As a chronic pain sufferer, "a good day" is a much different thing than a normal person's "good day." They range from "at-least-I-took-a-shower-today" days to "Felt-good-enough-to-put-on-a-bra" days to "got-groceries-and-did-nothing-else" days to "make-a-healthy-breakfast-and-do-a-real-workout" days and, for the record, right now those are my best days.
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| #thestruggle |
The comparison to what may be considered a good day is laughable (because everything has to be) compared to the pre-pain days in NY. I could go on, but even for me, my life in New York seemed relatively unreal. That's also the reason why I find it so ironic to be back here in PA--went from having 3845903850498 things going on at once to literally nothing but trying desperately to control my body.
ANYWAY. I drove down to Philly with my mom (about an hour and half), shopped for 6-7 hours and drove back…NO PAIN. I don't remember the last time this happened and it's exciting. I was able to go to the gym every day this week. I had some pain in my lower left back from a nasty trigger point that comes and goes, but I have to factor in PMS will always exacerbate my symptoms and pain and so do injections post procedure.
This seems to be the general formula to be as humanely pain free as possible:
1) Sleep. You have to. Just do it. Honestly, I need
at least 8 hours. Right now I'm doing best with 10-11 uninterrupted hours of sleep. If I wake up in the morning knowing I didn't sleep the night before it is a GIVEN you will feel like shit the next day.
2) Eating well. I have a blog post ready about food that has so much going on, it's actually daunting to think about. What I've been doing: eliminated alcohol and coffee, home make EVERYTHING as much as I can, eat the least amount of processed foods I can, complex whole grains, a lot nutribullets, a lot of iced green tea, a lot of water, a lot of really good spinach/kale salads and fruits as snacks (which I'm still working on). I naturally gravitate to bagels, Shake Shack, pizza and ice cream so give me a break! These are big steps for me!
3) Exercise. Gyms seem daunting when you have pain. I have bought strengthening bands so I do what I can with how I feel. If my pain is barely gym doable, I'll go to the pool and do my pool exercises. Even better than that, I go and do my land strengthening and exercises. If I don't feel good enough to go out, I use the treadmill at our house or try and walk the dog. Sometimes if that is okay, I add bands to that regiment. End goal is still back to my reformer pilates trainer.
4) Misc. China gel, TENSunit, Chiro 1-2/month, lidocaine trigger point injections 1-2/month, masseuse 1-2/month. Therapist 1-2/month. Also thought this looked like a helpful visual for using your TENSunit.
Knock on wood, things seem to be going well with some upcoming really awesome potential possibilities for the future!
Things I'm currently looking into--lidocaine patches for trigger points, essential oils, homemade pain salves/body washes, kinesio tape, traction tables--I'll keep everyone posted!
