walking
I walked about 10 blocks yesterday, and while it was difficult at the time - and I was exhausted when I came home - this morning I felt much better when I woke up. My shoulders and neck are better.
I am going for another long walk today to see if this may, indeed, be the cause of improvement.
Hypoglycemia and Fibromyalgia
Many people with fibromyalgia are actually hypoglycemic as well. Dr. St. Amand estimates that 40% of women diagnosed with fibro are hypoglycemic. And without treating the hypoglycemia, these women still won't feel well, even with otherwise effective treatment for the fibromyalgia. This is not to confuse
carbohydrate addiction and natural cravings for sugar which are part and parcel to fibromyalgia, but rather, to deal with another problem altogether, which just sometimes occurs with
fibromyalgia - the hypoglycemia. One answer is to read a lot of
health and diet books to get a better, fuller understanding of
nutrition. Once you comprehend the
protein process more, then you can make better nutritional and dietary decisions.
More neck and shoulder stuff
I picked up the Egoscue book. Looked at the exercises. And put it down, thinking "these are too hard."
I'm going to try again today. The neck exercises look okay, it's the ones for the back that seem overwhelming. I need to do them, though, so I just gotta grit my teeth and do it. I am sure they will help.
In the meantime I am studying more written by
Dr. Mark A. Frankle and working towards finding a good treatment for my
shoulder pain.
Much better today!
One nice thing about fibromyalgia, is that the bad times come and the bad times go -- and when I'm feeling better, it just feels great! I know that my body is not back to "normal" (optimum health), but when I can get through the day without too much pain or fatigue, then I'm pretty happy!
Still walking carefully because of my knee. And my shoulders and neck do hurt a little but not too much today.
Whew! I love days like this!
Doing a bit better today
The stress has reduced - I used a massager on my back and shoulders last night and that helped. But I really am sleeping badly - my back is almost painfree except for my shoulders and neck which are in terrible pain right now. I don't know what I'm going to do - I can't afford a new bed yet, and I'm hesitant to get more cortisone!
I should crack open the Egoscue book, though - that usually helps.
stress
I have been in a more stressful-than-usual situation during the last few weeks. A close family member is seriously ill. I traveled via train to see her - the combination of grieving, dealing with stressed-out family members, and traveling a long distance on a train, have resulted in new symptoms for me. I am having more
shoulder pain, and a flare up of the common
chronic fatigue symptoms - swollen glands and low grade fever.
I have found that during this kind of stressful situation, when I'm feeling bad as a result, drinking a warm cup of tea (in addition to extra water), and relaxing with a book in a hot tub really, really helps. Anything that is normally soothing to me helps.
Also, when I use soft sheets and blankets, and makes a big difference.
Fibromyalgia Support
Here is a new group that offers support for fibromyalgics:
Fibromyalgia-Support.
I have found that the Yahoo! group
Guifenesin has been very, very helpful to me. Especially with the guai protocol, which requires a lot of work to get started on to begin with.
Shoulder pain
I am still having some trouble with my shoulders. The cortisone treatment definitely helped, but the other shoulder still hurts and the treated shoulder sometimes hurts more than others.
Here are some pages I found about shoulder and elbow treatments:
shoulder specialistSpecialistsProximal Humerus Fractures by Dr. Mark A. Frankle
spirituality and illness
Here is a great site about
Volunteer Ministers and a post about
Spiritual approaches to physical problems
