Everyone knows now: exercise helps, NOT hinders fibro. The tricks are: 1. to get started despite the pain you are presently in (it's a big hurdle), 2. to endure the pain that follows the startup, 3. and to keep motivated enough to exercise continuously on a long-term basis. Finally, there's the mental preparation that precedes any significant change in behaviour and living patterns.
When I began working full time, after a two- year absence following diagnosis, I found it difficult to manage the pain in my body from fibromyalgia and the work requirements of sitting at a computer all day. To continue working, it became clear, I would have to exercise several times a week. The challenge I faced was the fatigue that came with this illness, combined with my mothering responsibilites, made it difficult to plan a trip to the gym in the evening. So, I set the goal of integrating exercise into my work day.
The system of integrated exercise that worked best for me was walking to work. This self-motivated pain management approach was integrated gradually into my life with very positive results. I could not have done it with the wonderful help of a walking buddy. My walking buddy was retired and she loved exercise, was a wonderful conversationalist, and was an all round delightful and intelligent person, who told wonderful stories. Julie also did not have fibro, which meant the conversation did not centre on the illness. This created a light, positive, and pain-distracting atmosphere.
Walking to work did not happen overnight. For several years I sat on the bus and looked out and wondered what it would be like to walk on the same route the bus took. Since the route went through a wide open field and industrial buildings, with no windbreak during minus forty degree winter days, it did not look appealing. It was only after I found a new bus route and saw a more visually appealing route, with wide pedestrian walkways and green vistas that I began to plan my gradual shift from bus riding to walking.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Raising Self-Awareness: reflections on pain and narcissim
Let's repeat what the latest research states: exercise is good for fibromyalgia. It's just that it is challenging and the results can lead to excessive, if legitimate, complaints.
Last night I attended my fourth yoga class of the season. After I returned home I laid on the couch under a blanket, my husband placed a hot water bottle under the back of my thighs, a heated barley bag under my neck, and a cold pack on one shoulder. I read a book for two hours till bedtime, as the pain rose sharply and spread throughout my body. At 11:30 I took two Tylenol Three tablets and went to bed with two hot pads. At 2 am, I awoke because the intensity of the pain had again risen throughout my body. At 2:30 I awoke and my husband refreshed a hot water bottle. I tried to sleep, but the pain was too intense. At 3 am I rose and began to write this blog entry and took two more tablets.
People, who endure a great deal of pain each day, sometimes have difficulty shifting their attention to other people. Fibromyalgia sufferers, myself included, tell their stories to others over and over again, partially because the level of pain they live with everyday surprises them. "Pinch me, this can't be happening to me," becomes an insistent inner mantra that can lead to excessive discussion of their physical condition with anyone who is willing to listen.
Just remember fibro people: your listeners may not know that you are just reaching out for understanding. After a little while, pain-centred discussions puts others off and leaves fibromyalgiaers even more isolated. The reason your listeners are repelled is because you are exhibiting narcissistic behaviour through self-focused conversations.
Our complaints may be legitimate but they are best kept for intimate friends and professional therapy sessions. Disclosure and accommodation does not mean we are free to deluge and overwhelm others with our inner struggle.
Focusing our attention to others has the benefit of providing some pain relief, because it is distracting. It is also an opportunity to realize what is the greatest gift of fibromyalgia: compassion for other people. Pain can lead to hopelessness and despair or it can lead to insight and compassion. Understanding the suffering of others is a great gift. Giving back to the world understanding of suffering rather than narcissistic conversation can help us in other ways as well. It opens up our social world and means we can support others in their personal journeys and legitimately rejoice in contributing positively to our communities.
Last night I attended my fourth yoga class of the season. After I returned home I laid on the couch under a blanket, my husband placed a hot water bottle under the back of my thighs, a heated barley bag under my neck, and a cold pack on one shoulder. I read a book for two hours till bedtime, as the pain rose sharply and spread throughout my body. At 11:30 I took two Tylenol Three tablets and went to bed with two hot pads. At 2 am, I awoke because the intensity of the pain had again risen throughout my body. At 2:30 I awoke and my husband refreshed a hot water bottle. I tried to sleep, but the pain was too intense. At 3 am I rose and began to write this blog entry and took two more tablets.
People, who endure a great deal of pain each day, sometimes have difficulty shifting their attention to other people. Fibromyalgia sufferers, myself included, tell their stories to others over and over again, partially because the level of pain they live with everyday surprises them. "Pinch me, this can't be happening to me," becomes an insistent inner mantra that can lead to excessive discussion of their physical condition with anyone who is willing to listen.
Just remember fibro people: your listeners may not know that you are just reaching out for understanding. After a little while, pain-centred discussions puts others off and leaves fibromyalgiaers even more isolated. The reason your listeners are repelled is because you are exhibiting narcissistic behaviour through self-focused conversations.
