It Comes Out of Nowhere...

The majority of today was a great day and I got a lot done with my husband. We cleaned up our old apartment and nearly finished moving all of our junk to the new house. My job was to wipe down dusty stuff and vacuum...Nate did all the more difficult work. I knew the physical work would catch up to me sometime tonight. It hit me when I was munching on some cereal. It sneaks up on me sometimes...actually, a lot of the time. One moment, I'm generally ok, and the next, my body is tingly and numb, I get dizzy, and I feel like I'm going to be throwing up. I guess I'd describe it as being sober one second, and the next, being sickly drunk....poisoned. Not good. It feels horrible and there's nothing you can do. Usually, I can feel my pain flare-ups coming on and am able to lay down and slow them down. But sometimes, it just hits....like an unexpected dip in a rollercoaster. All the worst symptoms of having the stomach flu and then some. Your entire body is screaming at you and the slightest movement feels like a violent push/shove. Horrible.

This type of flare-up and pain is just one of the many combinations of symptoms I can get. Another type I can think of to describe is the slow throbbing type. It's like feeling a slow bass beat throughout your body while you have flu-like aches. *bum* *bum* *bum* Other pains throughout the body are like pin-pricks that migrate from ankle, to shoulderblade, to knuckle, to rib.....all over. Some are stabbing that can double you over. They hit like a flash of lightning and as you find yourself bent over from the pain you wonder what just happened. Still other pain can be a constant dull companion that keeps whispering in your ear that it's there. There's a pain that I get pretty regularly around my rib cage and when it happen it feels like there are small thorns on my ribs and as I breathe, the muscles surrounding my rib cage get caught and drag against them as my ribcage expands. Another pain is like a charlie-horse, but you can get it anywhere....even your neck. Sometimes it feels literally like your muscle will tear....even though it hasn't. The "fibro fog" that is a symptom of fibromyalgia, makes my head feel clouded, dizzy, light, distant. I forget things, space out, bump into things.

And now, as my insomnia and restless leg syndrome meds kick in I know that it's time to get to bed. I know that when my meds kick in, that all discussions of anything that need to be remembered (such as a to-do item for the next day) should not be had....because, chances are, I won't remember it.