Coming soon...really. I promise.

My last post was in September. It is now February. I truly did mean to post more often. I want to have a record of the changes and challenges that happen as I work toward a happier, healthier me. 

But healthy has been a big challenge in the last few months. I had a severe respiratory infection that landed me in the ER twice and on bed rest for weeks. I had barely recovered from that when I was diagnosed with pnuemonia. Then I was hit with influenza which can be life threatening for someone with asthma. 

During all this, I was also adjusting to a new diagnosis. A connective tissue disorder called Ehler Danlos Syndrome. Just what I needed, another syndrome. 

This diagnosis meant an extreme shift in my way of thinking. With Fibromyalgia, I paced myself but basically ignored the pain. Fibro pain is neurologically based so the while the pain is absolutely real, it is not related to an injury or physical problem in the area that hurts. While you need to pace yourself to not get too tired, movement actually helps the pain more than being inactive unless you are in a severe flare up. 

With Ehler Danlos, the tendons that connect my joints are basically too loose. Think of how useless a stretched out elastic is. That is my tendons trying to hold the joints in place. 

The pain is caused by an actual physical problem in the area that hurts. And that area needs rest and support to feel better. Like my wrists and thumbs after shoveling snow. My thumbs kept partially dislocating and causing me pain. So my doctor gave me these nifty things. Oh joy. 

As you can imagine, this is a huge change for someone used to living with and ignoring Fibro pain. But it does explain why so much of my pain did not fit into the typical Fibro diagnosis. 

I am adjusting. Staying mostly at home and allowing both my respiratory system and my tendons time to recover a bit. 

The upside is that with all this enforced time at home, I finally got fed up with our overcluttered, disorganized house and had the time and motivation to deal with it. But we had tried and failed at this task so many times before that we decided to bring in the big guns to help:  my sister. 

In my next post, I will share how she helped us get past the feeling of complete overwhelm at even the thought of trying to start organizing. And I will show you the progress we have made so far. 

Like everything when you are living with chronic illness, the change is small and slow but each little thing accomplished is an achievement and a step in the right direction. 

Be back soon. Really. :)