Updation Nation

I am a bit behind on the whole posting thing. I've neglected ElJay, Facebook, and Blogspot. :(

Life is plugging along. We spent a great Thanksgiving weekend in Michigan with my family - saw my baby sister's house and my baby brother's girlfriend. The house is cute - it's a ranch house with a garage that got converted into a family room, so they're planning on adding a dining room table to that room and putting an island in the kitchen. The house is heated by a wood burning stove, which is cool. It's nice standing by the stove when your feets are cold. Their property is great - about five acres. The dogs LOVED it. They had things to sniff, things to bark at (still haven't figured out what they were barking at...), and places to pee. What else do you need? The girlfriend is nice. She's tall. I felt short. I am officially The Shortest Person in my family. By at least six inches. She dwarfs the sister also, making her The Second Shortest Person.

The weekend was nice and provided the inspiration for our gift to my parents. Shhh. It's a secret. It'll blow them away and create many tears in their eyes, which is always the goal. It'll be a lot of work for us, and, quite frankly, I'm dreading that. It'll be worth it. I hope. It better be. It's going to be Not Cheap. But that's ok. They deserve it.

We put up Christmas lights on the outside of our house Sunday. I was WORN OUT the rest of the day. I almost fell asleep during the bad bits of the Bears game. I stayed awake during most of it. When we moved upstairs to watch the Patriots almost lose to the Eagles, I could not keep my eyes open. The going to bed late and doing stuff outside things just caught right up to me and knocked me out. The spouse says it's because I'm getting a cold. I know it's the exercise intolerance inherent in fibro. The whole getting sick thing doesn't help, but colds don't wipe me out like that. Bronchitis doesn't wipe me out like that. I just used up all my spoons and had to pay for it.

Physically, I'm doing ok. It's kind of funny. I see people on Thanksgiving that I see only every other year. One of my great aunts asked how I was feeling and what kind of symptoms I have. Another aunt asked about the symptoms. I totally drew a blank! I know they're just trying to understand what I feel like. But all the knowledge and research I've done completely deserted me. All I could come up with was "I'm constantly achy and tired". I forgot about the cognitive issues, the sensitivity to medication and chemicals, and all the other things I live with every day. I think that's a good thing because it means that I don't dwell on it. I can't avoid the fatigue, sometimes bone-wearying, or the pain because they are omnipresent. I guess I've accepted the changes that fibro has wrought in my life; they've become normal. I don't know if that's good or bad. I really don't. It just is, and it's probably neither good nor bad.

I'm starting my two weeks of Feeling Not Good. It coincides with my hormones nicely, so I can predict it. It's backwards from what my doctor predicted (feel good after getting your period, feel bad before), but it coincides with what someone else I know experiences.

I'm trying to work out more. Everything I have been reading tells me that I'll feel better within about six weeks of starting to work out. The problem is starting. I feel good after I work out. I (kind of) feel good while I'm working out. But I feel so awful beforehand that it's hard to just start. I know that I lack motivation and all that, but, seriously, when's the last time you worked out when you had the flu? See? Not so fun. And I don't have the luxury of waiting until I feel better. I'm not going to all of a sudden get better one day. This is kinda how it's going to be until some serious advances happen regarding medicine and treatment options. Which is why I don't think about it.

On that note.....I am signing off. I'm glad my drafts get autosaved. :) It took me about three hours to write this!