Spooning into summer - life with chronic pain & fatigue.

[Grockle]

A lovely, supportive thread for those of us suffering with a range of illnesses & syndromes that cause chronic pain & fatigue, amongst many other things.

Lots of advice shared but also a place to chat & laugh with people who understand.

theory here www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/

Same here with DH - he's been working 6am-7/8pm plus he's been working weekends... (Can't complain as he's SE, we need the money as I don't work & it looks like a dry spell coming up )... but 2 weeks then school routines are back & I get rest time (while I try & find a suitable part time job....)

Hope you get to rest soon Beyond

Hello ladies. I'm not doing very well as I was assaulted at work yesterday. I have much bruising and a sprained neck which hurts a lot!! painful shoulders and back and thumb pad...I only returned to work on Monday! I'm so embarrassed as I was stretchered out to A&E . Still breathing though!

Solo, that's dreadful. Really hope you get better soon and work allow you plenty of time to recover.

Candy, I like the pink ones, but I'd not want to use them all the time...Could you go with the purple ones as 'everyday' 'work' ones for now and then, at a later date (having saved up another small fortune) get pink ones for special occasions, and to perk yourself up a bit?

Solo, that's shocking! So sorry to hear you were attacked! Have they got whoever did it, and please tell us you are pressing charges.

Work related yegods so it's all in hand. Not sure work will prosecute and I don't know if I have the energy to go that route myself ~ or the money.

Once again, I can't sleep...

Oh solo, I'm sorry. That happens in my work & it's horrible. 2 years ago I was knocked out

Hope you are ok & not in too much pain. X

It is horrible Grockle yes! never happened to me before and just as I'm on my way out...

In lots of pain, but moving my neck a bit more each day :) thumb not so good. Not sleeping.

OOps!

Hello all,

DX this morning with Fibromyalgia. I am unsurprised. Am knackered and in a mental fug most of the time, plus my whole body aches and is really sore when touched.

At this point I've been told to try some lifestyle changes to manage it - more regular gentle exercise, diet. If I'm still not sleeping they will give me some pills for that.

I'm already on 30mg Citralopram for depression and suffer with awful IBS.

DH is considering whether it would be kinder at this point to shoot me and end my misery .

Hugs Kinky

Solo So sorry to hear you were assaulted at work, you poor thing. Rest up and sending lots of and spoons to you.

Kinky Welcome to the clan, sorry you had a need to find us though. Have they mentioned any other medication? A referral to a pain clinic is a must IMO.

Ooops, forgot to say thank you for the comments on the crutches, I'm going to go with purple but not yet as money is tight. My car's just cost me a few hundred bob and I have a credit card bill to pay eek!

No medication candy. If I'm struggling I have to go back to GP for sleeping pills and to discuss pain management further. It was an odd consultation. Younger Dr said it is fibromyalgia straight away and talked about taking exercise to help it; went to see his boss who declared he didn't believe in the term 'fibromyalgia', called it something else to do with muscles, and discharged me to see how I get on. Didn't see second doctor, first doctor went out to speak to him.

My pain isn't unmanageable at this point. I am very stiff and ache a lot, and I hit the roof if touched on one of the fibromyalgia points, but I'm not incapacitated by it. My main problem is the brain fog and lethargy. Over the past few years I've gained a load of weight because I overeat carbs due to being so knackered all the time. I work FT in stressful job and have difficult family life - DD just finished 2.5yrs of treatment for cancer and has Asperger's too. Stress is certainly an issue.

I want to be proactive, but didn't get a great deal of advice about how best to tackle this. Exercise is great, but I need to do it on an evening when I'm usually dead on my feet.

Solo, omg hope you r ok... Welcome kinky ( and anyone else I forget) blame the drugs... I feel like a fair weather friend because I am here to moan, sorry in advance, I'm day two of bed prison, been feeling off its for last week, and wham I hit thAt brick wall yesterday. We have been busy lately ( not that DP agrees) but we haven't had a weekend at home for ages doing nothing! I'm trying to write a business case for my job and still doing my job onto, stress with ds so maybe this was to be expected... So today for those with ME and similar illness I am wearing my lead suit and doing the treacle walk......I'm sure most of you understand this! Why isn't life so simple.... I'm also feeling very selfish after following a local Dr on twitter who is in her 30 and is terminally ill with cancer, she just gets on with it, she is a senior Dr with a lot of responsibility.... I've got ME FFS I'm not dying yet I'm laid pathetically in bed feeling sorry for myself...... Rant over spoons to you all x

Grockle I just saw this and thought of you. Borrow My Doggy (Google it) matches dogs with people who want to borrow them for walks and cuddles. Maybe they could help during a bad patch.

