Friday, 10 April 2020

I could be writing off my frustrations regarding the total governmental neglect of chronically ill people, but ...

... I refuse. Wholeheartedly. I already addressed my concerns on various occasions, i.e. comments on newspaper articles and additions to questionnaires on global health and well-being in corona times, as well as social media (Instagram, Twitter). The only similar experience came today in the form of a single dad, caring for his 3 children in a co-parenting situation while also managing two jobs. To me, there is no reason to believe our government even realises there is such a group of people who fight every day against their own bodies as their illnesses chronically and invisibly eat away more and more of their health and well-being, meanwhile feeding their depression, anxieties and general feeling of worthlessness.

But I promised not to berate these experiences of mine. Today I want to be light and funny. I barely slept last night, thanks to the migraine that decided to announce itself ten minutes before I went to bed at 9.50pm. I hoped I'd be able to just sleep it off, but Fibromyalgia chose to join forces resulting in me being wide awake, in dreadful pain, at 1.30am. Took my migraine meds at 2, got nauseous about 15 minutes later, and decided then to just call it a day ... night, and opened Merge Zoo to do some mindful candy feeding of my cute little animals. When staring at the same videos ("watch videos to get your reward") for too long and feeling all the more nauseous, I closed the app, put on Sophie Hutchings on Spotify and grabbed my current Terry Pratchett. I read till 4am. Ish. The final time I looked at the clock, was 4.45am.

Painsomnia is a terrible thing. It deprives the body of the so necessary sleep and causes even more pain, making the next day a trial of pure adrenaline, only to backfire as the day progresses. And regardless of knowing this, it will still hit me like a sledgehammer. It could not have come at a worse time either, for in three days my son will return and I'll need a lot more spoons than the shortage I start my days off with lately.

In a couple of minutes, my friend will join me for a walk in the nearby fields and meadows, to get some fresh air and also just to be with each other, respecting social distancing ruling, naturally. Although we both suffer from Fibromyalgia, she has it in a much milder degree than I do - for instance, she can still work and do a bunch of activities I had to let go of. Today, she texted me her pelvis and lower back are hurting - yesterday she had this wild plan to go somewhere on our bikes and hike there, but there you go: with a chronic debilitating illness like Fibromyalgia, we have to take it day by day, and need to be extra careful in planning activities and outings beforehand. Most people do not get that - it is why friendships with healthy people can get quite tricky, as the lack of empathy and acceptance starts weighing on the spoonie, just when they need unconditional support the most

But, light and funny it is to be, right?
Let me get back to you after my walk in the fields 😁

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