Relapses and suggestions

So last night was a not so great night, which normally leads to a day that is not so great.

I slept well from10:30pm - 3:00am but then I was up for about an hour and tossed and turned a lot until 7am. But I finally fell back asleep real deep for a couple more hours.

I woke up with pretty sore hips and shoulders and my calves were cramping with the smallest stretch. But up I got, settled myself into my La-Z-Boy chair wrapped up in my heating blanket for a couple of hours. I am really happy to say that all the pain subsided and I am feeling pretty good. So good in fact that I have picked up a cross stitch that I haven't touched in over a year because it made my hands, wrist and shoulders hurt too much to do.

So today is going to be about relapsing. It does happen. We go along feeling so great for so long that we forget. We forget to eat well, we forget to rest, we forget our healthy sleeping habits and we push ourselves. Sometimes we continue to do all our rehab and we still end up having a relapse. Maybe the weather changed, maybe a trauma happened but we can relapse.

It is really important not to be hard on ourselves when this happens. It is also really important not to get discouraged. We just take a couple of steps back in our rehab and start again. We rest, we relax, we eat super well and hopefully in a few days our pain starts to subside again.

This is when our record keeping becomes really important. It gives us an opportunity to look back and make sure we didn't slip up a bit. Was I on my feet for too long, did I get sufficient rest in the evening, did I start an exercise program I shouldn't have? There have been many times when I haven't maintained my record keeping convincing myself I was too tired, too sore, just plain unable but the reality is, my record keeping takes me less than 3 minutes a day. Of all the things I HAVE to do everyday it is my record keeping.

It can also give us a heads up to prevent a relapse. Whoops, I worked two hours of overtime today, and went out for dinner with the girls yesterday and had that 2 hour bike ride the day before... I better take a couple of nights off so that I don't get myself in trouble. It is just that simple.

Dr. Tompkins says she will have a lot of patients that end up so much better that they quit seeing her for awhile, sometimes for as long as a year. And in that year off they go, living their lives, falling back into those old bad habits, skipping meals, eating junk food and not sleeping.

The other thing we need to be careful of is suggestions. When you live with chronic pain, everyone has a suggestion, a product, a vitamin series, suggestions and ideas on how you can get better. Watch out for these. Do your research, discuss them with your doctor. Don't fall into the trap of the quick fix. Anything worth doing takes time and work. A lot of things seem to be successful and work for the short term, but you have to be careful of the long term side effects.

A lot of "diet" plans are high on diuretics, laxatives, fibers and fillers. Of course you are going to lose weight quickly. But in the long run, the lack of proteins and proper calories will cause your body to lose weight by losing muscle, not fat. Some are really high in soy products which in the long run can cause a break down of our digestive organs and thyroid function. Most diet plans tell you to exercise and increase your fruit and vegetable intake. Well doing this without the extra supplements, shakes etc. will give you the same results without the other long term side effects. I just can't stress enough to check with your doctor before starting anything.

We are not talking about a minimal change for a minimal amount of time. We are talking about a lifestyle change that must last a lifetime. And what are we really sacrificing? We are sleeping, we are eating properly, we are resting and listening to our bodies. This doesn't make us weaker, it makes us stronger... maybe stronger than we have EVER been before. We will find ourselves with more energy for a longer amount of time. We will, literally, be able to climb mountains!!

So I started my day thinking I was having a relapse to, luckily, only be getting a warning sign. So I am listening. And I am feeling better, and I am going back to my cross stitching. Thanks for checking in.