Ooooph

That's about it. But it's almost winter break. For the better, or worse?

A Lesson on Fibro Masking

A perfect example:

Thursday, I was about the worst I've been in 2017. I was sitting on the couch, in recliner position. Buddy came running to jump into my lap, but forgot that the couch is higher than the floor and slammed, chest-first, into my left foot. He was fine, always is. My foot hurt a little, but nothing compared to how the rest of me was feeling. 

Friday morning, still feeling pretty cruddy. About half an hour after I woke up, I happened to look at my left foot. Clearly two broken toes, one not even facing exactly in the right direction. Both purple. So, I taped them up and wore slippers all day.

Saturday, out running errands, still taped. Part way through my toes started noticeably hurting. That's how I really knew that the fibro was getting better. No more fibro masking any 'real' pain I was experiencing. 

Make sense now?

Thanksgiving

Interesting timing...

I don't skip work for Fibro. I usually refuse to, preferring to fight through whatever is ailing me that day. And I hate leaving my room to someone else -- and sub plans, yuck! 

Today, I would have called in sick. I am so far from functional. But no sub plans needed, since it's a holiday, no school. 

A reason to be Thankful?

Nothing...

Just the usual. Lots of seizures lately, and occasionally bilateral. That's about the only news. But I felt like writing. So I am.

Public Service Announcement

Just FYI, having seizures while changing tires is NOT recommended. 

Oops... Forgot to Post a Fun One!

This was about a week ago... how could I have kept it from my adoring fans?

I woke up, and my lower legs weren't legs. After a few moments of frustration, I realized what my calves and feet felt like. They were bowling pins, upside down so the small round part was what I was trying to walk on. Frustration flew out the window, and laughter took over. Of course, laughing didn't make the process of learning to walk on them easier, but if sure made it more fun!

New, but Not Improved...

Hoo, boy...

Not a happy camper here. Twice within the last three days, I've had the arm curling kind of seizures -- nothing unusual there -- but they've been bilateral. First off, I almost never get those in the left arm, just the right. Even when I occasionally do get left ones, the right arm has always been fine. Not these two times. Both arms, almost perfectly symmetrical. 

The big worry here is that usually when one arm is going at it, the other one takes up any slack with what I am trying to accomplish. I am at a loss, trying to figure out how I can do that when both arms curl up...

Any suggestions?

Not Sure if I have Posted This One...

One of the ways Fibro does its thing is giving me the flu without the flu. I mean, I just about always have the aches and pains part, so it isn't that much of a stretch. The malaise, the draggy feeling? Those also come from the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Headaches are headaches. The weakness? Yeah, that can happen on its own, too. The strong feeling that getting out of bed isn't going to work? Heck, that can come from not wanting to get out of bed. But when they all hit within a few minutes of each other? I call that getting the flu without getting the flu. No digestive symptoms, just everything else. In fact, the way I feel confident that I don't have the flu is that I'm hungry. 

So I'm eating my way through it...

Mixed Up Kid

So, to add to the fibro fun lately, I've also injured myself for real several times in the last week. Pulled muscles, a finger slammed in a door, Buddy using my foot as a trampoline, little things like that... but they sure add up when combined with fibro. I'm thinking I need a charting system, just so I can remember which ones are real *should be babied* and which are fibro *don't worry about*. I keep using the slammed finger thinking it's in the second category, but then it just turns more purple. Then I go, oh, yeah, duh.

Havana Nights...

Well, the intensive was really fun. Was I sore? Yes. But most of it was the good kind of sore. 

Which is good news, since my elective in the fall may be Ballroom Dance...

Should be Interesting...

Well, the school year is wrapping up. We finish with regular classes tomorrow, then on to intensives...

My afternoon one will be a challenge. I'm teaching Havana Nights -- a bit of cultural studies, mostly Latin Ballroom Dance. We shall see how the body holds up.

I'd rather nap, but the students requested dancing...

Rough day, but...

Yeah... 

Really painful right arm seizures at school today -- the tightened up kind. Since one of our T.A.s was in the room, I was able to go to the staff room to run my arm under cold water to ease up the pain a little. One of my coworkers came in, and I explained what I was doing... and he immediately dropped what he was doing to check the freezer for an ice pack. Cold water works better than ice packs for these, but just the act was so kind. He checked in on me back in my room about 15 minutes later.

It's really good being in such a supportive environment. 

Pretty much the same...

Yeah, broken record. And bones. Occasional punctured lung or two. Missing limbs. Muscles that feel like a tiger used them as a scratching post.

And days like this one, with all of the above.

I've hit the motherlode... 

Whooosh...

Everything has been going along pretty much as previously posted, so I haven't really felt like posting. 

And then came today...

Nice morning, feeling pretty good. Went running errands, fine. A friend came over to hang out for a while, good. Then about an hour later, I started... well... aging? Yeah, some ribs breaking, but that came with scoliosis (I think -- is that the one old people get that causes them to curl forward?). Couldn't walk regularly, had to shuffle. One of the few times that I have really wondered if I was going to come out of it functional/alive. Fought that for an hour or so, and then indeed drifted out of it. Cocoa and a scone helped...