On Setbacks


I talked to a friend today who expressed despair and frustration that after years of struggling with her health, she seems to be getting worse. Based on my own experience, though, I saw that she was indeed making progress. “But all I can do is sleep!” Last year she couldn’t sleep at all, she was in so much pain. I remember this part of my own recovery and, at the time, I too was distraught over what seemed to be a setback. But in hindsight, I recognized that I was indeed progressing.

I’ve since thought of this time as the basement of my injury. When my body had finally crashed, exhausted from being on red alert constantly for several years, I seemed to have also lost my spirit. It was terrifying. I didn’t think I would be able to go on. What was really happening though, was that my body was beginning to regenerate itself. It needed to sleep. For a year, it felt like. All that laying around gives you plenty of time to think about something other than how much pain you’re in.

It also became obvious to me that my symptoms were running in cycles. At that point, I had read Dr. Oliver Sachs landmark book Migraines. In it, he talks about the periodicity of the neurological system and my symptoms ran parallel to his descriptions, even though I’ve never experienced migraines. This gave me the courage to keep on through a very dark period in my journey.

This is why I advocate for maintaining logs throughout your health challenge, whatever your diagnosis may be. They provide a written record you can refer to when your mind becomes overwhelmed by the emotions such a health struggle always produces. It may just be the thing that gets you through.

chronic pain, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, 

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