fatigue

A Day Of Pondering Is Good For The Mind Body And Soul

~ Sam ~ 10 Comments

Inspirational Quotes surround us in today’s world of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Throw away lines that are designed to both challenge and motivate us.

Do they or are we overwhelmed by the many thoughts, sayings, likes and shares that crowd our day?

Do we really take time to reflect and ponder and listen to our own thoughts?

Do we quieten our minds enough to work out what we really feel, what we really believe?

A Day Of Pondering

I’m pondering today, partly because I’m battling severe pain and partly because I need quietness to listen to my own heart, my own thoughts and to just be.

I’ve just spent 8 days in hospital dealing with complications of severe lumbar spinal stenosis. The journey isn’t over but at the moment I’m just exhausted and I need peace, perfect peace.

Hospitals are full of noise. Machines beeping, Nurses hustling and bustling along corridors, or prodding you awake at 1am to take your blood pressure.

Specialists visiting you just when you had finally managed to make it to the bathroom or were about to enjoy a meal.

Texts, phone calls, TV’s streaming different shows from different rooms. Nurse buzzers going off left, right and centre.

Blood tests being taken when least expected. Catering staff taking orders and delivering food.

Being wheeled through the hospital on your bed, to Radiology for scans and x-rays.

Cleaners coming into your room to dust and vacuum, just when you thought you were finally about to get some rest.

Noise,  noise, noise!

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I Need Quietness And Solitude…Now!!

Quietness and solitude is what’s required to regroup, recharge and renew my physical and mental strength after any lengthy hospital stay.

So as I ponder, I’ve been looking at inspirational quotes for my online support group, Medical Musings With Friends.

The more of them I read the more I feel a growing sense of emptiness. So many  lack substance and that’s ok for a light-hearted pick me up kind of day, when a throwaway line will make you smile and say “yeah, I like that”.

Today is not that kind of day. Today I need more. Today I need to go where I know I will find real strength. Where my faith will be confirmed, where my soul will be comforted.

I have many favourite verses in the Bible that keep me going through the good days, the bad days and the in between days.

2 Corinthians 4 v 17 – 18

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ahhh….as I read those words and many like them I begin to relax. There is a much bigger picture for my life than my current circumstances.

The noise begins to disappear. My mind is beginning to function again. My thoughts are starting to form with some clarity. My body may still be weak and sore but my soul is being renewed.

As my soul is revitalised, my mind relaxes and my pain is better managed.

Time out to ponder is definitely good for the mind, body and soul.

It is good to be reminded that God has a plan for my life. A plan full of hope and a future.

When true inspiration is needed I know where to go! I know where to find perfect peace and solitude.

Sam xx

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding and friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic and complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m also a Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

I’m a member of  the Chronic Illness Bloggers Network,  the  Grace Girls Facebook Group and Salt and Light Linkup Group

If you would like to read a little more about my journey, here’s the link to My Story

Please click here to read our Privacy Policy

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WEGO Health Award 2018 Nominee

 

Clinging To Hope….Maybe Tomorrow Will Be Better

~ Sam ~ 10 Comments

Every morning I wake up thinking, “Today will be a better day”

Everyday, for more years than I care to count, I finish the day feeling battle weary.

Every night I close my eyes to sleep, clinging to the hope that sleep will be renewing and I will wake up feeling refreshed.

Every night I say to myself, “Maybe tomorrow will be better”.

Every once in a while, not often, I allow myself to fall in a heap and cry and exclaim;

“I can’t do this anymore, I can’t take the pain. I can’t take my body constantly attacking me, beating me, crippling me, attempting to break me”

It’s Just Plain Exhausting

I am so tired. The rollercoaster of surgeries, disease flares, constant fevers and flu like symptoms everyday, broken legs, toxic medication and little evidence of any signs of improvement, or even any hope of improvement, is just plain exhausting.

My situation exhausts my medical team too. They want to fix it. It’s what they do, it’s why they became Doctors. When they come across someone in my situation it breaks them as much as it breaks me.

I think I admire and respect them for that more than anything else they have done for me.

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I often think during my  daily rest periods, “It’s got to get better, hasn’t it?”

I allow myself to look back on my active days. I enjoy recalling those days, although the stark difference to how I am today can sometimes cause the tears to flow.

Hope For The Future

Some days I dare to dream and think about what life would be like with healed legs. I dream of my Bone Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gastroparesis and all their friends being under control or a distant memory.

