Saturday morning I woke up in my own bed feeling like a new man. First of all my bed is so much more comfortable than those at the hospital. Secondly, I slept through the night. I think I got about 6 hours. I did laze about for a while before I got up. But I was out of bed by 8 and started getting around.
Some interesting insights are that when I woke up I could tell that my body was much different than a week ago. I was also looking forward to the stretching routine. I could feel the places that I would want to work on and it was a much different feeling than before. Rather than having the debilitating pain of previous flare ups it was a dull feeling that I could sense would feel much better with a little stretching.
So I started my morning with the morning stretches and then read three sections in my manual as part of my weekend assignment. As the day went on and going into Sunday, I found that the hardest part was working out the pacing. Saturday we had errands to run and sometimes they just take time. We were at about our third stop and I was starting to feel the pain and fatigue. I needed quick access to a quiet place and some ice packs but that wasn’t going to happen for awhile.
Sunday was very similar. I felt a little rough in the morning but the stretches really seemed to help. We went to church and Sunday School. By the time we left I was ready for some ice and downtime. But again, we needed to be on the move to get to a family reunion. There were lots of people there and the house was noisy, especially in the kitchen. After a while I did find a recliner where the guys were watching football. I was able to do some deep breathing and concentrated on loosening up the muscles. That helped.
I have made it through to Monday evening of the long weekend. I was able to keep up with all of my stretching and endurance exercises. I have thought that the amount of time it takes to keep up with the exercises, icing and other relaxation periods is fairly significant. I’ll have to really work the schedule to get to working part time. I can see how that would work with the things I need to do to stay healthy. I’m not quite sure about full time work.
Pacing was the most difficult thing over the weekend. I found several times where I was extending my activities beyond what was in my ability. Shopping, a family reunion and doing some chores at home all challenged me with going past the point where I would not be able to quickly intervene in the flare up cycle. It’s interesting that I have been trained to manage pain but I’m finding very useful ways to manage other symptoms of Fibromyalgia.
Tomorrows the start of a short week at the pain center. Can’t wait to get back into the routine. I’ve had enough of trying it on my own for a while.
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https://www.the-jacobsens.com/2013/09/pain-management-program-day-9.html