What is Fibro Feelings?

This year I had a lot of anticipation for my local Arthritis Walk. I wasn’t as involved with the planning committee this year, so I didn’t know all the details of what it would be like. We met up with some friends and since The Helpful Hubby and I didn’t have to volunteer during the event this year, we walked the one mile course. I didn’t want to do the three mile course and have The Boisterous Boy get too cranky.

They had a vendor there with electric bicycles and now that I’ve tried them I really want one! Even on the low power setting it made riding on the grass easy. I can see so many great uses for it for someone with fibromyalgia! I was thinking that I could connect one of those bike trailers onto it to be able to take The Boisterous Boy out for rides without it being too taxing on my body. Along those same lines, it would allow me to ride faster so I could keep up with The Helpful Hubby and his friends and not worry about riding on windy days. I HATE riding in the wind.

The neat thing is that you can still shift the gears to harder gears so you can get a workout. Having the option to speed it up and make it easier would be great if your body starts hurting though. They’re pricey, but not any more than an expensive bike is. Just like high end bikes, you can also rent them by the hour, day or weekend, which would make it nice for a special staycation.

Anyway, back to the details of the day. Later in the evening my back and hip were hurting me fairly badly. It’d started hurting the night before the walk and I forgot to take something for the pain and swelling the night. After eating dinner and putting The Boisterous Boy down for a nap The Helpful Hubby suggested that I take an Epsom salt bath. I immediately thought, “Duh! Why I didn’t I think of that?” I knew why though…it was because I was tired, in pain and still trying to clean up some things around the house. In other words, I wasn’t thinking clearly.

I then took the longest soak I’ve had since giving birth and it felt great! My body felt so much better when I got out. Well, most of my body. My finger joints were killing me all of a sudden. It took me awhile, then I had a laugh when I realized why. While I was soaking, I was holding a huge, 806 page baby book up above the water and my body. Of course my fingers would get sore! Luckily they were feeling better by the next day.

How do you comfortably hold books while in a tub?

An electric bike (different than the one I rode)*

*Image Credit: from www.flickr.com by nedrichards

What is Fibro Feelings?

I’ve talked about sensory overload in fibromyalgia before and now I’ve got a great example to share. One night I was feeling a little tired and after feeding The Boisterous Boy we finally got to making dinner around 9pm. The Helpful Hubby finished cooking some ginger terriyaki beef scewers I’d gotten him and the smell was SO strong! There were only two of them and The Helpful Hubby ended up covering the skillet, but the aroma was really bothering me.

I noticed I was even holding my breath a bit in the next room. I heated up a Trader Joe’s frozen entree and when I went to stir it up I ended up dropping the fork out of my hand, throwing noodles and mushrooms on the floor. Then I went to check to make sure the broccoli I’d cooked was ready and burned my tongue!

As I finally sat down to eat I hit the remote and accidentally changed the channel. The Helpful Hubby had been wanting to watch a special news report and had it paused, but then I changed the channel a second time, which caused him to loose his program. =( Luckily he understood I was struggling and he didn’t get mad at me. He did comment on how he was surprised how much the smell was bothering me though. We both had a little laugh at the clumsiness the sensory overload had caused me.

Do you get overwhelmed by smells too?

Hold your breath!*

*Image Credit: from www.flickr.com by crushhhh

When I looked at the calendar this year I was happily surprised to find out that my first Mother’s Day as a mother was ALSO National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day! May 12th will be a pretty big day for me this year. Having fibromyalgia effects how I parent and being a mom effects how I deal with my fibromyalgia. They are two parts of my life that can never be separated. Well, until they figure out a cure!

I paired up with FibroCenter.com to create an ecard that can be sent to mothers living with fibromyalgia. You can send other ecards from their site, starting Friday. To elaborate on my quote from the ecard I’d like to say our children obviously will see the challenges fibromyalgia presents in our lives. Through that they will hopefully learn to be caring and empathetic to other’s struggles. More than that though they will see how we overcome our obstacles and still have wonderfully fulfilling, empowered lives. This will teach them resilience and tenacity. To me, these are invaluable lessons and the opportunity to share them is one of the silver-linings we can find through living with chronic illness.

Being a mom is tough and being a mom with fibromyalgia is even tougher! I encourage you to acknowledge this and lift up a mother you know that is living with fibromyalgia this National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day+Mother’s Day by sending her an ecard! To share my ecard, just send them an email with this link to the larger image: http://ow.ly/kUHH8 with a special note from you!

What do you hope others can learn from seeing you live with fibromyalgia?

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You may also be interested in reading:
National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day History
National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

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I’m so excited to be revealing The Fibrofly just in time for Fibromyalgia Awareness Day! My friends at Nice Rice made my Felicia Fibro butterflies into 3D, super soft plushies. They’re handmade with love and are great for cuddling with, but that’s not all!

The main reason I want to share my purple butterflies is to help uplift the fibromyalgia community – hence the name The Fibrofly. I want the person holding them to remember they aren’t alone in this chronic illness journey and that there are others out there, holding the same butterfly, going through the same things. United, we lift each other up, encouraging each other to keep fluttering upwards toward fulfilling, empowered lives. Besides purple being my favorite color, it is also the color for fibromyalgia awareness.

Get your own Fibrofly from Nice Rice for $15 or buy one for a friend this Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. I’m really grateful to Nice Rice for working with me to keep the price affordable. A portion of the proceeds go towards my advocacy efforts.

Blue skies and purple butterflies!