I was wondering if anyone has any successful ways of explaining Fibro to kids. My husband and I will be spending Thanksgiving with our 5 nieces and nephews. We love when we get to see them since we live far away. We stay in the very crowded house just so we can spend the most amount of time with them. Their favorite activity is waking up early in the morning to all piling on top of us on a queen size bed. While my husband and I both love it, obviously it causes problems for me with the pain. Nothing says goodmorning like a knee in the rib or a toddler jumping up and down on your chest.
During our last visit in February we tried to explain to them about Fibro because I had just gone med free and things obviously hurt so much more. Before that we never had to tell them anything about being careful around me because I could tolerate more. We would only talk to them about hitting and poking me for attention and that was a simple lesson that we don't hit people. I know that our oldest niece gets it, but obviously it's harder for the younger ones. They range in age from 2 - 15 and we don't want to scare them by thinking that I'm sick. The "nice" thing is that I've had Fibro since they've known me so it's not that they have to adjust to that, just the fact that I'm in more pain than usual since opting out of medicine.
We know that whatever approach we find that works will be helpful for when we have children of our own and will have to explain it to them. I was just hoping to be armed and ready to go for this trip of reminding them and trying to explain in a different way that I hurt more than others. Especially because I'm in the throws of an agonizing relentless flare and can't imagine how bad I'll feel when we get there after traveling.
Wishing everyone a very Happy (and hopefully restful and pain free) Thanksgiving!