browser life

If one more person uses the word "deconditioned" in reference to me and my fibromyalgia, I just may EXPLODE! Deconditioning does NOT cause fibromyalgia. I was perfectly physically fit at the time I got sick.

I know cardiovascular exercise produces endorphins which are nature's pain killers, but whenever my heart rate goes above 90 beat per minute, I get horribly sick, which rather erases any benefit the exercise might have given me. I work HARD at being as fit as my illness will allow, and I'm tired of not being given credit for that. I do water therapy three times a week, and use a non-impact glider very slowly for 30 minutes three times a week. It took me four years to get to 30 minutes - I had to start at just five minutes and raise it ever so slowly. I do stretches at least twice every day except Sunday (I stretch just once on Sunday). But I am told this is not enough because I am not raising my heart rate. I do believe in exercise, but it has to be exercise to TOLERANCE for someone with fibromyalgia.

No one would ever dream of telling a person with a broken leg to go jogging, or tell a person with cancer just to push through their exhaustion until they collapse. Why is it okay to say these things to someone with fibromyalgia? If exercise cured fibromyalgia, I would never have gotten it and would still have a job, be able to hike in the mountains, travel, go on photo expeditions without a wheelchair and would be able to have a dog I could take on long walks every day.

End of rant, for now.