Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Attack of the fibromyalgia monster....
....the latest assault began innocently enough on Valentine's Day. Went to a music store with my hubby (bought CDs by the Kinks, Brian Setzer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and while I was rather fatigued, I didn't hurt any worse than I have been for the past three weeks I've been in this flare. So, when we left the store and Dan offered to get the car and pick me up, I told him I felt ok to walk. What I didn't know was:
A) the car was about two blocks away, and
B) the outside temperature had dropped a good 20 degrees.
I think I would have been fine if it had not been so cold outdoors. I like to walk some for the exercise, but I'm new to arthritis pain (this is my first winter with it) and keep forgetting what the cold can do to me. I was hobbling in a rather slow and pitiful way by the time I got to the car.
After we got home, we curled up on the reclining couch and watched a movie. I sat for too long in an awkward position, and the muscles that were already angry with me for walking in the cold decided to have revenge. Toward the end of the movie, I got a violent muscle cramp going up the front of my left leg from the toes to the knee. When I would try to straighten my toes, the back of my leg would cramp up too. It's one of those situations where you can do very little but scream and cry. Dan had to help me up the stairs so I could soak in hot water with Epsom salts. It took half an hour for the cramping to stop, and then I was so exhausted I thought I was going to faint. That's when the fibromonster decided to take over and distribute muscle spasms everywhere.
Haven't gotten any sleep to speak of since then because every time I'm immobile for more than an hour or so, something will twitch and/or cramp up. It was still going on when I went to aquacise this morning and after the class as well. In spite of my best efforts at self-massage, the muscles in my feet and legs are so excuciating they can hardly be touched. The fibromonster of course feeds on this and distributes the pain to as many areas as possible. It's like dropping a stone in a pond....the ripples seem endless.
A) the car was about two blocks away, and
B) the outside temperature had dropped a good 20 degrees.
I think I would have been fine if it had not been so cold outdoors. I like to walk some for the exercise, but I'm new to arthritis pain (this is my first winter with it) and keep forgetting what the cold can do to me. I was hobbling in a rather slow and pitiful way by the time I got to the car.
After we got home, we curled up on the reclining couch and watched a movie. I sat for too long in an awkward position, and the muscles that were already angry with me for walking in the cold decided to have revenge. Toward the end of the movie, I got a violent muscle cramp going up the front of my left leg from the toes to the knee. When I would try to straighten my toes, the back of my leg would cramp up too. It's one of those situations where you can do very little but scream and cry. Dan had to help me up the stairs so I could soak in hot water with Epsom salts. It took half an hour for the cramping to stop, and then I was so exhausted I thought I was going to faint. That's when the fibromonster decided to take over and distribute muscle spasms everywhere.
Haven't gotten any sleep to speak of since then because every time I'm immobile for more than an hour or so, something will twitch and/or cramp up. It was still going on when I went to aquacise this morning and after the class as well. In spite of my best efforts at self-massage, the muscles in my feet and legs are so excuciating they can hardly be touched. The fibromonster of course feeds on this and distributes the pain to as many areas as possible. It's like dropping a stone in a pond....the ripples seem endless.
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