Blogging through the pain
Ejobsuccess asked a wonderful question about how to keep blogging when the fatigue from fibromyalgia is really bad. My first thought was, you don’t. The great thing about working online is that you get to set your own pace, so you can take a day off whenever you need too. However, as most fibromites know, this philosophy can often mean that we don’t end up doing anything because the fatigue & pain are always bad. Here are some tricks that I use, please share any thoughts that you have in the comments section.
1. Start a little at a time. I can now work at the computer most of the day, but I slowly had to build this up over a period of about a year.
2. Keep regular working hours. This doesn’t mean that you have to work constantly between 9 & 5, you can even start later in the day. You might only need to work an hour or two a day at first, possibly less. I’ve found that my body adjusts better when it knows that it’s “working time”. This also means that I don’t work until 3 or 4 in the morning, or when I can’t sleep. That’s a mistake I made when I first started out, & I paid for it dearly.
3. Find a comfortable place to blog. This can be sitting up in bed, or investing in a nice office chair & then padding it with extra pillows. I also have several different places to blog so I can get up & move around.
4. Realize it isn’t the end of the world if you miss a few days blogging. Set limits on what you can & can’t do, know when to push yourself & when to let things slide a little bit.
Most of all, enjoy what you do. This will make blogging through the pain easier.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I haven’t been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, although my doctor believes all the indications are there. I’ve found that the best way to deal with the fatigue is to recognize what I work best at under various conditions.
By that I mean: I can do sponsored posts when my son is awake, but I can’t really read and comment on other peoples’ blogs then. So I do my paid posting in the morning, then take a break. In the evening I comment elsewhere (like now) and write a few drafts to pepper between the next day’s sponsored posts.
And I always take at least one day completely off from the computer. That’s to give my brain a rest.
June 28th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I have CFS and Fibromyalgia both. I have found that I can push myself and work through the pain of FM. It’s the fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and other symptoms that cause me to not be very productive.
This may sound weird, but sometimes the pain is welcoming because it gives me a reason to focus on other things that end up being productive (blogging, for instance).
July 5th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Aww thanks for posting this. How Did you get your doctor to diagnose this for you? It seems as if they wanna say that i am just depressed and that the pain could be assoiciated with sickle cell. But i been tired all my life and well at this point, i would just want to break down and cry. All the things they want you to try out is ridiculose. By that time i believe i will be depressed!
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:19 am
[...] writes about a topic near and dear to my own blogging heart – how (or whether) to blog during flareup days [...]
October 27th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Great read! My fatigue has vanished from this amazing information, thanks a lot!
December 25th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Great post. Thanks for sharing all this.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I HAD fibro myalgia and was one of the first to get it back in 1990. I had to deal with doctors who had no idea what was going on and basically said I was not sick. I went from running four miles a day to not be able to walk or make a bed. I am a type A personality and my mother is TYPE triple AAA, born in Nazi Germany and worked since she was 14, I am my mothers daughter, so this really irked me and of course I had to get an illness which there is no sympathy, because you don’t LOOK SICK. But it took me seven years and at 10 years to be back to where I started and better. They told me I would never be able to do anything I once did such as exercising or even hold a full time job. DONT listen to them. I first went to a nutritionist and did 7 colonics (fasted) for seven days. I felt much better, then I went to an acupuncturist in Pasadena California (chinese lady, couldn’t speak english only via her son translating) but she basically healed me. I did acupuncture 2-3 days a week and did some herbs (don’t know what they were, but desperate to get healed) The first day I went I slept like a baby (I literally did not sleep for 7 years) I cried that day and will not forget that moment. So I tell you, you can get rid of it and you have to change diet and rest. Do not take the pharmacetical, my doctor use to give them to me and I never took them (build up a high tolerance of pain). I am forty nine and I run 4 miles a day and walk 2. I am doing better than I did prior to my illness. Cut out sugar and please diet cokes are the big demons, the ingredient phytalklines(cant’ spell it off hand) is crippling people, it is horrible. Another is to lay off starches. you will heal trust me. I look like to be 10 years younger and feel it too. if anyone wants to email me on this for further information feel free
July 14th, 2009 at 6:31 am
keeping things balanced is very important to keep you going, especially if you are doing stuffs on the computer. you should be aware of your health and don’t push your self to the limits.
December 30th, 2009 at 6:17 am
linkwheel—To motivate self for going forward we have to consider keeping a balance and not push to hard…