Life With Fibromyalgia
More Than Pain, Fog and Fatigue
I woke up Sunday morning with a dry swollen left eye, and I started sneezing uncontrollably. Salty water started to drip out of my left eye. My right eye? Totally fine. At first I thought it was because I ran out of water in my CPAP’s humidifier, which dries out my sinuses so they feel like burnt toast.
But this head cold, as it turned out to be, was just beginning. It started out soon before I awoke and it came on incredibly fast. Within a few hours my nose was raw from blowing my nose so much. Water continued to drip out of my left eye and soon my nose was clear but salt water also dripped out of my left nostril.
Big deal. I have a head cold. I was able to go to church and teach my Sunday school class but I could feel my energy slowly and steadily drain out of me like water flowing out of a pitcher. My hands started to twitch and shake. I started to get a headache in my forehead sinuses.
I got home and started to drop Tylenol and Mucinex down my throat. I pumped my nostrils with my prescription nose spray. I rested the duration of the day as much as I could after drinking well more than 96 ounces of water. So what does a head cold have to do with fibromyalgia?
Most people with a head cold like that would be content to take some aspirin and a decongestant. Maybe a nap and they are good to go. Sure they have a cold but not enough to stop them dead in their tracks right? Right.
I know back in the day, a life time ago, before full blown fibromyalgia, I would never have slowed down for a running nose and a cold. I would take some over the counter meds and kept on going.
With fibromyalgia we are already slowed down, run down and worn out. Since Fibromyalgia appears to be an illness of the central nervous system, we are hyper sensitive to casual pain or pain of any kind. We are hypersensitive to any other type of physical symptoms and simple things like a cold or a stubbed toe can get out of hand very fast because of our hypersensitive central nervous system throughout our entire body. Whether we have stressful events that causes situational anxiety, colds, flu’s or simple bumps and bruises, it is infinitely worse when your nerves multiply the effect by who knows how much.
So why am I writing about this? Because I have been enjoying a recent streak of good health, fibromyalgia not withstanding, and I was suddenly and violently reminded how fibro makes everything worse. Also people need to know how fibromyalgia affects us besides the usual pain and fog and fatigue. Let’s remind people that fibro is much more than pain, fog and fatigue. It affects everything about us.
What’s your story? How has being sick affected your fibro or how has fibro affected you while being sick with some other illness?
Troy Wagstaff © Copyright
Filed under: Fibromyalgia - Fbro Awareness | Tagged: energy, fibro awareness, Fog and Fatigue, head cold, Life With Fibromyalgia, More Than Pain | 2 Comments »
Troy C. Wagstaff aka CallahanWriter Blog: Topics of interest include Western Historical (1865-1899) Topics. Additionally inspirational Christian and Fibromyalgia interests. 