trying to pace myself...

[meg321]

Hi you guys,

Do you ever get this right or is the nature of the disease?  And i do realize we are all different.  But yesterday I traveled, as a passenger, 2hrs each way to watch my grand children in a school play and be withmy family and was gone from 10 am to 6 pm.

Today i went to lunch with the girls and was gone about 3 hrs.total...came home fine, tired but fine.

Today i came home totally wiped out with a  splitting headache.  

I just can't figure out why today was so different than yesterday.  Unless it was just the headache.

Anyone know how to learn to pace yourself or is it always unpredictable?

thanks, meg

[essdipity]

Hi, Meg.

Getting it right is sure a rocky road. It's not one I deal with very well myself. I've finally learned the hard way that I can't just pick up and travel like I used to. Can't manage luggage, airports and rushing around, unless I've scoped it out well first. Even then, whatever I figure I can do is in reality way too much.

In general I keep thinking I've adjusted for this kind of problem, but I never have. For the last few months my typical week has involved lots of activity Monday thru Thursday, and more or less collapsing on Friday, sometimes Saturday too. If my sleep has been poor, as it so often is, I know I'm not good for much, but many times I'll sleep well, nap and so on, and still be wiped out. No rhyme or reason to this. So I'm in there struggling too. I wish there were an answer, yet I haven't found one and doubt that one exists.

ess

[meg321]

THanks so much, that is interesting and makes sense now.  I so hate this, i was very  active before this too.  Well, i have never been normal, and now its worse and not in a good way.  

And you know what, you have to use a little humor with this.  I don't mind at all.

I have had the headaches for days, actually a couple of weeks.  They make me crazy. And sick too.

hugs, meg

[sllowe]

Like Heather says, this culmination has done you in.

It simply, stinks.  The 1st day of feeling ok when you got home left you with a false sense of normalcy.  You should know we are not normal, Meg...ha/ha...

I'm trying to be funny here, but know it's not.  It really is all about the new pace, which you will try to rev up now and again only to find it slows you up in the end

ttys, and rest up
(((hugs)))
shell

[Heather3418]

This is caused by a culmination of three days of overdoing.  You body finally used up it's reserve and BOOM, you came crashing down.

It's hard to pace yourself, when you really do not know how much your body will take.  Obviously now though, you know your limits.  You can't apologize to anyone, it's the way your body reacts to too much activities in so short a period of time.

Now do what your body is telling you to do and rest if you can and recoop.

All the Best Wishes,
Heather

[Cara842]

Hi Meg,

Boy, can I relate.  The stress from driving or riding in a car for any longer than a short trip to the local grocery store / doctor / wherever and doing that errand, really wipes me out eventually.  I know I won't "pay for it" that day, or maybe even the next, but by the third day, I'm down.  I can count on it.  It's strange that I don't "pay for it" the same day, but I know it will come.  I'll be stiff, sore, splitting headache, fatigued, and just plain miserable with no energy.  

I wasn't always that way, just for the past 6 months or so, I've had to learn the hard way to slow down.  I've had to learn to pace myself and not to do too many things in a row, and not for too long.  If I want to go to lunch with friends, I won't plan to do something else the next day.  I have to space it out and skip days.  Baby steps I call it, cause if I do too much, I'll come crashing down soon.


That was a hard lesson for me to learn, because I felt selfish when I had to say no or postpone something.  But the stress of doing what most people (and my pre-MS self) called normal activities, is now is a big stress on my body one way or another.  I miss my old spontaneous, active self.  But, that's okay, maybe I need to slow down.

Take care !!
Cara

[Lulu54]

Meg,
it would be nice to know in advance how to plan - I find most of this is still underpredictable.  Especially how long the being wiped out will last.  

did the headache make you feel wiped out or the other way around?  Did being wiped out give you the headache?

Lu