/pain medication I take. The first day I kept thinking, "how could joint pain be coming back? It's been gone for months!" and then I realized that these were the first two symptoms I had when the fibromyalgia started. So if this guaifensin truly does reverse the process, as it seems to be doing, then I should be nearing the end of the terrible cycles of pain and close to home free! I know I will most likely never be pain free, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel after 4 months.

On another note, I was lucky enough to meet a woman who has been living with fibromyalgia for 20+ years and she has found several things to be successful in taking away the pain and fatigue so I will do my best to pass those onto you as I'm trying them myself. A few quick tips from her:

  • Always eat breakfast, protein shakes worked great for giving her energy.
  • Take vitamins, obviously if you're going the guai route you'll need to be careful to avoid salicylates (I will be doing a post entirely on vitamins next)
  • Don't exercise after 5:00 and end your day at 7:00 regardless of how much is left on your "to do" list
  • If you can handle it get out and walk several times a week

This woman mentioned that she has met over 50 women with fibromyalgia and they have had two things in common: They have all had a type A personality and were stressed to the max and they have all experienced some kind of extra stress or stress-related event/injury in their life around the time their symptoms started. She gave me some great reminders to keep myself from worrying, trust that God is in control and let Him take care of it. Forget about how clean the house is and the four hundred things on your to do list. Live in the moment and take one day at a time, and most difficult for me-give up control. So I am doing my best to follow some wise words this week. God clearly put this wonderful woman in my life for a reason and I've learned the hard way to listen up when God's speaking or my hard-headedness will only bring me more frustration (and probably pain) and less peace in the long run.

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