Bit of a downturn healthwise, gentle readers.
I have this chronic fatigue thingy that comes and goes. For about the last year, it’s been gone and my doctor said I was “managing beautifully” – so much so she wanted me to speak to a chronic fatigue support group and let them know how I did it. Only, I don’t really know how I did it, and I thought if I bounced in there all perky and stupid, it would be like telling a bunch of new mothers, “Oh childbirth was nothing! Couple cramps, pushed once or twice and that was it. Don’t know what your problem is.” Might not go over too well. Might get me tarred and feathered.
Then lately I’ve been noticing the fatigue creeping back in. It was explained to me that chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are two poles on the same continuum – in chronic fatigue the overriding symptom is unrelenting, sometimes debilitating fatigue complicated by deep muscle aches and joint pain. In fibromyalgia, (which my older, much wiser and by times annoyingly insightful sister suffers from) the main symptom is the muscle and joint pain complicated by severe fatigue. Anyhoo, I started noticing I couldn’t complete my workout at my usual level of intensity and had to cut back. But I didn’t think too much about it. Then my knees hurt and my hands. My back and shoulders. My jaw, my neck, my head… But I soldiered on. Then I came home from a doctor’s appointment on Monday, just that, and I could hardly sit up I was so exhausted. OK, I finally said, I think the CC is active again.
One of the things I wanted to talk to my doctor about was increasing my Vitamin D level which has been sliding over the past three years and is now so low it barely registers. But she has been cautious about raising it in the past, so I didn’t know how she’d react to my wanting to go on a short course (six weeks) of 5000 IUs. To my surprise, she said, “I’m going to put you on 50,000 IUs once a week for four weeks.” Nearly swallowed my teeth! But yahoo! I’ve been reading that megadosing Vitamin D under careful medical supervision (I have to have my level tested again in 4 weeks) can among other health benefits, arrest an episode of FM/CC. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Last night, I dreamed I was barrelling down the road when I encountered construction and had to pull over and drive on a rutted and muddy shoulder. I hit the brakes but couldn’t slow down and ran off the road. When I woke up, I said, “I was driving too fast for the conditions.” What I heard was, “You’re driving yourself too hard for your condition.”
Oh.
OK. I hear you, dear body. I’ll slow down. And thanks for the warning!
