Our Fibromyalgia Blog Book

Catching Up

         Yep, I did it again. Time got away from me on this. I apologize for that, and hope to make it up to you all with a few things Kenzie reminded me of tonight that need to go here.
         One night this past week, Kenzie's fatigue caused her to shut down early, before the end of one of our favorite TV shows. CSI NY I think. She was in her recliner in the living room as we watched it, I was in my rocker nearby. With about ten minutes left in the show, and for only the second time in the last 4 months or so, she shut down. Went right to sleep.
         When the show was over, as the 11:00 news began, I gently made sure she was awake, and told her she should come to bed, that the temperature was too cold for her to sleep in the recliner. She'd just gotten over a bout with bronchitis and I didn't want that, or anything else, making her sick again. She tells me calmly that she's still awake, and would come to bed later. I kind of knew better from the tone of her voice, but I said, "OK, I'll check on you later."
         At 12:30 AM, I checked on her again. She said she was still awake, and she sounded fairly awake, too. I proceded to tell her what had happened at the end of the show that she didn't see. I told her how the girl that was in the bathtub with all the rose pedals in the water died. I also told her, about an unrelated incident, where a wife with a past head injury suddenly failed to recoginze her own reflection in a mirror. Thinking the woman she saw was an intruder, she lashed out violently. In the process of lashing about, the lady accidentally sliced her own husband's wrist. The husband dies from his injury, and his wife insists she didn't do it, that it was the lady intruder.
         Kenzie responded with a comment about how intricate those story lines had been (which was true), and told me she'd be in to bed in a little while.
         About 2:00 AM, I checked once again, and found her sound asleep - again - in the recliner where she'd been since 10:00.
         The next morning, I had to get her up so she could pick up Derek from work at 6:45 AM. No problems there. But when we talked about all this that night when I got home from work, she remembered absolutely nothing about either off the two conversations we'd had in those early morning hours. Not the one at 12:30, or the one at 2:00 AM. I had to tell her all over again how the two victims in that show had each met therir end. Needless to say, we were laughing the whole time. And we have to say that Kenzie gives a whole new definition to "talking in your sleep". But we sure enjoy this, and all the other little "idiosyncracies" that fibro can bring to a person's, and a spouse's, life. And trust me - we'd MUCH rather have a sense of humor about all of this than be the type to get upset or depressed about it, and have that negative attitude affecting our quality of life. Nope, we'll just enjoy those situations, and any others that come our way, and laugh together about them. It'll help keep us young, and make our life much more rewarding.
         On my end, within the last couple days, the pain that had started all of this for me so many years ago, that resulted in my being diagnosed with Fibromyagia (known then as Fibrousitis), was back for about 3 hours. It felt like my left elbow was hurting for no apparent reason. Not the muscles or anything - this truly painful feeling was as if the pain was in the BONE itself. No position was comfortable, the pain was sharp and constant. Thankfully, it went away on its own those 3 hours or so later. I really was not in the mood to get another cortisone shot, even with as good as it took care of that pain originally. I didn't want a useless arm for the rest of the day.
         See, with the cortisone shot, your arm feels like it's heating from the inside, and that heat travels from the point of the injection SLOWLY down your arm, to the tips of your fingers. And that in itself hurts a bit, and no position eases that ache and burning sensation. None. When I got this pain originally, some 30 or so years ago, I was driving a 4-speed manual transmission Mazda 626. THe ache, and now the fire, were in my RIGHT arm then. Try driving a stick shift with only one hand, with the gearshift on the FLOOR, on your right side. The one hand you can use is the farthest one from the gearshift. Shifting and steering all with one hand can be a very interesting challenge, even moreso when it's the "wrong" hand. I wouldn't recommend it. That arm burned the rest of the day, up until I fell asleep that night. But, sure as shootin', when I woke up, all the pain was gone, including the original source of the problem.
         If I remember anything else from the past 12 days or so, I'll add it here soon, and keep things up to date at the same time. And Kenzie, honey, if you think of anything that we've overlooked to this point, feel free to jog my memory so we can get them in here before they're lost forever. Some of those unexpected moments are some of our best fun, and should be shared. Thanks for reminding me of the ones I put here this time, sweetheart. My bet is you won't remember me coming to bed tonight. You haven't made a sound in about an hour.
          See you all ASAP. I'm off to bed.