Yes, Marianne! Acknowledging our pain or anger or exhaustion or disappointment or confusion or whatever it is that feels bad and is making us feel bad is so important. Not just to help us deal with and move through it but because it's our experience and we're bloomin well allowed to name it! While we don't want to dwell so much that we feel worse in a downward spiral, brushing it aside doesn't help because we're minimising the reality of our feelings and experience and that's not dealing with it either. We can hold our pain and what could help us feel better both at the same time.
Thanks Gabrielle, it's a balance isn't it? Being real about the pain and not dwelling. Though I find as soon as I'm real, I feel a relief and am much less likely to dwell than I am when I'm pretending things are OK. Mx
I've had exactly this experience this year. And so much is hidden behind "I'm fine". Thanks for sharing about how releasing our anger and frustration around fatigue is needed as much as anything else.
Fatigue was no 1 indicator to show me my cancer had returned. I didn’t take it seriously, it’s so important to get to know our bodies with fatigue. When I’m better I want to learn and understand more of explaining fatigue.
I’ll have to try that. I was so pleased to have had a really mild case of COVID back in early March 2020, when there was no testing and certainly no vaccines. Then as the months came and went and I had to have 2 knee replacements and I thought I was just deconditioned as hell. And then came the clot, the arrhythmias, the POTS, the brain fog, the joint pain all over, and the crushing goddam fatigue, sleeping 16-18 hours/day and still not feeling rested. It’s almost five years now. It never ceases to astonish me that it will not effing go away. I try to gradually increase my activity to build up. This proves counterproductive. Some days it’s a little better. But never goes away.
This sounds really tough, you've had a long run of it. I've also found activity - even gentle activity - has resulted in more tiredness, so I've stopped most activities.
Yes to this! It's so hard to explain to people who haven't experienced it what this kind of fatigue feels like. There's an assumption that it's just tiredness as they know it. When I recently emerged from 3 months of being utterly flattened by hypothyroidism, normal, everyday tiredness felt absolutely delightful! Thanks for articulating it so clearly Marianne.
I was reading this post screaming yes yes yes! I told my husband this week maybe I need to stop pretending how much pain I am in and own it. It is a new way of living and oh so counter cultural but I agree it is time to listen to my body because pretending I am not in pain isn't helping.
Yes, Marianne! Acknowledging our pain or anger or exhaustion or disappointment or confusion or whatever it is that feels bad and is making us feel bad is so important. Not just to help us deal with and move through it but because it's our experience and we're bloomin well allowed to name it! While we don't want to dwell so much that we feel worse in a downward spiral, brushing it aside doesn't help because we're minimising the reality of our feelings and experience and that's not dealing with it either. We can hold our pain and what could help us feel better both at the same time.
Thanks Gabrielle, it's a balance isn't it? Being real about the pain and not dwelling. Though I find as soon as I'm real, I feel a relief and am much less likely to dwell than I am when I'm pretending things are OK. Mx
👏👏 Fantastic! 🧡💙
Thank you!
I've had exactly this experience this year. And so much is hidden behind "I'm fine". Thanks for sharing about how releasing our anger and frustration around fatigue is needed as much as anything else.
Thanks for reading, Claire
Fatigue was no 1 indicator to show me my cancer had returned. I didn’t take it seriously, it’s so important to get to know our bodies with fatigue. When I’m better I want to learn and understand more of explaining fatigue.
Sending you all the best, Aileen.
All of this 💚
Thanks, Harriet
x
I’ll have to try that. I was so pleased to have had a really mild case of COVID back in early March 2020, when there was no testing and certainly no vaccines. Then as the months came and went and I had to have 2 knee replacements and I thought I was just deconditioned as hell. And then came the clot, the arrhythmias, the POTS, the brain fog, the joint pain all over, and the crushing goddam fatigue, sleeping 16-18 hours/day and still not feeling rested. It’s almost five years now. It never ceases to astonish me that it will not effing go away. I try to gradually increase my activity to build up. This proves counterproductive. Some days it’s a little better. But never goes away.
This sounds really tough, you've had a long run of it. I've also found activity - even gentle activity - has resulted in more tiredness, so I've stopped most activities.
Yes to this! It's so hard to explain to people who haven't experienced it what this kind of fatigue feels like. There's an assumption that it's just tiredness as they know it. When I recently emerged from 3 months of being utterly flattened by hypothyroidism, normal, everyday tiredness felt absolutely delightful! Thanks for articulating it so clearly Marianne.
My pleasure, thanks for reading, Vicki.
I was reading this post screaming yes yes yes! I told my husband this week maybe I need to stop pretending how much pain I am in and own it. It is a new way of living and oh so counter cultural but I agree it is time to listen to my body because pretending I am not in pain isn't helping.
yes to owning the pain. Yes.