Recently my blogroll pal Jenny Ryan announced that her blog, “Using My Powers For Good” will officially be changed to “Cranky Fibro Girl”. Her reasoning is completely understandable to me, as she says the person she started out as four and one-half years ago writing witty observations about everyday life isn’t the same person who has fibromyalgia today, one who may make it as far as the couch from the bed.
This lack of energy (which helps aid said crankiness) is a classic fibromyalgia symptom. It reminds me of having the flu in that the first five minutes of every time I awaken I have a small amount of energy. I’m usually trying to cram everything and the kitchen sink into that five minutes before I crash mentally and physically and dive into the nearest cushiony landing. Once upon a time, however, I was a feisty whirling dervish of accomplished overkill like I had a fire lit on my backside and an even hotter fire to my breath. Now I am doing well to exhale fumes, sort of like today.
Today I maneuvered past the oncoming crash by putting on my all-purpose trail shoes, grabbing a spray can of Rustoleum and making a beeline for the outdoors to plant a coat of hammered copper on a metal bench — quite the uncomfortable spot for a crash landing. However, since I was already in the red zone, I didn’t even bother hosing off the dust before I began spraying away. By the time I had pulled the hose to the bench or a sponge with a water-filled bucket I would have stopped right there and not gotten back to it. I’m not “normally” like this, much preferring the most perfect form I can handle in any activity, but these days all I am doing is breathing fumes rather than fire, so I’ll take what I can get.
Wishing all the best to Jenny Ryan, whom I still think is the same witty person, only in a different, uncooperative body. May she breathe fire instead of fumes.
A very well written article. You get better everytime you start tapping at the key board. One of these days we will have to put all the blogs in a book and title it “Laugh at the Pain, How to help those with Chronic Pain and make them Smile.”
You might not see it, friend, but I think you’re a little firecracker, plunging into projects with all your muster; leaving plumes of smoke behind you. You always manage to make me smile especially when you mentioned throwing on your trail shoes and marching out with spray can in hand. Glad that it hit the bench and no one was in the way!