what is your fatigue like?

It's a little early for my brain to be working Ivy but I will try. Like so many other things with fibro it varies from day to day and what I'm doing, if I'm doing something that takes a lot of energy of course I run out faster. For example I have four rooms of hard surface flooring which is where we mainly live and I have a four month old puppy that is still not potty trained. If I vacuum and use the steam mop on all four rooms that is it for the day for me, I'm drained and can barely drag myself to the shower. No matter what I'm doing I'm tired before 3 everyday. I don't have a night life, it is spent on the couch watching TV or if I'm real energetic on the computer. My family has started being very accomodating and planning things earlier in the day cause they know I can't do nights. We go to bed at 10:00. I use to love the nights.

 

I'm trying to find the words to descibe hitting the wall of fatigue everyday. It's like having all the energy sucked out of you. If I don't quit and try to push through it I get physically ill, like my body is shutting down, especially my digestive system. I asked my doc if that was possible and he said with my digestive system anything is possible. It's not a normal, I really worked hard today, tired that I use to feel when I was healthy. Sometimes if I rest for a few hours I regain a little energy. I make myself take the puppies out to play for awhile every evening between 5 and 6. When they start running through the house going nuts I know they need to go out and run. Depending on what I have done during the day I might have enough energy to walk them too if it is a nice evening and check on my neighbor who is fighting cancer.

 

That is pretty much my life, I try to get a little house work, laundry or run errands done during the day when I have energy and that's all. Every morning I go over in my mind what needs to be done the worse for the day, if I need to go to Walmart I keep the rest of the day light.

 

When I went on the vit D before all the stomach problems started this time I did feel a difference in my energy level and a big difference in my motivation, I was tickeled to death. So hopefully after they figure out what is going on with my digestive system I can get back on the D and calcium. My docs were going to figure out if I could have calcium and D infusion but I haven't heard anymore about it.

 

I hope this helped in some way Ivy.

 

luv and hugs

Marlee

 

 

Ivy, when I'm hit with fatigue it's like someone pulled a plug and all my energy drained out of my body.  My arms and legs become very heavy and I'm extremely foggy.  It is frustrating.

 

Last weekend I had a beach party to go to.  For some reason I couldn't get to sleep.  That will happen to me maybe six times a year.  I ended up with only four hours of sleep Friday night and was a lump in the beach chair all day long.  I was soooo tired and didn't want to move at all.  I felt in physical pain just trying to keep my eyelids open.  It's such a miserable feeling so I really try to do all that I can to get enough rest but not overdo it either.  Too much sleep makes you more tired.  You do need to keep going.

 

But, I'm doing far better with fatigue then I did.Ive mentioned a thousand times about malic acid/magnesium supplements, but they really have helped me with energy.  Getting my vitamin D levels helped with energy too. 

 

Also, I am on a sleep schedule.  I am usually in bed by 10 PM and get up between 6:30 and 7 AM  I do get up several times at night but fall right back to sleep.  I have been doing this for years.  I never lay down (unless I have the flu or something like that) until bedtime.  If I ever laid down and took a couple of hours nap, I would never get to sleep that night and it would take me days to recoup.  But, by doing this, I am generally asleep in 15 minutes so this help a lot.

 

I am the best in the mornings.  That's when I walk the dog and run errands or work around the house.  If I get sleepy in the afternoon I will have a cup of tea and that  usually will wake me up again.  I do try to rest more in the afternoon.  By "resting" I mean I'm working on the computer or reading...doing easy stuff.  Occasionally my body will give me a power nap...I'll doze off sitting up for about 20 minutes.  Then I'm good for the rest of the day.  This doesn't happen really often, though. 

 

I hope this gives you a few ideas to help you.  It's not fun being tired all the time.  You don't want to miss out on living!

 

Sherrine

 

 

Interesting that you brought this up today. I'm having one of my worst fatigue days in a long time. No energy what so ever. I started out feeling ok this morning, and went to aqua therapy, but on the way home, I could barely drive I was so fatigued. Upon getting home, I laid right down for a nap. I slept for 2hrs, and don't feel any better.

I usually get about 7 hours of sleep at night.

I have always felt guilty on days like this, but it seems many of you go through the same thing. After 3 yrs I'm still getting used to this fibro thing. It wears me out to take a shower too! I'm going to try and do the dishes today, and that's about all I can get accomplished - if that.

The bad fatigue can even happen on days when the pain isn't quite as bad. It just creeps up out of nowhere. Hope we are helping you out.

When I feel fatigued I feel my eye lids are heavy and my body does not want to move. I have had days where my brain is racing but my eyelids are heavy.

I try to take frequent breaks during the day. I also try taking more magnesium and D-Ribose when I can't seem to keep my eyes open.

JennyBHurts said...
For me it is like a balloon with a small leak in it most days. I can wake up and feel ok....but over the course of the day my balloon is getting less and less air in it. Sometimes I am completely flat by mid-afternoon, sometimes it never goes flat (Woo-hoo)! On really bad days, I wake up and it's flat. Those days are THE WORST. And then add pain to the mix and it's is a bad day. [img]/community/emoticons/shakehead.gif[/img]


I also shut down if I don't get enough sleep. I am physically ill, like I have the flu. I guess this is pretty common with fibro.....



Jenny B

Hi Jenny! (and welcome!)

This is a GREAT description of what my fatigue feels like! Just like a leaking balloon..you hit it right on the head.

For me, the fatigue feels just like that-a slowly leaking balloon and I'm out of get up and go by 4:00. Some days I wake up with no air at all (you're right-those are the WORST!!) and then some days I have a nice full balloon and things are going great and then BAM somebody sticks it with a needle and pops it. That's when the heavy lead feeling comes in my arms and legs.

For me, my fatigue can vary. At it's best, I just feel tired, like I haven't slept enough. At it's worst, I can fall asleep completely at random any time I am sitting down. My eyelids are always heavy and my eyes themselves won't focus correctly because it seems like the muscles aren't working right. My limbs feel like they weigh a ton. It's a deep and overwhelming exhaustion. Sometimes my mind can't focus on anything other than how tired I am. If I try to do anything strenuous I often feel as though I am going to pass out.
My fatigue doesn't seem to relate to how much sleep I get. I nearly always sleep at least 8 hours, and I always have to drag myself out of bed. If I didn't, I could just sleep and sleep, all day and all night. But I never feel rested. I almost always feel weak all over. Many times when I am asleep I am still partially conscious and aware of what's going on around me. I have trouble sleeping sometimes, because I'll jerk awake due to pain or a muscle spasm. I don't think that my body ever gets into the deeper cycles of sleep, which, I believe, is why I'm always so tired. It's very difficult, and coupled with my pain, plus my medications that cause some drowsiness, most days it's an extreme challenge just to function well enough to go to work. The only thing that seems to help a little bit is taking vitamin B12.
I hope you find this discription helpful. Take care!
SaraBeth