I wriggle a little to try and get comfortable and reality hits.

I soon cease dreaming.

My ever present pain causes me to think of what the future holds as my disease and disabilities progress. What further changes might be needed in terms of day to day living. I worry about what will happen to me if anything happens to my husband.

Hope Returns – No Matter What The Future Holds

That thought actually makes me count my blessings. Right here, right now, we have each other. We have high level plans in place to deal with my care should I worsen.

My faith in God assures me that “He will never leave me or forsake me” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

With that thought, I begin to dwell on all the things I can still do, in the here and now, with the wonderful support I have from a caring and loving husband.

Hope returns.

I hear a still small voice saying;

“Maybe tomorrow will be better”

Sam xx

 

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic & complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

This post was shared at the Salt and Light Linkup Group

I’m also a Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

I’m a member of  the Chronic Illness Bloggers Network and the  Grace Girls Facebook Group

Please click here to read our Privacy Policy

WEGO Health Award 2018 Nominee

 

“I Should, I Better, I Have To” …..No, You Really Don’t!!

~ Sam ~ 22 Comments

How often do you tell yourself ” I should be doing such and such” or ” I’d better do this or that” ?

We all do it. It’s like we are programmed from birth to constantly have a catalogue of “should do, must do, better do”, all filed in the front of our minds for easy reach.

I’m as guilty as the next person. Even though my body can hardly do anything, I still give myself those messages. It’s ludicrous!!

Chronic Illness Comes With Chronic Restrictions

If diagnosed with a “Chronic illness” it means you have something that is ongoing. It’s life changing. It may be life changing to varying degrees for each of us but you can guarantee, in the majority of cases, how you used to live is no longer going to be possible.

Yet, despite this knowledge, we still allow ourselves to be drawn into a conversation with our healthy alter ego that goes something like this;

“I’ll just do that extra load of washing today, come on, just push through”.

“Oh I can easily have my friends visit for morning tea and squeeze in my blood tests in the afternoon. No worries at all”

When we were able-bodied and healthy, tiredness was probably the worst we had to contend with. That’s not the case anymore.

Chronic Illness comes with chronic restrictions. It’s as simple as that.

In the written form, that sentence sounds so logical and simple, but to change a life long behaviour of pushing through is incredibly difficult.

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Why Don’t We Just Listen To Our Bodies?

Listening to our bodies when chronically ill, means we need to accept we are not capable of doing what we used to do. No one wants to admit defeat. We all want to feel empowered, successful and free.

Ironically if we do accept our disease and the restraints it places on us, we will eventually feel that sense of control we are seeking.

While we continually give ourselves denial messages of ” just push through, I’ll be fine”, we are increasing the restraints our disease is trying to inflict. We are crippling our bodies more than necessary. Now that really doesn’t make much sense if you stop and think about it.

We end up in a vicious cycle of more pain, tiredness and other worsening symptoms. All of which remove more and more control over our daily lives.

So how can we help ourselves?

Our Bodies Key Messages

Our bodies give us key messages every day. Pain and fatigue are the two key indicators, in my opinion, we need to watch out for. When they present and begin to increase, it’s time to listen, stop, review and adjust.

Let’s look at each of those categories a little closer.

Listen

My pain is constant but it does have varying levels. I have base pain, intermediate pain and severe pain.

At my base level, I can function around the home doing a little cleaning, making cups of tea, doing admin work, writing and managing my forum. I can also go out for an hour for a coffee with my husband once during the week and I can more easily get to medical appointments etc. At this level I must have morning and afternoon lying flat on the bed sessions and I can’t be on my legs for longer than 30 mins at a time.

At my intermediate level, I need to reduce my cleaning tasks, avoid sitting at my computer to do admin tasks and increase my laying down sessions from 30 mins to 60 mins. I can still manage my forum and write while resting. I can only be on my legs for 10 mins at a time

At my severe pain level, I need to rest for the majority of the day. I can look after my basic hygiene, I might be able to write a little while resting but interacting and managing my forum is more difficult.

I have learned (the hard way) to listen to my body when it gives me the warning signs I’ve moved from basic, to intermediate, to my severe pain/disease activity level.

Stop

I’m sure most of us with Chronic Illness do listen to our bodies, but listening without taking some kind of action isn’t going to help us take control.

Stopping is the first action required. What I mean by stopping is just taking a little time to sit, so you can work out what’s going on and what you need to do about it.

