I hear people so often saying that moving to a hotter place like Arizona, etc helps their arthritis and fibromyalgia.

My past few weeks say "phooey" to that as we have had hot weather and I have been in constant flares. Yesterday at a luncheon of 11 women, 3 others were feeling the very same as I. I don't know the answer but I don't think that is it.

Have you ever felt a difference when you have been somewhere else than your home area? I'm curious to know.

Acceptance

I have struggled with choosing another subject and this morning I thought of
Acceptance.

This is one of the hardest things to do after finding out we have Fibromyalgia. I do not believe we can become "better" until we accept the reason for our pain and then learn all we can about it and how to "Live" (really live) with it. It's very easy to try and pretend it's not there until we have another flare. It's hard to find doctor's who give us answers other than a name.

Therefore we have to be our own teacher and find out more information on the illness and coping with it day by day.

We go a few days, or a few weeks or if we are lucky a few months without a major flare and then we start doubting the prognosis again. Our brain chatter is sometimes our worst enemy if it is negative chatter.

The patients who say loud and clear "I may have Fibromyalgia, but it doesn't have me" and "I'm going to learn all I can about coping with it and apply the information to my life so that I can still enjoy each day" are the ones that live happier and with less pain.

When we learn all we can, we learn how to do the following things.
How to Pace my activities
Stretching exercises
How to get good sleep
What foods might make pain worse
What anger can affect pain
Stress and how it affects the whole body

Pamper Me's

My daughter called me a few days ago asking if I would like to have a Daughter/Mom day celebrating my birthday that is coming up next week. I didn't waste any time saying "yes, yes, yes" as I love those days when we can spend time together.

A gift to me was lunch and a pedicure. I have only had one pedicure in my life and it's been years ago. Wow, with my feet and legs hurting from arthritis and Fibro, it was like heaven on earth.

It last over an hour and was so great. She massaged my legs and feet and oh what a wonderful feeling it was. She finished with a "hot rock" treatment on my feet. I have soft skin (after buffing with a grainy cream, oil and lotion) on my legs and feet. I have pretty toe nails painted a lovely pink. I think they look at least 10 years younger and so that makes me having my 60th birthday not my 70th.

The lesson is that we need to do some pamper me's now and then as we are dealing with every day life and Fibro's famous fatigue and pain. It doesn't matter if it is a hair do, a body massage, a pedicure or what ever... it's doing something for you.

This was a day to remember for me... how was your day?

by the way... the beautiful blue jay is chomping away on my suet cake outside the family room window. Having the hobby is making me feel good... never realized we had so many beautiful birds here in our own yard. I'm still out to "capture" a few others .... one of these days. Never thought I'd have a mama duck and her ducklings waddling down my hill either. Despite Fibro, life is fantastic.

I know, I've been MIA lately. Why? Been busy working in my yard and letting some things go. The yard is getting caught up, the warm sun is getting my plants to grow and bloom and life is great. : )

You know that as you work, you think. I got to thinking about Fibromyalgia and the grief of finding out you have this weird disease or syndrome, whatever you want to call it.

We GRIEVE our past life when we could do so many things in one day. We grieve for the body that wasn't sore and hurting so much of the time. We grieve for days without pain.

It's good to grieve but life goes on and one day we need to ACCEPT who we are and how we are at this moment. The old "us" is gone but we can, even now, CELEBRATE the days as they come. There are still LOTS of things we CAN do.... there are NEW hobbies and FUN things to do that do not create more pain.

I have enjoyed so much this spring having my camera, getting a tripod to help steady the shaky hand. I have realized so much beautiful things around me that I never noticed before. The old saying "Stop and smell the Roses" is so true. The BLESSING of Fibro (bet you didn't think there are any) is that we have TIME to stop and smell the roses.

Well, I did it....

I overdid in spite of taking breaks. I bought over 2 dozen trays (some single, some quads) of plants along with the two cherry tomato plants I buy each yer. All but 4 trays have been planted. I need to "tie" my daffodils first and then plant my impatient's around my tree and and in the large barrel by the street.

