fibromyalgia / princess and the pea

Hi Everyone!
In my last blog, I talked about diet and the need to move your body. Tomorrow I will post the entire list of foods which you should positively NOT eat. But for right now, I would like to talk about the pain and how to get through it. We talked about medication for sleep and depression. After you have seen your doctor and have found the right medication that works for you for sleep and depression, you might also need to take a pain pill prescribed by your doctor. Perhaps something in the ibuprofen meds. When you get the pain under control, so that it is tolerable, you may begining some mild exercise. Stretching slowly is always a good way to start. Remember that the objective is to get the blood flowing bringing oxygen to your muscles. There will be times when the smallest amount of exercise will be painful.

If you can work through the pain, slowly, you might find that the pain will stop. If it does not stop, then you need to stop the exercise, rest your muscles with moist heat and try again the next day. Too much is not good, so start slowly and for short periods of time. You can lengthen the time as your muscles can work through the pain. Remember to start SLOWLY.

I find that most of the time, when I play tennis, I will have pain in different parts of my body, sometimes my feet, shoulders, elbows, fingers, somewhere, but as I continue to work through the pain, it decreases within minutes. You must also find some form of exercise that you like to do. It is important to look at this exercise as a pleasure and not a chore. Something you can look forward to every day. As you get more into the exercise or sport or whatever, you should do it only every other day. It takes 24 hours for your muscles to recover. In between, you can rest the muscles, use moist heat, and your pain meds.

Eventually, you will not need the pain meds. It might take a month, 6 months, a year, 2 years or whatever. It depends on the level of your pain, and when you are ready to go it alone without the pain meds. It's up to you.

There are many different ways to deal with the pain, along with the exercise. Meditation, as I mentioned, is a wonderful way to focus on your breath and refocus your mind, The more you focus on your breath, and are only aware of the pain, but do not give the pain any thought, it will not be an issue.. Refocusing your mind is one of the most important steps in managing your pain. Not that you don't have it or notice it, just that you don't give it any energy. I know this sounds strange to some of you. But if you just try sitting still for a few minutes and focusing on your breath, you can let me know how that was for you. Just send me a comment and I will discuss it in my next blog.

I hope you will benefit from my experience. It is long, complicated and difficult. But it can be done. I have done it more than once. Each time you have a trauma, you almost need to start over. But it can be done. Right now, I am in a good place, practicing everything I have written about so far, and I play tennis 4 or 5 times a week, play golf once or twice a week, and swim or do water aerobics whenever the weather and the temperature of the pool allows.

Good luck in beginning your journey to healing and living a better life. Stay with it and you will prevail.

So, get some good sleep and will talk tomorrow.
Shirley