Day-to-Day Activities We Can Struggle With
Let’s face it: doing “normal” every thing becomes a huge challenge when you have fibromyalgia. We really need to place ourselves to make sure we can accomplish ordinary tasks- tasks that I used to take for granted. The pain may get worse after commission for a few days. Our energy occurs in spurts throughout the day, and we need to learn to conserve it. It would be like getting 10 gallons of a gas a day.
You use them up in a certain way and when you are done, you are running on fumes. All of a sudden you can be standing at the kitchen sink and you just can’t stand there another second. You can’t cook, you can’t wash another dish. You just have to sit down. Sometimes you can’t even talk. Many of us have all we can do to shower, do the laundry, and cook simple meals.
Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome can affect every area of your life, right down to the most ordinary tasks of daily life. Sometimes, you might be surprised by how difficult “ordinary” things have become for you. Some things that are complicated by our symptoms are so basic that they can throw a major wrench into your life.
Wearing clothes Waistbands, Bra straps, Elastic in socks, Rough fabrics, tags, these are all things that can cause a lot of pain because of allodynia. Many of us have to tailor the way we dress to avoid this symptom, or to at least make it less of a problem. Temperature sensitivity can play a big role here, too. What starts out as a cozy sweater on a cold day can become a sweltering nuisance if the heater’s is set too high.
A cool breeze can quickly make you regret a pair of shorts and a light cotton shirt as well. For those with both hot and cold sensitivity, deciding what to wear, and enduring the ramifications of the wrong choice, can be extremely unpleasant as you either freeze or overheat, or alternate between the two.
Driving Brain fog can be major problem when you are behind the wheel. Some of us periodically forget where we are and how to get there. Even worse, we may become disoriented and not know where we are. It’s scary when this happens and can lead to an anxiety attack, which makes the situation even worse. Some of us also have trouble paying attention to the myriad things that we need to while driving. We may not be able to process all the necessary information to be safe on the road. Most of the people with these illnesses stay able to drive. Some may have to limit their driving to familiar places, while others are okay most of the time but choose not to drive especially on bad days.
Talking on the phone We don’t normally think of a conversation as a strenuous mental activity, but when you have cognitive dysfunction (brain fog or fibro fog), it can become one. When you are on phone you may be distracted by things in your environment that the other person in unaware of. Many of us have problems multi-tasking, so your brain may essentially block out what the other person in saying while your attention is on something else. Then you find yourself confused as to where the conversation has gone, which can be frustrating and embarrassing.
Knowing your body and adapting The reality of having a chronic illness is that you may need to make some changes to your daily life. By identifying the things that are difficult for you, you can modify or eliminate them so they take less of a toll and leave more energy for things that are a higher priority. A key to adapting appropriately is paying close attention to your body and the patterns of your illnesses and taking an honest look at your lifestyle.
Grooming It’s such a basic thing-you get up, shower, style your hair, and make yourself presentable before you go out into the world. Right For us, it’s not that simple
First, the shower:
- it gets hot, which can make you dizzy and activate your temperature sensitivity (which in turn can lead to more symptoms)
- the spray of the water, for many of us, is painful to the skin at any temperature, thanks to a symptom called allodynia (pain from typically non-painful stimuli)
- standing for that long and using your arms to vigorously scrub your hair and body can lead to tired, achy muscles. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this: bath. They eliminate many of the problems Then there’s styling your hair. Holding your arms up to brush, blow dry and flat iron is hard on the arms. For the heat sensitive, styling tools can make you feel like you’re in a microwave, especially after a hot shower.
for reference: By Adrienne Dellwo via Very Well
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