A good stopping action is to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea or coffee.  Take a much needed breather.

Review

Once you’ve stopped for a moment and are sitting down sipping that relaxing cuppa, it’s time to review.

Ask yourself some key questions at this point.

  1. What just happened to make you stop?
  2. How did/do you feel?
  3. Are you overdoing it?
  4. Can you re-schedule your day?
  5. Is what you were doing really necessary? (Be very honest here)
  6. If you take a longer rest period will that help you recover quicker?
  7. Are your increase in symptoms due to overdoing it or do you need to seek medical advice?
  8. Are you telling yourself “I should be doing….”?
  9. Can you tell yourself “No, I shouldn’t” ?
  10. Do you want to feel more in control of your disease?

Adjust

We can listen, stop and review as much as we like but unless we adjust our activities nothing will change.

Once you’ve gone through the review process take action straight away based on your answers to the key questions.

I can almost guarantee, if you do you will feel immediate relief in terms of well-being. You will feel like you are back in the driver’s seat. Yes your disease has placed restrictions on you. Yes you are in pain or dealing with other kinds of symptoms but you have taken control.

By listening, stopping, reviewing and adjusting, you have improved your situation. In fact you have probably ensured that activities you want or need to do, later in the week, will actually have a good chance of happening.

Should You?…No, You Shouldn’t!

So next time you find yourself talking to your healthy alter ego and you hear the words, ” I Should, I Better, I Have to do it”, remember there is only one response.

It’s the response that puts you back in control. The response that is full of wisdom and will empower you. It’s the response that will ensure you will be successful in living well with your chronic illness.

The response to “I Have To Do…..” is simply, “No I Really Don’t”

Take care

Sam 💞

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic & complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m a regular Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

I’m a member of  the Chronic Illness Bloggers Network and the  Grace Girls Facebook Group

Please click here to read our Privacy Policy

 

Gratefully Taking Nothing For Granted

~ Sam ~ 20 Comments

“Life is too short, take nothing for granted”

These are catch phrases we have probably allowed to roll off our tongues at one time or another.

Both have so much meaning and I hazard a guess, a slightly different meaning for all of us.

On my Facebook Support Group, we have a weekly segment called “Thankful Thursday”. Members share a few things they are grateful for in their lives, in that moment, day or week.

It sounds easy enough but all of our members suffer from debilitating chronic illness. It can be incredibly hard not to be overcome by pain and symptoms.

Nevertheless, we do all find something good in our lives to share and celebrate. It’s a lovely uplifting segment that I look forward to each week.

As I was contemplating the things I was grateful for this week, I realised I was really struggling to honestly feel grateful at all.

Am I Grateful Or Am I Taking Things For Granted?

I’m absolutely exhausted with my constant pain levels. I know I’m mostly housebound but life is still way too busy.

I spend a good 40 hours a week on my Forum. I write, I network with other bloggers, spend time with my husband, do household tasks and look after our finances etc. Pretty much a full-time job while living with a debilitating disease.

I’m incredibly grateful that I can do all of the above. So grateful that I can use my mind as it helps distract me from my physical pain.

In that moment as I was thinking about my exhaustion and all that I was juggling, I realised there was something I was most grateful for. It was something I never want to take for granted.

A “Mind Full” Moment

My mind, my brain, my ability to think. I am so grateful for it but even more than that…..I found myself saying;

“ I want to use my mind while I can, I don’t want to take it for granted. I may not always have it”

Right there, right then, I felt every depth of gratefulness for being able to use my brain. Not just intellectually but in many other ways.

I can dream, I can remember wonderful moments in my past. I can manage my disease better by thinking through the consequences of my actions.

I can write, I can sing. I can enjoy TV shows because my brain allows me to follow story lines.

I can have lengthy chats with my husband while relaxing together.

I can make phone calls and organise household administrative tasks.

I can read and research.

I negotiate my health care and work in partnership with my medical team.

All of this and more is because my mind, my brain functions.

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Loss Causes Us To Re-Evaluate Everything

There are many things in my life that I don’t take for granted and many that I do and shouldn’t. We all do though.

  • I didn’t ever really consider losing the use of my legs but I have.
  • I didn’t ever really consider losing my independence but I have.
  • I didn’t ever consider losing my taste and smell but on most days I have lost both of these senses.
  • I didn’t think I would ever have a permanent colostomy but I do.