Our complaints may be legitimate but they are best kept for intimate friends and professional therapy sessions. Disclosure and accommodation does not mean we are free to deluge and overwhelm others with our inner struggle.
Focusing our attention to others has the benefit of providing some pain relief, because it is distracting. It is also an opportunity to realize what is the greatest gift of fibromyalgia: compassion for other people. Pain can lead to hopelessness and despair or it can lead to insight and compassion. Understanding the suffering of others is a great gift. Giving back to the world understanding of suffering rather than narcissistic conversation can help us in other ways as well. It opens up our social world and means we can support others in their personal journeys and legitimately rejoice in contributing positively to our communities.
Get up and Go
Having survived a day of yoga recovery, which entailed sleep, chills, hot baths, hot packs and tylenol three every four hours, I went to work in the evening for three hours and pretended nothing had happened.
Today I start anew. I hadn't been feeling motivated to walk. In past years, I started programs with me, myself, and I, but now I want company. Last week I called a neighbour who works at home and she agreed to walk on Tuesday at 8:30 am. Since Tai Chi and Yoga, my two other activites are not aerobic, walking should provide a good balance.
I woke at 7 and by 7:30 was dressed and sat sipping my morning tea. At 8 am Ruth calls and ask if we should walk at 1 pm because of heavy rain. I had read the Environment Canada website posting but hadn't looked outside for a reality check. I took her word for it though and felt a bit down not to start pronto as planned. This disruption soon turns out to be for the best. Within half an hour my muscles are screaming with pain and I weakly ask my husband if he could run me a bath. I slowly head for the tub and try to stay submerged for thirty minutes in warm water with Epsom salts. After I dress and head back to the living room couch (my usual recovery centre) I feel so weak that I can barely put the two throws over my exercise pants.
To avoid feeling useless and the sense that my day is off to a poor start, I decide to do some phoning concerning various household needs. Robert hands me the phone and he also fills up a hot water bottle which he places under my thighs and heats a bean bag in the microwave, which he places under my shoulders, before he leaves for the day. I phone Primus about a name change in the phone book and I call the eye doctor to make an appointment. I read for distraction and drift off to sleep.
By 11:30 I awake, the pain has resided and I eat lunch and prepare to go walking. Ruth probably weighs less than me but she walks just as as slowly and she is wheezing when we go uphill, which concerns me. I hope walking will help her health and improve her breathing and I am happy to be a part of the solution. She's a wonderful conversationalist and is very cheerful and the time goes quickly. At the forty minute mark, my muscles feel very tight and I let her know I will stop in five minutes, so we end at my house, having visited a beautiful park, and several neightbourhood streets. I arrive back home refreshed and my muscles are tingling, which means they have been used, in a good way.
I make a green smoothie of 2 cups of baby spinach leaves, 1 cup of water ,and one half a banana. It's delicious! And I am so pleased that I finally had some get up and go and that my exercise program is still ON TRACK, despite the delays.
Today I start anew. I hadn't been feeling motivated to walk. In past years, I started programs with me, myself, and I, but now I want company. Last week I called a neighbour who works at home and she agreed to walk on Tuesday at 8:30 am. Since Tai Chi and Yoga, my two other activites are not aerobic, walking should provide a good balance.
I woke at 7 and by 7:30 was dressed and sat sipping my morning tea. At 8 am Ruth calls and ask if we should walk at 1 pm because of heavy rain. I had read the Environment Canada website posting but hadn't looked outside for a reality check. I took her word for it though and felt a bit down not to start pronto as planned. This disruption soon turns out to be for the best. Within half an hour my muscles are screaming with pain and I weakly ask my husband if he could run me a bath. I slowly head for the tub and try to stay submerged for thirty minutes in warm water with Epsom salts. After I dress and head back to the living room couch (my usual recovery centre) I feel so weak that I can barely put the two throws over my exercise pants.
To avoid feeling useless and the sense that my day is off to a poor start, I decide to do some phoning concerning various household needs. Robert hands me the phone and he also fills up a hot water bottle which he places under my thighs and heats a bean bag in the microwave, which he places under my shoulders, before he leaves for the day. I phone Primus about a name change in the phone book and I call the eye doctor to make an appointment. I read for distraction and drift off to sleep.
By 11:30 I awake, the pain has resided and I eat lunch and prepare to go walking. Ruth probably weighs less than me but she walks just as as slowly and she is wheezing when we go uphill, which concerns me. I hope walking will help her health and improve her breathing and I am happy to be a part of the solution. She's a wonderful conversationalist and is very cheerful and the time goes quickly. At the forty minute mark, my muscles feel very tight and I let her know I will stop in five minutes, so we end at my house, having visited a beautiful park, and several neightbourhood streets. I arrive back home refreshed and my muscles are tingling, which means they have been used, in a good way.
