acceptance – Fibro Warriors ~ Living Life

Facebook shows us everyday what we posted in previous years.

I have enjoyed reading the past posts and started to notice a pattern in my posts from 3 years ago. They were not the same as the posts of 2015.

My posts on my personal Facebook page from 2012 are so negative. It is common to see one word posts in the middle of the night such as “up” or “migraine”. Day after Day, I have been reading how I was not able to sleep, was suffering from migraines and had unmanageable fatigue & pain.

Three years ago, I was working a high stress job with lots of responsibilities. My pain and fatigue levels were averaging an 8 and I was doing what I could do just to make it through the day. It had become such a stressful environment that it was harming my health.

My hours had been changed to a start time of 10:00 a.m. so that I could work within my FMLA guidelines of working under 7 hours. I would wake up each morning take my medicine and either crawl out of bed to go swimming or go back to sleep for 2 hours before going to work. I had no choice. My body & mind would not work unless I did one of them.

I was attending water classes 3-4 times a week. I would see both my acupuncturist and chiropractor once a month. I had ice packs, a heating pad, a sunlight lamp, sunglasses, a foot rest, pain pills, apple cider vinegar and my water bottle in my office to help me while at work.

We were understaffed and had experienced quite a few personnel changes. I was trying to do the job of 2 in a 6-7 hour day. The fatigue and brain fog would strike and it became such a struggle to stay at work past 6 hours. It was like I hit a wall at 3:00 p.m. every day. I was often afraid I would fall asleep while driving home.

During the week I was worthless to my family. However, no matter how much pain I was in I refused to miss any of our Daughter’s activities. So weekends were filled with volleyball tournaments, household chores and trying to get as much recovery as possible before the start of the new week.

It has been proven that stress can not only aggravate Fibromyalgia symptoms but cause Fibromyalgia. I lost my job of 21 years in April 2014 and started my new job that September.

Starting a new job in a completely different industry should have caused enough stress to put and keep me in a tremendous flare. Instead, it was the best thing for me. The job was challenging but in a fun, exciting and positive environment. There has been so many benefits. The job is only 10 minutes from home. I am able to spend school days off with our Daughter and it is an extremely rewarding job. I find myself excited to tell my family about all the great things that happened instead of needing to tell someone how tough my day had been.

Image result for time for change My health slowly began to improve. My flares became less often and not as severe. I was able to reduce some of my medications and doctor appointments. In addition, I found a PT who helped eliminate a lot of my pain using the myofasical strain-counterstrain technique. I learned new techniques to manage my diagnosed 20 diseases/syndromes. I still suffer from severe fatigue but my pain is at a manageable level.

I am confident that I would not have had felt well enough to attempt any of the amazing experiences that I had in 2015 if I had still been working at such a stressful job.

In the past year, I began volunteering with the NFMCPA as a Leader Against Pain, was hired as a writer by ProHealth.com and began taking a course to become a Fibromyalgia Health Coach.

Never being a traveler in the past I traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico (climbed 2 volcanoes), went to Boston, MA to conduct an Interview and go whale watching, attended the TAP conference working with the NFMCPA in Washington, D.C, and so much more!