Loss causes us to re-evaluate everything. That’s not a bad thing, especially if it leads us to focusing on what we still have.

My gratitude for having a functioning mind is huge. There’s an underlying reason for that.

My beautiful Grandmother died from Alzheimer’s Disease and one of my Aunties is currently battling this insidious disease.

Does that mean I’m likely to also have the disease later in life? Who knows. It does however make me so aware of the gift of a functioning mind and that makes me never want to take it for granted.

Gratefully Take Nothing For Granted

I remember having viral pneumonia, 6 months before I was to be married, many, many years ago. I was in hospital and my parents and fiance had been told my Specialists  were incredibly concerned as I wasn’t responding to any treatment.

I was so focused mentally on getting well for my upcoming wedding, I didn’t for one moment consider not surviving.

What did concern me was that I couldn’t speak at all. I had never lost my voice like that before. As a singer my main concern was would I ever be able to sing again. I was also a Bank Manager at the time so talking was pretty important too.

I eventually recovered but it took 3 months for my voice to return. It was a scary time and from that moment on I have never taken my voice for granted.

If you are struggling with your chronic disease and finding it really hard to find anything to be grateful for, think about what you can still do. What part of your body is still working?

Think about what it would be like if that part of you ceased to work.

It won’t be long before you have something very tangible to be grateful for. Something that you will realise you can’t ever take for granted.

Before long you too will be gratefully taking nothing for granted.

Take care

Sam 💞

Bible Verse

When times are good, be joyful;
 When times are bad, consider this:
God made the one as well as the other, so people won’t seek anything outside of his best.

Ecclesiastes 7 v 14 (ISV)

 

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic & complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m a regular Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

I’m a member of  the Chronic Illness Bloggers Network and the  Grace Girls Facebook Group

This post was shared at the Salt and Light Linkup Group

 

Please click here to read our Privacy Policy

When All Else Fails….Just Cancel The Day

~ Sam ~ 12 Comments

I love life’s little challenges. I love problem solving and turning obstacles into opportunities.

I love putting positive spins on what would otherwise be a very negative situation. I’ve done that all my life, both in my personal life and my working life.

So, chronic disease really wasn’t going to change that about me. It’s just another of life’s challenges. Right?

Well sort of right! It’s probably one of the more difficult challenges that life has thrown at me and it often requires strategies that I wouldn’t normally employ.

One Thing After Another

When I can stick to what I call my Chronic Disease Management Plan, life has a stable flow, despite the unpredictable nature of my disease.

The flow consists of routine daily activities, rest, activities, rest. Pretty simple. It works for me. It’s very limited physically and it’s a home bound routine but as I’ve written about many times, I’m at peace with it and I’ve accepted this new way of life.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much we try and pace activity and rest, there will be periods of time when circumstances are outside of our control.

I’ve had a fortnight of one thing after another coming my way. These things weren’t  planned and couldn’t be avoided.

It was like looking at an avalanche moving with full force towards me, knowing I needed to run in the opposite direction but being stuck with legs that wouldn’t move fast enough.

Facing The Avalanche

So when things are really outside of your control you simply have to deal with them as best you can. You have to face it and try to move through it while constantly hoping and praying that a crisis doesn’t eventuate. A crisis that could quite likely land you in hospital.

My avalanche included extra necessary medical appointments which resulted in extra tests and scans over a number of days. All were taxing on me physically and all greatly impacted my “normal” daily schedule that I need to follow to cope with my pain levels and disease symptoms.

The problem with chronic disease is that you can’t just catchup after a glitch in your routine. Believe me I’ve tried. I’ve often thought that one day of complete rest will make all the difference.

One day of rest when chronically ill doesn’t really do much at all.

Drawing A Line In The Sand

At some point, once the avalanche of unplanned and unavoidable activities are over, you have to fully assess the damage.

I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to doing this. I’ve accepted my daily rest periods are now part of my life but I hate having to stop completely.

So my initial plan was to reinstate my “Chronic Disease Management Plan” and return to my normal daily routine.

Ha…well that clearly wasn’t going to work.

So my next step was to try increasing the length of my rest periods for a couple of days.

No, that didn’t work either.

It was time to draw the line in the sand. Time to wave the white flag and retreat…literally!

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I’m Sorry, Today Is Cancelled

I had some other appointments looming as a new week approached and I could feel my avalanche crisis beginning to gain further momentum.