I make a green smoothie of 2 cups of baby spinach leaves, 1 cup of water ,and one half a banana. It's delicious! And I am so pleased that I finally had some get up and go and that my exercise program is still ON TRACK, despite the delays.
Seasonal Cycles and Pain Management
Its late October, in fact, it is almost Halloween. On my street there are pumpkins on the porches and the leaves of red and yellow lie underneath half bare maple trees, the sky is turning dark by 6:30, and when they leave home in the early morning, my neighbours are donning their hats and their gloves .
For friends with fibromayagia, the onset of colder weather can mean an increase in pain levels and stiffness. Fibro people may also suffer from SAD, or from their normal ongoing reality of "stage-four deprived sleep. Either reality can produce sad and depressive mental and emotional states, as seratonin in their brains wanes.
Each year at this time I feel like giving up on life and then I remember! I feel this way every year beginning sometime between late September, mid October--it's seasonal and its cyclical. It took me a few years before I identified the patterns associated with climate change, but as many fibroites can testify, season changes in symptoms are a fact of life. Seasonal changes should also be a factor in your pain managment plan.
Plan for more time to get from place to place, put aside monthly more money for gas, or if you've stop driving because of fibromyalgia, for taxis or public transportation. Don't be afraid to say no or to say maybe.
Tell friends. Be up front when you accept an invitation. Inform your hosts of your condition and let them know that attending may depend on obtaining transportation to and from, and the weather outside. If the weather suddenly turns cold and you're writhing in pain on your couch covered in hot packs, call them and let them know you are experiencing a flare-up and you would like a rain check.
Be careful: avoid isolation, because you feel you can't perform on the same level as others. Its true! You will perform in a different way than your able-bodied friends, but the best antidote for depression is to stay physically active and maintain your social connections. Here are a few suggestions to stay in touch with other people in the difficult winter months. Invite your friends to come over with minimal effort and fuss. Have a movie and popcorn or if it is the night and must include dinner, order out or heat up a store bought chicken pie and serve with store bought field greens or play pot luck and take it easy. Remember, don't make your illness the evening's topic. Ask your guests questions and listen to their answers and comment.Interest is a wonderful distraction from pain.
For the long winter season, plan regular achievable exercise either indoors or close to home. Another idea is to plan a winter exercise program at your home with friends. Invite two or three neighbours to come weekly to your home to practice yoga with an instructional DVD. For outdoor work, rake the leaves, but set the timer for 20 minutes and leave when it goes off so you are not in excruciating pain the next day from working too long. When you need rest, take it and drink plenty of water.
When you feel low, just put a chair and a blanket on the porch and enjoy the sun and fall colours. The key is to not only to pace yourself but to keep going, even if you are taking baby steps.
For friends with fibromayagia, the onset of colder weather can mean an increase in pain levels and stiffness. Fibro people may also suffer from SAD, or from their normal ongoing reality of "stage-four deprived sleep. Either reality can produce sad and depressive mental and emotional states, as seratonin in their brains wanes.
Each year at this time I feel like giving up on life and then I remember! I feel this way every year beginning sometime between late September, mid October--it's seasonal and its cyclical. It took me a few years before I identified the patterns associated with climate change, but as many fibroites can testify, season changes in symptoms are a fact of life. Seasonal changes should also be a factor in your pain managment plan.
Plan for more time to get from place to place, put aside monthly more money for gas, or if you've stop driving because of fibromyalgia, for taxis or public transportation. Don't be afraid to say no or to say maybe.
Tell friends. Be up front when you accept an invitation. Inform your hosts of your condition and let them know that attending may depend on obtaining transportation to and from, and the weather outside. If the weather suddenly turns cold and you're writhing in pain on your couch covered in hot packs, call them and let them know you are experiencing a flare-up and you would like a rain check.
Be careful: avoid isolation, because you feel you can't perform on the same level as others. Its true! You will perform in a different way than your able-bodied friends, but the best antidote for depression is to stay physically active and maintain your social connections. Here are a few suggestions to stay in touch with other people in the difficult winter months. Invite your friends to come over with minimal effort and fuss. Have a movie and popcorn or if it is the night and must include dinner, order out or heat up a store bought chicken pie and serve with store bought field greens or play pot luck and take it easy. Remember, don't make your illness the evening's topic. Ask your guests questions and listen to their answers and comment.Interest is a wonderful distraction from pain.
For the long winter season, plan regular achievable exercise either indoors or close to home. Another idea is to plan a winter exercise program at your home with friends. Invite two or three neighbours to come weekly to your home to practice yoga with an instructional DVD. For outdoor work, rake the leaves, but set the timer for 20 minutes and leave when it goes off so you are not in excruciating pain the next day from working too long. When you need rest, take it and drink plenty of water.
When you feel low, just put a chair and a blanket on the porch and enjoy the sun and fall colours. The key is to not only to pace yourself but to keep going, even if you are taking baby steps.
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