Sunday, July 18, 2010

Learning to Pace Myself-

When you aren't sick, you can go about your day,and not take two seconds thinking about the things you do.  But as I learned from an early age, when you have any kind of chronic condition, anything throughout the day takes a lot of thought, and the people around you take this for granted. The Spoon Theory is a great read on this.
And once I started feeling the effects of RSD, it only made it more important.  The problem is, when you 'look normal', you have days that you want to 'feel normal'. And that can lead to some serious consequences.
Yesterday was one of those days.  

I was feeling good.  I had some pain, but manageable pain in my back, leg and arm.  My house had acquired an accumulation of filth, because I hadn't been keeping up with the mess, and my partner is usually busy with work.  I had reached my 'dirt tolerance'.  With vacuum and broom in hand, I asked my partner to help me clean the house from top to bottom.  We Spring cleaned the whole house, and I had to micromanage, being the control freak that I am.
Once finished, I sat, and the pain slowly began to grow through out the day.  I began to regret doing some of the work- but at the same time it felt 'emotionally good' to have some senses of order back in my life.
And then the pain was so bad, I just sunk into the lazy boy chair, by leg up.  I woke up in the dead of night, my chest and back in a pain I could not describe.
Today, I am still sore.  I am very tired.  Have a learned my lesson?  For the most part.  But there will still be days where I will need order, and need to feel 'normal'.  

1 comment:

  1. Hi
    The words 'Pace yourself' are two of the most hated words in my vocabulary. Even now, two years after having been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, I still haven't adjusted to pacing myself - and the RSD makes things so much worse!Like you, I can only go so long before having to do something about the state of the house/garden/ whatever .... My greatest frustration though is when I desperately want or even NEED to do chores or to go somewhere - perhaps even just to get out of these four walls - but find that as soon as I try to do whatever it is the pain barrier is too great.

    Today is one of those days. I'm here at the PC because I can't do anything else. I keep making typos because I'm doped up to the eyes. We moved into this beautiful but desperately run down 300 yr old cottage a few months ago, with its equally run down garden, and I'm chafing at the bit.

    I'm glad you felt good enough to try and be 'normal' for a while yesterday, but so sorry you paid such a high price. Will you learn from it? probably not, but hey, we still have to have a go sometimes ;) ((Gentle hugs))

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