In My Inbox

I get so many emails every day from some of the many websites where I am registered. Most of them are health related (becuase I am still waiting for that cure). Usually I can hit delete on many of them because they don't appeal to me for some reason or another. Then I move on to the rest of my day (after the USA today crossword puzzle, checking Facebook, and my blog).

In my inbox this morning was a startling, shocking, upsetting email. Its title was: "Is having bacon good for fibromyalgia?". First of all let me say that I really hate emails that start off with a question. They are just click bait. And I hate that.

Next, bacon is a favorite food. I know its not healthy but if I can have bacon I will. I don't like other breakfast meats much so its bacon or nothing. And if bacon can be incorporated into dinner, that is just fine with me. (A favorite is cook a couple of pieces of bacon - one per person - in a fry pan. As the bacon is almost done place scallops on top. When the bacon is done, the scallops should be too. Serve scallops with bacon crumbled on top.) I have bacon maybe every few weeks at the very most.

Don't tempt with bacon in click bait. Its just wrong. But I read the email and found out that bacon isn't that good for fibromyalgia.

"Bacon is highly acidic and the fatty acids it contains can easily aggravate your pain symptoms. Having a lot of pork can result in massive inflammation of your joints. Just imagine eating bacon for breakfast and having to spend the rest of the week in pain, it can really affect your lifestyle."

That is just wrong. Bacon is good for everything as far as I am concerned.

"It is a big NO to take bacon although some suggest that having bacon in moderation is fine. If you suffer from any muscle and joint pain from fibromyalgia, it is recommended that you stop the bacon intake. If it is a tough task for you to cut your bacon completely, a big tip from us is to replace your bacon with turkey bacon which has just half the calories of pork bacon. There are some brands that have no saturated fats. Pick those."

No. Way. Some days breathing causes pain so I can't see that bacon can cause any worse pain. And turkey bacon is full of sodium, more than pork bacon so its really not better for you anyway.

But I didn't know pork could cause inflammation and will check into that part. And I will figure out how to incorporate bacon into our menu this weekend.

Perkiness and fatigue

Sometimes I wake up and am very perky. This annoys my husband to no end so that if I feel the least bit perky I make sure he knows (I love aggravating him sometimes - part of a happy marriage is being able to annoy your spouse).

Recently I have been dealing with fatigue. I have no idea why I have so much fatigue but I do. I have had three two hour plus naps in the past five days. This includes sleeping fairly well at night. If this keeps up maybe I should go to the doctor... No wait a minute, I have enough doctor appointments these days. If I make another doctor appointment it will be because I am dripping blood or in so much pain I am unable to move (but then how would I get there if I couldn't move?)

Yesterday I had some killer muscle cramps at the gym and was bent over in pain as a result. My hamstrings went into spasm and I could not move. Another woman at the gym noticed and came over to ask if I was okay. I wasn't but I stood still for a while and then tried stretching my hamstrings for a while before I left. When I got home, I went to bed before having lunch. Once I ate, I slept for nearly 2.5 hours.

The 'best' thing about fibromyalgia is that pain gets magnified. So when you get muscle cramps, the pain gets magnified.

But I digress. If I get enough sleep, I might be perky (and if I am, I make sure my husband knows). But I still might need a nap later in the day. If I don't get enough sleep, I probably won't be perky. The real problem is when I am in too much pain to eat, sleep or be perky. Then it really sucks.

I think I am tired

Its 10:49 AM and I am still in bed. I was going to go to the gym today around 11 but that's not going to happen. I do have a doctor appointment at 215 PM that I will go to. But I am tired.

This is what happens when I make any attempt to be normal. I went to bed at 9:30 PM last night. I admit that is a little late for me. I just over did things a bit this weekend and I didn't sleep well on Friday and Saturday nights.

We had a party Saturday afternoon and everyone was gone by 8:30 PM and I went to bed around 10. I rested for a bit in the morning before the party. Yesterday I did go out for a few hours in the afternoon. But today I am exhausted.

Unfortunately when I do too much (and it doesn't take much to for me to get to 'too much'), it takes a few days for me to get back to normal. Luckily this week I have a few days where I can take it easy in a row.

This is what I hope the Social Security Disability people will some day understand. I can't work or do anything for more than a few hours before I have to rest. If I push myself to do anything that involves more than a few hours, I pay the price. I was trying to work four hours a day, two days a week and it was too much for me.

But I digress. I will spend three days recovering from two days of pushing myself. (Thank you fibromyalgia.) My first goal is to get my butt out of bed and have some breakfast.

Fibromyalgia

How is life with fibromyalgia? Well, not so fun.

Let's see, there is random pain in my body. There is fatigue (and insomnia). There is cognitive impairment. And depression.

Sometimes its hard to decide how I feel from a specific ailment. I mean which pain is bad back, rheumatoid, fibromyalgia or osteoarthritis. I can't always tell. My doctors say it can be very difficult to tell and not to worry about it. But I can tell you when I lie awake at night that I will be exhausted in the morning, like today.

And there is another factor that causes so much fun in my life. Cognitive impairment. Yes, that is like chemo brain that doesn't go away.

Depression? Yes, well lack of sleep, no brain cells and random pain would depress anyone. This is why I keep being asked if I have any suicidal thoughts. I can tell you I do not. Because it would be yucky! I would like to stick around for as long as possible.

I hadn't really contemplated the impact of all the joys which come with a fibromyalgia diagnosis. It came on top of my RA diagnosis, or mixed in with it. But I read this article this morning about a woman's lawsuit against her former employer because she was dropped from their disability plan after she left her job because of health reasons due to fibromyalgia.

I get the same issues she does. But I could never job three miles every day.