ME/CFS and The Healing Power of Comfort
I’m just now coming out of a bad flare-up. For the past several weeks (months?) I’ve done a lot more running around than I normally do, but this past week was a veritable flurry of activity. While I’ve been more active than normal because, for whatever reason, I seem to handle it a bit better, clearly the body eventually reaches its limit. And so here I am.
I’ve had ME/CFS (with a good helping of Fibromyalgia for good measure) for over a decade now, so having a bad flare-up isn’t anything new to me. But over my extensive experience with them, I’ve noticed a pattern.
First, I reach my limit – obviously. Then, I crawl in bed during the daytime for heavy sleep, or nap on the couch, because sleeping at night just wasn’t enough. This goes on for a couple of days or more. And during this whole process, I have to do things that are very soothing to my spirit.
During naps, I put a comforting, well-loved movie on repeat, turn the volume down really low, and just sleep. And while I’m awake, I will pick one gentle song and listen to it on repeat. I find that it heals me, and I stay sick longer if I don’t listen to it. Eventually, I do something non-taxing but fun, usually a video game of some sort, which slowly invigorates me further. At that point, I start to come out of the flare-up.
Flare-ups definitely suck, but, in the end, I know they don’t last forever if I give myself the time and experiences that I need to recover. And since this particular flare-up is the direct result of finishing two gigantic, very important projects, I feel like I’m kind of taking one for the team. It’s the price I pay for accomplishing big things. I would definitely like though to find a way to finish big projects and not experience a flare-up. :p