Had a non-stop week this past January. My life is usually non-stop, but this particular week was bad. Let me explain.....
I spent the weekend with my boyfriend. We only see each other on the weekend so we rarely sit still. We spend a lot of time going places and doing things. From the time he gets here on Saturday morning till he leaves Sunday night we are at the gun range or the movies or driving a few hours to a new beach town or a biking/boating excursion or meeting up with friends or shopping. So Sunday night I fall into bed exhausted with a full heart bursting with love for my favorite man. Meanwhile my body is shutting down from being dragged around for two days straight.
- Monday, I worked most of the day (standing for six hours at a cash register) and then I came home, cleaned my room and had Bible Study.
- Tuesday, I worked all day (once again 6-8 hours at a cash register), that evening I met up with some friends and did went out to the dinner and to the movies, no big deal right?
- Wednesday, I worked all day (...Six hours at a cash register… yea yea you’re starting to see it now…) . Met up with someone for coffee NOT ONCE but twice. Came home crashed.
- Got up the next morning (Thursday) and worked from 9-3.
I didn’t feel exhausted when I first got up that Thursday morning. When I am at work and it’s busy I just kind of roll with it I kind of keep going. Do it. Focus on my work. I’m type A---- so It’s the next task, then the next task, and the next task, next task….. I’m on my feet, I don’t think I just do. Buuuuuttttt, you only get a 15 minute break when you work a 6 hour shift, so I didn’t have much time to think about anything other that the lunch I was trying to eat and the bathroom I was trying to hit before my time was up; then back to work for another 3 hours. I didn’t get off work at three like I was scheduled, I got off of work at 340 and then ……went home, changed and met my family up for dinner at 5 o’clock. I didn’t realize what I had done to my body those five days till I got in the car and started driving to dinner with my parents. I was so tired, I was getting a headache. I finally felt not just tired, but exhausted and even though I’d taken Ibuprofen every 6 hours my shingle rash was starting to hurt. (Yes I was in the middle of a bout of shingles at the time. I’m dumb and crazy I know) My right arm felt numb and my shoulder hurt. Sometimes I have pain in between my shoulder blades like someone is stabbing me with a knife. I finally sat down long enough to drive from my house in Leland to an Italian restaurant in Wilmington, it’s about a 20 minute drive. Let’s just say when I sat down at the dinner I could have laid down on the booth and slept for three or four hours. And I was supposed to go to Worship practice afterwards and go home and try to make another video for the youtube vlog ….and you know ……I don’t know…… do the million things I hadn’t done because my room was a mess and I had spent the entire week in the pig sti and hadn't had any time to clean it.
Those five insane days in January remind me a lot of my early health journey where I filled every day up so that couldn’t feel the exhaustion. Now I am much more aware of how drained I feel and when I do I make a point to stop and I go WHY DO I FEEL THIS WAY? I’ve spent the entire week seeing people, doing extra activities and working more than I am supposed to work. I tell people all the time I only work 3 days…WELLLLLLL I’d been working 4 to 5 recently because we were short staffed at the time. I had also been getting back into having a SOCIAL LIFE, which is something that always seems to ebb and flow when you have diseases and getting together with friends when you’re sick doesn’t always work out so well. At that time I was trying to work my way back towards friends after slipping away for a month or two with shingles. It was really nice to be back with friends but I had been overdoing it. On top of that I just started the vlog and that’s like having a part time JOB……the consistency is so important …and I went 3 days without posting one because I just didn’t have time.
This craziness also led to a another bout of IBS….AND THAT…… Was not fun. I spent the entire week after these maddening days struggling to go to the bathroom and when I FINALLY WENT TO THE BATHROOM it was VERY PAINFUL. I started having pain in my hips and in my back which meant that I had been constipated. I hadn’t worked regularly in three months because when you have shingles you are supposed to rest, so not getting my body moving leads to constipation which leads to having aches and pains in your joints on top of already having arthritis in my hips. ALL of this leading to me sitting on the toilet for longer than planned having a lot of pain. Not only that I was in bed by 9 o’clock on Jan 19th, the night after dinner out with my parents. I didn’t go to sleep until almost 11:30, talked to my mom some, watched some TV; but I was in my pajamas, in bed after taking a very long hot bath.
**TIP!!!!! Hot baths are awesome if you have IBS and when you have shingles. The hot water really numbs your body. A Wonderful, wonderful thing and works better than any over the counter medication if you ask me.**
So I went to bed. I take a drug called Nortriptyline for IBS and I also took a Oxycodone for my shingles because it was still hurting a lot… on top of the other medications I take at bed: my thyroid pill, my Metformin for insulin resistance and I was asleep by 12 o’clock, much later than I needed to be up.
9 o’clock rolls around. My alarm on my phone starts ringing. I roll over to turn it off thinking I’ll get out of bed in a minute. Next thing I know my phone is vibrating next to my bed. I sit up then I see that’s it’s my Mom calling me and she ask “Are you still in bed?”
I say, “Yeah :)”
“It’s 11 o’clock. Your blood sugar is probably low. Get out of bed. Go eat something.” I look at my Dexcom and my blood sugar is 93. By the time I got down stairs my blood sugar was 69. I made myself a salad and a big cup of coffee and realized I hadn’t had enough rest this week at all. Going to bed late- getting up early for work- trying to stay up at night getting to do things like staying on the phone with apple for hours trying to get my phone and computer synced so I could actually have a vlog- Trying to get together with Friends- Working to make money …. IT WAS JUST TOO MUCH.
True--- Once or twice a year I do sleep till 11 AM – but it’s not a good thing for your body. Doctors have told me constantly that a routine is what you need as a person with autoimmune issues. When I started this job last year, finding a routine was really hard!! I continued working on it and have been able to find some semblance of routine.I have also found a way to enjoy my friends while keeping firm boundaries around the time I need to rest and write and make videos for others. It’s worked well, but it’s ever changing and ever will be. It’s just important that I prioritize my health so I can do all the things that make me busy and that means rest.
Those 5 mad days in January taught me a lot about myself. Things I already knew but I HAVE TO REMEMBER. As you experience chronic fatigue in your personal autoimmune journey, because chronic fatigue is going to travel with most autoimmune conditions, pay attention to being tired, it’s the first symptom leading the the “chronic” part of “exhaustion”. My body is triggered by IBS and and a general drain of energy. What does your body do? Some people probably get gastroparesis symptoms, others get really high blood sugars, some people might just have a lot of gas or the opposite affect of constipation, which is diarrhea, or maybe you just get tired and you end up sleeping the entire day or just till 11 like me? Make sure you pay attention to your body , remember your triggers, and know what they will lead to. The same way I realized that when I was having a flair up of IBS and I was starting to feel like I was going to fall asleep at the dinner table I KNEW I needed to take better care of myself.
Here I am sitting at my desk with no makeup wondering what your tips are? What are your triggers? Let me know so maybe in our community we can let each other know how to pay attention to our bodies better!