Soldiering on through summer, had a two week holiday which has helped break it up nicely. Only two weeks to go before school starts so I am hanging on. Oldest is at sports camps every morning to tire him out...he is extremely active (like, clinically extreme) and this is saving my bacon at the moment.

Have been having acupuncture for a muscular problem (pirriformis) and it has has a subtle positive effect on my general fatigue levels as well as my butt! No miracles.

to all.

Hi ladies.
Just posted on this forum about my problems with chronic pain and fatigue and saw this thread! Nice to know I'm not alone, sorry that you all have a reason to be here though :(
I currently have an undiagnosed illness. Doctors are refusing to take me seriously and as I'm 17 weeks pregnant are putting a lot of my symptoms down to that. I had these issues a long time before I got pregnant.

Welcome Holly seems a bit quiet today, but these ladies are lovely and we all know what you are going through :)

Hi holly. I'm also trying to figure out what's wrong with me, after trying to believe the doc who said everything was fine. It was actually early pregnancy which helped me realise it wasn't -- everybody talked about how tired you would be, etc., and suddenly got all sympathetic over what was pretty normal for me for the past few years.

My Mum has been here since last week, and its been a nightmare. I love her and she's sweet and everything, but she is absolutely no help. She says she'll look after DD, but she just sits there and doesn't pay attention, or wanders off. I'm trying to work from home as much as I can to look after her and DD, but I still have meetings to go to. DH is now mad at me because of a misunderstanding that I thought they were coming in to me, but he wanted me to come home, and he had to come out and try to calm DD when she was standing in the middle of the room crying and DM was just watching her do so. Meals are really hard -- I'm either cooking for 3 adults and a baby, which is a lot of work, or DM has very generously been taking us out to restaurants, but with a 1 yr that isn't exactly a relaxing time! The one time (on my birthday) that we got takeaway, DM complained. She's leaving tomorrow, and I feel horrible that I can't wait. It is going to be a long time to recover from this, and things are really busy at work for the next month or so. :(

However, we have identified a surgery the support group woman never got back to me, but I found some other generic advice and I hope we can register next week or as soon as we have energy to get there. I know its slow, and I feel like a failure for not pursuing this faster, but I feel like I'm barely hanging on and doing as much as I can. I really need to get started with a new GP soon I had to say 'no' to extra work on the weekend to my new line manager because I was afraid I really would't make it through the coming month if I did that.

Bot fly removal... Nothing comes close to it...

Lol, bugger, wrong thread!!

That's just what I did upthread, Beyond!

I have some test results back! Tests I have been asking to have for well over a decade! I have an autoimmune disease, I've had it all my life and I have felt as though there's something wrong with me for over 2 decades, and which affected 2 of my pregnancies but it's treatable and although the meds still need tweaking, I'm feeling a lot better, to the point of feeling as though I've almost got my life back some of the time.

I also have a slight propensity towards potentially getting another autoimmune disease (I don't think any others are treatable) but will cross that bridge if and when I get there, although some minor rheumatoid symptoms have already begun, it seems.

I'm getting an ultrasound to see if there's anything detectable causing my wimmins problems, anemia, and pain & exhaustion the week before my periods. I'm actually looking forward to the prospect of an operation to get something done about it.

Spoons all round. If I could visit you each in turn to do some chores and help you out, I would.

I've been off work for a few days (annual leave) and it's been lovely. I love my job but my body was exhausted. I got a call from the nurse today and she's coming to do my first 2 anti-TNF injections on Tuesday. It sounds odd to feel excited about stabbing myself with yet another toxic drug but I'm ready to get the ball rolling. I'd give anything to be walking without crutches by the time I go back to uni at the end of September. I'd cross my fingers but I could only cross my right hand fingers, the left is very swollen.

Interesting article

Before I was lambasted by ME/CFS, I was an idealistic and trusting sort, loyal to a fault. I tried to see the best in people, tried to give the benefit of the doubt.

My soft malleable center has been pretty well kicked out of me over these many years of sickness. Along with the illness, there came a new world view, if you will. Because as the sickness settled in for a long stay, the people in my life gradually disappeared out the back door, never to return. And the Canadian government that prides itself on its humane safety net has let me down at every turn.

The fact that I am one among countless chronically ill people in my country, and the fact that there are countless more around the globe equally abandoned by their governments, only entrenches my shift from trust to cynicism.

When you know that your government will do nothing for you, and when you know that many of the people you knew don?t care whether you eat or starve, whether you have a roof over your head or you don?t ? These pellets of hard truth left some pretty serious dents in my psyche as I was bombarded with them for years.

Even if I were to regain my health completely one day, with an income big enough and dependable enough to protect me from panic and sleepless nights, I am irrevocably changed. I will never see things the same again. And I don?t want to.