A lot of people misunderstand people who have chronic pain. They see us mostly on our good days, walking or exercising, and then on our bad days, we're bed-ridden and helpless. We're not "lazy" and we are not using our pain as an excuse to get out of anything. There are so many of us with "invisible disabilities." Whether you suffer with chronic pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD---it's disheartening to think people will doubt your suffering just because they haven't gone through similar trials. It's not fun and sometimes, it's quite debilitating. Most of us do our best to live healthy and normal lives. If you're one of the sufferers of an invisible illness, it's all you can do to shower up, clean the house and make dinner. If all you did was shower up---then you accomplished a lot. Give yourself a break and try not to absorb the judgments of other people who really don't understand. For years I have taken ibuprofen to lessen the pain, but in the process, it burned a hole in my stomach. I can't take the heavy duty pain meds because it gives me a horrible reaction. It makes my breathing really shallow, to where my heart rate is like 30 bpm. They tried giving me pain meds in the hospital, and ended up giving me CPR. The only thing I can take is Tylenol. And even with that, I have to be careful of my liver. Some days, I numb the pain with a cocktail, but it doesn't last long unfortunately.
I have a stationary bike that I use to exercise in my home. It feels better on my joints and helps me with my anxiety. I never thought exercising would help with anxiety since it makes your heart rate speed up, but after you're done, your heart rate and blood pressure go down dramatically. As long as my exercise is in my home or in a building--I'm okay. But if it requires to literally travel down roads, I'm afraid that my pain will stop me right in my tracks and I'll have no way of walking back. So right now, I'm relying on my workout machines at home and trying to get these achey legs moving so I can walk further without the excruciating pain.
Other than that, I have been working mainly on my editing projects and advertising, but because I was away for quite a bit, the workload has lightened up, unfortunately. Once clients don't get a quick response, they go to another editor or blogger who advertises for them. Today is my first day back, so when I opened up my email, I had like a dozen as opposed to 100 in my inbox. No bueno! So bear with me as I get acclimated and more adjusted in my new place. We are working on the home office so I have a place to officially work. Right now, I'm typing from my dining room. My work area is very important, always has been. I'll be broadcasting more too in the near future. I just gotta get my bearings here. I mean, it's not like I moved to another state, so I'm not sure why it has taken me so long. But in the meantime, I am gradually working my way back to a new normal.
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or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog at DebsCucina.com
for some of her famous recipes!