Best free, non-medical distractions for pain include kitten videos on Instagram, blasting sore muscles with warm water from a high-pressure showerhead, research-that-leads-to-hope, and flirting.
Best free, non-medical distractions for pain include kitten videos on Instagram, blasting sore muscles with warm water from a high-pressure showerhead, research-that-leads-to-hope, and flirting.
If it seems like I’ve given up, that’s not true.
I’m exploring all the regular stuff (medication, therapy, extra rest, a new mattress) alongside less typical treatments like dynamic neural retraining, placebo meditation, Acceptance and Commitment therapy, warm water therapy.
It’s been hard to blog because I can’t seem to think about anything else lately other than how crummy I feel. Even when I try to write about something else, something fun, it only reminds me that I have no energy for it. In some ways I am being reminded of the summer of … oh, 2006 maybe? When I had no energy. That was due to Luvox, an OCD med, and it was terrible-terrible-terrible, but it didn’t last forever.
I know that chronic means ongoing, but I am excited about all the different opportunities to work toward health. And I do not forget that miracles happen. I am in a weird season, I know, and I thank you for hanging in there with me.
My brother is getting married a week from today– it should be a lot of fun. I rented the most gorgeous dress, all navy blue and sequins, and I’ll be reading a poem I’ve written for the bride and groom. The writing conference a couple weekends ago was lovely and life-giving, so delicious to be in the presence of creative believers. I’ve been enjoying inspirational videos online too and wanted to share the one below with you. I’ll warn you that the music is a bit annoying, but the various speeches will give you so much strength!
Some of the things I am grieving:
* failed relationships
* the energy I used to have
* the future I expected before chronic illness
* America
* loss of innocence
* writing
* productivity
* Blake
* 2018
* blogging about happy things lol
Prufrock’s Spoons
by Jackie Lea Sommers & T.S. Eliot
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
And so have I.
Not enough spoons for a week like this one.
Not enough for this month, this year.
This is our unit of measurement,
me,
J. Alfred,
or maybe Eliot himself,
the tired ones everywhere
who use the word chronic to describe
something unseen.
Did a bunch of doctory stuff this week and feel like I am getting closer to some answers about why I’ve been feeling so fatigued and achy. Might be fibromyalgia. I am overwhelmed.
Getting closer on this draft.
Getting closer on some work stuff.
Getting closer on figuring out some new routines.
Getting closer to a cleared to-do list and an empty inbox.
… but days like today (full of sleep and aches) make everything close feel far.
Objectivity, yes?
Sorry if this post makes no sense.