July 24, 2012
I am feeling the happy kind of exhaustion as I write this, the kind of exhaustion which is a result of having had a great weekend. On Saturday night my best friend R had a garden party. P and I stayed with her and travelled to the coastal village of Broad Haven (one of my favourite places) the next day to stay with R’s nana. We had a nice roast dinner with her and were very close to the theme park, Oakwood, for our day trip on Monday. Busy, busy, busy, but I broke it up by rest breaks and naps.
Eating lunch at Oakwood
I really enjoyed the whole weekend, but there was one common theme which ran through the whole 3 days- no matter how much provision I put in place, my body has its own agenda, which everyone comes made subject to. On Saturday, I left the whole day to rest ready for the party in the evening. Admittedly, I woke up quite late, having had a rough night, but I thought I still had plenty of time to get everything done, which I needed to. I was very wrong. I worked so very slowly, each task taking much longer than necessary. This meant that we were over two hours late to the party, and arrived with me looking like death on wheels.
I won’t bore you with details of all of the delays caused by my body. The short version is that I struggled to sustain being chatty and energetic all weekend and fell asleep at every possible opportunity. Most 21-year olds aren’t used to having to take rest stops on a 45 minutes journey, but P and his friends had to.
Worst of all was my neediness this morning. Everything was going to plan for this weekend with regards to pacing myself, avoiding pelvic pain and muscle pain. I seemed to be dealing with the weekend away. If you sense there’s a ‘but’ coming then you’re not wrong. I woke up from a nap Sunday evening to find half of my face bright red, itchy and very hot. I tried all sorts of remedies, but when the infallible aloe vera didn’t work , I knew that wasn’t dealing with eczema or sunburn. The next morning, it had begun to spread a little so I rang my all-knowing daddy, who gave me the correct solution of taking an anti-histamine.
Pretty ladies at the party on Saturday night
When my rash began to improve, we thought we might finally make our way out, and then the next problem struck. I had taken a load of painkillers in the hope that I would be able to deal with all the pain and discomfort the day might bring. I know it’s not the best plan, but it’s the only option I have if I want to get anywhere. I thought I’d cleverly pre-empted my body, however, in all the fuss about my face, I’d forgotten to eat breakfast. My pupils shrunk to a size smaller than dots on a dice (not exaggeration) and I felt too nauseated to stand up, let alone brave a car journey. After waiting for my breakfast to settle, we finally set off half an hour later than planned, but had to see the pharmacist, who of course had a long queue. By the time I finally got out of the pharmacy, I wanted to cry because I felt so bad about holding all my friends up so much. I bet they were all regretting allowing me to come.
I know it’s not a particularly exciting story, but I couldn’t think of another way to demonstrate how unpredictable my body is. I always think I’ve prepared for every eventuality and then it throws something new into the mix. I used to pride myself on being on time, and hated it when people were late, and now I’m more flakey than anyone I know, always late or cancelling with the same excuse- I wasn’t feeling very well.
Love Katie x
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Posted by Katie Bennett-Davies in Activities out of the house, Fibromyalgia, M.E./CFS, Social activities Tags: aloe vera, Amusement park, anti-histamine, being late, Broad Haven, C.F.S, chronic ilnesses, daddy, Fatigue (medical), fibromyalgia, friends, fun, illness, invisible ilnesses, M.E., naps, Oakwood, pain, painkillers, party, pelvic pain, pharmacy, rash, rest, rides, roast dinner, roller-coaster, rollercoasters, skin, Sunday, Sunday roast, theme park, travel
