As you may have guessed, I am not a medical professional or a coping guru. You are not going to find any "divine insights" or any genius in what I am going to say. These are just fundamental things I do or have done to make day to day living with FMS easier for me. Hopefully some of you will maybe see something you haven't thought of yet. If even one person does … the purpose of these pages has been justified.
I cope with the symptoms because I have to. I have no choice. I have accepted that this is what I have to deal with and I can either give up totally or try to make each day the best I can. New research is constantly being done trying to find the cause and some recently released preliminary test results are encouraging. Hopefully in time medicine will find a cure … but until that happens I am not going to put my life on hold or wallow in a pool of self pity. Sure, I admit, on the bad days I get a little maudlin and wish I had my "before FMS" life back … but that doesn't help me or anyone else. No amount of wishing is going to change what is. But, I will try everything available to me to improve my situation until a cure is found.
I do what I can, when I can do it. I have stopped "beating myself up" for not being able to accomplish all the things I had planned, whether its my goals in life, tasks set for the week or day, whatever. There is no sense feeling guilty about something that is now in the past. For instance, if you wake up and think "I am going to vacuum today" or whatever and at the end of the day you weren't able to accomplish it for what ever reason, don't fall into the trap of degrading yourself … its in the past … it cannot be changed. Accept it and move on.
Personally, I have always been a clean freak. Just to save my own sanity I have learned to become insensitive to a dirty house. If someone has a problem with that, they are free to come over and clean it themselves; otherwise they can keep their mouth shut. Until someone has spent a day in my body, they have no right to suggest or criticize. That goes for any other chore or duty as well. In retrospect, this all applies to people who have been totally disabled by FMS. Unfortunately if you are still working, I guess, in the workplace, they do have a right to insist on a predefined performance level.
I guess the best suggestion I can give is - don't lose your sense of humor. I thank the Good Lord that I am still able to see the funny side of things (most times), even when I just laugh at myself (some of the THINGS I do ... hahaha).
Don't run off with the idea that I am (or that any one else is) "up" all the time. Heck, I have my "special times" just like everyone else does - I rant, rave, vent and sound off with the best of them. But when its over ... its over ... and I continue on as best as I can.
Now that that is cleared up, there are a few pages in this section sharing what I have learned that help me.
