Emotional Support Sisters

Chronic fatigue is a lifelong rollercoaster ride. It has ups, downs, twists, turns, and sometimes a sudden stop. Yesterday felt like the brakes were thrown on suddenly at the end of a steep downhill plunge.

After years of trial and error, I have a pretty good system that keeps me functioning. I take several herbs and a good multivitamin. I also listen to my body and try not to overdo it too often. When I do overdo it I make sure to take a couple of light days to recover. I do light exercise, like walking and yoga, on a regular basis. Even with all of that I sometimes dip pretty low.

What does a low look like for me? I have a hard time waking up in the morning, and once I’m awake I’m still groggy. It doesn’t matter how much sleep I have I am still exhausted. The exhaustion is bone-deep. My muscles feel light and heavy at the same time. My body feels floaty, and my brain is foggy.  

I also get emotionally frustrated. I start to feel like a failure as a mom because of the hours of electronics my preschooler watches. I struggle getting my kids active when I am laying in bed. I feel like a hypocrite when I tell them to get off electronics while I am resting in bed on my electronics. It is hard to help them understand just how exhausted I am, and that I would rather be outside and doing, but am stuck in bed surviving. This low I have had to reach out to my family and have them help me with my kids. Last week my mom and Rae took Butterfly for the day. I took a 2-hour nap and laid in bed for another hour before I could get up and get going. The 2-hour nap helped for a couple of days, but I am back to exhausted again.

Eventually, after enough rest, I start to rise to my normal fatigue levels and start functioning at my chronic fatigue good levels. Sometimes I even function well enough that I start to question if I really do have chronic fatigue, and then the roller coaster starts all over again, and I am reminded that yes, I do have chronic fatigue.