Happy Thanksgiving!

Yep, lots to be thankful for -- including health!


Enjoy your day!

Icy Roads and Driving...

So, my current assignment with the Anchorage School District is 27+ miles away, and I can usually drive it in 30 minutes since all but 13 blocks is Highway. During the winter, that's usually more like 40-45, no problem. My doctor doesn't like me driving more than 30 minutes at a pop, but the 40 or so is not too bad. Yesterday, with the lovely freezing rain we had all night, 90 minutes. And then about 7 minutes before I could get out of my Jeep, since my left leg was seized up, stuck in position to operate the clutch. The drive home was only 60 minutes, but I was still hurting from the morning drive. It took almost 10 minutes to get out of the Jeep then, what with the same leg problem and not being able to get my left hand off the steering wheel, so I could not remove my seat belt...

Never fear, school was canceled today AND tomorrow, making Thanksgiving a six day weekend!

Wheeeeeeeee!!!

Another Day of Fibro Fun

Today has been kind of amusing... bothersome perhaps, but amusing. I did a bunch of errand running with my best friend and two of his three babies. I had Ian in a front holster-pouch thing whenever we were out of the car. When in the car, my head was attempting to host a migraine. Whenever the little guy was strapped to me, my head was fine -- but my toe was broken. When we got home, I put Ian down for his nap, then went downstairs to take one myself, and woke up with a few broken ribs, but the head and toe have been fine ever since...

Tagalongs...

No, not Girl Scout cookies...

Fibro has several other conditions that like to jump on board. One that I've been seeing a lot of lately is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As the name implies, it has to do with being tired, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. It also has to do with not being able to sleep, frequently at the same time as being so tired. Nice combo, huh? 

And then there is my favorite part -- the fishing net. I will be going along, doing whatever, when all of a sudden a fishing net or wet blanket is thrown over me. Being extremely tired pounces on me at a moment's notice. It used to throw me for a loop. Now I am somewhat used to it. If I am in a situation where I can nap, I do. Often I am not. So I come up with ways to keep myself awake while, say, teaching a class, or running a light board for a play... or driving home from work. The singing at the top of your lungs thing? NOT good. Harder to keep oxygen in, so a little dizzy slips in very quickly. Rolling down the window when it's 28 degrees out can refresh me for a while. Calculating statistics like the percentage of off-ramps I have passed already helps more. Thinking about Barney sitting in the passenger seat can also scare me enough to get in two or three more miles...

Nothing to report... so I'll edumacate some more!

One of the worst things for a person with Fibro is stress. But I worry about those stress-relieving techniques. I mean, really... deep breathing? Would I be taking perfectly good oxygen from someone else? Aren't we short on trees or something? And how about yoga? Have you seen what people wear doing yoga? I'm a winter, I can't wear all those earth tones. And I can't meditate... my mind can't wrap itself around not wrapping itself around everything all at once in order to clear itself of all thoughts... I think.

Good thing I've got such a stress-free job -- teaching middle school...

Much more typical day...

Today, pain was back to mostly ignorable -- achy creaky type stuff. Well, I did break my leg five times, during my drive home. Fortunately it healed up between breaks...

I thought this blogging thing was supposed to help...

You know, venting, release... getting things off my chest...

Well, it didn't help today. It took about twelve minutes today just to put my socks and underwear on. I could not reach my feet. Nope, not an amusing neural disconnect thing where I was doing back walkovers whenever I tried to reach toward my toes. My pain levels were through the roof, and I just could not handle the torment long enough to maneuver my feet through those darned holes. At one point I thought I might have to call my best friend (who lives in the other half of the duplex) to see if he'd be willing to come down and dress me from the waist down. We know each other extremely well, but he doesn't want to know me THAT well! Calling in sick for work because I could not put on undies? I bet that would have been a new one...