I began juggling my daily schedule to wake up later, go to bed earlier, increase pain medication, put all household tasks on hold.

All were bandaid solutions and not the strategy I needed to employ to rectify my situation and get back to my base disease level of operandi.

Out of the blue I received two phone calls advising that appointments needed to be re-scheduled for various reasons.

What a relief. I’m sure I sounded way too happy on the phone when one caller told me she needed to cancel due to a migraine. I felt so bad about that afterwards. Oops!

As I sat in my armchair, letting the fact that I now had the gift of time waft over me, it became clear what I needed to do.

I needed to cancel the day. Do nothing, plan nothing, just withdraw.

There is always the temptation, when appointments are cancelled, to fill the time with other tasks. I couldn’t afford to do that even though my head was full of  great ideas. My body was screaming at me. I had to listen to it.

Once I committed to cancelling the day and resting, really resting, I realized this was going to be a longer term strategy. I needed more than one day. Two weeks of damage could not be undone in one day.

I had 4 days ahead with no medical appointments. My window of opportunity was there. I could ignore it or be sensible.

I chose to be sensible. Well, I like to think I chose but in actual fact I really had no choice.

Chronic Disease has one non negotiable rule……look after yourself. To do otherwise is pure folly.

So if life has got too crazy, too busy and your disease is flaring out of control, it’s really simple….

When all else fails, cancel the day. Cancel a few days. Take the time you need to recover and get back on track.

Most importantly, please don’t feel guilty about cancelling the day. It’s not your fault. You are absolutely doing the right thing.

Take care

Sam xx

 

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic and complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m a Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

 

 

 

Sleep and Chronic Pain – Is That Even Possible?

~ Sam ~ 14 Comments

I can cope with most things about my disability. I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s far from easy but I have a toolkit of chronic disease management strategies, I’ve written about in the past, that help me on a daily basis……(Musings and Plans and Body Behaving Badly)

My pain is unrelenting during the day but I can find things to keep my mind occupied, to distract me as much as possible.

Those Early Hours Of The Morning Are Just Plain Hard

When pain overtakes my body in the early hours of the morning it’s just plain hard. I simply can’t sugarcoat night time pain with positive throw away lines.

Tossing and turning makes my legs hurt even more than usual and I’m acutely aware I’m disturbing my husband. That’s the last thing I want to do. He needs his sleep. He does so much for me during the day that I feel it’s unfair to disturb him at night.

Sure, he could sleep in the guest room but that’s just not us. Many couples do that and it makes perfect sense. Some couples literally don’t have a choice as different types of diseases make sharing a bed impossible. That’s really tough.

In our situation, for as long as we can, my husband and I are committed to staying side by side to fight this chronic illness battle.  For now that includes still sleeping in the same bed.

The only time we’ve slept apart is if one of us has been in hospital or when I was working and was away at a conference.

That’s across nearly 23 years of marriage.

Navigating the Night Time Pain

On bad nights I usually wake at 2am. So, I make my way downstairs. Sounds easy but I have to navigate down the long hall to the staircase using my crutches. I then use the remote to get the stairlift to come up the stairs from its parking bay downstairs. I carefully climb on it and then once at the bottom, struggle to the kitchen to make a much needed cuppa.

I carefully carry the cup of tea in one hand, using only one crutch in my other hand, to move to my lounge chair. I really need two crutches so it’s a delicate operation.

Finally I take an extra pain killer.

The thought of this process often makes me just lie in bed in pain on bad nights, rather than going to all this effort but other nights the pain wins. I have to break the cycle and get up and move.

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It’s Not My Fault, It’s Not Your Fault

As I feel the extra pain killer starting to work and the warm drink bringing a feeling of comfort, I begin to relax.

I know I am going to be a cot case tomorrow. Actually a bad night like this has consequences that carry over a number of days. A harsh reality of living with a chronic disease.

I always want to find a reason for having a rough night. My mind searches for answers.

I must have done too much.

I haven’t rested enough.

A whole list runs through my head finding reasons to blame myself for my soaring pain levels.

In the stillness of my lounge room with the clock ticking for company and otherwise silence surrounding me, I eventually settle my thoughts.

I remind myself that I haven’t done anything to cause this disease to attack my body. I have spent my days balancing rest and activity.

I am managing this the best way I can. This is not my fault!

Sleepless nights and unrelenting pain are not the fault of the chronic illness sufferer. We have to try and live each day the best we can. We have to move our bodies. We even have to stretch our limits from time to time to achieve an important goal.