I also dumped old pots with good potting soil into the wheelbarrow and recycled the pots into the recycle can. Why do we hang on to stuff like this?

I was hurting and sore last night, in spite of a couple of pain pills during the day.

But it was so worth it. I love color. I'll be sharing some of my pictures as I go along.

I've found a patch that really seems to help the sore and knotted muscles that pulsate with pain from Fibromyalgia They are called "Salonpas" and are sold in quite a few stores (Safeway, Rite Aid, Walmart and more). They really help and are very reasonable in cost.

Exercise Balls and Fibro

I'd like to share a link of one of my followers, today. Her blog explains it well.

Country Whispers

The Day after Easter

I hope none of you overdid during the Easter Weekend. I hope your day was a great one with family.

Spring is showing up all over here in SW Washington State. The picture is my little violets peeking out from their hiding place.

I've been doing a little outside. Weeds seem to grow in the spring quicker than any other time. I make quite a few trips outside with my little pal, Sparky. While he is doing his "thing", I'm pulling some weeds. Amazing at the end of the day what a difference it makes. And doing it in "spurts" allows me to enjoy my yard much more. The pain level of overdoing is not there.

I hope you are remembering to pace yourself and doing your projects in "spurts" and rests.

Enjoy Spring...

Exercise and Fibromyalgia

Like my hummingbird picture I took this morning? See those wings and tail fly? That is natural exercise for that tiny bird.

How can we do "bit's" of exercise like that? We recognize we cannot exercise like "normals" can but we also need to recognize the little ways we can get exercise throughout our day.

Dance your way through dusting, picking up or whatever. It can be with music or not. Moving our arms and legs within range of motion helps work those muscles. Lifting arms up into the air.... shaking our hands, shaking our total bodies while doing deep breathing to circulate the oxygen through out our bodies.

I have a paper sack rule for working outdoors. I'm not sure I have told you about it so am describing it here. Yep, spring comes and yard work begins but we simply cannot do long hours of heavy work. I fold down the top 3 inches of a grocery paper bag(to make it a little stronger) and then when the bag is full of clippings, weeds, etc (loosely, not packed) that signals me to take a break. Amazing what 10 minutes 2 or 3 times a day how much gets done. This is one of my golden rules of gardening. PACE yourself.

Taking walks at our pace several times a day gives us exercise and fresh air that raises the hormones that create good feeling in us. Depression is common with chronic pain sufferers Getting out and walking helps that. Do nature walks, looking for little things that we can watch or admire.

Take a walk through your main street, checking out the little shops along the way. Pick up speed between the shops so that your heart rate goes up.

Don't sit for hours at a time, get up, move about doing a few minutes of walking in place or marching throughout the house several times

What do you do for exercise? Could you share some here? Have a beautiful day...and soon to be weekend.

Sleep

How is your sleep? Do you have a hard time going to sleep? Do you toss and turn? Do you wake up every hour or so? When you get up in the morning do you still feel as tired as you did when you went to bed? After you are up a few hours do you have the urge to lay back down?

If you said yes to some of these questions, you should talk to your doctor about your sleep problems. Without good restful, restorative sleep, your body does not heal well. It's important to get into the deep sleep (rem).

There are medications that can help you. I use Trazadone and it works well for me. Sleep Apnea is another problem for Fibromyalgia patients. Perhaps a sleep study is what is needed.

Setting good habits for bed time is important... no caffeine in the late afternoon or evening. Don't exercise at night. Don't watch TV or read in bed.

A Gift for Me

My sister can do wonders with pictures. I bought a new camera and she wanted to see some of my pictures. I sent them to her last night. She picked out these and lo and behold, I got up to this in my e-mail. What a sister!

Taking pictures will be a new and exciting hobby for me. Something to overshadow my pain and uplift my spirits.

Having hobbies helps keep the pain level down. What is your hobby or fun thing to do that helps you when you are flaring?