Living with Fibromyalgia - sit on your butt? Or, exercise? Hmmm...

* Please Note: I don't sell anything. There's no commercial anything in my video blogs. I'm just a Mom with a Mac who video blogs. *

Hello. I'm Diana. I'm 38. I have fibromyalgia. I'm a stay-at-home Mom. A few years ago, when I was diagnosed with fibro, I was given a good piece of advice: "Exercise and you will feel better FASTER."

I resisted. How could I possibly exercise when it hurt just to move?

"I'll exercise WHEN I feel better," I stubbornly told the rheumatologist, thinking she was nuts.

"No," she said, "you need to exercise so that you WILL feel better."

Oh.

Dang it all if she wasn't right.

This is a 9-minute story of fibromyalgia and exercise, with a bit of humor and gratuitous sound effects.

Enjoy! If you like it, let me know so it will inspire me to make more. (This one took about 20 hours of editing time to make, but that's probably because I'm still learning my way around a Mac.)- Diana

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• fibromyalgia
• exercise
• Guaifenesen
• Protocol
• Dr.
• St.
• Amand

[dolcepeter]

kinda hard to hear you, but you seem like an amazing woman.

hey, i would give anything to get back on my eliptical, and out of this bed. i want my life back.

hope you are still doing well. god bless.

[dianacwolf]

Hi Peter-

Thanks for the comments regarding the audio. I haven't had much luck with Mac-compatible headsets. I'm on my third one, and they keep dying on me. I think I might be better off just using the tiny little microphone built into the top of the monitor. Anyway, I'll try to do better next time. Glad you liked the video, though. I hope you feel better soon, so that you can get out of bed. It's so hard to be sick, and not do the things you want to do. Sending good thoughts your way.

[dolcepeter]

thanks for your kindness.

yeah, headsets are a pain. i still can't get mine to work

keep up the good work. you are amazing

[dianacwolf]

Hi Peter! Well, if you find a good one, let me know. I'm still trying to get Best Buy to take back the last one they sold me that died after three months. Just have no luck with the darned things. I just recorded a new video a few days ago about a new treatment Stanford has been researching called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN.) I'm on it. I have mixed reviews on it. - Diana

[rebeccagarde]

thanks for the video, i was feeling a bit sorry for myself thisevening all sore and tired :( but you made me laugh :) espeally about tortureing someone with fm, the stair master really would be torture :) ceep posting

[dianacwolf]

Hi Rebecca! Anyway, discovered something interesting about stairs. It was my lower back, hip and a bunch of leg muscles that made stairs hurt so much. Went through a whole bunch of physical therapy for knee surgery. Worked all those other muscles groups, other than just my knee. Somehow wasn't getting them at the gym. It was uncomfortable to work them out, yeah, but now, stairs don't hurt as much. Muscle strengthening helped a LOT with stair pain. - Diana

[cushfam]

Diana-I am a stay at home mom with Fibro who lives about 1 hour away from Santa Cruz and I am so glad that you are feeling better. As for your legs hurting and burning going up the stairs, I have the same problem and my pain mangement doctor diagnosed me with periformis syndrome 18 months ago (on top of my Fibro) there are some great stretching exercises for it that help tremendously. I have not tried the Guie technique but maybe I should. I have suffered for 10 years now. Maybe its time. Dani

[tommyrt681]

i do what i have to do with my day. I refuse to sit around and let pain keep my down. Not a day that goes by that I am not in pain. if the level of pain is high I cut way back on martial arts working out yard work fishing and hunting. i crash hard! But no way am I letting pain stop me from living my life. It does such big time dealing with this type of daily pain

[FibromyalgiaAnswers]

@ajdicks agree, it can be extremely tough. The best thing I have found is to provide support in the best possible manner and work on providing an accountability routine and documenting the results in a pain journal...we can really prove results of what works and what doesn't work as well.

[ajdicks]

it can be next to impossible to convince a fibromyalgia sufferer to exercise, eat more natural foods, or even stop binging on pills . they agree that it sounds like a good idea and then continue the identical bad habits.

[surfercouple]

@vontrappster Yes, we are getting together for our annual crazy convention next month.  Considering there are 20 million people with fibro, t will be one crowded gathering! Actually, I rather liked the word you used-- "mental." Sounds like a word they would use in Harry Potter. "Harry, have you gone mental?" They've identified the gene that causes fibromyalgia, and are working on a blood test. Thanks for writing. Cheers, Diana

[vontrappster]

fibromyalgia doesn't exist. you lot are mental

[greeniem]

diana you're amazing.