It’s not our fault. It’s our disease causing the pain and the sleepless nights.

What we need are strategies to deal with yet another part of living with chronic disease

Sleepless Nights Strategies

There are some really great “Good Sleep” resources online. This one is from the Macquarie Universities Chronic Conditions Course and it’s my favourite: Good Sleep Guide

Sleepless nights will happen from time to time. Accepting that, not fighting it, helps me relax and find a place of peace. That helps sleep to eventually return.

Some of my other tips for those disturbed nights (remembering that they are not your fault) include:

  • Get up when pain is overwhelming. Breaking the tossing and turning cycle really helps;
  • Make a hot drink and if you can, take some break through pain medication (speak to your Dr about this);
  • Don’t put a time limit on when you should return to bed. Listen to your body. When you start to feel relaxed and your eyes want to close, it’s time to try again.
  • If you go back to bed and you still can’t sleep, just enjoy resting there if your pain is manageable. If your pain is too distracting, get up again and relax in your favourite chair. You might nod off there and that’s fine so long as you are in a position that supports your body correctly.
  • When my pain is really bad at night I have to distract myself, so I’ll pick up my phone and write a blog post. Or I’ll reach out to someone on my Facebook forum.
  • Online support groups are excellent in the middle of the night if you need to debrief with someone who really understands. My forum Medical Musings with Friends , is an international group so there is always someone around to chat with.
  • The next day try and maintain your normal routine.
  • Make sure you stick to your daily rest schedule but don’t try and catchup on sleep. In my experience I usually sleep like a baby the following night due to exhaustion. It also always seems to be a restorative sleep.

So Is Sleep and Chronic Pain/Illness Possible?

Yes, I think so but there will be nights, even seasons of nights, when sleep will be disturbed. Try not to stress when the sleepless night arrives.

With some solid strategies, a settled mind and peaceful heart (helped along with meds and a hot drink) sleep will eventuate. Pain will begin to subside enough to allow that place of slumber to return.

On those occasions when it doesn’t…..we might just find ourselves chatting online.

Sleep well

Sam xx

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic & complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m also a Contributor at “The Mighty”. You can check out my published articles at My Author Page

I also write @ Blogs by Christian Women

I’m a member of  the Chronic Illness Bloggers Network and the  Grace Girls Facebook Group

Please click here to read our Privacy Policy

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Musing while Waiting for the Morning Fog to lift!

~ Sam ~ 4 Comments

I’m not talking about the weather, it is the most glorious day outside as I blog inside, sitting in my favourite chair. I really should make the extra effort to get off my armchair, grab my crutches, grab my ipad, grab my coffee and go outside……hmmm, can’t quite achieve that!

Every morning I always have a list of “I should do this, or I should do that” buzzing in my head. In my minds eye I run around the house with the energy of 2 or 3 people, achieving so much. Then, I get out of bed and try to stand up. Reality sets in and all those wonderful tasks that moments ago seemed so easy, suddenly are insurmountable.

I do however amaze myself everyday as to how much I do achieve. I might not be able to do everything I want to do in an hour but with careful planning and pacing it is possible to get through a realistic daily “to do” list. The list needs to be shorter than it once was but to have a sense of achievement at the end of the day is so important when living with a chronic disease.

The fog I’m talking about is the one that follows the morning medication. The pills are necessary to get my body moving at some point in the day and to dull my over active immune system just enough to prevent permanent disabling joint damage from Rheumatoid Arthritis and to manage the unrelenting pain from my rare bone disease. However, they render me almost useless for the first few hours of my morning. I feel like I need to constantly shake my head to get it working.

Are the pills worth it?

I ask that question over and over but I know that my Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms are kept under control with them and without the pain killers for my non healing broken femur & widespread bone pain…well, I don’t know what I would do.

My husband is out for a while this morning, only for a couple of hours but I am limited in what I can achieve without him. He would normally carry my coffee outside while I make my way with my crutches. It is the simple things like this that carers do that go unnoticed. Carers are amazing. Caring husbands are a gift from above and I thank God for mine every day.

So I shall sit here for a little while longer with my musings & eventually the fog will lift enough for my body to move a little more freely & I will feel more connected to the day.  I love it when that happens 😊

 

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding & friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic & complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.

I’m also a Contributor at “The Mighty”

https://themighty.com/author/samantha-moss/

 

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