I'm going to spend a little time on my blog, starting now, talking about different aspects of my own experience with a chronic illness, Fibromyalgia. This may give readers some insight into how I think about living well with a chronic illness when working with clients.
Aspect number one: It's a Management Task
I've had Fibromyalgia for over a decade now and I've learned something about its mysterious ways. In my case, the illness results in sleep difficulties, digestive problems (including occasionally incapacitating abdominal pain), muscle aches over most of my body, and fairly severe headaches. Luckily, all these symptoms usually do not manifest themselves at once. Today, for example, I am tired because I didn't sleep well last night and I have significant aches in the lower half of my body due to spending a good chunk of Sunday working in the garden. Working and socializing with only fatigue and muscle aches is manageable, so I can continue on with my schedule as planned, with the addition of stretching (for the muscle aches) and making sure to hit the sack early (for the fatigue). If I judged the situation to be unmanageable, then I would have to start cancelling things.
So, each morning, and throughout the day, I do this little assessment. I check how my body is doing and whether it needs something that I can supply (water, ibuprofen, a nap, to eat only yogurt, etc.). I don't take things for granted. I pay attention to all the different subsystems and try to keep them running as well as possible. And, on those occasions when my ministrations fail, I put the whole system to bed.
In a way, managing an illness is like running a household, or a company. It's just a different kind of multitasking that goes on constantly in the background while the person with the illness is doing her job, pursuing her hobby, socializing, attending to her family, and so on. Part of running that company well is making smart plans (e.g., not over-scheduling and making sure the highest priorities are attended to first) and, then, being willing to change those plans if and when necessary.Labels: chronic illness, management