Summer Vacay

 

Well, what did you do on your summer vacation?

I went on a couple of day trips – one to Upper Canada Village, the living history museum which was way cool, and we also toured the prison museum here in town which was fascinating.

Mostly though, we plodded along doing our own downscale thing. There was one big happening. I found out that to go along with fibromyalgia is a condition called Myalgic Encephelomyelitis. Say that three times fast! Plainly put, the Fibro causes all the fibrous tissue in my body to act up and the ME causes swelling in my brain and spinal cord making all life a big old pain in the butt.

This is serious stuff apparently and is the reason I couldn't balance a two-wheeled electric scooter, why I go through periods of sleeping for 18 out of 24 hours, and so forth. It gets worse over time and more and more symptoms attach themselves to the condition. If I didn't have a sense of humour I think I would fly apart into tiny bits. This humour and my faith together will somehow pull me through but it is now and will continue to be a rough ride that will only get rougher.

I hope that I am not sounding too full of self-pity here. I don't want to whine, but I do want to get it out there where I can address it. I can no longer fake it as things have progressed to the point where I cannot predict from one day to the next how I will be feeling or coping. There is no way to control it and there isn't a cure. There are some therapies that can help to manage pain though they don't make it go away, and of course there are assistive devices that I shall be able to use.

Lots of theories abound, but one thing physicians are agreed upon is that with ME, there are no exercise programs that will work, because all exertion will result in muscle and fibre fatigue and further degeneration. I am currently looking at eating a diet of mostly veggies and fruits with some fish, chicken, and grains added, and meat used only occasionally at times of feasting like they did in the Bible times. 

They also strongly advise sufferers to stay the heck away from contagiously ill people, naysayers and those who insist it is all in our heads. I suppose in one way it is true – it does come from the brain, but it isn't in our Minds...

Sooner or later there will be a vaccine, or a drug, but for now, we go along and just navigate each day. Within this is the larger life lesson of 'one day at a time'. People with chronic afflictions understand this better than most. We can't look too far ahead because we just don't know how things will shape up.

Come to think of it, even those in full possession of robust physical health don't know what is charging down the pike toward them either. Maybe we with the chronic conditions are in the end more fortunate. We know we aren't in charge and we already are learning to make the most of each moment of each day. This in itself is blessing and boon.