What is Fibro Feelings?

Last Friday was World Arthritis Day, so I donned myself in blue and attended a two hour event put on by my local Arthritis Foundation. Their director of programs and services, who I’ve known for years, told me I looked great and was glowing. She didn’t even know I was pregnant, so that really made my day! She has actually been the only person who has said anything about me having that infamous pregnancy glow.

The first speaker was a physical therapist with lots of further education that I’ve heard speak before. He always suggests working on strengthening your pelvic floor muscles because of how they work with your core muscles. A lot of that is done with kegel exercises. You can read more about what he suggests in my previous post, Arthritis Foundation Conference 2012.

The next speaker was a nurse with extra training that you could tell listened well to her patients with fibromyalgia. She did a great job explaining our issues with pain signals, which many speakers tend to fly right over. She also talked about how important pacing ourselves is for pain relief. She pointed out that this also includes allowing someone else to do a task/something for you. She even shared the typical story of how we end up with long to-do lists from days we don’t feel well, then tend to over-work ourselves on our good days. She continued on saying that trying to accomplish all those things at once leaves us feeling like we’ve been hit by a Mack Truck. See what I mean about how she obviously listens to her patients?!

At the very end, “Party Rock Anthem” started blaring and a team of neon green shirted ladies danced up to the front of the room. Turns out they all have arthritis and have fun exercising together in various ways, including dancing. They’re one of the group activities that the senior center, where the presentation was, offers. I must say, I was impressed they were dancing to such a current song and most of them were able to keep up with the choreography to the fast beat. Personally, I was ready to head home as my back was killing me. I was so happy to know that The Helpful Hubby was making dinner that night.

Did you wear blue for World Arthritis Day?

“Shufflin’, shufflin’”